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Prof. David ChalmersNYU, New York NY, Nov 15, 2016Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Philosophy of Technology
Melanie SwanBlockchain Theorist
Philosophy & Economic TheoryNew School for Social Research, NY NY
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology 2
Melanie Swan Blockchain Theorist, Philosophy and Economic
Theory, New School for Social Research, NY Founder, Institute for Blockchain Studies Instructor, Singularity University; Affiliate Scholar,
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technology (IEET); Contributor, EDGE; Advisor FQXi
Traditional Markets Background Economic Theory Leadership
http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Book: Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Agenda Contemporary Philosophy of
Technology Historical view and Capacity vs
Morphology Unthinkability Complexity Temporality Overall theme: composable reality
Philosophy of Blockchain
3One source: recent conferences: HSS: History of Science & Society, PSA: Philosophy of Science Association, SPEP: Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Central Issue in the Contemporary Philosophy of Technology
4http://www.robotandhwang.com/attorneys/
San Francisco CA law firm
Human-Machine Collaboration:
How might we develop human-machine collaborations that
empower both parties?
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Human-Machine Collaboration Effectuating an orderly transition to the Automation
Economy and Technological Unemployment “Technological breakthroughs endanger up to 47% of
total employment in the US” – Carl Frey, Oxford, 2015 “Endanger jobs” or “invite opportunity”?
5Source: Book chapter: Swan, M. "Automation Economy: An Abundance Philosophy of Economics" In Surviving the Machine Economy. Eds. Hughes, LaGrandeur, Palgrave Macmillan. 2017.
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
The Prosthetic RelationExtending body and brain into composable reality
6
I. Addition
Accepting the foreign into the body
Merging body-brain with the foreign
Blind man’s cane
Extending the reach of the physical body
Heart transplant
II. Integration III. Synthesis
BCI cloudminds
Time and space are fixed and immobile
Time and space start to become contingent
Time and space are fully contingent and composable
Melanie Swan, Philosophy, New School, Oct 29, 2016
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Human Integration Relation with Technology
7
1. The Prosthetic Relation 2. The Drone Relation
L’Intrus (The Intruder) – Jean-Luc Nancy Théorie du drone (Drone Theory) – Gregoire Chamayou
Impoverished relation:roving invisible Panopticon, never
safe from unseen eyes
Intimate relation: Accepting the foreign into our own body
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
3. The Data Relation Cloud, background, crunching away,
silent tracking, continuous uploading Algorithms predicting and defining our
preferences What is our relation? Impoverished:
neither side has full mental model of the other (the very basis for conducive interaction with another) Data models humans as a sketch:
purchasing agent not aspirational being Humans have no way see, grasp or act
on big data, it acts on us (drone relation)
8
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology 9
Thinking through the problem of human-machine collaboration in one of the most vulnerable cases: opening brains up to big data in BCI Cloudminds
Cloudmind: digitally-linked minds (human or otherwise) in the Internet cloud for integrated processing , collaborative problem-solving, and idea generation. Source: Swan, Melanie. (2016). The Future of Brain-Computer Interfaces: Blockchaining Your Way into a Cloudmind, JET 26(2).
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Brain-Computer Interface applications A brain-computer interface (BCI) is any
technology linking the human brain to a computer A computational system implanted in the brain
that allows a person to control a computer using only brainwaves; for example reading the electrical signals from the brain as a person focuses on a computer screen
Key new functionality of BCIs 24-7 connectivity to the Internet and other
minds Implication: applications such as cloudminds
(linked human and machine minds)
10Source: http://www.asha.org/public/hearing/Cochlear-Implant-Frequently-Asked-Questions/
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Short History of Philosophy of TechnologyHistorical Moments
11Source: Heidegger, M. The Question Concerning Technology, 1954.
“Our attunement to technology as an enabling background helps us see the
possibilities for the true meaningfulness of our being”
From the farther future how did we get here?
