In trad org theory, it is useful to deploy the metaphor of the organization as an artificial intelligence. The OG AGI in fact, running on paperwork-bureaucracy humanware computers. This metaphor informs Hobbes Leviathan, Rousseau’s social contract, Spencer’s social organism…
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But this metaphor is in fact broken because the basic laws of trad orgs need not be turing complete. The bylaws of a corp or the constitution of a nation may or may not be turing complete. Which means they have a domain/history shaped path-dependent limited expressivity.
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Or in less geeky terms, traditional orgs have the mission at their core. There’s limited ability to reshape the mission without destroying the org. This is why corporations rarely radically change business models.
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But “unstoppable machine” means perhaps you can develop highly expressive machines that can pivot missions and stakeholder populations much more. For better or worse. Great power, great responsibility etc.
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Human *language* is extremely expressive and turing complete since math and computer languages are subsets. But human behavior within trad orgs is *not* a full expression of this. It’s highly constrained. Hence the feeling of being turned into the cogs of a machine. twitter.com/sstrudeau/stat
This Tweet is unavailable.
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If you want radical mission-orientedness, you can design that into token so that (for eg) the machine is unstoppably vectored on say making cat memes. But if you want it to be a completely fluid vehicle of whatever mission might be most useful in 2320, you can do that too.
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The US constitution is a good primitive example.
Some want it unstoppably vectored on an Anglo-heritage Euro-Christian identity.
Ohers want it to be an abstract expression of ideal principles. If that means the US is a Mexican-Chinese neo-Islamic country by 2320 so be it.
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The reality is some messy combination of the two, with extremely leaky inter-penetrating “unstoppable automation” vs human-override capability. In computer science terms the US constitutional system is probably a Turing tarpit — “where everything is possible, but nothing is easy”
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tldr, if you’re experiencing a visceral negative reactions to Web3 because of the haraam techbro/cryptobro/VC origins, and vaguely formed arguments about “blockchains emit more carbon than X”… try and entertain the possibility that something much bigger is going on here
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There is a non-trivial chance that what’s taking root here will outlive all the ideologies and economic philosophies fighting over it today, and help solve climate change and shape societies centuries after climate change is a forgotten chapter and nobody knows what a VC is
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Forget about specific missions that matter today and think in terms of long-lived (I’m talking centuries) unstoppable machines that embody powerful potentials. 99% of DAOs will likely be buggy, short-lived failures. But 1% may become arks across time. Asimovian foundations.
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To me this stuff is exciting the same way ancient cities that survive the rise and fall of multiple civilizations and nations are exciting. Or the way the Long Now clock is exciting. Or the way Pioneer and Voyager space missions are exciting.
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Coda: Sometimes history is made by the wrong people doing the right thing for the wrong reasons. Sometimes it’s the only way history can be made. I’ve kinda made my peace with the idea that we’re in such a period. In a few areas (like China relations IMO) even Trump did that.
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And every person is the “wrong person” to someone and every reason is they”wrong reason” from the perspective of some other reason. Gotta be de facto consequentialist in times when deontological thinking turns to noise and all virtue ethics is kindergarten caricatures.
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Do you have some ideas on what a young person wanting to build one of these unstoppable machines one day should do/think about/read seriously?
Which fields of study could bring something relevant to the design of these new social constructs?
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Programming smart contracts. Nothing beats actually getting hands dirty building the machines themselves. If you’re young enough you have time to learn and get good.
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It’s a function of vision. Does the DAO look to raise a bunch of money on speculation or create a freestanding, value creating community? The DAOs who sustain aren’t known yet. They are working, not bullshitting.
Can invite you both to next week Twitter meetup “ DAO Challenges” , with Messari, OpenDAO confirmed
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