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Subject:   Traveller-digest V1996 #256
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Traveller-digest            Monday, 15 July 1996        Volume 1996 : Number 256

(R)1996. Traveller is a registered trademark of FarFuture Enterprises.
All rights reserved.

The following topics are covered in this digest:

         1. Chicago and Battletech
         2. Re: ID4  ****SPOILER WARNING****
         3. Re: Ultra-realistic games
         4. Re: Starship Construction
         5. Re: Realism
         6. Re: favorite quotes
         7. Re: favorite quotes
         8. Re: Jump space theory
         9. Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #226
        10. Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #226
        11. Re: Jump space theory
        12. Re: Realism
        13. Martian Metals
        14. Re: [T96#246] Postal Service (Was: Iridium Standard)
        15. Re: [T96#248] Iridium Standard
        16. Formatting Tables in the list...
        17. Re: [T96#248] Iridium Standard

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: sudet@well.com (Glenn M. Goffin)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 11:42:50 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Chicago and Battletech

Thank you for your suggestions of things to do during a week in Chicago.
I'm only going to talk about the suggestion that is germane to these lists,
but will emails those who offered ideas.

The North Pier is a big building just north of the Loop that houses a
variety of tourist-oriented shops, a food court, a couple of bars, and some
video arcades.  One of the arcades, on the second floor, is devoted to a
virtual reality simulation of Battletech.  You sit in the cockpit of the
battletech machine.  You can race through a mine in a grav speeder, or fight
each other on the surface in battle suits.  Then you can watch it on video.
I didn't participate (my reflexes not being what they were twenty or
twenty-five years ago), but saw some good action.  

There are also two very nice and very large miniatures on display. One is a
battletech machine, and the other looks like a grav ore carrier.

Thanks to Marc Miller for this suggestion.

- --Glenn


------------------------------

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 11:46:05 -0700
Subject: Re: ID4  ****SPOILER WARNING****

Leonard Erickson wrote:

> Whatever it is, it *isn't* a laser.

ITS THE WAVE MOTION GUN!!!
 
> But I'd say that wrecking the output end of anything sending out
> nuclear level amounts of energy is going to result in the energy being
> deposited in the ship, rather than the target.
> 
> Me, I'm surprised that there was that much *left* of the ship,
> considering what they did to the cities.
> 
> ps. Assuming we can recover enough data from the wreckage to build our
> own, one would hope that all involved have the brains to make our
> vessels look as *little* like theirs as is practical. :-)

Ya, but send in the marines first.  Imagine the crew on one of those 
puppies...  Imagaine how many burbly green psionic alien queen headed 
psychopaths might have survived a crash on one of those things.

Derek Stanley

------------------------------

From: Ethan Henry <ehenry@mag1.magmacom.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:03:09 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Ultra-realistic games

Aside from the dozens of 1000+ page rulebooks
like Stu mentioned, a super-realistic rpg would 
have a 1:1 time ratio... imagine, 12 years of
playing just to get your character through the
first term of the naval academy!

You might as well enroll in aerospace engineering,
apply for an astronaut position at NASA and
skip the RPG stuff altoghether! If I wanted realism,
I'd wash dishes with my wife! What I really want is
to kick some Vargr tail!

Ethan

------------------------------

From: Joe Walsh <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 14:43:30 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Starship Construction

On Sun, 14 Jul 1996, Stuart L. Dollar wrote:

> On 14 Jul 96 at 9:23, Joe Walsh spewed:
> 
> > If we made Traveller as realistic as possible - meaning that there were 
> > no obvious holes in the setting, technology, etc. - would it still be fun?
> > 
> 
> Probably not...  Ultrarealism in a form of entertainment usually 
> isn't...

Ultrarealism?  hmmm.  I guess you're right.  If it was taken too far, it 
wouldn't be fun at all.  I suppose the question is, how far is far 
enough?  How real do we want it?

But what if we did the sorts of things I mentioned above - got rid of all 
glaring holes in the plotlines/background, kept our technology without 
obvious holes (don't stick to what we know for sure is possible (ie, what 
we're able to do right now), but don't go so far out there that you 
threaten to suspend your audience's disbelief), and so on?  

Is it possible to do all of that without destroying Traveller?  And would 
the result be fun?


