Social Engineering

This is one of my primary views of what money is:  Social Media.  It is a media for social decision making.  Decisions regarding acquiring it,  maintaining it and expending it.

If money is social media then the structural nature of money is a matter of social engineering.

Social Engineering:  Defined here by Wikipedia.

The Wikipedia entry obviously needs some attention.  Expressing Social Engineering as a thing in two categories; Security and Politics is barely a foot in the door place holder for a more concise identification of the concept.  Wikipedia is only a start point for me on anything.  This start point has far to go.  Some research with Google will probably take me to where I want to go quickly.

Where I want to go is to relate Social Engineering to problem domain of Money and the the construction of a conceptual structure of money along the lines of information engineering methodology.

Social Engineering gets a bad rap.  That is reasonable when social structures are designed for the imposition upon society.  On the other hand when they are designed to invite society to participate based on the desire of individuals to participate then it plays a different role.  A ball game is a socially engineered thing.  So is a fascist state.  Fraud and deception can motivate people to participate in a social engineered structure with or without their knowledge and consent.  Social engineering is an interesting thing to examine.  Facebook is a product of social engineering.  So is religion.  Government.

If the family is the fundamental social unit, the nuclear family, father, mother, children was designed by nature.  God, if you prefer.  Human re-engineering of that basic structure obviously creates some conceptual design creator conflict.  Conflict resolved by what it takes to create children, nature's or God's province and what it takes to raise them; human province in the view of some, nature or God in the view of others.  God's plan.  Man's plan.

Money as a social media conceptual structure does not suffer from the hand of God as its creator.  That is positively and negatively questionable in reality since all of out social structures involve some degree of the hand of God in their creation in the view of some portion of society.   Putting that aside, the design creation of what money is tends greatly to be an objective conceptual structure more like computers systems while what money does is largely subjective in its social structure.

Designing a money system, what money is:  A Social Engineering challenge.  Looking at the money system design from that approach is the beginning of a personal path of investigation regarding the nature of Social Engineering.

Wow!  Starting on the path with a Google search and look what pops up to the surface to present itself as Social Engineering!

Is Google run by Goebbels or what?  Seems like Social Engineering is all about security and deception!  Look at this hit on the very first page of the Google search on the term "Social Engineering" on which this appears.  It is our Homeland Security government warning us about a social engineering attack! Certainly puts it in a bad light.  Somewhere next to socialism?

What is a social engineering attack?

In a social engineering attack, an attacker uses human interaction (social skills) to obtain or compromise information about an organization or its computer systems. An attacker may seem unassuming and respectable, possibly claiming to be a new employee, repair person, or researcher and even offering credentials to support that identity. However, by asking questions, he or she may be able to piece together enough information to infiltrate an organization's network. If an attacker is not able to gather enough information from one source, he or she may contact another source within the same organization and rely on the information from the first source to add to his or her credibility.

If Social Engineering is a dangerous thing, give it the benefit of the doubt here and view it like a weapon.  It itself neither good nor bad, but finds judgment in how it is used.  What about the designers of this thing called Social Engineering?  They would be called Social Engineers right?  Like a gun is designed and produced by a gun maker who is neither a policeman nor a criminal?

Look at this definition of the first page of Google hits on a search term "Social Engineer" in quotes to avoid other general results.

The very first hit is Social-Engineer.org.  

This site immediately starts out with a definition of what Social Engineering does, not what a Social Engineer is.  Big red flag.  Just like defining what money is by describing what money does.  Immediate diversion from analysis of the object itself to what the object does!  True Goebbels!

This is an interesting investigative path!

The rest of the hits on the first page of the Google search on the term "Social Engineer" are mostly results that contain the headline term "Social Engineering".  While the Wikipedia result is for "Social Engineer" reading the content of the Wikipedia entry slants it this way:

A social engineer is one who tries to influence popular attitudes, social behaviors, and resource management on a large scale. Social engineering is the application of the scientific method for social concern.


Amazing.  A bridge engineer designs bridges for people to use.  They do not try to influence people to use it beyond offering a desirable decision alternative to swim across a river as an independent choice.  If people like to swim the bridge will not get much use.  It appears that the Wikipedia definition of a a social engineer is a bridge engineer that designs a bridge then puts up a sign at the river's edge that says "No Swimming".

The dangers of Wikipedia.  It ascribes intent to influence as a purpose of a social engineer then goes on to say that social engineers are scientific and that influence as a purpose is in the realm of "Political Engineering"

This is from the first page of Google hits on "Social Engineer"

Social engineering is a term that describes a non-technical kind of intrusion that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves tricking other people to break normal security procedures.
A social engineer runs what used to be called a "con game." For example, a person using social engineering to break into a computer network might try to gain the confidence of an authorized user and get them to reveal information that compromises the network's security. Social engineers often rely on the natural helpfulness of people as well as on their weaknesses. They might, for example, call the authorized employee with some kind of urgent problem that requires immediate network access. Appeal to vanity, appeal to authority, appeal to greed, and old-fashioned eavesdropping are other typical social engineering techniques.

Security experts propose that as our culture becomes more dependent on information, social engineering will remain the greatest threat to any security system. Prevention includes educating people about the value of information, training them to protect it, and increasing people's awareness of how social engineers operate.


Mothers don't let your children grow up to be Social Engineers.  Or terrorists!  Or Socialists!

The term "Social System Design"  gets more objective treatment on a Google search.  Among results are academic offerings.  The term "design" is a step back from engineering in the implementation progression from conceptual idea to the end product of a thing that actually implements the concept.  "Social System Design" seems less tainted with negative connotations and more closely associated with objective science.  More 'socially" acceptable.  Less associated with social engineering with the objective of deceiving people like con artists, banksters, politicians and news media.

Bringing this back to the focus on money as a social media:  The money system is a designed and engineered social system thing that exists in a Social Network.