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January 27, 2006
Follow The Money
(Jimmy Akin)
Earlier I discussed the money tracking service of WheresGeorge.Com. It was meant as a lark by a bunch of friends, but now it's being put to a serious purpose.
How's that?
Well, dollar bills don't just walk around the countryside.
Not unless it's the walking money from the planet Ventura in the Legion of Super-Heroes, I mean.
Here on Earth, dollar bills go places because they are carried by people.
That means that if you can track the money, you can--kinda, sorta--track the people. The motions of money tell you something about the motions of people.
Which is why the serial numbers of bills can be used to catch criminals.
How else might such a "follow the money" approach be used?
How could it be put into the service of SCIENCE?
Well, how about this: If you understand more about the casual, random connections that people make as they move around then it could tell you something about things that people carry around with them and exchange with other people . . . like dollar bills . . . or germs.
And that is what some scientists are doing.
They're using the Where's George money tracking system to model human travel and interactions as a way of producing better models of DISEASE PROPAGATION.
And, of course, if we have better models of disease propagation then we can better predict what diseases will do and come up with better strategies for fighting them.
YEE-HAW!
Go! Humans!
Fight! Those! Germs!
(Mr. Monk will be pleased.)
(Agent Mulder may not be.)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in Science | Permalink
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Comments
Mr. Monk will not be pleased. The less he knows about the things he comes in contact with, the better it is for him.
Posted by: DJ | Jan 27, 2006 8:36:22 AM
You know, I almost wanna go out and rob a bank so I can write 'www.wheresgeorge.com' on all of the bills and spend them.
Posted by: DJ | Jan 27, 2006 8:48:09 AM
You think Ventura is the only planet that has walking money, Jimmy? Mine has been walking for years (mostly, away).
Posted by: bill912 | Jan 27, 2006 8:53:24 AM
"Fight! Those! Germs!
(Mr. Monk will be pleased.)
(Agent Mulder may not be.)"
Hmmm . . . seems like it's a good time to remind folks of these li'l critters:
http://www.giantmicrobes.com/health/
They's so cute!
Posted by: Gene Branaman | Jan 27, 2006 9:14:42 AM
Of course there was also the excellent book by Frank Herbert called White Plague about a geneticist whose family is killed in Ireland by a terrorist bombing which he sees from a 2nd story window. He then creates a plague that targets women only and treats the currency of countries involved and mails it to people at random there. He targets Ireland and several countries in Africa and the Middle East who supplied the explosives, etc.
Anyway, a wicked cool novel.
Posted by: Tim Johnson | Jan 28, 2006 6:00:21 PM
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