How would you describe money to an alien?

Question

I mean imagine trying to explain the whole idea of trading and currency to an intelligent being that had no idea of the concept.
How would you do it?

Andee thats what I'm saying what if they didn't understand the even the basic concept of trading one thing for another

Now Tequila thats just maddeningly unhelpfull!

Wow, these answers get longer the further down the page you go!

Answer 1

Accountants sell porn to own it

It was invented by a man who needed a chicken for dinner. So he conned a peasant out of his property by giving him metal found freely scattered across the world. This deal, was the most catastrophic swap ever made in the whole of history.

;)

Answer 2

Assuming that they speak English I would start by saying how some people can obtain goods/materials/products that others cannot. Those who don't have something (let's just call them "A") need to get what want from those that have what they want (let's call them "B"). However, B will not give their product away for nothing (for obvious reasons) so A must give B something in return. Thus, a basic trade-off is created. (I.e. I'll give you 12 sheep for your cow).

Money is slightly more complicated. First, you need to establish the idea that currency has value. That £100 that you hold in your hands could buy you several sheep, many chickens or a cow (I don't know the actual prices BTW). This is because the government makes it so (I believe that the British government still has a gold reserve. Basically, you can take that £10 note and hand it in to get £10 worth of gold, which of course is highly sellable). This eliminates the problem of having to carry your sheep around with you to pay for whatever you are buying. Instead you can just take coins with you. Those coins that you give to the cow farmer can then be used by him to purchase what he needs. This will also be more beneficial than him owning 12 sheep because not everybody will want sheep, but everyone wants money because it can buy anything. In most cases money is the purchasing object, while everything else becomes the selling objects.

In the "basic trade-off" in the first paragraph anything can be the purchasing or selling object, The problem was that not everyone would want those blasted sheep that you have, so you could only get goods from those that wanted sheep.

Ahh, that was fun. I hope this was helpful.

Answer 3

Oh, you mean like to a teenager? OK..."Money" is legal paper made by our GOVT. Everyone (adults...because they are supposed to take care of the children until children can handle their OWN money) NEEDS money. We use it to buy food, necessities, etc. Everyone needs to either work or pretend that they cannot work and get money from the GOVT, to have money in their pocket. We also have it in a place called a BANK. We can sign a small piece of paper called a CHECK only if we have the MONEY in the BANK. We give this money or the CHECK to a person that runs the store to buy the food or clothing or whatever we need. If you do NOT have money, you may die. Do NOT show others large amounts of moeny, if you carry it with you because they may steal it.

Answer 4

Personally, I think that if a being is intelligent enough to have studied our primitive civilization and to have come such a great distance to visit, That being not only would understand the concept, but would have major improvements on the concept or would have dropped it for a better concept. I think that instead of explaining, I'd be listening and looking for something better.

Answer 5

In human society we trade item for item so noone loose anything in a trade.

Because of the nature of golds rareness, everyone favours trading things in relations to gold. Therefore, when someone is tradeing, they like to see how much gold is it worth.

But, soon people realized that gold is to heavy to carry around and trade. So, the goverment use a universal currency

Answer 6

"Here's the thing, these little bits of pulped woody vegetation that have been allowed to dry out, right? Yes, these things - no, don't eat them, I haven't yet told you where they've been - these things are valuable and can be traded for commodities. Aha. That's right. No, I'm not joking. People exchange them for things that they want. This is why you shouldn't eat them because they've been in people's pockets and hands and in contact with all kinds of body fluids, yes, I know, it's disgusting. Why? Why do people attach such value to these little pieces of paper? Well, they just do. They are special little pieces of paper that represent value, in their own right they are nothing more than pieces of paper. Seriously. The value? An abstract concept. So we exchange bits of paper that represent an abstract concept and have various values designated to them to that these bits of paper can be used to buy things like food and homes and transport ... no, you don't get anything valuable from the bits of paper themselves .... these little metal round things? Also money, but they carry less value that the bits of paper, and the same concept applies ... no, I wouldn't eat them either ... hey, why are you looking at me like that ... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! No, dont eat m - "

*CRUNCH*

Answer 7

I'm sure they would understand the concept. Money is more like a trading system and I bet if they exist they have there own form. :]

Answer 8

tell him its a way of getting goods and services without actually trading them, but trading the value instead

Answer 9

I would use the Pavlov's dog system. Reward for good things, remove reward for not doing what you want. The alien would come to understand that reward equals money. If he or she wants more reward, they have to earn it.

Answer 10

I'd slap his little green head and say, "Listen up. I ain't gonna 'plain this twice. You got something I want. I got something you want. I give you mine, you give me yours. That's called trading. But I need what I got, so I'm giving you this piece of paper that promises to give you my stuff later. Got that, bozzo?"

Zap. I'm vaporized.