Because it’s very difficult to get things you need to live solely through barter. Many trades are very niche, and an economy that uses money allows those trades to continue being viable parts of society.
Like, think of plumbing. If everything goes well, you don’t need a plumber. But when you do…you really need it. Now imagine being the plumber who wants some bread and eggs but the farmer has no problems currently that needs the plumber’s skills. Plumber can’t eat, leaves profession, there’s now no plumber when the pipes do break.
Obviously, the next thought here might be, “Well, why doesn’t the plumber say if they get eggs and bread now, they’ll come and fix your toilet later if needed?” But that sort of re-invents credit, right? “I’ll trade 3 future plumbing problems for 3 boxes of eggs now.” If you have that, why not money?
So basically, money is very useful. It can be traded for many things you otherwise wouldn’t be able to get if you were only able to offer as barter a specific item that might be rejected by the other person you want to barter with. Money is a “universal” trade good, and it’s also easy to store (you don’t have to have lots of physical room to store your Universal Trade Good).
The BEHAVIOR of people surrounding this very useful thing can absolutely be suspect, depending on the person (greedy sociopaths hoarding wealth)–but that’s a human thing, not because money is innately a bad thing. It’s a social problem, not a technology problem. You could totally have a greedy hoarder storing up a non-money trade item too…see people and toilet paper/sanitizer during Covid.
The parameters for making a USEFUL plastic that ALSO degrades gives a narrow band. Too degradable, and the function of fulfilling all the areas plastic is currently used for can’t happen. Not degradable, and we have the current situation.
Plastic being is in use not simply to fuck the planet over or something, but because compared to other materials it has physical qualities that things like glass, wood, fabric, etc. don’t have, that’s why it’s ended up in so many things. It’s lightweight, strong, and “plastic” (that is to say, more easily shaped and molded than other materials, and I suspect there’s a labor component too where maybe it needs less labor to shape and form).
I’m eventually going to write a story about a sci-fi world that’s under quarantine because they successfully made a plastic-eating bacteria that never stops eating and breaking down plastic. Go there and most of your technology/clothes/etc. are eaten away. I might throw in wood, too…a world with no wood or plastic because the local bacteria is like, “Yum, yum, food!” and gets into every nook and cranny. I anticipate I’ll have to do a lot of thinking to figure out how drastically technology would change under these parameters…I imagine a lot of it would be very “brutalist” because you’d have to rely on heavy-as-balls metals and cement and stone and such. Unless there’s an Aluminum Future or something, where everything that can be made out of aluminum, can. Of course, there’s also the byproducts of intense metals mining to think about on a fictional world like that. Anyway, lots of details to pick apart for worldbuilding.
I love the New Coke inspiration for Nukoku’s name.
Musings…
I was thinking before that “eyes opening” was a theme, as it certainly was for White Chain, but if you put the three next to each other now, White Chain’s eyes have opened, Allison has one open and one closed, and Cio/Nukoku has hers closed. So I wonder if Nukoku might “stay” with her eyes obscured/gone to keep up an underlying theme that they are three possibilities along a spectrum.
It is interesting that Nukoku is so focused on small, quiet things, as that is the opposite of what you’d think devils would want. The opposite of greed and consumption. It’s also the opposite of White Chain’s arc, where White Chain is becoming a ruler (as far as we can tell so far), when for so long she was the one taking orders, not giving them.
I think more evidence is piling up that devils/angels become more powerful when they adopt a bit of their opposite counterpart. White Chain, originally of the cold white flame, now has a human body which is the warm black flame, and is a Demiurge. And Nukoku, the hot black flame, rejects who she was when she was a demiurge, and has enough order to her now that she could come back without an intact mask–she might have taken this increase in orderliness from White Chain while they were merged (along with Allison) as Aspected Chaos.
(My theory before is that Metatron is so powerful because his insanity is chaotic and basically brings devil-like chaos/creativity to him, while Himself has bound himself up with laws and order, normally an angel thing. So White Chain and Nukoku are paralleling this, just in a somewhat different way.)
You could also take “Reborn Sin Against Heaven” as an angel-style name…which is quite odd, and interesting, for a devil. Also, if “reach heaven through violence” is a thing, would “Reborn Sin Against Heaven” be reaching heaven without violence?
The jury’s still out, however, if Nukoku’s pink blood has anything to do with Incubus. We might still see Nukoku do a final transformation. Although, I think White Chain and Allison might also get another transformation before the book is done, too, as their arcs also aren’t complete.
Edit: Someone on the main website suggested Nukoku might actually bear Incubus’ key after Maya was done taking him apart. Which…would make a lot of sense? If White Chain can “redeem” Solomon David’s key of diamond/pride, then maybe Nukoku can turn Incubus’ key into something softer, like love. I’d kind of really want a flashback though of seeing all that go down.
Unrelated, I did a re-read, and I realized that White Chain is basically the only one of the three that’s consistently drawn as “beautiful” (when out of her stone armor). Even when she gets angry (“SUBMIT!”) she becomes more statuesque than ugly.
Allison can pull some super-derpy/ugly faces (and I love her being drawn like that), Cio tends to be abruptly monstrous or weird or sexy, but White Chain is rendered by and large in a way that’s very pretty/beautiful, and that even continues if you look at Aspected Chaos’ design…it’s a lot further along on the “conventionally pretty” spectrum than Allison and Cio usually are.
