About a month ago, I won a prize for creating a thumbnail for the CTTpodcast and I thought it was only fair to let someone else have a shot at it. After posting that on the threadcast, someone mentioned how strange that was–giving other people a chance to win. This whole exchange had me thinking about how overly opportunistic society has become (or probably has been).
We live in a world where many people are fiercely competing for resources or opportunities they do not need at the expense of others. For instance, I live in a country of over 200 million people where about 0.001% control the wealth of the country. These people have more resources at their disposal but choose to pillage the country. Then it occurred to me that their actions are not only geared towards grabbing resources but also to control the populace, and this sort of behaviour is not exclusive to the ruling class.
In my day-to-day dealings with other people, I observe this obsessive urge to have things at any cost, which often fills me with confusion because I never really understand the rationale in fighting for things one doesn’t need, but it seems everyone else wants to take and pillage, and that urge never stops. I tag it as the Spirit of Capitalism.
The major argument for capitalism is that it leads to innovation and appropriate allocation of resources. In one’s self-pursuit for gains, they in return create tools and services that benefit the collective. However, this isn't true for many countries and communities. What we end up having is a kleptocracy where those who are willing to achieve their goals by any means climb to the echelon in society, controlling the resources of a group that often believes in due process, law and order.
To mitigate the actions of a few bad actors who want to control the resources of a group, laws and policies are created to protect the interests of everyone participating in the group. Institutions are created to enforce and interpret these laws. These institutions are the pillars of society and they are structured to be blameless. Unfortunately, those who are unwilling to play by the rules often find their way to the coffers of power and when they do they corrupt the system. This is just an instance of how personal ambitions override the interests of the collective. It is also applicable to the cryptosphere.
As much as I would love to appeal to people's conscience, I am very aware of the world we live in. It is unfair and immoral. People will always choose self-preservation over every other thing and these sets of individuals always find their way to the top and for obvious reasons–they are resilient and willing to achieve their goal at whatever cost. This puts those of us who are law-abiding in a difficult position and in some instances, these laws are changed to suit bad actors.
Being selfish is efficient–in the short run. Decisions about your well-being and how to capitalize on opportunities are easy and quick to make. It is a different scenario when trying to appeal to more people. You have the onerous task of communicating your vision to people who have their individual goals and dreams. They are only willing to commit to the extent where their vision aligns with yours.
To have a perfect system that captures the needs of the collective, it has to be (at least) trustless. This is where systems like communism fail or systems that aim to protect the interest of the collective because they rely on a central authority which often is a dictatorship. However, I am hoping we can have a more communal state through decentralised governance and artificial intelligence.
I have lost faith in our species’ will to uphold the greater good. Even in systems carefully designed to benefit everyone, we find a way of corrupting it. Maybe we need to save ourselves and this is a decision we collectively have to make–to hand over our societies to unbiased and logical entities.
I understand how the idea I am proposing might spook a lot of people but I must point out that it is conventional. We have, throughout history, created laws and institutions to protect ourselves from ourselves. The question now is: Can we Trust Artificial Intelligence and the companies building them? I will leave you with this thought. Cheers!
Check out this short thread on projects with potential airdrops.
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