Bitcoin's Dystopian Future

[Beliathon]

Well thought and well-written, OP. But you missed one important thing. All those governments and people you claim will be our enemies in the future? They won't be. Governments will capitulate sooner or later.

Because by the time we're all millionaires, every single one of those people -governments included - will have melted down their fiat for crypto. Nearly everyone will be on board.

[1715162380]

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[conspirosphere.tk]

by the time we're all millionaires, every single one of those people -governments included - will have melted down their fiat for crypto. Nearly everyone will be on board.

(unless they opt to take our crypto-toy forcefully). Yes they supposedly can't, but they could try anyway -and knowing the subjects they will. So I would advise to stay mum about your crypto-riches even with your inner circle and have the passport ready to get out of Dodge in no time instead of flashing Lambos when the time will come. Better yet would be to anticipate them moving first to a safer place.

[RomertL]

Like many technologies, Bitcoin can and will be used for good and bad. When fire was "discovered" it was used to cook and to burn down villages. Etc etc. As with any major change in society there will be winners and loosers, lots of people lost their jobs in the industrial revolution, but today I don't hear many people saying they regret it happened. As I see banks and governments crumble and fall or adapt to a new, more liberal society i will have a big smile on my face. This is not Dystopia for me, far from it!  But then again, maybe I'm part of that libertarian fringe -movement...

[TaunSew]

85 people on this planet have more wealth than 3.5 billion people.

Not that Bitcoin's distribution is any better but I suspect it has better distribution than the real world distribution of $Fiat and other assets.

[cccarnation]

Sounded great, until I got to "The Bleak Future of Law Enforcement". You sound like all of these problems are all of the sudden going to appear or get worse because of bitcoin (or whatever distributed currency comes about).

[TaunSew]

Sounded great, until I got to "The Bleak Future of Law Enforcement". You sound like all of these problems are all of the sudden going to appear or get worse because of bitcoin (or whatever distributed currency comes about).

His prediction already did happen in real life and nothing came out of it.  Oligarchs in Eastern Europe, where the Soviet Rouble was immensely devalued or the new currencies devalued, had no problems in hiring armies of bodyguards (armed with bullet-proof vests and assault rifles) to protect them (and all sorts of crime and trafficking did flourish).

Mind you a lot of people were reduced to eating dog food in the early 1990s in the eastern bloc, I don't know how it gets anymore dystopian than that.

[cccarnation]

The problem is "illegal things" have always existed, and people have always found a way to get what they are looking for, illegal or not. This is no different than cash, which is used every day for numerous illegal activities.

[cccarnation]

As for tor, an enourmous tool for freedom of speech is unfortunately used to transmit "illegal activity", the same as cash and/or bitcoin or any other medium of exchange is used for an "illegal activity".

[cccarnation]

Tor, the same as bitcoin, is just another tool, how people use the tools available to them says nothing about the tool, the tool did not choose to do something that was illegal.

[ripper234]

The future is drawing near.

[Beliathon]

Capitalism = violence. Nation-state = violence. Neither one of these can survive without systemic application of violence down a hierarchy.

An atmosphere of violence suffocates reason. Reason = peace. Abandon capitalism and the nation state, and your children can inherit a world of reason, rather than the world of violence and lies you grew up in.

The future is drawing near.

I like you. You'd like this.

[QuestionAuthority]

Capitalism = violence. Nation-state = violence. Neither one of these can survive without systemic application of violence down a hierarchy.

An atmosphere of violence suffocates reason. Reason = peace. Abandon capitalism and the nation state, and your children can inherit a world of reason, rather than the world of violence and lies you grew up in.

The future is drawing near.

I like you. You'd like this.

That video was so cool. Thanks for sharing. All we have to do is remove human nature from the equation and we can make that kind of world.

[ripper234]

Bitcoin's Utopian Future

[CoolBliss]

Your scenario relies on one flawed assumption. That we will just wake up tomorrow and all the sudden everyone is using bitcoins and the value of one bitcoin is not 10k or 100k or even a million but 10 million! That is lunacy to the extreme thus the rest of the dystopia is not based on any or even a small part of practical real reality.

[Rassah]

Capitalism = violence. Nation-state = violence. Neither one of these can survive without systemic application of violence down a hierarchy.