- -Joe
______________________________________________________________________________
Joseph E. Walsh      |  Atari 8-Bit User and Programmer Since 1982
ransom@iconnect.net  |  Classic Traveller Referee Since 1983
Stuck in the '80s    |  Microsoft-Free and Loving It! :)



------------------------------

From: Joe Walsh <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 14:46:35 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Realism

On Mon, 15 Jul 1996, Leonard Erickson wrote:

> > If we made Traveller as realistic as possible - meaning that there were 
> > no obvious holes in the setting, technology, etc. - would it still be fun?
> 
> If we did it *right* it would be.
> 
> That means that we get all the phsyics, economics etc worked out so we
> can stick in "reasonable" costs and performance figures, but we don't
> have to beat the players over the head with the details. It's like the
> multi-level design system, as long as the simplified stuff is
> *compatible* with the complex stuff, the only problem is that you lose
> some "subtle" possibilities.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking of.  It seems possible to 
me, but then I'm probably not thinking it through given the response I've 
gotten... :)

- -Joe
______________________________________________________________________________
Joseph E. Walsh      |  Atari 8-Bit User and Programmer Since 1982
ransom@iconnect.net  |  Classic Traveller Referee Since 1983
Stuck in the '80s    |  Microsoft-Free and Loving It! :)



------------------------------

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 11:50:36 -0700
Subject: Re: favorite quotes

Peter H. Brenton wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 12 Jul 1996, Derek Stanley wrote:
> 
> > Paul Walker wrote:
> > >
> > > >To paraphrase Jeff Goldblum from Jurasic Park.
> > > >
> > > >"You were so busy trying to figure out how to do it that no one bother to
> > > >stop and think whether they should be doing it at all."
> > >
> > > I know this is way off topic, but I think this is one(probably second) of my
> > > all time favorite lines from a movie.  BTW, I think it applies incredibly
> > > well to Virus.
> > >
> > > As a side note, those of you who have kids will appreciate my favorite line:
> > >
> > > >From the mother in "Honey I blew up the Kid":
> > >
> > > "There's one thing that every kid knows, dads mean fun, but momma means
> > > business!!"
> > > Let's not forget.
> >
> > "You came in that?  You're braver than I thought."
> >
> > That's my personal favorate.  8)
> >
> > Derek Stanley
> >
> 
> I always liked "Laugh it up, fuzzball"

Let's not forget.

"How's the knee Dr. Silberman?"



------------------------------

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 11:55:25 -0700
Subject: Re: favorite quotes

Scott Galliand wrote:
> 
> Tom Ellis wrote:
>>
>> Though good quotes, my favorite Han Solo quote is:
>>
>> "Its not my fault!  Its not my fault...."
>>
>> "No! Do, or do not.  There is not try." Yoda

Oh!!  Just remembered another one, gotta pull out the script to get it 
right.

LUKE:  Han!
HAN:  Luke!
LUKE:  Are you all right?
HAN:  Fine.  Together again, huh?
LUKE:  Wouldn't miss it.
HAN:  How are we doing?
LUKE:  The same as always.
HAN:  That bad, huh?

Okay so it's an entire exchange.  Sue me.

Derek Stanley



------------------------------

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 12:05:10 -0700
Subject: Re: Jump space theory

Leonard Erickson wrote:
> 
> You can't do that, because you can't make collapsible bladders for
> liquid hydrogen. At liquid hydrogen temps, not a lot of things are
> flexible. Plus, you have to insulate the LH2 against sunlight or most
> of it will boil off. Finally, accelerating at only *one* gee will put
> some pretty severe stress on the bladder. In case you haven't noticed,
> bladders are always laid out on a *horizontal* surface, not just
> because they need the support, but because the *pressure* exerted by
> the liquid inside depends on how *deep* it is. Something streching from
> the nose to the tail is going to have *real* troubles with the
> pressure at the bottom end.

Okay not going to argue with you one the bladder flexability thing.  57th 
century, who knows.  As for the G'forces, who cares.  That's what 
artifical gravity and inertial compensators (?) are for, if you can 
manouver at 4G and wonder about the halls like nothings happening, I'm 
sure a hot water bottle on the outside of the ship can take it.  Perhaps 
if you divided the bladder up into baffled sections... anyways.  I'm not 
huge on the idea of consuming all that fuel so quickly.  We'll have to 
wait for the new and improved canon to come out on this one.  I was 
merely making the point that if the fuel is consumed before entering 
jumpspace why not make the tanks external, they don't have to be rubber 
but a collapsable framework or something would give you extra cargo 
space.
 
