The Virtual Nature of Value

I can’t remember the last time that I had a couple of bucks in my wallet. I can’t remember the last time that I wore a wrist watch…or even looked at my empty wrist by accident to see the time. These are two items that have completely changed in my daily interactions. Check Cards have replaced paper money, and my tablet has replace my wrist watch, alarm clock and radio.
Today, the world is wrangling over moving from the real to the virtual. One can buy a Starbucks by using your cellphone. (Yes they have an app for that) Instead of purchases with an online payment, one can now use your virtual coin, from your virtual wallet, called Bitcoin. Don’t ask me how Bitcoin works. I have asked, and studied, and asked again. I still find the answer rather foggy.
I believe it ends up being a negotiated agreement. I bought so much Bitcoin for so many dollars. Now you agree to accept Bitcoin, and so much Bitcoin for your product. Virtual! Boom! Done! Just not FDIC insured. It is only monitored by Bitcoin Miners that make a lot of money from the vendors for the service.
This is where the world is going. Receipts can be emailed, and paper faxing is rare. Reality is becoming something that you have virtually hold in your head, and not something that one can always hold physically in your hand.
I don’t claim to understanding every part of such a movement, I am not that smart. I don’t claim to like most of the change, I am that normal. Within the Hearing Industry, the improvements and technology changes amazes us, let alone the patients that we are trying to tell them that this is a good thing. They look at the size, feel the weight, look at the size, and shake their head in disbelief. How can this cheap feeling thing do all of what you say it does, and be so expensive?
They sometimes don’t trust the technology. It should feel heavier.
Most of the technology is virtual. It is the dynamic interaction between the software platform of the device and the programming software of the computer. There are not gears turning, or sparks, or vibrations. It is out there. I have never trusted “out there”. You can’t get your mind around that.
So, when one doesn’t trust the tool, one should trust the tool maker. That is why in our practices, the trust relationship between audiologist and patient is encouraged above all else. One cannot understand every part of every piece of the puzzle. Trust between audiologist and patient, which takes work and time, will show how that puzzle piece needs to fit.