blockchain singularities

San Francisco CA, Aug 28, 2016Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga

Melanie SwanPhilosophy & Economic Theory

New School for Social Research, NY [email protected]

Blockchain SingularitiesBlockchain 101: the Automation Economy and the Future of Money

Part of a Series on Cryptophilosophycryptophilosophy

Aug 28, 2016Blockchain Singularities 2

Melanie Swan, Blockchain Futurist Philosophy and Economic Theory, New School

for Social Research, New York NY Founder, Institute for Blockchain Studies Singularity University Instructor; Institute for Ethics and

Emerging Technology Affiliate Scholar; EDGE Essayist; FQXi Advisor (Foundational Questions Inst)

Traditional Markets Background Economic Theory Leadership

New Economies research group

Source: http://www.melanieswan.com, http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf, http://blockchainstudies.org/Metaphilosophy_CFP.pdf

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewEconomies

Aug 28, 2016Blockchain Singularities

Blockchain

3Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491


Agenda

I. Blockchain technology: What is it? Basic: definition and status Advanced: automation economy

II. Singularity-class applications Friendly AI Brain as a DAC Bio-cryptoeconomy Blockchains in Space Nanotech/Synbio

III. Conclusion: Singularity futures

4


Thesis Statement

5

Beyond digitalizing money, payments, economics, and finance, blockchains are a

singularity-class technology that enables the secure, trackable, automated coordination of very large-scale projects, fleets, and swarms

The implications could be an orderly transition to the automation economy and trust-rich human-machine collaboration in the digital

smartnetwork societies of the future


Blockchain Technology: What is it?

6

Blockchain technology is the secure distributed ledger software that underlies cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin Bitcoin Internet of Money: Skype is an app allowing phone calls

via Internet without POTS; Bitcoin is an app allowing money transfer via the Internet without banks; ‘decentralized Paypal’

Internet(decentralized network)

Blockchain

Bitcoin

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

ApplicationLayer

Protocol Layer

InfrastructureLayer

SMTP

Email

VoIP

Phone calls

OSI Protocol Stack


Blockchain: a chain of transaction blocks Every 10 minutes, the latest

block of submitted transactions is validated (by cryptographic mining) and posted to a single distributed ledger

Each new block of transactions calls the last block, so that the transactions are chained together sequentially, hence the word blockchain

7Source: https://blockexplorer.com


Blockchains: secure transfer of money

8

Phase I: transfer information Modernize publishing, music, news;

content, information Phase 2: transfer money, property

Modernize of economics and finance Digital payments layer the Internet

never had

Baking the qualitative good of trust into the infrastructure Moving up the stack, pushing different

qualitative states through the Internet pipes, building future smartnetworks

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491


Singularity-class project: Financial Inclusion Just as the Printing Press and

the Internet flattened access to communicating information...

…blockchains are giving the power of the printing press to banking, credit, finance, economics, and currency Access to economic and financial

systems (credit) as a basic human right (4 billion unbanked)

Long-tail economics: any two parties can transact on the network

9Source: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491


Issue: hierarchy is not scalable

10Sources: What is Decentralization? http://futurememes.blogspot.com/search?q=datt.co, http://blog.midem.com/2016/04/blockchain-broken-music-industry/

Blockchains are a form of trust-making technology A system of checks and balances that is universal and

planetary-scale (Kardashev-level) New tiers of scalability are needed

Million-genome repositories (largest is 3700 currently), connectome databases to reveal brain structure


Economic Principles: not just for Economics

11

Economic Principles

Traditional Deployment Buy/sell transactions Financial markets

Blockchain Deployment Any interaction is a discovery

and exchange process Decentralized models

supplement hierarchy Demurrage: incitatory potential

and resource redistribution across network nodes

Reciprocal mining communities (smarthome IOT, brain BCI)

Blockchain technology is prompting a rethinking of economic principles

and concepts (resources, exchange, allocation, pricing,

distribution, markets) to apply in non-monetary contexts


Blockchain Economics and Finance

12

Bitcoin, Crypto-currencies Smart Contracts

Economics Finance

Spot, Cash Market Futures, Options Market

Present Future

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-payment-systems, http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-financial-networks, http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-temporality-smart-contract-timespecifiability-with-blocktime

