Memo from To:
JOSHUA LEDERBERG

MONEY as the root of all evil.

The rash of hijackings aimed at extorting
ransom payments dramatizes the vulnerability of
modern society to grievous. interference by
highwaymen, muggers and thieves. A variety of
technological antidotes has been recommended.
Some of these already take account of certain
properties of MONEY as a root problem. Taking
cash out of the transactions overseen by the bus
and cab driver has, I believe, been an effective
preventive of what was once a serious form of
personal crime. The'cashless society’ (credit
cards etc) is doubtless another useful step in
minimizing opportunity for gainful crime, but
cash, even in amounts of $100,000 or even
$500,000 is still an attractive incentive.

Is there a legitimate need for a completely
negotiable, untraceable medium of exchange beyond
petty coinage? If not, we should consider whether
we do not already have the technology to be able »
to trace a sufficiently large sample of currency
to be an effective deterrent to a variety of
crimes. I will not attempt to detail the sys-
tem; xhe if the premises are sound, this should
have very detailed study. Roughly speaking, I
have in mind the machine-readable encoding of all
currencg;and computer matching of a sample of \
transactions at banks, etc., to facilitate tra- ‘
cing of "wanted" items. I am merely guessing tha
an effective sample of traces would be more than
paid for by the benefits of law enforcement, and
the deterrence of violent crime and of

sian etc.

   

PROFESSOR JOSAUA fevenserc
Department ¢f Genetics
School of Medicine

Stanford University
Stanford, California 94305