Few hours ago, I got into a discussion with a colleague about the existence of extraterrestrial life, alien civilization,and how soon we (humans) would encounter an alien life. It was quite an interesting conversation and I was impressed at quite alot of things I discovered in just a short period of our discussion. Before departing, a thought came through my mind "Would Aliens/ extraterrestrial life be spending money if they existed?".
Well, this is one question some may have thought about too. I can't be the only one..right? Right??!!
I'm no nobel prize winning g scientist, but one thing I'm pretty sure of is that we are not alone in the universe. Might seem so, but it's not so. I believe some other form of life is evolving somewhere else in our vast universe and just maybe they've evolved already.
Now to the question. "Would Extraterrestrial lives spend money if they existed?", I would like us to think about the concept of money first and not just regard money as "fiat" which is very unlikely that an alien life would adopt. (That's just a massive coincidence). Here on Earth for example, for something to be regarded as money, it must be generally accepted as money and a means of exchange. It must be generally accepted as a valuable and useful item and should be portable and durable. This is what makes a paper worth what's written on it.
If alien life existed, I would assume they are either way more advanced that us(humans) just way less advanced, but one thing is for sure, no matter the level of civilization, I believe one thing "life" understands and utilises natural resources around it. Wherever these life forms maybe existing, there would definitely be vast amount of minerals and gems waiting to be explored and they (the extraterrestrial lives) would recognise them with time. This was how humans started as well, we didn't just jump to into cash and cryptocurrencies. It's a process of understanding what things are valuable which started with commodities like salt, shells, gold, silver, e.t.c all across the world.
Some of the minerals and resources found on this alien planet may find use quickly and then trading by barter(give me something of value you have to get something of mine that's valuable)may be implored. Barter is the mostly likely outcome of trading and once this happens, there is a good reason to find a general solution to a stable, portable and more durable form of money which would be accepted by all. This money may be one of the most valuable mineral on the planet like Gold and silver is to earth or something which is backed by the leaders of their planets.
And if they (extraterrestrials) are already more civilized than we are, chances are that they have already gone through this process and currently have their money digitalized or having it another form that's way more advanced and different from ours.
The concept of money becoming money isn't overnight but its need can't be overemphasised. I maybe wrong but the this is simply how I think money works. Except there's no need for exchange in the alien world.
Thank you for reading, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions .