Hello steemians, it's now about two weeks that I am a member of this blockchain based platform, weeks in which I have already learned a lot about steemit, the blockchain etc. It is for sure only guessing how this whole thing will evolve in the future but I'm quite certain that the steemit platform, but above all the blockchain technology, has the potential to transfer the on-line world (and beyond).
Since I was born in 1965 I have the feeling that I'm in the top league here on steemit regarding age. I still remember the days when the Internet first came to our offices and very soon after to our private homes. That was somewhere in 1997, at least in the Netherlands where I live. Really fast forward to 2018 and we can only conclude that we are living in times of exponential growing technology. Are we really on our way to …... well, read further
I am eager to learn more about the the whole blockchain thing so besides checking posts here about the subject I also look for other sources on-line think about YouTube etc.
In this short time I find myself digging deeper and deeper and although I'm absolutely certain that I'm no way near a 10% knowledge on the subject, I feel the need to share some findings/insights I've collected over the last couple of weeks (yes, I was already interested in the blockchain before, that's why I found steemit obviously). Firstly to put it in perspective for myself and secondly to check my findings/insights with the steemit community: have I understood things the right way ?
So please, if you have something to add, clarify or whatever on this post, please do so. It's all for the (human) learning curve you know
Okay, so as I understand so far, the blockchain can been seen as Internet 3.0. We started Internet back in the 90s and the main features then were instant global communication and information (putting it there and retrieving it somehow through search engines). It was also mostly based on open protocols. But after a couple of years centralization started more and more to kick in resulting in the current Internet 2.0 ruled by tech giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook etc. They became so big because they developed (among others) nice social media applications feeding on the data we consumers freely gave to them. We got more and more addicted to their services and they got richer and richer by selling our data. Most importantly the Internet got centralized and that's not good. So back in 2008 a mysterious guy or group with extraordinary knowledge of cryptography developed the bitcoin but more importantly: the blockchain principle. Or was IT something else ? Read further....
The blockchain delivers the opposite of Internet 2.0: decentralized, distributed and back to open protocols. Started as a way to move digital money around the Internet without central middlemen, the blockchain offers fast growing applications that transform the Internet again, from communication and information (1.0) to (centralized) social and collaboration (2.0) to (decentralized) transactions and complete ecosystems built around trust. A competition between the big tech corporations and the new blockchain movement basically. Could be good don' t you think ?
So far so good but there seem to be downsides as well, just do a Google or YouTube search on “A.I, and blockchain” and the whole thing gets a different perspective, at least for me anyway.
It seems that A.I. is already deeply woven into the blockchain principle. One of the things that people may not know yet is that besides real people in flesh and blood the near future will see more and more DOA (eh...death on arrival ?) : decentralized autonomous organizations (ethereum) acting on the blockchain. In fact A.I. and a plethora of devices and objects forming the Internet of Things. Especially the A.I. thing worries me. Are we letting the A.I. break out, invade the Internet so to speak, consuming the data to do deep learning in a decentralized way ? Does the blockchain indeed act like a sort of “digital DNA” morphing quickly into the singularity ? Are we planting the seeds now to grow an A.G.I. (Artificial General Intelligence) ? Summoning the demon as people like Elon Musk and Stephan Hawking and many others warned us ?
In fact there is already something like the singularity.net that wants to create a decentralized market system for A.I. algorithms on the blockchain. One of the founders of singularity.net is Ben Goertzel maybe THE most brilliant mind on earth regarding A.I. There are rumors that he was the guy behind the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator(s) of the blockhain. The rumors go even further.... the blockchain code was not written by humans but by ….yes an AI ? How weird would this be ?
So what are your thoughts people ? What are your thoughts about the use of blockchain in the future. Are they only positive, or are there indeed some negative aspects we should consider as well? And what about the role of A.I. in the blockchain ? Will we humans still be able to control the whole thing in about a couple of years from now ?
I'm looking forward to read at least some comments on this subject here, so please post them here
Thank you for reading !