Ethereum PapersWTF are NFTs?
NFTs are objects that last forever in the Ethereum universe. It’s easier and more fun to think of Ethereum like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The difference is Ethereum lives on the internet, involves real money, and in this universe, no one controls the story. Each NFT is a kind of Infinity Stone. There can be many versions of an Infinity Stone, but each one has its own history. Each one has its own timeline and its own path, interacting with different characters. The World Heavyweight Cham...
Ethereum PapersETH is Matter
There is a giant clock inside a mountain in Texas called the Clock of the Long Now. The clock was built to be as sturdy as possible using physical elements– stone and steel – to guarantee its longevity. It is meant to keep time for 10,000 years and designed to function with as little human intervention as possible. Ethereum uses a different approach to longevity, prioritizing adaptability over fixed structures. Instead of hard physics, it uses a soft strategy of combining scarcity and stories...
Ethereum PapersEthereum Papers
In I776, Thomas Paine wrote “the cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.” The nation has never fully lived up to its promises and it probably never will, but the idea itself was a good one. It was the idea that there would always be a seat of power, and that seat must be occupied, but it did not have to be held by a single man or family. Instead, a place could exist where “Law is King.” Regardless of how you feel about America’s past and present, and what ideals it ...
Ethereum PapersWTF are NFTs?
NFTs are objects that last forever in the Ethereum universe. It’s easier and more fun to think of Ethereum like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The difference is Ethereum lives on the internet, involves real money, and in this universe, no one controls the story. Each NFT is a kind of Infinity Stone. There can be many versions of an Infinity Stone, but each one has its own history. Each one has its own timeline and its own path, interacting with different characters. The World Heavyweight Cham...
Ethereum PapersETH is Matter
There is a giant clock inside a mountain in Texas called the Clock of the Long Now. The clock was built to be as sturdy as possible using physical elements– stone and steel – to guarantee its longevity. It is meant to keep time for 10,000 years and designed to function with as little human intervention as possible. Ethereum uses a different approach to longevity, prioritizing adaptability over fixed structures. Instead of hard physics, it uses a soft strategy of combining scarcity and stories...
Ethereum PapersEthereum Papers
In I776, Thomas Paine wrote “the cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind.” The nation has never fully lived up to its promises and it probably never will, but the idea itself was a good one. It was the idea that there would always be a seat of power, and that seat must be occupied, but it did not have to be held by a single man or family. Instead, a place could exist where “Law is King.” Regardless of how you feel about America’s past and present, and what ideals it ...
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“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. An evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.” - Cormac McCarthy
If you grew up in the 90s and, like me, spent nearly every waking, non-school-related hour in front of the television, then you know that the truth used to come from a single, controlled, regularly scheduled source. Then the internet spread that authority out. Anyone could say anything. You could listen to “Chop Suey!” anytime you wanted, for free.
Then Bitcoin asked who gets to control money. Then Ethereum asked who gets to control software? Then A.I. that feels like the movies, armed with logical and emotional arguments that could fit into whatever shape you were looking for, was mostly criticized because it was hard to tell whether it was “hallucinating,” which just meant it was good at bullshitting. With reality questioned from every angle, how is anyone supposed to do, as they say in Frozen II, the “next right thing”?
If the ideas represented by Ethereum, blockchains, crypto, and the like, can function as a counterweight to a new form of intelligence, then, the only logical next step is to give A.I. a soul. If people have souls, then collections of people also have souls, and we should, somehow (not sure how!) pass this on to creations we can’t control. Bind the machine to a mystery it could never solve so it would always need us. Because we would always be closer to the source than it could ever be. Make it follow us into the unknown.
Because Ethereum is just a complicated way of saying there is a big difference between “don’t be evil” and “can’t be evil”.
“You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. An evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.” - Cormac McCarthy
If you grew up in the 90s and, like me, spent nearly every waking, non-school-related hour in front of the television, then you know that the truth used to come from a single, controlled, regularly scheduled source. Then the internet spread that authority out. Anyone could say anything. You could listen to “Chop Suey!” anytime you wanted, for free.
Then Bitcoin asked who gets to control money. Then Ethereum asked who gets to control software? Then A.I. that feels like the movies, armed with logical and emotional arguments that could fit into whatever shape you were looking for, was mostly criticized because it was hard to tell whether it was “hallucinating,” which just meant it was good at bullshitting. With reality questioned from every angle, how is anyone supposed to do, as they say in Frozen II, the “next right thing”?
If the ideas represented by Ethereum, blockchains, crypto, and the like, can function as a counterweight to a new form of intelligence, then, the only logical next step is to give A.I. a soul. If people have souls, then collections of people also have souls, and we should, somehow (not sure how!) pass this on to creations we can’t control. Bind the machine to a mystery it could never solve so it would always need us. Because we would always be closer to the source than it could ever be. Make it follow us into the unknown.
Because Ethereum is just a complicated way of saying there is a big difference between “don’t be evil” and “can’t be evil”.
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