Bitcoin Forum

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

But other people can make better beer than I can.

What's a guy to do?

And I got it, how you explained that man could be set free from men.

But we ain't gonna get set free from women.

Its not just bitcoin, but the entire p2p economy, as the most important driver of techno-social progress in the modern age. Check out the p2p foundation blog (http://blog.p2pfoundation.net).

Decentralization is the way to the future! I believe there will be more and more project based on p2p technology.

Maybe we should be free to choose hermitage. But I don't think it should be required! I'm picturing everyone free from each other, and then doing the minimum of interacting, always suspicious of threats to their freedom to be "free". Free shouldn't be a synonym for a kind of apartheid where we rely only on ourselves, I just want a wider range of choice, fewer restrictions and obligations and regulations and stipulations and authorities and enforcements...

That's what I am saying.

In that case, in a civilized society I am free to disagree with you 100%.  If we are civilized we are good at interaction with the public and value politeness and public duty over privacy and small-self behaviours.  If civilization is solipsism, then why are you bothering to post here?     

If that is correct, civilization is going in reverse gear right now as people are not only monitored more than ever but are actively enabling their trackers via mobile devices and social websites.  People seem to miss the public existence that being in small communities like tribes offered.

'Setting man free from men' implies 'setting every man free from any mans power'.

Mens power, even in a private society, is not guaranteed to be equal among the people.
Therefore some people will not be free from other peoples power, even in a private world.
Maybe they could be free from a legitimate power, but not from power.

You could say one maybe deserves his power, in a private society.
But, deserving power means there is either an objective or subjective scale to measure when someone does.
If it's subjective, a man or a group of man has the power to decide. Therefore we are all ruled from this ideas, and we are not free.
If it's objective, maybe not everybody considers it objective. This is enough to have at least one person that is experiencing being subject to someone elses power (this could be, for istance, me).
And this is enough to say a society of privacy is not enough to set man free from men.
Also, if bitcoin was private, it wont be worth a dollar right now.