Passing the Buck
The Buck is both the basic unit of currency and the basic unit of energy. Short for Buckminsterfullerene, carbon credits are “hypermatter” packets left over from when global currency went on the carbon standard. The global supply of Bucks is unknown, but is thought to be over ten times what is in circulation. In addition to the initial minting in various denominations (distinguished by the color of their rim and their shape), an unknown amount of raw fullerene matrix was condensed and unminted, analogous to gold boullion. Bucks are incredibly durable.
Bucks are redeemed for fuel by decompression in a dedicated and standarized module which accepts the deposited Buck as a credit and shows the remaining fuel balance for the associated device.
While there’s some question about the long-term wisdom of using fixed-carbon reserves as a fuel source, the condensation of new fullerene using energy collected via other means began with the Colombian Renaissance. While this is valuable in some situations, it has not made scavenging noticeably less profitable.
February 17th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Looks like a cookie :).
March 6th, 2009 at 12:40 am
That’s some dangerous loose change right there.