> BTW, even if you could use external bladders, there's the matter of
> what they weigh, what the gear to stow them weighs, and finally, their
> extreme vulnerability to everything from micrometeorites to weapons
> fire. Would *you* want to have your jump fuel be the first thing to go
> in a fight?
> To this I must answer with a definite no.  But everytime you take a hit 
you're pretty much assured of losing part of your J-fuel anyways.  
This way it's not contained within a pressurized tin can when it 
explodes.

Derek Stanley



------------------------------

From: derek stanley <dstanley@direct.ca>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 12:20:08 -0700
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #226

gsw@aloft.att.com wrote:
 
> Here is an example of one of the unneeded "powers" that does not need
> to be attributed to Virus. Why should Virus be able to infect (or "lay
> an egg in") my transistor radio simply because it has "a radio link"
> and there's silicon in the transistors? This is just plain not needed
> to make the devastation caused by Virus possible.

I think the whole point of this is reproduction.  An organizm doesn't 
mean anything in the evolutionary view point if it doesn't reproduce.  By 
depositing an "egg" inside anything it can "Virus," the organism, is 
doing all it can to insure it's own survival and the survival of it's 
species.  Plus, if the pc's can just pick up anything and know it's safe 
there's not much stopping any of a thousand societies from blazing their 
way back across the universe, and destroying anything they see fit.
  
>>See I don't think a hand computer would be safe.  The problem is, as 
>>long as you didn't attach it to any infected system's it'd be safe.
> 
>My point was that you *can* build a safe hand computer. You admitted
>that it's safe if it only interacts with its owner (it *is* a hand
>computer after all). I won't get into the provability of a safe hand
>computer that also has sensors, since you already indicated that you
>attribute certain "impossible" capabilities to Virus.

Okay forget the sensor thing, I've recanted on the sensor thing, to your 
first point I agree, it is a "Safe" system as long as you don't do 
anything "unsafe" with it.  Take for example the module "Vampire Fleets." 
 When we were taken aboard the Archer everything electronic we had was 
confiscated and immediatly infected, medi-comps, hand computers, etc.  
The point is, that though none of these items are sophistocated enough 
for the egg to develop it, by planting an egg in the device the second 
you hook it up to something else to download or upload data you've 
infected the other system.  This is Virus's whole objective, propegation 
of the species.

You might know that you're porticomp is infected, but what if you drop 
it?  What then, some little skate punk comes along, finds it and suddenly 
 it's gotten completely out of your hands.

Derek Stanley


------------------------------

From: gsw@aloft.att.com
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 16:31:24 -0400
Subject: Re: Traveller-digest V1996 #226

On Monday, July 15, I wrote:

> On Saturday, July 13, Derek Stanley <dstanley@direct.ca> wrote:
> 
> > Virus can't spontaniously cause a computer to grow an egg.  It has to be 
> > in contact with that computer somehow, either, physically, through phone 
> > lines, or via radio waves and Virus can only affect things with silicon 
> > components, if it doesn't have silicon you've got nothing to worry about, 
> > unless it's contolled by a computer.
>
> [ ... ] This is just plain not needed to make the devastation caused by
> Virus possible. [ referring to the radio/phone form of "contact" ]

One more thing. There is no reason Virus cannot infect non-silicon
components as well. If they are programmable, understood by Virus,
and susceptible to worms/viruses/etc., Virus *should* be able to
infect them (in the traditional electronic intrusion sense). If it
has physical contact through a robot minion/etc., Virus can rewire
them as well.

- -O Gerald Williams / Bell Laboratories - PAI830 55E-224 O-
- -O gsw@lucent.com /   1247 South Cedar Crest Boulevard  O-
- -O (610)712-3370 /          Allentown, PA  18103        O-
- -O -------------/ "Innovations for Lucent Technologies" O-



------------------------------

From: Tom Ellis <tellis@telerama.lm.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 16:40:20 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Jump space theory

Jump drives in My Imperium expend energy during jump, and damage to the
drives whilst in J-Space causes unpredictable and often lethal results.

