Explain bitcoin with 'Up-Goer Five'

[grondilu]

I thought it might be a fun exercise:

(Phys.org)—Geneticist Theo Sanderson has written a simple text editor that allows a writer to use only words from a list of the 1000 ("ten hundred" since "thousand" isn't on the list) most commonly used words in the English language, to describe things. He calls it the Up-Goer Five Text Editor, in honor of a comic created by xkcd, to describe a Saturn V rocket, using only the most common 1000 words in the English language. Sanderson has made the editor available online for free, which intrigued bloggers, Chris Rowan and Anne Jefferson to the extent that they've set up a Tumblr blogger page called "Ten Hundred Words of Science," where they display the results of a challenge they've issued to scientists to describe what they do for a living using Sanderson's text editor. The results are thought provoking, interesting and quite often humorous.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-up-goer-text-editor-restricts-writers.html#jCp




Edit.  I tried it in order to describe what a hash (or maybe a checksum) is:

« Say you have a note that you want to send to a friend.  For some reason, you can not be sure the note will be exactly as it was when it was sent.   You would like to find a way to make sure it is.

Here is how to do it:  you put your note in your computer.   Your computer do some stuff with the note and give you a short word back.  It's not a simple word but it is short enough so you can tell it to your friend and be sure he will get it exactly as it is.

Then your friend does this:  he puts the note that he got from you inside his own computer.  And his computer also gives them a word.  If this word is the same that the one you told him, then your friend knows he got the same note than you. »

[1713992046]

1713992046

[Matthew N. Wright]

Love it (and xkcd)

[Peter Lambert]

This is pretty cool. I tried to explain what I do at work:

I am a person who studies making stuff out of other stuff. The stuff I make is used in making things, sticking things together, making people who are sick better, or making green things grow better. When I do my studies, I find out the best way to make the stuff.

Does that make any sense? Can you tell what my job is?

Here is how I explain Bitcoin:

'Bitcoin': A computer money which is passed from one person to another rather than through one person who is in control. Each time this money is passed from one person to another all the people using this money get a note saying the money passed from one person to the other, that way all the people know who has the money at all times.

[grondilu]

This is pretty cool. I tried to explain what I do at work:

I am a person who studies making stuff out of other stuff. The stuff I make is used in making things, sticking things together, making people who are sick better, or making green things grow better. When I do my studies, I find out the best way to make the stuff.

Does that make any sense? Can you tell what my job is?

Sorry,  I can't.

[Lethn]

Does that make any sense? Can you tell what my job is?

Researcher/Inventor?

[FreeMoney]

Aww, I was hoping it would automatically replace non-allowed words with equivalent phrases made of allowed words. Still cool though.

[Peter Lambert]

I am a person who studies making stuff out of other stuff. The stuff I make is used in making things, sticking things together, making people who are sick better, or making green things grow better. When I do my studies, I find out the best way to make the stuff.

Chemist?

Yes