full disclosure, this has nothing to do with #bitcoin.
it's about the philosophical significance of numbers too big to be comprehended by humans popping up in a variety of domains of human action and that we hence need computers to manipulate- HEY WAIT A MINUTE!
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I want to do a thread while it's still reasonably fresh on trying to steelman Ben's "Wall Street swallows Bitcoin" thesis, as I have a newfound appreciation for it after our chat.
okay, so first of all here's a strawman, which I will admit is more or less what I thought going into the chat:
"investment banks comes to control so much of the circulating supply they can do all kind of annoying forky statist shit and it will become unusable for the good guys"
that's NOT what he means!
what he means I think is much subtler and more sophisticated. I'll say upfront I don't agree with it (assuming I've even captured it properly) but I do think it is amongst the best articulated threats worth being aware of.
Bitcoiners should learn about and champion Roger Scruton.
1/
now that it's clear bitcoin will win as money, we should take inspiration from those I tagged above and be more imaginative about the knock-on effects.
Roger Scruton had two major projects of passion in his professional life: to subvert and destroy the Soviet Union with the power of ideas and rational discussion, and to restore an appreciation for classical standards of beauty to pride of place in Western culture.
3/
"Bitcoin is simply an alternative; an exit valve; an opt-out. It is competing only insofar as it is proving to be a far superior alternative. It is not a sword for Theseus to fight the Minotaur, but a thread to follow to exit the labyrinth. Bitcoin is Ariadne."
Bitcoin’s value as money will naturally be determined by how easy it is to use it to buy things. Luckily, Bitcoin has what is called a “difficulty adjustment” which is known to vary based on the proportion of Bitcoin transactions that start with zero.
This is because if it is too difficult for somebody to transfer Bitcoin, but they have already committed to a transaction by proving the transaction works, they tend to just transfer zero and use PayPal instead.
tfw when you accuse somebody of being a liar, a fraud, an idiot, a charlatan, a bullshit artist, and a cult leader, and his acolytes' only comeback is, “it’s too long.”
it’s long because of just how much stupid bullshit he has done, you morons.
I was thorough.
🧵/n
I’ll try to put the highlights in a tweetstorm trailer. somebody asked for the medium version, this is it:
he chastised somebody for failing to have read a book of his that hasn’t yet been published.
2/n
he wrote a foreword to a book he hadn’t read about a concept he doesn’t understand.
he revealed as much by slandering a world expert in *something else* he doesn’t understand, who was mentioned in this book.
3/n