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This is basically what all life does. Thermodynamically, life can be described as an open system which makes use of gradients in its surroundings to create imp
by Isinlor 6y ago
This is basically what all life does.
Thermodynamically, life can be described as an open system which makes use of gradients in its surroundings to create imperfect copies of itself.
Crypto currencies still have a problem with creating copies of itself, but humans are happy to oblige.
- jf22 6y agoComparing life itself to crypto is ridiculous.
- Clewza313 6y agoNot entirely. Energy utilization is a common proxy for technological development. If a society is plowing tons of energy into crypto mining, then by definition somebody is getting utility out of it. (Which doesn't preclude it all being a Ponzi scheme, but that's another story.)
- eurasiantiger 6y agoLife, the original RNA Ponzi scheme.
- almost_usual 6y agoMakes you wonder if there are any other RNA Ponzi schemes in the universe.
- pibechorro 6y agoOk Dad.
- monkeynotes 6y agoIsn't crypto ridiculous too? Rai stones look objectively more sensible and they are ridiculous. I'm not saying the technology is ridiculous, I'm just saying the overall implementation and outcomes would look like a madness to someone from the past or indeed the future.
- quickthrowman 6y agoRai stones are less weird than they look once you learn that some super expensive art is held in freeport warehouses and stays there even when bought and sold to different owners. Valuing a painting you own but never see at millions of dollars that gets bought and sold to others who never see it isn’t that much different than saying a certain immobile Rai stone is worth X of Y. Cryptocurrency is more ridiculous than both of the above, imo. Rai stones can be used as material, art can be looked at and enjoyed, cryptocurrency is random numbers controlling access to a ledger.
- pinoli 6y agoabsolutely. as the far west was incredibly ridiculous. this is not a cryptocurrency issue, that is humans being humans
- Isinlor 6y agoIt's not, unless you think that e.g. cyanobacteria causing the Great Oxidation Event were somehow objectively more useful than cryptocurrencies. Mind you the Great Oxidation Event wiped good chunk of life back then. Mainly because oxygen was toxic to anaerobic life and it also oxidized methane making Earth into a snowball.
- bobthechef 6y ago"Use" is always in relation to an someone's or something's end. Without knowing what the relevant ones are, the comparison fails.
- maxerickson 6y agoFor all us, uh, air breathing mammals, yes, the great oxidation event was a great deal more useful, objectively, than cryptocurrencies.
- Isinlor 6y agoThe main point is that this hunger for resources without regard for consequences is the very core of life. We did not exist back then. And cyanobacteria did not have a great plan of creating mammals.
- maxerickson 6y agoNote that I qualified my statement. I didn't say that the great oxygenation event was objectively useful to the moon, I said it was objectively more useful to air breathing mammals than running difficult computations to control write access to a ledger. The random waste from cryptocurrencies just turns into heat, so I expect it opens up ~zero new possibilities. Have fun though!
- Out_of_Characte 6y agoHow would you even define 'more usefull' in this context? How is cryptocurrency waste heat different from bank server waste heat? Only because crypto has a dramatically worse efficiency? I guess both my crypto wallet and my bank account are products of waste heat that produce zero new possibilities.
- est31 6y agoFrom the outside view of an alien observer, is there any difference to us plastering mars with solar panels for crypto mining vs plastering mars with suburban developments? Would we, had we a powerful telescope pointed at a neighbouring solar system, be able to tell the difference?
- jf22 6y agoCan I be clear you cannot find a clear distinction between a made up currency and places where humans live?
- zepto 6y agoNot really. Life transforms matter and energy into increasing structure and complexity. A classic pathological life-like process is the paperclip maximizer. The paperclip maximizer transforms matter and energy into a regular structure of low complexity. Crypto is one step worse than the paperclip maximizer. It converts matter and energy into pseudo-random numbers. The only structure discernible within the randomness is the mechanism that induces organic lifeforms to work on behalf of crypto.
- bordercases 6y agoHear hear, can I get an amen for Komolgorov? https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/CDROM/Literature/LOTwinterschool2006/szabo.best.vwh.net/complexity.html https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/C... https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/CDROM/Literature/LOTwinterschool2006/szabo.best.vwh.net/kolmogorov.html https://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/rob/Courses/InformationInSpeech/C...
- marci 6y agoNow let's clippyfy the universe: https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index.html https://www.decisionproblem.com/paperclips/index.html