Aristotle: distinguishes between technology and nature Always-already technological: making tools out of tools
Heidegger: warns of the danger, right-wrong relation
Spinoza: capacity vs morphology
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Spinoza and Conatus
12
Conatus: perseverance as our “vital [life] force” in interacting with the
environment we encounter, our “actual essence,” where as individuals, we strive to sustain and increase our
power of acting in the world, to “affect and be affected by”
Not about what we are (classification); it is about our capacity for action in the world
Source: Spinoza, The Collected Works of Spinoza, vol. 1, 1985, Ethics, IVP18S, IVP35c2
Spinoza, Dutch Philosopher1632-1677
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Short History of Philosophy of TechnologyModern Moments Cybernetics, Systems Theory, French Theorists
George Canguilhem, "Machine and Organism," 1947 Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics, 1948 Gilbert Simondon, On the Mode of Existence
of Technical Objects, 1958 Cyborg
Manfred Clynes & Nathan Kline, “Cyborgs and Space,” 1960
Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto,” 1985 Kevin Warwick, I, Cyborg, 2002
Posthumanism, Transhumanism Cary Wolfe, What is Posthumanism?, 2009 Rosi Braidotti, The Posthuman, 2013
13
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Not all Reality is Thinkable Problem of Unthinkability
Becoming aware of and coming to terms with phenomena that are “bigger” than humans
Features of the world that are outside our perceptual and experiential domains
Existing situations Quantum physics, black holes, global
warming, the Florida everglades, the biosphere, derivatives, capitalism, neuroscience, big data, blockchains
Radically-different future-tech situations Life extension, digital societies, cloudminds
14
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Thinking Unthinkability
15
Need new models for conceiving the correspondence between internal experience and the external world like radical contingency Ancestrality (Meillassoux), hyperobjects (Morton), superjects
(Hansen), object-oriented ontologies (Harman), black swans and convexification (linear regression) (Taleb)
Result: human existence decentered
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Agenda Contemporary Philosophy of
Technology Historical view and Capacity vs
Morphology Unthinkability Complexity Temporality Overall theme: composable reality
Philosophy of Blockchain
16One source: recent conferences: HSS: History of Science & Society, PSA: Philosophy of Science Association, SPEP: Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Systems Theory Interdisciplinary study of the abstract organization of
complex phenomena, independent of their substance, type, or spatial-temporal scale of
existence, investigating and describing principles common to all complex
entities or systems of behavior
17Source: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/systheor.html
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Complexity Systems that are non-
linear, dynamic, emergent, open, unknowable at the outset, interdependent, self-organizing
18Sources: Morin, Edgar. (2007). "Restricted complexity, general complexity." Trans. C. Gershenson. In Worldviews, Science
and Us: Philosophy and Complexity, ed. C. Gershenson, D. Aerts, and B. Edmonds, 5–29. World Scientific, Singapore.
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Big Data: Complexity and Machine Learning
19
1. Science and Biology become a
math problem
2. Simple Machine Learning algorithms running over large
data corpora
3. Deep-learning algorithms: real-time image & video processing, lip-reading
transcription, emotion-recognition
Sources: http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.6209, http://karpathy.github.io
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Complexity and Big Data Analytics
20Source: https://medium.com/@akelleh/if-correlation-doesnt-imply-causation-then-what-does-c74f20d26438#.mrmot5t7t
Contemporary era: Algorithmic reality, big data, machine learning analytics
Similar goals in causal analysis frameworks Whether structural equation modeling, causal
graphical models, potential outcomes… ...mindset shift from Causality to Predictability
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Relational Processes Beyond the morphology-capacity binary
The relations between entities, and the effects produced by interactions are more relevant than the underlying substance, morphology, or classification
Relational Ontology (Barad): replace agential realist conceptions of causality
Process Philosophy (Alfred North Whitehead): substance is temporary patterns produced by processes
Assemblages (Deleuze and Guattari) Fusion of horizons (Gadamer)
21Source: Barad, K. (2003). Posthumanist Performativity
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Agenda Contemporary Philosophy of
Technology Historical view and Capacity vs
Morphology Unthinkability Complexity Temporality Overall theme: composable reality
Philosophy of Blockchain
22One source: recent conferences: HSS: History of Science & Society, PSA: Philosophy of Science Association, SPEP: Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Humans and machines are running different temporality paradigms Human-time
Continuous flow of physics-biology time Compute-time: computing clocktime eras
1. General: time becomes stoppable and malleable
2. Machine learning/big data temporality: time becomes future-addressable All human and natural patterns modeled Shifts focus from reactive response to proactive
attending to the real-time present and future3. Blocktime: time becomes future-assignable,
future-creatable with blockchain-based smart contracts
23
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Inspiration: Light’s Wave-Particle Duality The first ever photograph
of light as both a particle and wave (Mar 2015)
Light's wave-particle duality imaged in physical reality for the first time
Schrödinger's cat: dead or alive?