Real-time payments Utility Settlement Coin (USC) (8/24/16)

Temporality Regime


Decentralized Economics and Finance

13

The organizing assumption of economic systems has been scarcity; an orientation to the

production and distribution of scarce material goods. This no longer holds in an era of digital services, non-rival

goods, and complementarity

Mindset Shifts: 1. Scarcity to Abundance

2. Labor to Fulfillment3. Hierarchy to Decentralization

The organizing assumption of financial systems has been the control or at least prediction of the future value of assets and

liabilities; finance = credit (credit is really about trust). Also no

longer holding.

Mindset Shifts: 1. Access instead of Ownership2. Topological Ranges instead

of Point Values3. Assurity instead of

Insufficiency

Source: New School New Economies and Finance Working Group: http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf

Economics Finance

Present FutureTemporality Regime


Abundance Philosophy of Economics: decentralized economics and finance

14Source: Swan, M. "Automation Economy: An Abundance Philosophy of Economics" In Emerging Technology and Unemployment. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming.

Phase I: transition to Automation Economy Phase II: transition to Actualization Economy

A

B

C


Agenda




15


Blockchains help Singularity-class Problems

16http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

Properties: secure trackable automated coordination of large-scale projects and large numbers of things

Fleets, swarms, and networks: IOT sensors, autonomous vehicles, synaptic

connections, deep-learners, social robotics, medical nanorobots, planet terraformers, synbio agents, environmental cleanup bots

Implication: vast amount of self-orchestrating network activity Automated system of checks and balances; all

“transactions” must confirm via reputation confirmation, algorithmic trust and smartnetwork consensus mechanisms


Blockchain AI AppsEnact Friendly AI (Artificial Intelligence)

17

Digital intelligences running on consensus-managed smartnetworks Not in isolation

Good reputational standing required to conduct operations Transactions to access resources

(like fund-raising), provide services, enter into contracts, even retire

Smartnetwork consensus only validates and records bonafide transactions from ‘good’ agents

Sources: http://cointelegraph.com/news/113368/blockchain-ai-5-top-reasons-the-blockchain-will-deliver-friendly-ai, http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/swan20141117


Brain DACs applied to Thinking Machines(Decentralized Autonomous Corporation (packages of smart contracts))

Automate thinking process Thinking is computational: input-

processing-output Blockchain-based deep learners

State storing: Recurrent neural nets Memory: modular machine learning

add-on (Neural Turing Machines) File-serving architecture, Internet’s

new plumbing: IPFS Predictability: structural equation

modeling, causal graphical models Example: Autonomous lab robots

On-chain IP discovery tracking

18Source: Swan, M. Blockchain Thinking: The Brain as a DAC. Neural Turing Machines: https://arxiv.org/abs/1410.5401.IPFS (Benet): https://medium.com/@ConsenSys/an-introduction-to-ipfs-9bba4860abd0#.bgig18cgp


Consciousness and the Brain as a DAC

1. Hard problem of consciousness What is it like to be a bat, me, you, etc. Consciousness and the human brain

Need to connect information and meaning Use Brain DACs to automate modeling

Big data needed for progress: Large-scale databases of personal connectome files to reveal brain structure, synaptic relations

2. Personal Thinking Chains (backup) Life-log memories, impute utility functions and

goals, generate QS biometric datastore Example: Oculus Rift–connectome integration

for experience sharing (SnapChat t+1)

19Source: Swan, M. Blockchain Thinking: The Brain as a DAC (Decentralized Autonomous Corporation). Technology and Society Magazine, IEEE 2015; 34(4): 41-52.


Large possibility space of Intelligence

20Source: Yudkovsky, E. In Roman V. Yampolskiy. Artificial Superintelligence. 2015.

