Introduction Science fiction is not a genre of people writing about technology. It’s a genre of people writing about human excesses in relation to technology. It’s about vanity, laziness, extremism, badly-placed optimism, and shattered utopian dreams.
My biggest hope and point in support of crypto is the ability for experimentation, rapid failure and embodying the essence of Schumpeters creative destruction.
Yes, we re-learn basic leasons of history (with people suffering in the process), but the fact that we created a mirror image of our financial and social systems in a new dress, that possesses all our very human problems, allows for unprecedented experimentation in modern times in an real environment.
We can't try new ideas for economic, financial, societal systems outside of catastrophic failures, which are basically nation states failing resolving with great human suffering. But on the other hand, if we use thought experiments and models, we run into a wall of problems. Basically these system and their internal interactions are soooo complex that we can't model and simulate it properly. So we turn to simplification and assumptions that a) reduce the acuity and b) don't account for phenomenons like emergence and c) ignore the problem that reflexivity to use a very simple anology creates an ever changing system.
As a student of macroeconomics, my field has a great number of failing concepts and models and is in dire need of new approaches. I truly believe that crypto with all of it failures is the perfect proving ground to try out theories that have been shelved for centuries and in a weird ironic curveball of history might very well be for the good of society after all.
Life is a humbling experience, but it gets more interesting, though no less challenging, once you realize that "utopia" is a human construct which has nothing to do with reality (whatever that is). I'm still searching for the perfect cappuccino.
I think you need to really compartmentalize Bitcoin vs the rest of the "crypto" industry. Maybe give "The Bitcoin Standard" a read? https://www.saifedean.com/books/the-bitcoin-standard
My biggest hope and point in support of crypto is the ability for experimentation, rapid failure and embodying the essence of Schumpeters creative destruction.
Yes, we re-learn basic leasons of history (with people suffering in the process), but the fact that we created a mirror image of our financial and social systems in a new dress, that possesses all our very human problems, allows for unprecedented experimentation in modern times in an real environment.
We can't try new ideas for economic, financial, societal systems outside of catastrophic failures, which are basically nation states failing resolving with great human suffering. But on the other hand, if we use thought experiments and models, we run into a wall of problems. Basically these system and their internal interactions are soooo complex that we can't model and simulate it properly. So we turn to simplification and assumptions that a) reduce the acuity and b) don't account for phenomenons like emergence and c) ignore the problem that reflexivity to use a very simple anology creates an ever changing system.
As a student of macroeconomics, my field has a great number of failing concepts and models and is in dire need of new approaches. I truly believe that crypto with all of it failures is the perfect proving ground to try out theories that have been shelved for centuries and in a weird ironic curveball of history might very well be for the good of society after all.
What a marvelously insightful article, Justin. Thank you!
I think it's important to differentiate what is widely viewed as "crypto" and the protocols underlying these digital assets.
Here are a couple tweet threads that illustrate the difference:
https://twitter.com/hosseeb/status/1590945514903965696?s=20&t=kr1kJqwmuf26d46gkef_DQ
https://twitter.com/amitchax/status/1591454907365588992?s=20&t=kr1kJqwmuf26d46gkef_DQ
I hope to see you continue your journey towards truth in the crypto space and why we're still optimistic about its future.
Highly recommend this read as well: https://www.notboring.co/p/decentralization#%C2%A7the-upward-sloping-sine-wave
Appreciate the feedback, I'm going to read these.
Packy is one of very few people who has made crypto sound reasonable to me, he's definitely worth the time.
Very thoughtful article with some great points.
Life is a humbling experience, but it gets more interesting, though no less challenging, once you realize that "utopia" is a human construct which has nothing to do with reality (whatever that is). I'm still searching for the perfect cappuccino.