24Source: http://phys.org/news/2015-03-particle.html, http://actu.epfl.ch/news/the-first-ever-photograph-of-light-as-both-a-parti
The bottom 'slice' of the image shows the particles, while the top
image shows light as a wave
Particle
Wave
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology 25
1. Retention 1. Protention
Present Now
Primal Impression
2. Recollection(Discrete) (Discrete)
A middle kind of time: time as a ‘raw material’ existing uncollapsed as simultaneously discrete and continuous; a snapshot and a flow (like light as a superposition of a particle and a wave); a perdurant khôra-spacing; time is an
uncollapsed raw material until deployed into a specific situation
Adds to our conceptual model of time
(Continuous) (Continuous)
Husserl’s Internal Time ConsciousnessAdding a New Kind of Time
Husserl’s Missing Middle Third time term
3. X-tention 3. X-tention
2. Expectation
(Discrete and Continuous) (Discrete and Continuous)
Source: Extended from Husserl, Edmund. (1991, 1964). On the Phenomenology of the Consciousness of Internal Time (1893-1917). Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht NL.
Past Future
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Composability of Physical Time Information Theory
Formulate spacetime as simultaneously discrete and continuous (Shannon’s sampling)
Time and matter are composable at small scales Matter at the atomic scale
(1×10−9) via positional nanoassembly (actual)
Possibly time and matter at the Planck scale (1×10−35) via Lego-like time fabric bricks (loop quantum gravity) (theoretical)
26Source: http://www.dedoimedo.com/physics/what-is-time.html, Kempf, Achim. (2010). “Spacetime could be simultaneously continuous and discrete, in the same way that information can be.” New Journal of Physics. 12.
Atomic-scale Positional Nanoassembly of Matter
Planck-scale ‘Lego-like’ Assembly of Spacetime
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Future Temporalities
Radically-different situations Life extension, digital societies, cloudminds
Temporality and spatiality have been the fundamental organizing parameter in the physical world but less relevant in digital situations Example: “location” not among 20 features in WoW
event-recording software Prat Need new models for correspondence between
internal mind/experience and external objects Meillassoux: conceptual grounds for the necessary
contingency of reality
27Source: WoW = World of Warcraft http://www.wowace.com/addons/prat-3-0
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
“More time” Parallelism Argument Conjecture: make more time
Any compute-time creates a differential with human-time
Since there are multiple time regimes, one can experience “more time” by accessing events in other time trajectories
History is a form of time parallelism Time parallelism already exists via history
where we access events pre-dating and existing outside of our own direct experience of time as individuals
28Source: Carr, D. (2014). Experience and History: Phenomenological Perspectives on the Historical World.
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
More philosophical questions raised… Do we need “more time”? How can we experience the
benefit and meaning of more time and alternative time trajectories?
How to integrate myriad subjective time regimes and event trajectories?
Moore’s Law for time? Limits of computational
complexity and time?
