Feels like I am screaming "get off the beach" before a tsunami but no one cares

[phillipsjk]

interesting thing to me is that people with higher IQ tend to be more cynical/depressed. if you're so absolutely smart, then why do you choose to make yourself miserable?

My theory is that depression is actually the rational response to the world we live in. Which is not good because left untreated, it can be deadly. Your mistake is assuming that depression is a choice people make. Depression causes chemical changes in the body (mainly involving Serotonin) that makes you feel like not doing anything.

[Nathonas]

Yep, people do not like change.

Back in 1995 my friend bought a cell phone.
I thought he looked like a total jackass
with that thing.  "Why the heck would
you need a phone on your belt?  Are
you showing off?  What are you trying
to prove?"  Those were my thoughts
at the time.

Excellent analogy. Most people do not see either the revolutionary aspects of new technology, or the blatant problems of existing systems. They just sort of enter the world, and accept that "this is the way things are" and just roll with it. Then once that new technology becomes popular enough they all grab it and act like they weren't just ignoring it (or even criticizing it) a week ago.

[beetcoin]

interesting thing to me is that people with higher IQ tend to be more cynical/depressed. if you're so absolutely smart, then why do you choose to make yourself miserable?

My theory is that depression is actually the rational response to the world we live in. Which is not good because left untreated, it can be deadly. Your mistake is assuming that depression is a choice people make. Depression causes chemical changes in the body (mainly involving Serotonin) that makes you feel like not doing anything.

there is more than one type of depression. some people are physiologically disposed to being depressed, others are depressed because they bring it upon themselves. you can't blame all depression on genetics.

[jonald_fyookball]

interesting thing to me is that people with higher IQ tend to be more cynical/depressed. if you're so absolutely smart, then why do you choose to make yourself miserable?

My theory is that depression is actually the rational response to the world we live in. Which is not good because left untreated, it can be deadly. Your mistake is assuming that depression is a choice people make. Depression causes chemical changes in the body (mainly involving Serotonin) that makes you feel like not doing anything.

there is more than one type of depression. some people are physiologically disposed to being depressed, others are depressed because they bring it upon themselves. you can't blame all depression on genetics.

Some people are depressed because they left too many coins in mtgox.

[beetcoin]

interesting thing to me is that people with higher IQ tend to be more cynical/depressed. if you're so absolutely smart, then why do you choose to make yourself miserable?

My theory is that depression is actually the rational response to the world we live in. Which is not good because left untreated, it can be deadly. Your mistake is assuming that depression is a choice people make. Depression causes chemical changes in the body (mainly involving Serotonin) that makes you feel like not doing anything.

there is more than one type of depression. some people are physiologically disposed to being depressed, others are depressed because they bring it upon themselves. you can't blame all depression on genetics.

Some people are depressed because they left too many coins in mtgox.

while i kinda do feel bad for those people, they knew better than to mess with mtgox. anybody and everybody who was informed knew mtgox had some seedy shit going down.

[Faince1985]

People have already made a mistake of not taking it until now, mostly these people prefer to follow the regualr patterns and won't take it until it's globally accepted (the point we are moving toward). You might have convinced one though so keep the effort,.

[SomethingElse]

I haven't been able to convince anybody.  I feel like the first person who bought and iphone and people are like, "you paid $1000 for that!" 

[crazy_rabbit]

I'm not sure how the perils of a cashless society are all that more dangerous then the perils of a cash society though. We've had to deal with getting mugged, robbed, etc... for centuries and we've figured out ways to cope with that, didn't me? At least my credit card doesn't get stolen online at gunpoint.....

[zeetubes]

there is more than one type of depression. some people are physiologically disposed to being depressed, others are depressed because they bring it upon themselves. you can't blame all depression on genetics.
[/quote]

If you're depressed, try a zero carb diet for a week. Basically just eat meat for every meal. After four days all of the existing sugars and carbs will have left your system and your blood sugars will stabilize. The diet sucks but it's worth it just to know what life should be like.

[serenitys]

I am with the thumbs down crowd. I WOULD NOT WANT A CASHLESS SOCIETY.

Everything from an extended, major power and/or internet outage to privacy concerns scare me.

Hell, recently I lost my ATM and had to call the bank. I sat there with the banker and she told me which Starbucks I stopped at on the way to work. Where I had lunch, stopped for gas and which grocery store I stopped at on the way home, etc.

I certainly am not infatuated with bitcoin, like some, where I want to see it take over. It is an good alternative, but hell no.

You tell me why you want a cashless society?

I think the problem lies in semantics.