Aug 28, 2016Blockchain Singularities 21

Future of Diverse Thinking Entities

Autonomous Car

Smart Contract DAOs/DACs

Enhanced Human

IOT/M2M Smartnetworks

Whole Brain Emulations

Hybrid

Classic Human

Source: http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2015/01/blockchain-thinking-transition-to.html

Neocortical Column Arrays

Deep-Learning Clusters

Machine Learning Algorithms

Simulated Minds

High-frequency Trading Networks

Real-time Bidding Arrays

Brain-computer Interfaces

Digital Mindfile Uploads

Artificial Life

Synthetic BiologyDesigned Life

Cellular Automata

Supercomputers AI Agents

Expert SystemsAutonomic Computing

Natural Language Processors

Brain Scans

AnimalsPersonal Robotics

Smarthome Networks


VR DACs: metaverse chains & prototyping Blockchains automate VR world-building

Simulations, models: QFT, entropy, etc. VR exceeds IRL limitations

Entertainment, challenge, fun, meaningful activity, 10,000 gaming hours; VR is composable and rewarding in ways the physical world is not; Simulation

VR/IRL interplay and embedded world Computational universe embedded in

physical universe (all objects “smart”; ARG: Pokémon Go, Ingress)

Physical universe in the computational universe (living in VR)

22Source: http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2015/09/vr-chains-and-dac-brains-upload-your.htmlhttp://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v11/n2/abs/nphys3230.html


Social Robotics Personal voice assistants,

social robotics All apps become voice-activated,

interactive Cross-cloud accessibility (IOT

smarthome, connected car, smartcity)

Fleet coordination functionality: Automated, secure,

tracking/logging, remunerative structure, transaction coordination, apps/processes (smart contracts), coordination (updates), audit log

23Source: Swan, M. Philosophy of Social Robotics: Abundance Economics. Sociorobotics, 2016. http://www.melanieswan.com/documents/SocialRobotics.pdf.


Nanotech Grey Goo and Runaway Synbio


Worry: Grey Goo (unchecked nanotech proliferation), DNA-printed synthetic bio-plague

Solution: signing; as physical-world engineers sign the bridges they build, likewise synbio engineers sign DNA and nanotech designs (unavoidable signing per detectable origins)


Instead of grey goo, blockchain Utility Fog

Blockchain-based nano-compilers create and manage on-demand utility fog

Utility fog: a collection of nanorobots that can replicate a physical structure on-demand Info probe, shield, control buffer,

assessment tool, in-situ resource cloud

Example: auto-chair DAC for diabetic patients

25


Bio-cryptoeconomics for secure automation and coordination of medical nanorobotics for cellular repair Secure crypto-transaction tracking Automated coordination

Medical nanorobotics as coming-onboard repair platform for the human body Activity coordinated, tracked, monitored High number of agents and “transactions” Secure automation is obvious requirement Crypto-tracking DAC coordinates medical

nanorobotic cell repair

26Sources: Bio-Cryptoeconomy: Nanorobotic DACs for Cell Repair and Enhancement http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2016/08/bio-cryptoeconomy-nanorobotic-dacs-for.html

Bio-cryptoeconomy Medical nanorobotic DACs to coordinate cell repair


Bio-cryptoeconomy Bio-Nano Repair DACs

In-cell repair DACs monitoring individual cell health and facilitating augmentation (enhancement platform)

Bio-DACs manage physical health and mental performance as a demurrage (action-inciting) health currency

Idea-tracking BCI-interfacing

27Sources: Bio-Cryptoeconomy: Nanorobotic DACs for Cell Repair and Enhancement http://futurememes.blogspot.com/2016/08/bio-cryptoeconomy-nanorobotic-dacs-for.html


BCI Cloudminds and Chainbrains Cloudmind: cloud-based thinker

or thinking entity Joining a cloudmind

collaboration, blockchains (cryptographic ledgers) to administer cloudminds Line-item tracking and credit-

assignation (like Github, or SVN/CVS for brainstorming)

Privacy, security Remuneration Protect against personal identity loss

and absorption into a groupmind

28Source: http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-cloudminds-humanmachine-pooledmind-dacs; Mind’ is generally denoting an entity with some capacity for processing, not the volitionary action and free will of a consciousness agent