_______________________________________________________
Tom Ellis
tellis@telerama.lm.com
http://www.lm.com/~tellis/

"No! Do, or do not.  There is not try." Yoda
_______________________________________________________ 


------------------------------

From: Joe Walsh <ransom@connect.iconnect.net>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 15:45:00 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Realism

On Mon, 15 Jul 1996, Stuart L. Dollar wrote:

> On 15 Jul 96 at 3:42, Leonard Erickson spewed:
> 
> > > If we made Traveller as realistic as possible - meaning that there were 
> > > no obvious holes in the setting, technology, etc. - would it still be fun?
> > 
> > If we did it *right* it would be.
> 
> Not for too many of your players.  Pretty soon you'd wind up having 
> 1000 page rule books, devoting a voluminous number of pages to explanation 
> of a pseudo-scientific concept that currently is impossible using present 
> day physics.  It doesn't matter how much time, volume of pages, or 
> money you poor at it, the thing is called science FICTION...

True.  Regardless of the explanation, if the item in question is not 
fact, it must be fiction.  Spend a sentence or 1000 pages on it, it 
remains fiction.

Nonetheless, well-reasoned fiction is better than poorly reasoned 
fiction, if only because it serves to suspend the reader's disbelief in 
the subject matter.  For instance, IMO the Virus explanation in the main 
TNE rulebook is unbelievable; the items contibuted to this list from the 
Survival Margin sourcebook, however, lend a bit more credence to the 
Virus argument.  Would it not have been better to include a more detailed 
explanation of the Virus phenominon in the main rulebook?  

Ah, but you seem to be asking, "Where do you stop?"  Good question.  I 
supose you would stop when you've got something that will keep the 
critics down to a minimum.  But that just begs the question.  The answer 
seems to lie with talent - some sci-fi authors have such talent, and some 
do not.  But, perhaps it can be learned...and applied to RPGs.


> Suspension of disbelief does have to come into play somewhere.  Jump 
> drive, Maneuver drive (thrusters or HEPlaR), meson guns, PAWs, don't 
> exist...  They probably won't exist in our lifetimes...if ever...

Yes.  But suspension of disbelief should not be an act of will on the 
part of the reader (or player, or referee).  The material should draw one 
in, never dispelling that suspension of disbelief by throwing something 
in the reader's face which is glaringly unbelievable.  

The most important aspect might be internal consistency - set up the 
rules of how the universe works, then never violate them.  This is what a 
good fantasy author will do.  Hard science fiction requires more.  Take 
what we know about the universe, then fill in any gaps in that knowledge 
with ideas that do not conflict with the things that are known.  That 
seems, to me, to be a good rule of thumb, anyway.  Then again, I'm not a 
science fiction author...just a reader.


> If you don't suspend disbelief somewhere...think about what you have 
> left...  present day guns, missiles, vehicles...landbound on 1 
> system...because there is no effective means currently for getting to 
> Mars, let alone Alpha Centauri...  We don't even have the 
> technology to establish a colony on the moon...

True.

> As for simulating an economic system good luck!  No 2 economists 
> can really design an economic model that simulates a world economy 
> effectively, and agree on it...  I remember an old joke about 2
> economists trying to design a Trivial Pursuit game based on 
> economics.  They came up with a game that had 3000 questions, and 
> about 12,000 right answers...

Sadly, true again. 

> As with all things, it is for the players in conjunction with the 
> referee to balance realism vs. playability...  The good news is that 
> the Traveller system has in the past (and would appear to be doing in 
> the future) allowed you to choose to a certain extent...

Yes.  While the game should pick an initial point along the playability 
vs. realism continuum, it should also be possible for the participants to 
choose a somewhat different point to play at.  I simply feel the basis 
should be more to the realism side than the playability side when it 
comes to background, underlying technology, and so on.  


