The Looking Glass & The Sword
Global Society Is Facing A Painful Gaze Into An Honest Mirror...
Carl Sagan described the nature of our current reality with terrifying clarity of foresight. Sagan refers to two concerns in particular when looking forward from his [then] current place in time (now our past);
“First…who is running the science & technology, in a democracy of people who don’t know anything about it?
“The second… is that: science is more than a body of knowledge — it’s a way of thinking. A way of skeptically interrogating the universe. With a fine understanding of human fallibility.
“If we are not able to ask skeptical questions; to interrogate those who tell us that something is ‘true;’ to be skeptical of those of authority, then we’re up for grabs; for the next charlatan, political or religious, that comes ambling along.”
In a world where technology, thanks to advances in science, has enabled a population to have been coddled, distracted, and steered into a social tarpit of complacency and ignorance… modern society desperately needs a vessel and viewpoint of ‘the way out.’
Unfortunately what Sagan (and many others) have failed to acknowledge within this accurate type of assessment is how the nature of an economy’s money, and incentives built within, ultimately determine the economic activities and behaviors throughout.
For example; a society that is built atop a sound money standard behooves honesty and diligence within activities of the economic participants. When the currency that an ecosystem relies upon for exchange (whether that currency be ATP, joules, gold, or bitcoin) cannot be produced flippantly; as significant energy inputs are required to yield these currencies, then diligence is mandated; in order to assure as little unnecessary waste as possible. Assuring the greatest efficiency gains and returns on capital (and time) as possible.
When the currency does not require these practices of honesty & diligence, there are no consequences for waste, failure, or tomfoolery. If a child misbehaves, or an adult breaks the law, and there is no recourse that disincentivizes these behaviors being repeated in the future, then why would an intelligent actor change their ways? This produces a reality that not only lacks a punishment mechanism, but there is little/no cost of effort… providing zero barrier-to-entry for foolish activity AND no accountability for the failures that may be yielded from this activity.
If you’re playing monopoly, and you’re capable of simply taking as much play money from the bank as you desire, while all others attempt to play within the rules AND avoiding any recourse — why would you stop?
You wouldn’t, and nature would argue that you shouldn’t. Within nature, if an individual actor is blessed with an advantage (especially an out-of-balance advantage), they are inclined to take that opportunity and wield their advantage. And drive that advantage as far as their inhabited environment will allow. The ecosystem itself will either devise a check that brings balance to the system as a whole, or the system itself will crumble under its own failing(s) to manage itself effectively. Allowing for the opportunity of a replacement ecosystem to try and provide proper balance and progress that promotes life and intelligence in a manner that produces ever specializing participants.
What many very intelligent individuals fail to accept is that this very basic example plays out in modern society. The process is just extended out much farther on the timeline, due to significant obfuscation via bureaucracy and slight-of-hand thanks to politik and financial wordsmithing & manipulation (what I would call “economik”).
This is where bitcoin serves as a looking glass into the soul of a society and economy. With a technology that allows for truly honest economic dealing and activity, while also maintaining technological benefits of modern society, we have officially gained an economic constant; a true control group for which to gauge dealings of the fiat world against. Because, back to Sagan, ‘science is more than a body of knowledge — it’s a way of thinking.’
In order to effectively test hypotheses, control groups are necessary in order to confirm whether our assumptions are yielding true improvements/drawbacks; furthering our understanding of the world around us, regardless of the outcome.
It is by this justification (and necessity) that while bitcoin provides the looking-glass into the soul of our modern societies (global and local), bitcoin also serves as the sword that will tear down these towers of waste, perversion and rot that have been holding us back for over a century.
Contrary to the desires of much of the broader bitcoin community, and in my personal agreement with Jeff Booth, this process needs to be slow, methodical, and intentional — across every step of the road. Network transfers require an overlapping of systems; as one grows and replaces the incumbent. This particular network transfer will be the largest, and most impactful in human history, to-date; far greater than that of the internet. Yet, even with our taking measured steps, it will still occur at a rate faster than anything history has ever seen.
If you’ve been in bitcoin for a number of years, you’ve experienced how time flies in a matter of a month, yet so much occurs within that 30-day window the rest of the world would have seen years pass by for a comparable amount of progress and achievement.
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