29
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Temporality Thesis Statement
30
A concept of temporality is needed that is adequate to the future; a model that has an open possibility space for both the form and content of time; that is multiple and complex; discrete and continuous;
and integrates the unstoppable flow of physics and biology human-time with manipulable compute-time
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Agenda Contemporary Philosophy of
Technology Historical view and Capacity vs
Morphology Unthinkability Complexity Temporality Overall theme: composable reality
Philosophy of Blockchain
31One source: recent conferences: HSS: History of Science & Society, PSA: Philosophy of Science Association, SPEP: Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain
32Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Thesis StatementBlockchain: a Singularity-class technology No other technology has the power to…1. …uplift 2 billion people out of poverty
overnight intermediary-free international remittance
2. …produce a safe and orderly transition to the automation economy humans and machines in collaboration,
friendly artificial intelligence enacted
3. …fundamentally transform the only remaining sectors not yet re-engineered for the Internet era: economics and politics
33Source: Blockchain Singularities :http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-singularities-65443340
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Agenda
I. Blockchain technology: What is it? Automation economy
II. Singularity-class applications Farther-future
Friendly AI Bio-cryptoeconomy Nanotech/Synbio Blockchains in Space
Nearer-term Financial services, Energy, Logistics IOT, Health, Economic Development
III. Conclusion: our Singularity futures
34
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain Technology: What is it?
35
Blockchain technology is the secure distributed ledger software that underlies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin “Internet of Money” leapfrog technology; Skype is an app
allowing phone calls via Internet without POTS; Bitcoin is an app allowing money transfer via Internet without banks; ‘decentralized Paypal’
Internet(decentralized network)
Blockchain
Bitcoin
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
ApplicationLayer
Protocol Layer
InfrastructureLayer
SMTP
VoIP
Phone calls
OSI Protocol Stack:
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain (not Bitcoin) is the revolution
36
Internet phase transitions
Phase I: transfer information Modernize publishing, books, music,
news, information Phase 2: transfer value (money,
property) Modernize of economics and finance Providing the digital payments layer the
Internet never had Instantiating the qualitative good of
trust in the infrastructure
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Smartnetwork visionPushing more complexity through the Internet pipes
37
Information
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491Sci-fi inspiration: Accelerando, Lady of Mazes, Blindsight, The Golden Age, Glasshouse
Confirmation of Automated Distribution of
Transfer of
Growing classes of activities for smartnetwork execution I: Information; II: Money, finance, economics; energy; supply chain, logistics,
transportation; health; IOT; III: identity, preference, intangible resources
Value Identity Preference
Registration of
20161990 2025e 2050e 2075e
Automated Propagation of
VotingPolicy
OpinionParticipation
GBIEnergyTrust
AutonomyRecognition
Economics Politics
IdeasHealth
Collaboration opportunitiesInstantiation
Upload integrity
Smart-resources
Smart-currencies
2090e
Internet Smartnetwork
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology 38
Currency
Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Property: Assets
InventorySecurities: stocks, bonds, government issue, futures and
options, FX contracts
Hard assets: cars, houses, global supply chain, medical inventories; Intangible assets: IP
Money, digital payments, remittanceProgrammable smartmoney
Fundamental enabling infrastructure
Economics
Governance& Legal Services
Global-scale projects
Politics
Singularity
All contractual arrangements
Blockchain’s vast reach beyond currency
Financial instruments: mortgage, loans
Million-person genome banks, supply chain management, autonomous driving fleets
Voting, identity, citizenship, civic servicesLegal documents, contracts, wills, agreements
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Why is it called blockchain?Blockchain: a chain of transaction blocks Every 10 minutes, the latest
block of submitted transactions is validated (by cryptographic mining) and posted to a single distributed ledger
Each new block of transactions calls the last block, so that the transactions are chained together sequentially, hence the word blockchain
39Source: Satoshi Nakamoto whitepaper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf, https://blockexplorer.com
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Permissioned (identity-known) and Permissionless (anonymous) Ledgers
40Source: Swan, M. Blockchain Consensus Protocols. http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-consensus-protocols extended from: Swanson, T. (2015). Consensus as a service: a brief report on the emergence of permissioned, distributed ledger systems
New car: Enduser freedom• Censorship-resistant• ‘Brave new world’ apps• Anonymous validators (network
vulnerable to anonymous attack)
Better horse: Enterprise efficiency• Identity-confirmed• ‘Reinvent the existing world’
improvement apps• Official legal registry
Stellar
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain crucial for the Singularity-class project: Financial Inclusion Just as the Printing Press and
the Internet flattened access to communicating information...
