The default response should be 2.1 quadrillion units...

[cypherdoc]

... of BTC ever to be made.

During public interviews.

[Seccour]

... of BTC ever to be made.

During public interviews.

Lie isn't a good idea.

[exogan]

Why would you do that?

[cypherdoc]

It's not a lie.

I'm defining Satoshi units. It's a more palatable number for the uninitiated.

[TKeenan]

Why would you do that?

Because journalists go into a full scale panic when they are confronted with the notion that the world will only have 21 million currency units.  The way many of these journalism professionals got into journalism class in college is that first they flunked math class.  

[cypherdoc]

given the inflated money supply we have experienced over the last 5 yrs, i'm sad to say that "a million" is considered chump change nowadays.

if you have a "quadrillion" now that's saying something.

[dree12]

The precision will have to be moved someday, since 2.1 quadrillion is not that much when you consider the world population. So a more accurate response would be "unlimited units"? I think not.

[zoinky]

Theres 21 million bitcoin, 2.1 quadrillion satoshis.  Thats the way to word it, in the future I don't think people will be saying Satoshi instead of Bitcoin when referring to 1.0 units of Bitcoin, so probably not the best idea to cause confusion now.

[Pente]

I already do that, tell people that there are 2.1 quadrillion satoshi, about 300,000 per person worldwide.

[gollum]

Satoshi made two mistakes IMHO:
1) The limit should have been 21 billions instead of 21 millions, with less decimals instead. This has a huge psychological effect since it means each humans have the potential to own 3 coins.
2) The inflation should have been set to 2% (same as gold) once the number reaches its limit of 21 million (or billion) coins. Inflation is needed since some coins will be hoarded for a very long time, and some coins will be lost due to data loss. A small inflation is also healthier than deflation for an economy since it encourages usage of the money instead of just hoarding. Even gold has inflation (the supply grows with 2% each year).