- -Joe
______________________________________________________________________________
Joseph E. Walsh      |  Atari 8-Bit User and Programmer Since 1982
ransom@iconnect.net  |  Classic Traveller Referee Since 1983
Stuck in the '80s    |  Microsoft-Free and Loving It! :)



------------------------------

From: Steve Charlton/Avalon Software Inc <Steve_Charlton@khan.Avalon.COM>
Date: 15 Jul 96 13:38:43 MS
Subject: Martian Metals

 David Jaques-Watson <davidjw@pcug.org.au> said:

>I took along my *Martian Metals* tank, grav APC, and air/raft (yeah, am I 
>a groupie or what?). He didn't remember having seen the grav APC before 
>(Loren told this list that not even MM has one of these! This may explain 
>the RCVG pictures). He also saw some of my grav tanks and APCs, lead 
>miniatures imported from the UK (when I find the details, I'll post them 

You have the tank and APC?  Cool!  Since you are "Down Under," are these things 
still available down there?  I realize that Martian Metals has been gone for 
some time, but I know in North America you could still get the stuff up to 
about seven years ago from RAFM Canada (apparently they had the license for 
Canada, and you could sometimes get them via mail order).   But do you have any 
of the Imperial Sunburst dice?  (I don't)

For that matter, how about other 15mm suppliers?  I've got some nice 15mm 
sci-fi vehicles from Tabletop Games in England, and some 15mm "modern" vehicles 
from Yucca Miniatures for the TL7-9 lifestyle.  I have not found any US-based 
manufacturers for the high-tech hardware, though.  The UK people seem to get a 
much better domestic selection.

If anyone knows of a source of  the Martian Metals minis, or even a source for 
the old Grenadier boxed Traveller minis, posting that info to the TML would be 
a good thing (well, for me, anyway)

------------------------------

From: jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (JEFF ZEITLIN)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 96 16:52:00 -0500
Subject: Re: [T96#246] Postal Service (Was: Iridium Standard)

 ::>> Exactly...Has anyone given any thought to the myriad of private x-boat
 ::>> knock offs that would almost certainly be prevalent in the Imperium?  Like
 ::>> the Fed-Ex's and UPS's of the Traveller universe...

T::>Of course, depending on how thoroughly regulated mail service is in
 ::>the Imperium, there might be none at all.

 The only thing I seem to recall from canonical (there's that
 word...) sources about mail delivery in the Imperium was that
 the contractors were _required_ to be armed, to operate a fixed
 route, and to set aside 3 Td (43.5kl) of cargo space, for which
 they were guaranteed payment (25kCr, IIRC).

==========================================================================
Jeff Zeitlin                                      jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com
- ---
 þ OLXWin 1.00b þ It it ain't broke, let me have a shot at it.


------------------------------

From: jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (JEFF ZEITLIN)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 96 16:52:00 -0500
Subject: Re: [T96#248] Iridium Standard

(Continued from previous message)

 So what's my point?  A currency doesn't have to be backed by
 anything except the reputation of whoever is issuing it.  It
 doesn't have to have any intrinsic value; only what people are
 willing to give in production for it.  Money has no _objective_
 value, in spite of anything that Ayn Rand might say.  That's
 why money - or more accurately, _representation_of_wealth_, has
 been made of everything from chunks of metal which don't seem
 to rot, rust or corrode to skins or shells of dead animals to
 pieces of rock that take two or more people to carry them to
 pieces of paper (or, recently, plastic) bearing pictures of
 living or dead national leaders or heroes or landmarks or works
 of art.

==========================================================================
Jeff Zeitlin                                      jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com
- ---
 þ OLXWin 1.00b þ Where there's a will, someone's disappointed.

------------------------------

From: jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (JEFF ZEITLIN)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 96 16:52:00 -0500
Subject: Formatting Tables in the list...

  Folks, a favor:

  In spite of my repeated and virulent protests to the author/
  publisher, my current QWK mail reader, OLXWin, does not handle
  TAB characters politely.

  I _could_ change the reader I use, but there are too many
  _other_ features that this one provides that I am not willing
  to give up.

  My other alternative would be to resubscribe to the lists
  through another account, and use Forté Agent (a damned nice
  reader) to read mail, but I don't always manage to log into
  that account daily.

  That pretty much leaves me only one option: this request.

  If you're inserting formatted text into a message, would you
  please set your editors to expand TAB characters into spaces?
  Most of the tables that show up on the list are decipherable,
  but not readable (to me).

==========================================================================
Jeff Zeitlin                                      jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com
- ---
 þ OLXWin 1.00b þ A clean, neat, desk is a sign of a sick mind.