Spacechains: Blockchains in Space


Advances in space Launch: microsats, small rockets, commercial

launch (reusability, rocket design), regular Mars launches planned each 26 months with large-cargo drops, communications networks,

Light sail and optical propulsion Asteroid mining, space settlement, transport Exoplanet discovery in habitable zones (Alpha

Centauri, TRAPPIST-1) Relevant blockchain functionality

Secure, track-able automation and coordination of numerous items (units and parameters) at very-large scale

Autonomous entities, Bitsat backup network


Blockchain IOT

30Sources: http://www.zdnet.com/article/internet-of-things-market-to-hit-7-1-trillion-by-2020-idc/, http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491

M2M/IOT Bitcoin payment network to enable the machine economy

IOT 2020: 26 bn devices in a $7 tn market The economic layer the web never had Smarthome IOT networks

Self-mining ecologies Privacy orchestration: devices, robotics, digital

personal health assistants Blockchains: economic principle-driven

large-scale resource allocation and coordination mechanisms

Smartcity Connected Car Coordination

Smarthome IOT and Personal Robotics

Coordination


Blockchain Health Blockchain technology in health-related applications1. EMRs: Personal Health Record Storage and Access

Personal health records stored and administered via blockchain Users key-permission doctors and other parties into records

2. Health Research Commons Aggregated personal medical records, quantified self data

commons (DNA.bits), genome and connectome files

3. Health Document Notary Services Proof-of-insurance, test results, prescriptions, status, condition,

treatment, physician referrals

4. Doctor Vendor RFP Services (Like Uber drivers) doctors and health practices bid to supply

medical services; automated bidding via tradenets

31Source: http://futurememes.blogspot.fr/2014/09/blockchain-health-remunerative-health.html


Cryptocurrency design features Economics as a design tool

Cryptocurrencies for non-monetary purposes Example: demurrage property, a built-in

mechanism for spend/action-taking Anti-inflationary, supply can be set to expire, redistribute,

etc. at certain moments Good for systems where want full consumption: drug,

neuro-transmitters, idea propagation, GBIs (Guaranteed Basic Income)

GBHA (Guaranteed Basic Health Initiative): paid out and payable in HealthCoin; HSA (Health Savings Account) 2.0

Fitbit is a demurrage health currency by encouraging action

32


Cryptocurrency design features Health itself as a demurrage currency, a

continually auto-redistributing commodity among synapses, cells, humans; body and brain as a DAO/DAC AI Cognitive enhancement drugs work this way,

maximize distribution in the neuro-stack: piracetams, CILTEP

Concept: demurrage resource-allocation + Đapp (blockchain-based distributed app) Automatic redistribution of any commodity within a system

(brain or mindfile (potentiation, optogenetic stimulation)), body (‘health’ (oxygen, waste removal nanobots, circulating lab-on-chips)), work team (ideas), society (liberty)

33


Blockchain Genomics

34

Jurisdictional regulation prevents individuals from having access to their own genetic data

http://genomesunzipped.org/2011/03/people-have-a-right-to-access-their-own-genetic-information.php


Bitcoin MOOCs Blockchain-based “Kiva for literacy”

Peer-to-peer learning contracts Literacy beyond reading

Technical, Agricultural, Vocational Literacy Blockchain-based personal development

contracts QS-biometric utility function imputation and tracking Maslow chains, subjectivation and actualization chains

Development Economics 2.0: CoinDrops Literacy contracts, remittances, blockchain-tracked

aid, microcredit, decentralized credit bureaus Open-source FICO scores Peer-vouched reputation

35


Digital Cryptocitizen Sensibility The new literacy: digital literacy

Cryptocitizen: back-up your money

Self-responsibility-taking; designing personalized economic, political, and social systems Governance services vs. being governed Monetary, economic, financial, and legal

services (example: self-designed mortgage)

36Source: Swan, M. Crypto Enlightenment: A Social Theory of Blockchains http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/the-crypto-enlightenment-social-theory-of-blockchains


Agenda




37


Blockchain downside and risks?

