History often provides clarity in the present. I was searching the term “Social Currency” and I found these two posts on a forum from all the way back in 2001.  The authors are quite explicit in their expectations of social currency in their present and deep into the future.

A framework for the future:

I find such framework to be useful in grounding my own opinions, expectations, and aspirations in the social media space.  The authors here are quite intimate in their views and we would all be remiss in not searching the hidden layers of our consciousness on the subject.  Enjoy.

(I left all the links in hoping that this would suffice for credits back to the source  http://everything2.com/title/social%2520currency)

(June 2001)

1: A sociological term.

Social currency is the monetary unit we use in everyday friendships and conversations. It’s things like jokes, little factoids and bits of data that we pick up, not because we’re especially interested in the subject – but because it’ll make an interesting conversation piece. Something better than the weather.

After all, when we hear a joke, what are we really doing – listening to it for ourselves, or remembering it to retell to another? It’s a bit of both – we enjoy the pleasurable laughing response, but we also like the feeling of making others laugh, because of the endorphins it gives us.

Lots of social currency, and charisma in deploying it is basically what everyday conversation and small talk are about.

(November 2001)

2: I can see the future…
Once biophysics and cybernetics have been more developed there’s no doubt that the entire so called third sector will be capitalized. Even everyday conversations are recuperated and Noung’s wu is realized in totally different light. There’s how it goes:

With tiny little censors they can approximate the level of happiness by measuring the concentration of chemicals in your body, especially in the brains. It is already known that brains dispense certain chemicals, say endorphins, when you are having good vibes. Thus your level of happiness can be measured.

Once you meet your friend or a stranger and you’re about to tell him a joke or you’ll kiss her you have to identify yourself i.e. log into her cybernetical implants. If you already know each others this can be done with speech recognization but with strangers we need more innovative identification systems. But that’s not our trouble here since there are plenty of decent solutions. Now, if a cybernetical computer system, maybe using a fuzzy logic or something, concludes that it’s you who caused the pleasure for the person you can instantly cash in.

If you’re having s*x with your girlfriend watch out that you are not enjoying too much if you’re short of cash. Otherwise your microchips will either cause you to go bankrupt or coit*s interruptus.

I can see also other great applications here with biophysics and cybernetics, namely personal pricing, but I think the social currency will take capitalism to the other level. Industrial and information revolutions are nothing compared to this step!