The first writing is the first designation of property and the first token of exchange and issuance of debt. Implications must follow from this. When an entry is made of “3 cows” (with 3 ideographs of a cow and then a single ideograph with the number 3) in a ledger, and this is copied onto an envelope or packet designating the contents of a delivery, and this same envelope can then be used to promise someone else a future delivery of those items then we have the origin of writing tied up with the origin of property, trade, currency and debt. There may be no necessary reason to treat this co-origin as telling us anything about writing, specifically, and trying to figure out, say, how jotting down a few notes for myself to develop later (maybe by texting myself) has an intrinsic relation to ownership, money and debt. For a long time, though, I’ve assumed there must be some relation, and I think now would be a good time to try and work it out. It would, I think, be very helpful to be able to think about the act of writing as creating a token that entails a debt that at some point, in some way, comes due.
Tokenization
Tokenization
Tokenization
The first writing is the first designation of property and the first token of exchange and issuance of debt. Implications must follow from this. When an entry is made of “3 cows” (with 3 ideographs of a cow and then a single ideograph with the number 3) in a ledger, and this is copied onto an envelope or packet designating the contents of a delivery, and this same envelope can then be used to promise someone else a future delivery of those items then we have the origin of writing tied up with the origin of property, trade, currency and debt. There may be no necessary reason to treat this co-origin as telling us anything about writing, specifically, and trying to figure out, say, how jotting down a few notes for myself to develop later (maybe by texting myself) has an intrinsic relation to ownership, money and debt. For a long time, though, I’ve assumed there must be some relation, and I think now would be a good time to try and work it out. It would, I think, be very helpful to be able to think about the act of writing as creating a token that entails a debt that at some point, in some way, comes due.