Technologists have long promised a future of abundance. Over the decades, many laid out a utopian concept where people have time, resources, and, basically, whatever they need.
No matter how optimistic one might be, reality is, thus far, all these forecasts failed. Humanity is not enjoying what was promised.
On the flip side is the dystopian view. This is echoed by people who yearn for the "good ole days". Few realize that life back them was not like the Norman Rockwell painting. That was a total fantasy.
Even compared to 40 years ago, the change has been enormous. Most overlook advancements in medicine, communications, and food production. We are actually as far from the dystopian view of things as we are the utopian.
In other words, we are somewhere in the middle.
This conversation is taking on an even greater level of importance. We are dealing with technology that far outpaces what we saw before. This means much disruption is in the cards. More importantly, we have transformative technologies which provide a greater level of impact.
If we are seeing this, how are we to protect against the dystopian future?
That is what we will attempt to answer in this article.
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Crypto: The Piece To Protect Against Technological Dystopia
There is no way to avoid a period of uncertainty. Society is about to change completely. We discussed some of the ways this will happen in previous articles.
At the top of the list is the fact the basis of our economy, capital and labor, is changing. The old paradigm will die quickly, something that society is not prepared for.
Naturally, this affects most facets of life.
Then we have the projected wealth generation. AI and robotics are certain to lead to a world of abundance. That said, when purchasing power is decreased by the elimination of jobs, consumption have to follow in the same direction. How do we balance this in a manner that deals with the loss of jobs yet pushes us into an abundant world?
My view is the answer resides in deflation. This is going to be massive. The masses do not realize what is coming; the number of industries where the money will be removed.
If we look at music, photography, and video, we see this in action. Over the next 10 years, this is going to spread. Just think about what happened in the last 2.5 years regarding information. Chatbots altered everything. Consider similar trajectories but with robots churning out physical items.
A Shift In Ownership
The goal was always to own the means of production. This is something that economic systems have wrestled with. Whether it is socialism, capitalism, or communism, it all boils down to who owns the means of production.
When it comes to crypto, we see how this radically can shift the present models. One thing that gets overlooked is how the digital world operates on a different level.
Looking at the list above, where do we find most of those items? Naturally, we are looking at social media. That is where people post images, videos, and audio content. Most of what we see is user generated and free.
Who owns it?
While we could argue over copyright laws, who really cares? It doesn't matter since the main beneficiary is the company that owns the social media platform. A video that is under the copyright protection for some broadcast network is still being shown on X, Facebook or YouTube. Those companies are making money by selling the advertising.
Hence, ownership is convoluted.
To the viewer, is this the focus? Personally, a dispute between YouTube and XYZ company is not my concern. If the video looks interesting, I will click on it and get the benefit of what it provides.
The core of this is the network. We are in a world of networks. The digital domain is rather obvious in this regard. However, this is quickly expanding to the physical.
Look at all the things with chips in them. That is connected to something. What we are dealing with is a physical realm that will become increasing more connected.
Thus, what network is something operating upon to is the crucial question.
Here is where everything gets upended. The wealth generation comes from the network, specifically what is built on top of it. From here, we are looking at, through tokenization, the ability to have stake in whatever value is created.
Unfortunately, most of society is unaware of this. The crypto world argues about which network will have the value. Some believe Bitcoin will take over everything. Others feel Vitalik and Ethereum are the future. Many lack that confidence, pointing to forks which they believe hold more promise.
Regardless of the particular network, people see the potential value. This contrasts with the Web 2.0 world where we have an assortment of Big Tech companies racing to be the winner.
During the period of transformation, crypto is going to be crucial. Things might change when we get to the other side, after society's economic foundation is altered.
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