> To be clear, my question is: how is the knowledge necessary for such operations preserved? I'm a programmer. I learned it from the internet. Where do they learn? And these aren't street dealers. It's an organized, carefully designed, well-oiled machine. How does this machine work? How does it survive the loss of so many members?
This is what anthropologists call an "oral culture". You have to be told it verbally, because those involved are strongly deterred from writing it down. For the deeper secrets you probably have to be part of the right family.
In the rougher neighborhoods you'll find plenty of people who know how the system works, if only so they know what and who to avoid getting caught up in it.
(The interesting thing about the internet is how we've developed an "oral" culture that actually does get written down, because we do so much socializing through text! IRC channels and the like.)
This is what anthropologists call an "oral culture". You have to be told it verbally, because those involved are strongly deterred from writing it down. For the deeper secrets you probably have to be part of the right family.
In the rougher neighborhoods you'll find plenty of people who know how the system works, if only so they know what and who to avoid getting caught up in it.
(The interesting thing about the internet is how we've developed an "oral" culture that actually does get written down, because we do so much socializing through text! IRC channels and the like.)