------------------------------

From: jeff.zeitlin@execnet.com (JEFF ZEITLIN)
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 96 16:52:00 -0500
Subject: Re: [T96#248] Iridium Standard

Hans Rancke-Madsen <rancke@diku.dk> writes

T::>Under a gold standard getting gold is good for the individual, but bad
 ::>for the economy. Think about why printing more money is bad: Say you
 ::>have 1,000,000 bank notes representing the total wealth of a society.
 ::>Now the government prints 250,000 more notes. Straightaway the other
 ::>notes are worth only 80% of what they once was. But the government gains
 ::>from it (in the short term, anyway); they've suddenly acquired 20% of the
 ::>wealth.

 This is somewhat simplistic - The government doesn't realize
 any benefit from those 250K additional notes until they're
 placed in circulation, usually through a government purchase
 of some extant goods or services.  At which point the government
 no longer owns the notes.

 The question is "What can those notes buy?"  Under a totally
 uncontrolled, laissez-faire economy, those notes would initiate
 a certain amount of price inflation, as there would be more
 money in circulation chasing fewer goods - at least until
 production caught up.

T::>Now say you have 1,000,000 gold coins representing the total wealth of a
 ::>society. Now someone finds gold enough to mint 250,000 more coins. That's
 ::>a good thing for him, since he suddenly owns 20% of the total wealth. But
 ::>it's precisely the same effect as with the previous example. Everybody
 ::>else looses. There are only two differences: 1) With bank notes it is
 ::>much easier for a government to do this, since you can't do it under a
 ::>gold economy unless you find more gold; and 2) under a gold economy this
 ::>theft/"redistribution of property" happens _automatically_ if more gold
 ::>is found whereas with bank notes it takes a concious decision from someone
 ::>to do it.

 Same issue - Gold has no more _intrinsic_ value than the
 banknotes do; its perceived value is due to (a) its comparative
 rarity and (b) what it can purchase (which is influenced in no
 small measure by (a)).  Well, perhaps _some_ intrinsic value,
 as used in jewelry or electronics.  But in those two cases, the
 gold is effectively out of circulation for some period of time,
 and has no real effect on the economy.

 What damaged the Spanish economy so heavily was that gold
 continued to be perceived as having a high value even when its
 comparative rarity had fallen significantly.  That led to
 _nasty_ inflation (a medieval/renaissance version of
 hyperinflation?). There aren't too many economies that can
 stand hyperinflation for any length of time...

 A currency need not be backed by anything to be perceived as a
 "gold standard" (_not_ literally) currency - the United States
 dollar has not been backed by _anything_ since we went off the
 metal standard - the only thing behind the Federal Reserve
 Notes (and the few United States Notes still out there) is "the
 full faith and credit of the United States of America".  Yet
 that FFCUSA is the standard against which the values of many
 other currencies are measured, and that FFCUSA is what many
 international transactions not involving the USA or a US
 company are conducted in.

 Many people claim to understand but fail to realize the
 implications of the statement that "Wealth and production are
 equivalent."  The best way to illustrate it is this:

 You have been placed on a semitropical island in its virgin
 state.  You are wearing nothing but your birthday suit, and you
 have no means of getting off the island or of communicating
 with anyone off the island.  There are no dangerous life-forms
 on the island.  There is a pile of gold bars (Fort Knox
 variety) next to you, amounting to ten million troy ounces of
 24K gold.  There is _no_ other product of civilization on the
 island.

 Are you wealthy?  No.  All you've got is over three billion
 dollars worth of metal that you can't make into anything
 useful, and can't trade for anything that you _could_ make into
 something useful.  You might as well have been dropped there
 without the gold, for all the good it will do you.

 A year later, you've managed to build yourself a reasonably
 sturdy two-room hut, and have some rudimentary wood and stone
 tools and work surfaces.  You're located near a good source of
 fresh water, and have managed to cultivate a small garden.  The
 gold mysteriously disappeared your first night on the island.
 A stranger walks up to you while you're foraging for some
 things that don't grow in your garden, or while you're digging
 out some nice stone to work with.  The stranger is in the same
 state you were just one year ago, except that he never had the
 gold that you did.  Who's wealthier?  You are - you have the
 products of your own labor, and they have made your life
 easier.  Yet there is no material on the island that wasn't
 there when you arrived - all that's happened is that you have
 used that material to produce the things that make your life
 easier.  A more graphic illustration of "wealth=production"
 you'll be hard-pressed to find.
(Continued to next message)

- ---
 þ OLXWin 1.00b þ Where there's a will, someone's disappointed.


------------------------------

End of Traveller-digest V1996 #256
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