This article is written for those of us who are walking into the future between the decentralized and transparent world that Blockchain wants to establish its infrastructure and the world where the centralized and complex relations are kept confidential.
Before I start the article, I would like to tell you about 3 basic science fiction works in the dystopian universe that I used in the title.
These 3 basic science fiction works draw us 3 different future scenarios. Let’s briefly summarize all of them and introduce their relations with blockchain.
A superintelligence (artificial intelligence) computer drives all decisions made in Philip K. Dick’s novel Vulcan’s Hammer. The Union that rules the world is responsible for implementing the decisions made by the computer. This computer was a solution where people gave up their dominance in decisions after a great war, so we can call this computer ‘Algorithmic United Nations’, but the ‘Mysterious Healers Movement’ stands in front of the world and unity ruled by the computer, and they rebel by thinking that humanity should get rid of unity and computer management. In fact, we see that the reason for the wars in the essence of computer management in the novel is that it cannot prevent human pleasure and emotions, and the Unity is in charge of protecting and maintaining the completely rational management provided by the computer. The Mysterious Healers Movement thinks otherwise.
This story will probably sound familiar to you with the discussions of artificial intelligence today.
In 1984, the world is ruled by Big Brother, not a computer. Big Brother has turned society into cogs. Society has no other purpose than to turn the wheel. For this reason, freedoms and social relations have been sacrificed. Every move people made, every word they spoke was controlled by a device called a telescreen. You had to live every minute thinking you were being watched by someone. The thought police were everywhere.
The slogan of the world ruled by Big Brother gives us a striking clue about the novel:
“War is Peace,
Freedom is Slavery,
Ignorance is Power.”
In this world, the war of the 3 great states is constantly dominated, and the war is actually to provide for obedient. War provides reproduction, but does not provide comfort with consumption, so new ideas do not develop. It also ensures that the fear and uneasiness continue to rule the society in a totalitarian manner. This world is so totalitarian that Winston, who is opposed to this world, cannot be as strong as Arthur Pitt, the leader of the Mysterious Healers Movement, and Winston submits to Big Brother.
In Aldoux Huxley’s Brave New World, the motto of the Brave New World, which was established after the Great Economic Trouble after the Nine Years’ War, is “Community, Identity, Stability”. In order to ensure the continuity of these three principles, they established a new world order with scientific methods. At the heart of this order is a more technological aspect; human breeding and training is carried out in bottles in “incubation and conditioning” centres. This is a human factory. Population is fixed in this world and people are born like a product with a barcode. Emotions, thoughts, and actions are controlled by conditioning. The concept of family is considered obscene. Everyone belongs to everyone in this world. When people are alone, they use the drug called SOMA and get rid of their emotional burden. I guess gene research is already starting to scare you!
The outlier of Brave New World is John named Savage. John, a Shakespeare fan, was born among the Indians and tried to change the system by coming to Brave New World, but eventually committed suicide.
So why do we have a title for these books, and what does it have to do with blockchain?
What these worlds have in common is that they emerged after a crisis. There are many crises in our world today. In addition, another common aspect is the isolation and removal of people from their pleasure, feelings and thoughts. The third common aspect is that advanced technology is directed by a central authority for the stability of the order. The fourth common aspect is the reference to sociality rather than individuality. Fifth and last common point is that each world produces its opposition in some way, as far as I can see. In other words, even if the rebellion does not win, humanity wins, and of course, when the time comes, someone will emerge!
So how does blockchain stand up to this world? Because it provides decentralization. It allows people to do their own work by freely producing content. That is, it supports the free generation of ideas. Individuality and individual will are at the forefront. Therefore, blockchain minimizes this risk in the context of emerging technologies not serving a totalitarian structure. This is crucial in a world where tech companies are monopolized and can control us with our consent. What is the next step in this world, we don’t know? Web3 is therefore of great importance, but blockchain technology is not innocent either. Big VC investments and big whales are centralizing technology and minimizing government influence both positively and negatively. This technology minimizes our risk of encountering totalitarian dystopian examples no matter what. In this way, it always leaves us open to a world where human, individuality and freedom are possible, reasonable and positive.
Decentralization and free production are of great importance so that the New World is not somewhere between Big Brother and Brave New World, and so that Vulcan’s Hammer does not swing over it.
Therefore, it’s not just the system here, it’s not just consuming the system; It is also necessary to be a producer in the system. Blockchain supports the freelance working world, provides freelance production. The functioning of the system depends freely on the contribution that production makes to the world. It is the duty of all institutions and people to preserve the decentralization, diversity and multiculturalism of the system, because each of us is human after all. We create the question of what kind of world we want to live in with our current behaviors. We must act according to which tomorrow we want to bring closer to today, because one day we will live there.
To the People of the Free New World…
