It's just like representing debt with marks scribbled on a totem instead of a generic vague feeling of owing you something, or like movable types on the printin

It's just like representing debt with marks scribbled on a totem instead of a generic vague feeling of owing you something, or like movable types on the printing press. We could do without those, they were novelties at their time, but they happened to change society at a fundamental level when their substained use changed relationships built around the new tech.