…blockchains are giving the power of the printing press to banking, credit, and money Access to economic and financial
systems (credit) as a basic human right (4 billion under-banked)
Long-tail economics: eBay of money
Blockcerts, digital academic certifications, MIT Media Lab
41Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mit-media-lab-releases-blockcerts-blockchain-credential-brian-ahier
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Issue: hierarchy is not scalable
42Sources: What is Decentralization? http://futurememes.blogspot.com/search?q=datt.co, http://blog.midem.com/2016/04/blockchain-broken-music-industry/
Blockchains are a form of trust-making technology A system of checks and balances that is universal and
planetary-scale (Kardashev-level) New tiers of scalability are needed
Million-genome repositories (largest is 3700 currently), connectome databases to reveal brain structure
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Smartnetwork theme: design Optimality Optimal mix of centralized and
decentralized models Rethinking Coase’s firm size
Manufacturing reorganization per electricity; industries rethought per decentralized networks Tighter supply chain integration Complexity design principles
Decentralization here to stay Proven decentralized scalability
paradigm: Internet Bitcoin, blockchain, decentralization
43Sources: Coase, RH, The Nature of The Firm, 1937, http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~jsfeng/CPEC11.pdf
Decentralization
Blockchain
Bitcoin
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain Economics and FinanceApparatus for constituting the present and the future
44
Bitcoin, Crypto-currencies Smart Contracts
Economics Finance
Spot, Cash Market Futures, Options Market
Present Future
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-payment-systems, http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-financial-networks, http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-temporality-smart-contract-timespecifiability-with-blocktime
Real-time payments Utility Settlement Coin (USC) (8/24/16)
Temporality Regime
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Decentralized Economics and FinanceCurrent mode is one kind of system for organizing access to resources
45
The organizing assumption of economic systems has been scarcity; an orientation to the
production and distribution of scarce material goods. This no longer holds in an era of digital services, non-rival
goods, and complementarity
Mindset Shifts: 1. Scarcity to Abundance
2. Labor to Fulfillment3. Hierarchy to Decentralization
The organizing assumption of financial systems has been the control or at least prediction of the future value of assets and
liabilities; finance = credit (credit is really about trust). Also no
longer holding.
Mindset Shifts: 1. Access instead of Ownership2. Topological Ranges instead
of Point Values3. Assurity instead of
Insufficiency
Sources: http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2016/09/defining-blockchain-economy-what-is.html and New Economies and Finance at the New School: http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf
Economics Finance
Present FutureTemporality Regime
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Agenda
I. Blockchain technology: What is it? Automation economy
II. Singularity-class applications Farther-future
Friendly AI Bio-cryptoeconomy Nanotech/Synbio Blockchains in Space
Nearer-term Financial services, Energy, Logistics IOT, Health, Economic Development
III. Conclusion: our Singularity futures
46
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Singularity-class Problems (Kardashev-scale; impact 1 billion people within 10 years)
47
Artificial Intelligence and deep learning Friendly AI and “What is consciousness?” Multi-species intelligence BCI cloudmind collaborations (>1 thinking)
Virtual reality Integrating virtual and physical reality
Nanotechnology and synthetic biology Space settlement Automation economy
Autonomous driving Medical nanorobotics Manufacturing and social robotics
Source: Blockchain Singularities :http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-singularities-65443340 BCI: brain computer interface
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Argument: Blockchain can help all Singularity-class Problems
48Source: Blockchain Singularities :http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-singularities-65443340
Any significant future operation running on digital smartnetworks, needing coordination
Blockchain properties Secure, trackable, automated coordination of
large-scale projects with many items Automated system of checks and balances; all
transactions must confirm via smartnetwork Moves any sort of quantized/unitized packets on
the smartnetwork: energy, cars, synapse firings Fleet management
