I really like this take on Steemit and think it is pretty darned accurate. You nicely expressed the fact that sooner or later the only real capital an individual will have is their creativity, a position I recognized many years ago watching the QRIO choreography. I realized with a creeping sense of dread at the time (2006!) that it was inevitable that all physical tasks will ultimately be abe to be performed by robotics and advanced automated systems. In viewing QRIO it was clear that even ballerinas will have to compete with robots and unlike humans, they won't forget the choreography or have to spend hours learning it. Upload and perform, 100% perfectly every time. Humans were already relegated to back-up dancers for a robot in 2010, the conditioning for the transition is well under way.
I think you are right that Steemit has amazing potential but there are still a number of kinks to work out. Either Steemit will work it out in time or another decentralized platform with more equitable distribution channels that cannot be easily manipulated will. The first thing that occurs to me in this regards is a system that somehow measures actual productive time invested in a project and distributes crypto accordingly with upvotes, replies etc. functioning as some sort of gratuity above and beyond the base reward. With Zuck's statement promoting a basic income for everybody - and the active suppression of links to Steemit on FB - it is not much of a leap to imagine FB trying something like that. Hello David Eggers' "The Circle"!
It's almost funny how UBI is being dangled like a carrot to keep us in the corral. The actuality of physics that guides science, and thus ultimately, development, doesn't pay much heed to political agendas. It doesn't either care if we ontologically fail to predict it's impact, although we should, because such failures ensnare even those that do understand in the idealogical tangles intended to preclude the post market economy.
The desperate censorship of independent media isn't going to magically make Steemit go away, nor deflect the impact of the dispersal of means of production. Time and engineering will have their say, even if they manage to muzzle Steemit and every byte on the net.
Given the existential threat Steemit is to Gargle, Fakebook, and Twatter, it's present failure to optimize the rewards mechanisms to promote content, and thus growth, is a godsend to those outfits, giving them time to adopt competitive mechanisms and potentially resist replacement - but only until Steemit gets it's issues sorted, or a platform that does arises.
A worst case scenario (for me) is the dataharvesters aforementioned using Reddcoin or summat to emulate Steemit's rewards mechanism enough to keep their primacy, and the propaganda and censorship that promises. Of course, that can only happen insofar as they improve dispersal of wealth nominal to stave off Steemit, and thus is progress towards the inevitable anyway.
As to recognizing value of creativity, I am quite in favor of bots that suggest items to curators. However, I am presently sure that people are the ultimate test of content, and that bots voting is just like AI thinking for us, although still indirect, rather than providing those thoughts which produce the votes.
Every dance on the bleeding edge washes out the dancers that prance over the edge, eventually leaving only those that but push the envelope to keep dancing.
Had to laugh at the monikers Gargle and Twatter which I hadn't heard before. Hilarious. And while censorship won't make things magically go away, it does slow progress and allow the robber baron monopolists to keep people working and living for the company store. And the longer that happens, the greater the danger of a regulatory structure being brought to bear that will legally exclude free choice alternatives. Currently the collusion between the state and corporations is at an historical all-time-high and I think that is a very real danger. Look at how China regulates things and their "social credit score" approach where conformity to the party line and informing on non-conformists provides benefits to the "user". Together with Zuck the Cuck's throwing of freedom of speech under the bus, it is closer in the west than I think many realize. Time will tell.
You are quite correct that TPTB are trying to keep the cattle in the corral, but, as I pointed out in my posts, it is a futile effort - eventually.
One of that last kings of France, Louis XIV IIRC, famously said "Apres moi, le deluge." Loosely translated 'After I am dead, the SHTF, and I won't care.' Boy, did the SHTF on Bastille Day, as outraged peasantry beheaded every official in sight (which is where the term 'terrorism' comes from. It was coined to differentiate the nascent French revolutionary government, because it was so markedly bloody, and used the terror of the people to utterly control public dialogue).
Of some note, the present disparity in wealth between the 1% and the 99% in America is higher than that in France when the Monarchy was overthrown.
It is this attempt to simply stave off any correction until after they have died that further exacerbates the problems - and justifies outrage. I believe that the forces of history (as compel technological development) will make the present disgrace that is government obsolete, absent any political action whatsoever.
However, rubbing salt into the bleeding wounds of the victims of the current political farce is pissing people off, and I think we'll be lucky if the revolution coming doesn't make the bloody violence of the French revolution pale in comparison.
I'm agin' such violence. Ain't a damn thing I can do to prevent it, except to try to show it isn't necessary. Unfortunately, people that have been victimized by oppressors so cynical as to say "Let them eat cake" are gonna be after more than victory.
They are gonna want vengeance.
I think this is going to delay victory, by forcing those 'masters of the universe' that might be willing to give up their privilege to face the fact that, no matter what they do, they're gonna face the same mob vengeance as the worst of them.
The run-up to the American and French revolutions are definitely paralleled by developments in today's body politic. The difference being that in the redux versions bubbling up today, the politicians (and corporate overlords) have all been revealed to be the stooges of the private central banksters.
A sufficient portion of the population has awoken to the fact that democracies are a complete farce because the monetary system is controlled by non-elected sociopaths, and where the money flows so does power. That is why, I believe, the more people find out about cryptos - and it is still less than 10% of the population - the better.
A crypto revolution looks like the only chance to avoid a bloody revolution. Centralized authority based on a monopoly of violence can never possibly succeed in the long term, humanity is not meant to live in servitude. It is only a question of time until the giant awakes and asks itself why it is wearing chains instead of holding hands with its loved ones.
I completely agree, and I believe Steemit has exactly the potential you describe. The state does more than simply create a funding mechanism, and conversations and means of executing agreements based on the decisions of the people discussing, are necessary, and Steemit can do both.
That is why securing Steemit from Sybil attacks is so important to me. As long as Steemit can be easily captured by TPTB, it is not capable of creating an alternative to extant government.
Big accounts, like @freedom, @dan, etc..., simply cannot compete with REAL money, which is not measured in $MMs, but $TTs. There are people, or cabals, that would not spend more than petty cash to buy every Steem in existence.
Since those people are the threat we need to counter, we can only do that by preventing their money from controlling our weapon. Since that revolution is inevitable - we will be freed from coercion eventually - a weapon capable of defeating TPTB will effect that revolution.
If it isn't Steemit, it will be something like Steemit, but secure against Sybil attacks.