Wes Phillips

Is Money A Virus?

Wes Phillips  |  Jan 27, 2006

No, but it behaves like one, according to researchers who used an internet game called www.wheresgeorge.com to predict the geographical spread of epidemics. How's that work? Money, like viruses, is spread by people and, since people travel great distances these days, coming up with a way to chart how far and fast an epidemic can travel has been nigh on to impossible.

That's where wheresgeorge.com comes in. Players stamp dollar bills with the site's URL and people can log in and register the serial number of the bill, which allows participants to track its travels. Using "universal scaling laws" and the money data, researchers think they have made a breakthrough in modeling the spread of epidemics.

Maybe everything really is connected.

COMMENTS
Chris's picture
Submitted by Chris (not verified) on January 27, 2006 - 11:14am

Money is not its value, so the tracking of a dollar bill doesn't come close to tracking the real spread of the value of money! Wouldn't it be a gas to be able to track each of the 100 penny-values linked to any particular dollar? Because the value of money is fungible, any particular dollar cannot tell the story of the travel of its value.Tax protesters love this kind of thing," because they can ""track"" most of the value going back to the government", over and over and over and over again, like a giant money vacuum.

Alan in Victoria's picture
Submitted by Alan in Victoria (not verified) on January 28, 2006 - 1:47pm

So the moral of the story is, wash your hands a lot and use your debit card.

Alan in Victoria's picture
Submitted by Alan in Victoria (not verified) on January 28, 2006 - 4:36pm

Oh, and after reading this story, make sure you scroll down a bit to read the hilariously bitchy comments posted by other (perhaps would-be) members of the scientific community!

X