I remember back in the mid 90s when there were a ton of "zomg! the illuminati is going to implant us all and make us use a one world currency in a cashless society so they control whether you eat or not!" conspiracy predictions...and of course, nobody who is sane would want that and nobody would comply with that.

Please keep in mind just how challenging it is to force people to do something, and it's even harder to get them to voluntarily do it.

But today, we're pretty much a cashless society - in the respect that hardly anyone carries cash anymore. It's all debit/credit cards and gift cards.

Also keep in mind that there are only a few hundred thousand politicians and "leaders" world wide and no matter what they pull out of their asses, from policy to law to threats and ultimatums, they do not have anywhere near the combined manpower to enforce a global initiative, even with the threat of military power, to force 7 billion people to do anything that 7 billion people don't want to do.

I've seen a lot of warped posts and comments since learning more about bitcoin that make claims about bitcoin being invented by the NSA or the illuminati or the elite bankers or the world governments as a way to issue in its one world currency to enslave us...and these things are absurd.

I'm nowhere near as tech savvy as whoever created bitcoin but I've learned enough to confidently conclude that while some elitists band of governments or bankers may want a global currency, bitcoin is clearly and undeniably NOT IT. Bitcoin undermines everything they're about so I can't see them creating their own undoing on purpose.

If the world adopted bitcoin, exchanged fiat for btc and then stored it offline in wallets, and became the norm, the street muggings would probably go the way of bank robberies as it's too much effort for probably zero gain as nobody's carting wallets around anymore.

Being able to move money around without having physical holdings isn't a bad thing. Cashless, in the context of strictly digital currency is also not a bad thing...and it forces people to take full responsibility for their own financial security...and it's long since passed time for the planet of masters of the universe to grow the fuck up already and stop acting like children waiting for someone bigger to tell them how to think.


That leaves offline transactions. As long as there is power, people can trade offline as easily as online.

That leaves a power-less world....and if that happens, something catastrophic went down and bitcoin, fiat and credit cards would all be replaced with another form of currency - water, food, ammo, medical supplies, booze, cigarettes, etc.

[hua_hui]

People are scared of change and things they don't understand.   

Absolutely! I think many people heard about Bitcoin. But they would rather to accept the downside of it. They are still sceptical of it and doubt all what it is claimed to be. Once bad news come out, they think BTC is nothing and it is wise not to touch it.

[Ron~Popeil]

there is more than one type of depression. some people are physiologically disposed to being depressed, others are depressed because they bring it upon themselves. you can't blame all depression on genetics.

If you're depressed, try a zero carb diet for a week. Basically just eat meat for every meal. After four days all of the existing sugars and carbs will have left your system and your blood sugars will stabilize. The diet sucks but it's worth it just to know what life should be like.
[/quote]

Try that but add a daily tablespoon of coconut oil. It literally freed my brother from years of depression and anxiety disorders.

[aeternum.in]

I am with the thumbs down crowd. I WOULD NOT WANT A CASHLESS SOCIETY.

Everything from an extended, major power and/or internet outage to privacy concerns scare me.

Hell, recently I lost my ATM and had to call the bank. I sat there with the banker and she told me which Starbucks I stopped at on the way to work. Where I had lunch, stopped for gas and which grocery store I stopped at on the way home, etc.

I certainly am not infatuated with bitcoin, like some, where I want to see it take over. It is an good alternative, but hell no.

You tell me why you want a cashless society?

It's cheaper, easier, more reliable to be honest. Unless you have anything beyond a weeks worth of wealth in cash, being a cash society is expensive. You have to pay the bank significant amounts of money to protect your money, to have your money made, to have it taken out of circulation, to not lose it, etc...

In capetown for example, you go into the ghettos and everyone who has any money, has a debit card. No one who has any money dares carry it, because it's simply too dangerous. With debit cards they can conduct their lives like normal without the fear of being robbed point blank and losing all their earning. Lots of places in the world are like this.

Part of the fear of a cashless society I think comes from the implicit expectation that it's going to be a cashless, CENTRALIZED society. Which  is a bad thing, yes. Thats why we are building bitcoin, so it's decentralized.

Cash will never go away- you will always be able to pay someone right here right now with SOMETHING they consider of value if you have that thing. So I wouldn't worry about your ATM failure, no power, etc... During the war Cigarets and other commodities were items of value. That sort of society will never go away. On the other hand, massive power outages, war, etc.. in places like downtown manhattan imply the the failure of the infrastructure that supports the cashless society. Simply put- if these sorts of scenarios come to pass, you've got MUCH bigger problems on your hands then getting cash. Indeed I would probably argue that in the last resort scenarios: Plague, Zombies, Nuclear war, cash is probably going to be pretty worthless as well. Humans are pretty smart about figuring out what has value at the exact moment they accept something as payment for something else. Trust me: if some nasty plague is sweeping manhattan, zombies, or aliens and there's no power or ATMS or internet, you are going to be paying for things with bottled water, kindness and candybars, not Fiat and Bitcoin.