Nation-state centralizes violence. Capitalism decentralizes violence. When violence is centralized, everyone who has a propensity to violence will be drawn to the center, concentrating and increasing it. When violence is decentralized, concentrations of violence themselves attract counter-violence, forcing it to disperse, decentralize, and exist as much lower levels.

[justusranvier]

Nation-state centralizes violence. Capitalism decentralizes violence. When violence is centralized, everyone who has a propensity to violence will be drawn to the center, concentrating and increasing it. When violence is decentralized, concentrations of violence themselves attract counter-violence, forcing it to disperse, decentralize, and exist as much lower levels.

Violence is naturally unprofitable compared to cooperation, ceteris paribus.

There are two ways to profit from violence:

• Disable the victim's ability for self defence via a side channel. This includes disrupting access to the physical tools of self defence, and disrupting access to the mental tools via propaganda.
• Bribe a third party to do the work for the attacker. The rulers of a society rarely have to act directly, because they can rely on a hoard of sycophants who will attack other peasants who start asking why we need the rulers at all.

[cbeast]

Technology reduces our contact and dependency on the many people in our environs. How many of us even know our neighbors? This has the effect of stunting the mirror-neuron development. Because of this few people feel empathy towards the pain and suffering of others. This was an evolutionary development to bond social animals. It drives us to be fair and to not inflict unnecessary harm to others simply for material gain. It also drives us to help someone that seems to be suffering. But nowadays, this empathy seems to be lacking in many folks. Many studies have shown brain scans of people that lack mirror neuron development and they are highly correlated to socially conservative worldviews. I would love to see the brains scans of our elected officials.

As another misfortune of our technological advancement: we have financialized and professionalized the humanistic services of healthcare to the point where only a few people are so efficient with technologies that even they have little time to spend with suffering people. For example, where there was once a trained healer for every tribe, there are now only 13.9 doctors for every 10,000 people globally. They frequently become overwhelmed and detached. Our society lacks the social structure it once took to care for each other and teach each other the skills to help one another.

I suspect this is where the Non-Aggression Principle was born. There are people that experience cognitive dissonance between their own lack of empathy for the suffering of others and the philosophical impracticality of Machiavellian social engineering. They don't feel the physical pain and suffering of others, but they recognize the gift. They see the empathy of others as virtuous, but without the brain wiring to experience it themselves, they justify a cognitive approach to self behavior modification. This is admirable, but it also further detaches the person from actually developing their own mirror neurons. This can only be done through direct human contact where people are suffering. And a little suffering ourselves also helps in the development.

Will Bitcoin help to improve this vector of the Human Condition? Well, it certainly addresses the financialization issue of crony corporatism. It brings transparency to the greed and malfeasance that has destroyed Main Street financial ecosystems. Will it bring back the day when doctors make house calls? I hope so. Maybe someday humanity and empathy will be valued in our society and nobody will feel the need for unnecessary violence for material gain.

[justusranvier]

This has the effect of stunting the mirror-neuron development.

Mirror neuron development happens long before a baby is capable of using technology.

If a human being grows up without empathy it's because of a lack of parental attention and affection.

Many studies have shown brain scans of people that lack mirror neuron development and they are highly correlated to socially conservative worldviews.

That's because socially conservatives mostly likely come from religious backgrounds, and religion is child abuse.

[Catmoonglow]

Nice write up, but i think the whole "if you can't beat em, join em" mentality will overtake the general population at the tipping point, and political associations to money will dissolve.

[cbeast]

This has the effect of stunting the mirror-neuron development.

Mirror neuron development happens long before a baby is capable of using technology.

If a human being grows up without empathy it's because of a lack of parental attention and affection.

Many studies have shown brain scans of people that lack mirror neuron development and they are highly correlated to socially conservative worldviews.

That's because socially conservatives mostly likely come from religious backgrounds, and religion is child abuse.

Brains are developed as babies, yes. But we have the choice how we use them. We can choose to learn what and how to think. We can change our brain wiring, including the mirror neurons. We can choose to physically alter our brain mapping and functionality. We can choose to unlearn the abusive patterns of our parents. The NAP is a method of doing so, but the denial of altruism further isolates ones ability to develop empathy.