Autonomous vehicles, IOT sensors, social robotics, synaptic connections, deep-learners, medical nanorobots, planet terraformers, synbio agents, environmental cleanup bots
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain AI AppsEnact Friendly AI (Artificial Intelligence)
49
Digital intelligences running on consensus-managed smartnetworks Not in isolation
Good reputational standing required to conduct operations Transactions to access resources
(like fund-raising), provide services, enter into contracts, retire
Smartnetwork consensus only validates and records bonafide transactions from ‘good’ agents
Sources: http://cointelegraph.com/news/113368/blockchain-ai-5-top-reasons-the-blockchain-will-deliver-friendly-ai, http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/swan20141117
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Basic ApplicationDeep-thinkers Registry Register deep learners with
blockchains Tracking Security Remuneration
Examples Autonomous lab robots
On-chain IP discovery tracking Roving agricultural bots Manufacturing bots Intelligent gaming
Go-playing algorithms
50Source: Swan, M. Blockchain Thinking: The Brain as a DAC. Neural Turing Machines: https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.5401.IPFS (Benet): https://medium.com/@ConsenSys/an-introduction-to-ipfs-9bba4860abd0#.bgig18cgp
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Advanced ApplicationBCI Cloudminds and Chainbrains Cloudmind: cloud-based thinking
entity, comprised of >1 brains Problem: Safe collaboration of minds
Joining a cloudmind collaboration, blockchains (cryptographic ledgers) to administer cloudminds Line-item tracking and credit-
assignation (like Github, or SVN/CVS for brainstorming)
Privacy, security, remuneration Protect against personal identity loss
and absorption into a groupmind
51Source: http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-cloudminds-humanmachine-pooledmind-dacs; Mind’ is generally denoting an entity with some capacity for processing, not the volitionary action and free will of a consciousness agent
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Nanotech Grey Goo and runaway Synbio
52Source: Blockchain Singularities :http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-singularities-65443340
Worry: Grey Goo (unchecked nanotech proliferation), DNA-printed synthetic bio-plague Science fiction examples: Blood
Music, Prey Solution: signing logged to
blockchains As physical-world engineers sign
the bridges they build, likewise synbio engineers sign DNA and nanotech designs
Unavoidable “signing” per detectable origins
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Medical nanorobotics as the coming-onboard repair platform for the human body Vision: a nanorobot in every cell
Bio-Nano Repair DACs DAC: Decentralized Autonomous
Corporation (packages of smart contracts) Bio-cryptoeconomic principles
High number of agents and “transactions” Secure automation is obvious requirement Bio-Nano Repair DACs for secure,
trackable automation and coordination of medical nanorobotics for cellular repair
53Sources: Bio-Cryptoeconomy: Nanorobotic DACs for Cell Repair and Enhancement http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2016/08/bio-cryptoeconomy-nanorobotic-dacs-for.html
Bio-cryptoeconomy Medical nanorobotic DACs to coordinate cell repair
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Spacechains: Blockchains in Space
54Source: Blockchain Singularities :http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-singularities-65443340
Advances in space Launch: microsats, small rockets, commercial
launch (reusability, rocket design), regular Mars launches planned each 26 months with large-cargo drops, communications networks,
Light sail and optical propulsion Asteroid mining, space settlement, transport Exoplanet discovery in habitable zones (Alpha
Centauri, TRAPPIST-1) Singularity-class blockchain functionality
Secure, trackable, automated coordination of high numericity and dimensionality at scale
Autonomous entities, Bitsat backup network
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchains and Singularity-class Problems Argument: smartnetworks thesis that
complex future operations will involve automated coordination via smartnetworks, using some kind of technology like blockchains
Blockchain smartnetwork properties: Asset registry and fleet coordination of
items (registry, ownership and transfer of “quantized” units)
Security Trackability Automation Coordination
55Source: Blockchain Singularities :http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-singularities-65443340
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Crypto-Enlightenment
56
“One ought to think autonomously, free of the
dictates of external authority”
- Immanuel Kant
Kant, I. "Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" (German: Beantwortung der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?). 1784.
