43-8 Go Hawks.
Ok, So as soon as Professor Edwards gave us this prompt, the first thing that popped into my head was “What would this scene look like now?”
It goes something like this.
A man, a quite inventive man was a digital mogol. But it wasn’t always that way. He was exceptionally literate on the computer and could code just about anything. However, after he finished his formal training he began to get so bored with the notion of regular work he decided to quit his job. This is where everything changed for him. He got into the digital underground and began to hack and crack facilities with in untraceable means. It started out simple, he set up an off shore account, somewhere crazy like Switzerland! He then proceeded to see if he could fabricate his balance, he started low, with a 5 dollar amount. Figuring that no one would notice a 5 dollar deposit from nowhere? Because usually when fraud happens, the victim is the user, the person, not the company or the bank. But knowing that he could be found out if he simply made money appear without actually having any, he decided to make his trail go through many many networks, so back tracking to the source would be tedious and nearly impossible. So every week he would deposit 5 dollars, then 10, then 20, then 100, and so forth, over a few years, his weekly deposits were nearly 4 thousand dollars. But he did it in such a way, such a tedious and gradual way, no one ever knew. His wife didn’t know, his kids didn’t know. It’s like the movie “Lord of war” with Mr. Cage, his wife didn’t know he was a weapons dealer.
Now, he has money, fabricated power, a beautiful house, and the ability to buy what he wants. This is where our scene comes in, His wife asks for money, he says how much, and she responds, instead of a gesture with her fingers and inch apart, she makes the gesture of about 3 inches. Meaning, “I’ll just take your card” he understands and hands her his credit card that has such a high limit he doesn’t care. And, at any point he can just make his credit disappear, so whats a few zeroes? They’re just digital, and he is the “king” of his digital empire.
This ties to what we have discussed in class, and our blog posts with respect to digital currency. Never in his career did he actually have any physical money in hand, he was able to make zeroes disappear and appear at a whim. When his wife needed money for shopping, he gave her his card, when he wanted to buy a car from the dealership, he used his card. Of which his balance would vanish from their records. His entire life revolved around the fact that he never actually made any physical currency and he didn’t care. He was “rich”. His wife and his family had no idea that their wealth was based on nothing, it was a “fiat” wealth. It was wealth that he deemed to have value because he made his accounts have money that didn’t actually exist.
PS- I was watching HULU and this commercial came on.
http://www.ispot.tv/ad/75e2/bank-of-america-flowers
This gave me the inspiration for the story, because not once do you see him use actual physical money. Everything in this commercial was digital, from purchasing flowers to paying for a cab! CRAZY!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my story and the tie in with our lectures and blogs.
Quin
Blogs (1) I responded to:
Quin Robert 
I like how you connected the commercial to your post (also, Nicholas Cage). I think that the use of credit cards is becoming more prevalent, and you show that well with your story. I really like how you connected the Goodfellas reference and made it more modern and relevant.
[…] Quin Robert Ellyn […]