[crunchynut]

Yep, people do not like change.

Back in 1995 my friend bought a cell phone.
I thought he looked like a total jackass
with that thing.  "Why the heck would
you need a phone on your belt?  Are
you showing off?  What are you trying
to prove?"  Those were my thoughts
at the time.

LOL! Just reminds me of when I got my first tamagotchi from my parents back in the 90s. And all my friends were like "wtf. who needs that?" and I was like "lol, tamagotchi is the future! tamagotchi to the moon!" I even showed them a completely unrelated picture of a bell curve but they couldn't make the connection because there was none.

And now, who was right? Some people just don't want to be part of the future.

[HCLivess]

A hurt-ego guy comes, creates a completely pointless threat which quickly turns off topic.

Is this really interesting? I don't think so.

[Beliathon]

interesting thing to me is that people with higher IQ tend to be more cynical/depressed. if you're so absolutely smart, then why do you choose to make yourself miserable?

Imagine for a moment you wake up from a pleasant dream, only to find yourself in a nightmare world of ignorance, fear, and global mismanagement of resources. No, that's not right.. hang on let me start again.

Imagine you are a member of a human tribe, in pre-history. Your tribe has gone to sleep together around the campfire, as you do each night. You awake to the sound of rustling bushes. You look around.
You are the only one awake. You notice the fire at the center of your camp has died down to a simmer. You hear another noise and look over your shoulder. You spot the eyes.

You know those eyes, that unmistakable color. Those eyes mean hunger, they mean pain and death for your people. Wolves, through the trees. You desperately try to shake your friends and loved ones, slap them in the face, pour water over them - nothing works. Still they sleep. They wolves draw near, and you begin to panic. But you must remain calm, you must be resolute - your survival and theirs depends on it.

That's more or less what it can sometimes feel like being a person of exceptional intelligence in 2014.

As ignorance is bliss, so knowledge is suffering.

I suffer because I see what most do not. I suffer because I cannot make them see, despite all my brilliance I cannot undo a lifetime of nation-state indoctrination.

Intelligence is more a curse than a blessing, because those with it are forced to WATCH humanity's cyclic self-destruction. Now you know.

[crunchynut]

rule #55: you don't go to the internet and tell others how much above average intelligent you think you are. it makes you look stupid and people automatically assume that you're an ugly loner.

topic can be closed.

[lihuajkl]

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.  People really don't like change so anything new does not seem important to them.  But I often feel like I telling so many people around me about Bitcoin and how they really should buy just a little or at least read about it and look into and and almost everyone ignores me.

and that is also the reason why you can't give out presents later. Wait for the envy. Better don't tell people who much exactly you are holding. Most people are scum and loosers. I also told many people to look into it. All i get is cold shoulder and envy later so fuck them.

You are not God and can't tell people what should do! No need to  care about ignorant people or even fall into depression which is stupid. If they donot listen, just let them go. You have done what is necessary. You should run to the hill quickly. I think more and more people will be aware of approaching tsunami. They will follow your step.

[Lethn]

Money and banking in the U.S is as much of a religion as Christianity, of course people are going to attack something like Bitcoin because it basically flies in the face of everything people like that believe in, I consider this era our financial renaissance now and just like with the people there who believed in mathematics we also are going to get persecuted for explaining something that is blatantly obvious to anyone who will willingly pay attention.

You hit the nail on the head. Capitalism is a Cult, economics is the very robust and widely-accepted pseudo-science which supports it.

Bitcoin adoption is fear of the unknown vs. greed. Greed wins in the end, the only question is how long will it take?

I think you misunderstood me, I don't think Capitalism is a cult, I think Capitalism is just a system of economic governance, when it comes to the federal reserve though and paper money that is a cult because it relies on the fanaticism of its supporters in order to survive. Bitcoin is what a currency within Capitalism should be, a medium of exchange between two consenting parties, what the federal reserve bankers have done is turn it into a religion where they a cut of anything that goes on in their country.

[sclaggett]

I haven't been able to convince anybody.  I feel like the first person who bought and iphone and people are like, "you paid $1000 for that!"

In this reference the difference between an early adopter paying $$$ for an iPhone in the early days and trying to get someone to buy bitcoins today is the phone was a tangible product purchase.  The masses have a hard time seeing value in Bitcoin and what they get for it outside of the FUD around it.  Consumers are moving digitally as the original article stated but why use Bitcoin - My Credit Card works fine.