I think this is really cool, that there’s something so subtle reinforcing that she’s an angel.
I’ve been trying to move to Linux for about 20 years, but gaming issues always sent me back to Windows.
I tried again after hearing about how proton and steamdeck have made it so much easier for most games and it’s true. Been exclusively on Linux on my gaming rig since about September. The only one I couldn’t get working was oddly a little simple indie game, it lagged badly while stuff like No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk ran fine.
Microsoft is pushing this at a very bad time, because you CAN game on Linux now.
Cio’s design here is a bit similar to the very first White Chain design, in that her helm covers/closes both her eyes. Given how symbolic that was for White Chain, and that White Chain’s eyes opened as her mind opened up, it’s also likely symbolic here
Cio’s design also, like White Chain’s, has a design on the forehead that could hold a stone. Granted, she had one before, an ordinary one–but I wonder if she might end up getting Gog’s. That would make both White Chain and Cio hold the keys that are possibly closest to their natures as angel and devil…or at least, opposites to one another
Cio’s design here is like a preying mantis, and as we know, they eat their mates
Cio’s teeth here are more purple than blue, as if they’re chips of ebon devil
Someone on the official site mentioned that pink might associate this Cio with Incubus.
I think that’s very possible. It would be very like Incubus to take advantage of someone’s Want when they are powerless, and Allison left the pieces of Cio’s mask right there with him. And it would be very “Incubus” like (in the more general use of the term–demonic lover that comes to you in dreams) to use someone’s lover as a weapon against them.
Also, demons don’t die like humans do, they are “banished to the void”. Only humans are true mortals.
I really don’t like this article because it reminds me of the crazy health nut parents who get disgusted by fat babies and try to make them diet for “health” and instead starve them. Babies are supposed to be fat.
Is the writer here applying guidelines for adults to babies? Babies are supposed to take in foods that are high calorie. I think Nestle is a shit company, but I am extremely suspicious of the article.
The typical American household would need to spend $445 more a month to purchase the same goods and services as a year ago, a report from Moody’s found.
I was raised Catholic in a deeply Evengelical town. The little girls were saying out of the blue that I wasn’t Christian. I was like 8, they were like 6. They were absolutely parroting what their parents said, there’s no way the little girls I played with daily came up with that shit on their own, and since then I’ve noticed that’s one of the “protestant culture” things that gets passed around in those circles and occasionally escapes. That Catholics aren’t Christian because saints or whatever.
They get all wound up about the “pagan” elements of Catholicism then turn around and worship their dollar bill golden idols. Hypocrites!
But basically, Catholics get crapped on when there’s no other minority around and they are tired of talking about Jewish folks.
I don’t practice, I’m atheist, but in the USA from a culture perspective Catholics aren’t in the WASP good old boy group, even if you are otherwise white. And WASP types are happy to let you know it, although its less common than it was a few decades back.
Biden being Catholic, and JFK before him, is basically a dog whistle to certain rightwing groups to make them lose their shit, it’s just less obvious than, say, Obama being black esp if you don’t have a family background that would expose you to that stuff.
It’s wondering why you are doing that somewhat odd thing you’re doing. It doesn’t matter what exactly you’re doing, it’s mildly curious and concerned about it whatever it is.
Kill Six Billion Demons » WHEEL SMASHING LORD 3-93 (killsixbilliondemons.com)
Abbadon is going to have his second kid shortly, and has said this is the last update until early July.
Why is currency so essential?
Why do we focus solely on this one aspect of life?
Scientists have figured out way to make algae-based plastic that completely decomposes (abcnews.go.com)
Kill Six Billion Demons » WHEEL SMASHING LORD 3-92 (killsixbilliondemons.com)
Kill Six Billion Demons » WHEEL SMASHING LORD 3-90 to 3-91 (NUKOKU) (killsixbilliondemons.com)
YouTube keeps serving this obnoxious ~5m ad
YouTube wants me to watch a 4m30s ad for middle-aged men who want to stay healthy. I won’t watch it. Hence, it never goes away....
Is there a "personality test" you've done you found helpful?
Most are made up and silly....
Windows 11 will reportedly display a watermark if your PC does not support AI requirements. (www.tomshardware.com)
Persophone (i.redd.it)
Kill Six Billion Demons » WHEEL SMASHING LORD 3-88 to 3-89 (killsixbilliondemons.com)
Nestlé adds sugar to infant milk sold in poorer countries, report finds (www.theguardian.com)
Swiss food firm’s infant formula and cereal sold in global south ignore WHO anti-obesity guidelines for Europe, says Public Eye...
So many peets! (lemmy.world)
Eww, Copilot AI might auto-launch with Windows 11 soon (www.pcworld.com)
Millennials and Gen Z's trendy new splurge: groceries (www.businessinsider.com)
I tried cereal with _____ for breakfast
The year is 2001, what CD are you playing on your Walkman? (dormi.zone)
Why do people say "Catholics and Christians" in (USA) when Catholics are also Christians, as if they refer to it as a different religion.
Is this some sort of remnant of evangelical puritan protestant ideology?...
Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Discovery | 5x01 "Red Directive" and 5x02 "Under the Twin Moons"
"Red Directive"...
meow_irl (lemmy.world)