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Fungible Tokens For Food
My name is Raibeart MacPheadrais , and I was born five months before media announcements that humans had landed on their Moon. My parents were of a time when it was customary for humans to live in Pods called ‘houses,’ to trade their fungible tokens for food in ‘supermarkets’ and travel in low orbit around their World.
As an accomplished horticulturist, my Father decided to immigrate to Australia, which he understood to have a more favorable climate for growing his favorite orchid. In his home country and my Mother, Scotland remained bitterly cold most of the year before the Warming. The decision to emigrate was taken before the Warming occurred, but once it did, my father was adamant that he would maintain his gardening passion.
He avoided in conversation all suggestions by extended Family members who encouraged him to get rich quickly as a virtual driver with one of the new mining companies which were beginning to exploit Second Core, the rich mineral deep deposits under the deserts of Australia. When I was old enough to understand the concept of fungible trade or money, I asked my father why he didn’t invest in the mining industry. He told me that the minerals beneath the desert sands were culturally unsafe and not worth the effort required to extract them due to their poisonous legacy.
My Mother, Màiri Mac’IlleRiabhaich trained as a Medical Virtualiser at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and was awarded a gold Token for her academic achievements. Folklore of the Mac’IlleRiabhaich clan reflects a reverence for her attendance to grief or settling scores within the Family. She was a firm believer in the value of hard work and applied the wisdom of earning a living through clever labor. She could not understand why my Father would refuse to use his education to make a modest income, although she soon learned the value of orchid token trading in later years with children.
The trip to Australia from Scotland was arduous and dangerous as pirates often held ships to ransom. My father could not afford SpaceTravel. So, although spectacular, his passage through Sydney Harbour was celebrated more as a blessed relief that he made it to terra firma alive and well. Likewise, four long celestial years later, my Mother arrived by the same passage. However, her journey was marred by trauma due to her allergy to the Boson…
