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It took years for the printing press to spread around the world in a time when that was difficult for any physical object to spread around the world. It did no
by dagmx 5y ago
It took years for the printing press to spread around the world in a time when that was difficult for any physical object to spread around the world.
It did not take years for it to be seen as incredibly useful and it was clear fairly early what the use for it was.
Saying the problem isn't obvious yet is bizarre. The printing press's use case was apparent immediately, even if the extent of its impact wasn't.
You're conflating impact and problem space conveniently.
- colordrops 5y agoThere are many people that find cryptocurrency to be incredibly useful. "The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed." - William Gibson
- keiferski 5y agoAgain, if you had made any declarations on the printing press a decade after it was invented, you'd have missed pretty much its entire impact. There are clear use cases for blockchain which have been laid out ad infinitum by other people. There are also downsides. This makes it pretty much the same as any other technology, e.g. the combustion engine.
- dagmx 5y agoWhat is an appropriate time according to you then? There are only two periods of time that can be commented on. From inception to the present. From the present to future predictions. The former hasn't shown a use that can't be solved better by other methods. The latter hasn't shown any either. The printing press on day 1 had a mission statement that had no equal. So did the combustion engine. It did the current thing faster and better.
- keiferski 5y agoI'm not suggesting "an appropriate time" in which an invention can be deemed impactful, because that isn't how history works. This is the point I am trying to convey. If we look at other inventions and broadly speaking, "knowledge," it's quite common for the real impact to not be seen for quite a long time. E.g. the Renaissance and re-interest in / rediscovery of classical sources. I don't know why this is so controversial, but I suspect it's because of #2 in my original comment. Again, I didn't say that crypto will become extremely useful and important in the future, but simply that declaring it useless or unimportant now is foolish and unlike virtually every other technology.
- dagmx 5y agoI just find the general sentiment very hand wavey by conflating impact and use because it doesn't say anything. It's a wait and see indefinitely to prevent any real discussion on the merits today, while being a catch all to side step critique.
- keiferski 5y agoI'm not sure where or how I am "preventing any real discussion." If anything, the people constantly criticizing it are shutting down genuine analysis of its merits and downsides.