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3882
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Other / Off-topic / Re: Wow. This isn't real.
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on: January 15, 2011, 03:42:52 AM
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This is creepy.
The singer belong in an anime or manga, not in real life! At the very least use a more realistic art style.
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3884
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Economy / Economics / Re: Walter Block
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on: January 14, 2011, 07:29:46 PM
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The proposed solutions have failed to offer the flexibility of hard currency (durability, recognition and portability, in the OP's parlance). Unfortunately, this is what most people require of "money" and the inability of bitcoin to match this standard remains a serious problem.
All of which are not insurmountable problem in today's economy. Banknotes are already not making sense in the age of truly ubiquitous computing, when everybody have a smartphone. In Japan, this future is already achieved as it is already possible to purchase drinks from vending machine using a smartphone. This will become more common place in the long run. Bitcoin is already infinitely more more portable than cash in international trade since the bitcoin economy is already an international economy. The durability of bitcoin is based on backup. This can be easily achieved by merely uploading your wallet.dat to various online services. Recognition is based on adoption rate. which depend on us growing. All in all, paper currency will disappear based on technological evolution and more resources spent on making bitcoin easy to use. |
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3885
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Economy / Economics / Re: Did the cryptography revolution begin too late?
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on: January 14, 2011, 05:37:27 PM
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What I see here are several people who imagine themselves as lords over their own private domains who can exist completely independently of others. What utter nonsense. The limiting case of these kinds of hallucinations is a situation where everyone is in a race to the bottom to abandon the very qualities that make them human. It doesn't take much thinking to anticipate what a world based on values of absolute greed and selfishness would be. At the end of the day, incentive matters. Greed, selfishness, and altruism and all that are second fiddle to economics. Thankfully, normal humans understand that we require cooperative efforts to survive and improve our condition.
Any educated libertarian understood that cooperation is the pillar of economic progress because they understood the principle of comparative advantage and division of labor. Sure, democracy isn't perfect. It just happens to be far better than anything else we know of. Compromises are obviously required. The question we should be asking is: do we wish to make our lives better individually at the expense of others.
Democracy make life worse for the minority, and better for the majority. There's no cooperation, but the iron fist of the majority. In any case, democracy have no built in protection against the election of tyrants, idiots and so on. If they can elect Napoleon and Hitler, what's there to prevent the election of a tyrant even worse than the two of them? or do we try to take the concepts of solidarity and basic human decency seriously? What kind of world do we wish to live in? To see our children live in?
You may all go back to your regularly scheduled Ayn Rand readings. Good day.
Had anybody ever tried to act against basic human decency, defraud anybody, and so on? I assure you that's only the minority of posters here. If they are identified, they are either banned or ostracized. I would also dare to argue that this community is in solidarity with one another. We also have no qualm about donating to others, helping others, and making act of altruism. Libertarians are individualists, not anti-altruists. |
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3886
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Is Satoshi Alive? Thread
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on: January 14, 2011, 04:39:47 PM
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Why do you think Satoshi is a male, not a girl? You don't have any evidence! You must have some precontrived notion about gender roles, and assume that Satoshi must be a male because you think girls are not as good at programming or cryptography. I was simply using an artists public rendering, but I never used "he" or "she" in the bio, since I don't know.  And my artwork is of sub-par rendering! Give it time until I come up with something very good. |
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3887
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Bitcoin / Bitcoin Discussion / Re: Is Satoshi Alive? Thread
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on: January 14, 2011, 04:11:48 PM
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I am preparing a brief bio generated from what information I can find on the internet. I have included an artist's rendering of what Satoshi is believed to have looked like below:  WTF? That's my artwork! I think Satoshi is a male, not a girl. |
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3888
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Economy / Economics / Re: Walter Block
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on: January 14, 2011, 03:57:30 PM
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There will be a smartphone zerg rush. Once that happens, bank notes are unnecessary, only useful in a previous technological era.
Some people in Africa are already using phones as a way to pay workers, pay for stuff, etc. It already happened.
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3889
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Bitcoin / Project Development / Re: Promoting bitcoins to teenagers
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on: January 13, 2011, 10:32:17 PM
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... why would anyone buy porn? internet has too much of it everywhere for free
Convienence. Already very convenience to acquired 30 minutes long hardcore pornography. They might be willing to pay for live sex, though. |
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3891
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Economy / Economics / Re: Did the cryptography revolution begin too late?
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on: January 13, 2011, 10:10:33 PM
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Democracy is great in theory, but I care only about the practice. A democracy requires much work on the part of the electorate to maintain itself. Inevitablly the electorate becomes distracted by their own lives, and leaves such things to people who are more interested in the political process than themselves, which leads to the consolidation of power by fiat, corruption or simple neglect. It happens every time. A republic isn't better in this regard, but they are more sustainable because the process of representative governance slows down the processes that lead to rot. Thomas Jefferson, himself, expressed doubt that a generation could impose a social contract on those that followed, but also doubted that there was a better solution. The root problem with democracy is the human component.
The theory is wrong if the practice is wrong. The map is not the territory. The map must be fixed. Therefore the theory must be rejected as it is not in agreement with reality. I would also conclude that a republic also have the same failing of a democracy. I defer to creighto's analysis of electorate incentive and behavior to make my argument. |
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3894
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Economy / Economics / Re: Did the cryptography revolution begin too late?
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on: January 13, 2011, 09:12:36 PM
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Bitcoin is an idea that originated from cypherpunk context, and by extension, libertarianism. Bitcoin does not dismantle the accumulation of wealth, nor does it democratize money. Inequality is inherent in bitcoin.
I hesitate entering into discussions where terms like "libertarianism" start getting thrown around. At least in the US, the term has been reclaimed by far right-wing elements and is associated with the myth of the rugged individual that lives on the frontier and can survive all alone. If you look at what the cypherpunks actually wrote, they were anarchists with strong socialist undercurrents. Well geez, you must have your head into the ground with regard to the current community. This is mostly a libertarian forum with a significant number of us are anarchists. I would think that the support of democracy or equality is taboo around here. |
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3895
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Economy / Economics / Re: Did the cryptography revolution begin too late?
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on: January 13, 2011, 07:46:47 PM
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Your last sentence articulates well the contempt for democracy inculcated by western "liberals" education. This thinking leads to centralization of power and capital, which are exactly what frameworks like bitcoin are designed to dismantle.
Bitcoin is an idea that originated from cypherpunk context, and by extension, libertarianism. Bitcoin does not dismantle the accumulation of wealth, nor does it democratize money. Inequality is inherent in bitcoin. Yet, everybody have the freedom to accept or deny bitcoin. |
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3899
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Economy / Economics / Re: Should money have intrisic value ?
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on: January 12, 2011, 08:34:35 AM
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People, please, stop spreading misinformation! There's no such thing as intrinsic value, this is a fallacy. A fallacy on which Marxism is based, by the way!
But we don't believe in the intrinsic theory of value! Intrinsic value have place in our subjective theory of value! It simply mean utility other than monetary utility. Get it? |
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