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Top-level
 @alberto_cottica @adamgreenfield okay, not joking, I apologize for the annoying question, but - Do you have any >source< on KSR disavowing Blockchain? Apparently he says that a lot around the world, but he is never recorded / he never says it clearly in his writing. The Chain is just such a vital part of the book's plot, that I have no idea how it could work without it as a Magical Technology. 8 comments
 @alxd @adamgreenfield noo, nothing magical. It's just a slow database, and everything you can do with it you can do without it. The currency KSR imagined IMHO would work just as well with a regular secure database. Or maybe it would not, but that would be because of non-obvious monetary economics spillovers. I know little about this stuff, but I am a professional economist, so I do know a little, and cannot find any obvious inconsistencies.  @alxd @alberto_cottica If you’ll forgive me, I can recommend the cryptocurrency and blockchain chapters of my 2017 “Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life.” They hold up surprisingly well. @alberto_cottica @adamgreenfield if you ever remember the interview, I'll owe you coffee ;) I tried searching for it, but all the problems he describes with tech in the Ministry are very... non-committal. As in - he doesn't notice that without Blockchain the plot of the Ministry jus doesn't work. It's not that "ah, the cars should have flown lower", it's... the whole premise is just broken. @alxd you owe me a coffee! @alberto_cottica @adamgreenfield thank you so much, I do owe you coffee ;) I think I remembered it right then, he's backtracking on the terminology, not the solutionism / magical thinking itself. @alxd hmm... I will have to disagree here nothing magical about digital currencies. And one of the central banks depicted in Ministry has the rollout of a digital form of cash on schedule right now. But I'll still take you up on coffee! :-) @adamgreenfield |
Gregory's Server
@alberto_cottica @adamgreenfield regarding the digital currency, I do admit that I know too little about it to comment on either technically, economically or societally. I will get back to you when I read more on it :)