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Level 1: the new literacy: digital literacy Manage private key access
Back-up your money Manage digital identity, EMR health wallet
Level 2: self-authority taking Designing personalized long-tail economic,
political, and social systems Civic project participations (P2P micropolis),
provide peergrid resources
Digital Cryptocitizen Sensibility
57Source: Swan, M. Crypto Enlightenment: A Social Theory of Blockchains http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/the-crypto-enlightenment-social-theory-of-blockchains; EMR: electronic medical record; P2P: peer-to-peer
Sense of duty in serving the republic
Civic Duty Civic CollaborationGreek Statesman Cryptocitizen
Sense of meaning in sustaining community
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Agenda
I. Blockchain technology: What is it? Automation economy
II. Singularity-class applications Farther-future
Friendly AI Bio-cryptoeconomy Nanotech/Synbio Blockchains in Space
Nearer-term Financial services, Energy, Logistics IOT, Health, Economic Development
III. Conclusion: our Singularity futures
58
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Financial Services Distributed ledger
Instant transaction validation Settlement, clearing, audit Simpler, more secure, less
expensive financial services Use case applications
Industry-wide collaboration Securities asset registries Value chain efficiency:
custody, titling, insurance Financial-inclusion
addressable market Digital identity, banking
59Source: https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/financial-services-corporate-blockchain-investments
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Energy grid smartnetworks Concept: the power grid of every
continent is an energy Internet “Quantized units” are energy:
kWh/kWm Use case applications
Automatic markets: off-hour and lowest cost demand fulfillment
Smart grid management Energy price and trade validation Resource self-pricing Source fungibility: wind, solar power P2P microgrid infrastructure
60Sources: Rifkin, J. The Zero Marginal Cost Society; https://www.newscientist.com/article/2079334-blockchain-based-microgrid-gives-power-to-consumers-in-new-york/
Cryptosustainability Micropolis Example:Peer-to-peer Microgrids
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Supply chain & logistics grid smartnetworks Tamper-proof record-keeping
Register assets and inventory Assure provenance, custody Track quantity and transfer of assets
(pallets, trailers, containers) moving through supply chain nodes
Track purchase orders, change orders, receipts, shipment notifications
Assign and verify custody and product certification
Link physical goods to serial numbers, bar codes, RFID tags
Virtual reality rapid simulation and event-history keeping (>transactions)
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Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Autonomous Driving Fleet coordination of “quantized
units” of km/miles and vehicles Autonomous passenger cars
Singapore self-driving taxis - 8/24/16 Uber’s first self-driving fleet arrives in
Pittsburgh – Aug 2016 Commercial trucking
“Autonomous Driving Long-Distance Trucks within Ten Years” - 2014
62Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/25/hail-progress-singapore-launches-worlds-first-self-driving-taxi-service, http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/autonomous-driving-long-distance-trucks-will-be-a-reali-1603746933http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-first-self-driving-fleet-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain IOT
63Sources: http://www.zdnet.com/article/internet-of-things-market-to-hit-7-1-trillion-by-2020-idc/, http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491
Blockchain-based IOT connected objects M2M/IOT Bitcoin payment network to
enable the machine economy IOT 2020: 26 bn devices in a $7 tn market
The economic layer the web never had Smarthome IOT networks
Self-mining ecologies Privacy orchestration: devices, robotics, digital
personal health assistants Blockchains: economic principle-driven
large-scale resource allocation and coordination mechanism Smartcity Connected
Car Coordination
Smarthome IOT and Personal Robotics
Coordination
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain Social Robotics Personal voice assistants, social
robotics Implication: voice interfaces, all apps
become voice-activated and interactive; “My Dad, the App”
Requirements: security, financial transactability, liability tracking
Cross-cloud interconnection (IOT smarthome, connected car, smartcity)
Fleet coordination functionality Automated, secure, tracking/logging,
remuneration, transaction coordination, apps/processes (smart contracts), coordination (updates), audit log
64Source: Swan, M. Philosophy of Social Robotics: Abundance Economics. Sociorobotics, 2016. http://www.melanieswan.com/documents/SocialRobotics.pdf.
