In the story, the protagonist is an underemployed mathematician who resides in the house of his brother's family in Chicago. The brother, owner of an advertising agency, has won a large contract to create ads for "Simoleons," a form of non-governmental electronic "currency." To launch the product, they plan to give away 27 million Simoleons to the winners of a contest. The contest is based on the long-used format of "guess the number of jelly beans in the container," with Chicago's Soldier Field and 26 other football stadiums being the containers.
"The Great Simoleon Caper" is a short story by Neal Stephenson that appeared in TIME Domestic SPECIAL ISSUE, Spring 1995 Volume 145, No. 12 (March 1, 1995). It deals with concepts familiar to Stephenson's fans: encryption, digital currency and distributed republics. It appears to be set in a United States that precedes the events in Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, using an early version of his Metaverse.
Description:
In the story, the protagonist is an underemployed mathematician who resides in the house of his brother's family in Chicago. The brother, owner of an advertising agency, has won a large contract to create ads for "Simoleons," a form of non-governmental electronic "currency." To launch the product, they plan to give away 27 million Simoleons to the winners of a contest. The contest is based on the long-used format of "guess the number of jelly beans in the container," with Chicago's Soldier Field and 26 other football stadiums being the containers. "The Great Simoleon Caper" is a short story by Neal Stephenson that appeared in TIME Domestic SPECIAL ISSUE, Spring 1995 Volume 145, No. 12 (March 1, 1995). It deals with concepts familiar to Stephenson's fans: encryption, digital currency and distributed republics. It appears to be set in a United States that precedes the events in Stephenson's novel Snow Crash, using an early version of his Metaverse.