4 ms·

I want to understand the mindset and ideologies of people who think DAO is a good idea. Holding this belief is correlated with a lot of other ideas in particula

I want to understand the mindset and ideologies of people who think DAO is a good idea. Holding this belief is correlated with a lot of other ideas in particular, strands of right libertarian thought, and a heavy emphasis on technology and technocracy (i.e. government by technical expertise). Beneath that though, i think there's an undercurrent of something that feels like misanthropy: a strong desire to replace political human beings interacting in order to resolve conflicting interest, reconcile conflicting experiences and pursue common interest with purely economic agents that interact with each other through free (read: mechanistic) markets and algorithmic contracts. It feels like there is an unspoken need to be able to tell every human being who has a problem "too bad", and a need for a societal structure that is maximally ""rational"" and unassailable by human political action. Obviously this would be a strawman if i said any particular person or group specifically held these beliefs. It's an amalgamate of various ideas I've seen pop up in the same places at the same time. Call me a skeptic of any thought that leans in this direction.

easong 10y ago
While the cryptocurrency conversation online is dominated by right-libertarians, I think you'll find that a lot of hard/radical leftwing direct-action types are very much obsessed with cryptocurrency and structures like the DAO. I personally don't look at the cryptocurrency scene/DAO with anything more than bemusement, but I think that community is often presented in a very unpleasant light (look at the weird nerds!). A more charitable stereotype might be that cryptocurrencies and automated contracts appeal to anyone who thinks that they can design (through their technical expertise) a better world than the current political elites. I'm not saying that they're right or that their line of thought hasn't been historically responsible for atrocities, but I don't think it's fair to paint them as sociopaths.
- danharaj 10y ago
  Certainly didn't mean to imply that you have to be a sociopath to like cryptocurrency! That would be unfair and ridiculous. I think it's more like an allergy to what one considers politics. The benefits of cryptocurrency i've seen argued for in left libertarian circles don't propose some narrative where it supplants the current structures of government. I think a lot of leftists would reason (certainly, I reason this way) that cryptocurrency's much touted benefits are in conflict with capitalism and could not support capitalism at all. This is at odds with the right libertarian ambitions for the technology: right libertarians love capitalism and the crypto enthusiasts on that side of the spectrum think it would be great for capitalism! It's a fundamental disagreement. I've heard about bitcoin being used to great effect by left wing insurgencies like Rojava. It is useful in its current form as a subversive means of transmitting resources. I'm not familiar with the left wing arguments for cryptocurrency as a transformative tool for structuring new societies. It sounds like technocracy and vanguardism and, well, we know how that's played out.

easong 10y ago

While the cryptocurrency conversation online is dominated by right-libertarians, I think you'll find that a lot of hard/radical leftwing direct-action types are very much obsessed with cryptocurrency and structures like the DAO. I personally don't look at the cryptocurrency scene/DAO with anything more than bemusement, but I think that community is often presented in a very unpleasant light (look at the weird nerds!). A more charitable stereotype might be that cryptocurrencies and automated contracts appeal to anyone who thinks that they can design (through their technical expertise) a better world than the current political elites. I'm not saying that they're right or that their line of thought hasn't been historically responsible for atrocities, but I don't think it's fair to paint them as sociopaths.

danharaj 10y ago
Certainly didn't mean to imply that you have to be a sociopath to like cryptocurrency! That would be unfair and ridiculous. I think it's more like an allergy to what one considers politics. The benefits of cryptocurrency i've seen argued for in left libertarian circles don't propose some narrative where it supplants the current structures of government. I think a lot of leftists would reason (certainly, I reason this way) that cryptocurrency's much touted benefits are in conflict with capitalism and could not support capitalism at all. This is at odds with the right libertarian ambitions for the technology: right libertarians love capitalism and the crypto enthusiasts on that side of the spectrum think it would be great for capitalism! It's a fundamental disagreement. I've heard about bitcoin being used to great effect by left wing insurgencies like Rojava. It is useful in its current form as a subversive means of transmitting resources. I'm not familiar with the left wing arguments for cryptocurrency as a transformative tool for structuring new societies. It sounds like technocracy and vanguardism and, well, we know how that's played out.