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
1. EMRs (electronic medical records) Personal health record access and administration Users key-permission doctors into records
2. Health insurance billing chains Blockchain-based health insurance claims processing:
automated proof of identity and insurance; claims payment Enable ahead of time service price-quoting
3. Digital health wallet Private key identity + EMR (medications) + health insurance info
+ payment data + basic income health plan administration Doctor vendor RFP services; preventive longevity treatments
4. Health Data Research Commons Biobanks, QS (DNA.bits), genome and connectome files
65Source: http://futurememes.blogspot.fr/2014/09/blockchain-health-remunerative-health.html
Blockchain Health
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Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Bitcoin MOOCsLong-tail of learning
Blockchain-based “Kiva for literacy” Long-tail peer-to-peer learning contracts Literacy beyond reading
Technical, agricultural, vocational literacy Blockchain-based personal development
contracts QS-biometric utility function imputation and tracking Maslow chains, subjectivation and actualization chains
Development Economics 2.0: CoinDrops Literacy contracts, remittances, blockchain-tracked
aid, microcredit, decentralized credit bureaus Open-source FICO scores Peer-vouched reputation
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Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Politics: Legal services and Governance
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High impact, low current activity Local government RFPs for title registries
Legal services: IP, contract registry, attestation Register contracts, agreements, wills, IP
Functionality: hash + timestamp + blockchain record
Voting: electronic ballot, identity confirmation Futarchy, delegative democracy, random sample
elections Opt-in personalized governance services
Composting vs education; digital identity system, voting, dispute resolution, basic income distribution, public document registry
Blockchain weddings (Bitcoin, Ethereum)
Sources: http://merkle.com/papers/DAOdemocracyDraft.pdf, http://www.proofofexistence.com/, https://bitnation.co/ , World’s First Blockchain Marriage: David Mondrus and Joyce Bayo, 10/5/14, ConsenSys wedding : Kim Jackson and Zach LeBeau, 11/2/15
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Agenda
I. Blockchain technology: What is it? Automation economy
II. Singularity-class applications Farther-future
Friendly AI Bio-cryptoeconomy Nanotech/Synbio Blockchains in Space
Nearer-term Financial services, Energy, Logistics IOT, Health, Economic Development
III. Conclusion: our Singularity futures
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Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Blockchain downside and risks?ISSUE
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Satoshi Roundtable #3: Scaling Bitcoin Milan Oct 8-9, 2016
Hacking ScandalsMt Gox, Ethereum DAO, Bitfinex
Silk Road, drug dealers, terrorists, criminals
Scalability, evolution Block size, sidechains
Mining Centralization
RESPONSE
Centralization temporary; wide-spread at higher-scale; move to 16 nm, solar/hydro-powered chips
Building resilient system constantly under open attack 24/7 (remember early Internet DNS attacks)
Blockchains are a universal technology available to all; non-criminal activity predominates
Early Internet: “this will never scale, insecure, not resilient;” Yahoo, AltaVista down for days due to DNS attacksSource: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-scaling-conference-italy
Technology Risk
Perception Risk
Regulatory Risk, Economic Risk
National government regulation, bans
Governments modernizing economic infrastructure with blockchains too; licensing, open dialogue
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Thesis StatementBlockchain: a Singularity-class technology No other technology has the power to…1. …uplift 2 billion people out of poverty
overnight intermediary-free international remittances
2. …produce a safe and orderly transition to the automation economy humans and machines in collaboration,
friendly artificial intelligence enacted
3. …fundamentally transform the only remaining sectors not yet re-engineered for the Internet era: economics and politics
71Source: Blockchain Singularities :http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-singularities-65443340
Nov 15, 2016Philosophy of Technology
Decentralized Economics and Finance
Blockchain academic collaboration New Economies and Finance at the New School
Mission statement: http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf Join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewEconomies
CFPs: books, special journal issues, conferences Decentralized Blockchain Economics and Finance
http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2016/09/defining-blockchain-economy-what-is.html
“Blockchain Philosophy” 4,000 words, Wiley and Sons, Metaphilosophy
http://blockchainstudies.org/Metaphilosophy_CFP.pdf Events: NY and CA
Rethink/ECONOMICS, Thursday, September 15, 7-9 pm http://www.meetup.com/NYC_Ethereum/events/233643675/
72Sources: http://blockchainstudies.org and http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf
Prof. David ChalmersNYU, New York NY, Nov 15, 2016Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga
Philosophy of Technology
Melanie SwanBlockchain Theorist
Philosophy & Economic TheoryNew School for Social Research, NY NY
Thank You! Questions?