ISSUE

38

Satoshi Roundtable #3: Scaling Bitcoin Milan Oct 8-9, 2016

Hacking ScandalsMt Gox, Ethereum DAO, Bitfinex

Silk Road, drug dealers, terrorists, criminals

Scalability, Block size, Sidechains, Mining

Mining Centralization

RESPONSE

Centralization temporary; wider-spread at higher-scale; moving to 16

nm, solar/hydro-powered chips

Building resilient system constantly under open attack 24/7 (remember

early Internet DNS attacks)

Blockchains are a universal technology available to all; non-criminal activity predominates

Early Internet: this can’t scale, it is not resilient, Yahoo, AltaVista down for days of DNS attacksSource: http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-scaling-conference-italy


Technological Unemployment Key singularity-class challenge: orderly transition to the

Automation Economy Half (47%) of U.S. employment is at risk of automation in the

next two decades – Carl Frey, Oxford, 2015 Why are there still so many jobs in a world that could be

automating more quickly? – David Autor, MIT, 2015

39Source: Swan, M. "Automation Economy: An Abundance Philosophy of Economics" In Emerging Technology and Unemployment. Palgrave Macmillan. Forthcoming.


Next to Automate? Driving & Transportation Indicator: automotive company

R&D labs in Silicon Valley Autonomous passenger cars

Singapore self-driving taxis - 8/24/16 Uber’s first self-driving fleet arrives in

Pittsburgh – Aug 2016 Commercial trucking

“Autonomous Driving Long-Distance Trucks within Ten Years” - 2014

40Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/25/hail-progress-singapore-launches-worlds-first-self-driving-taxi-service, http://truckyeah.jalopnik.com/autonomous-driving-long-distance-trucks-will-be-a-reali-1603746933http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-first-self-driving-fleet-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on


Blockchain Applications by Sector (selected)

41Sources: http://www.amazon.com/Bitcoin-Blueprint-New-World-Currency/dp/1491920491http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-health-and-crypto-wellness-futures

Relevant Blockchain Properties

• Cryptoledger• Decentralized network• Trustless

counterparties• Independent

consensus-confirmed transactions

• Permanent record• Public records

repository• Notarization time-

stamping hashes• Universal format• Accessibility

Government & Legal

• Transnational orgs• Personalized

governance services• Voting, propositions• P2P bonds• Tele-attorney services• IP registration and

exchange• Tax receipts• Notary service and

document registry

Financial Services

• Currency• Payments &

Remittance• Banking & Finance• Clearing &

Settlement• Insurance• FinTech• Trading & Derivatives• QA & Internal Audit• Crowdfunding

IOT (M2M, computing)

• Agricultural & drone sensor networks

• Smarthome networks• Integrated smartcity,

connected car, smarthome sensors

• Self-driving car• Personalized robots,

robotic companions• Personalized drones• Digital assistants

• Communication (messaging)

• Large-scale coordination

• Entity ingress/egress• Transaction security

• Universal format• Large-scale multi-

data-stream integration

• Privacy and security• Real-time

accessibility

Health

• Universal EMR• Health databanks• QS Data Commons• Big health data

stream analytics• Digital health wallet• Smart property • HealthToken• Personal

development contracts

• Large-scale infrastructural element for coordination

• Checks-and-balances system for ‘good-player’ access

• Community supercomputing

• Crowd analysis• P2P resourcenets• Film, dataviz• AI: blockchain

advocates, friendly AI, blockchain learners, digital mindfile services

Science


Permissioned (identity-known) and Permissionless (anonymous) Ledgers

42Source: Swan, M. Blockchain Consensus Protocols. http://www.slideshare.net/lablogga/blockchain-consensus-protocols extended from: Swanson, T. (2015). Consensus as a service: a brief report on the emergence of permissioned, distributed ledger systems

New car: Enduser freedom• Censorship-resistant• ‘Brave new world’ apps• Anonymous validators (network

vulnerable to anonymous attack)

Better horse: Enterprise efficiency• Identity-confirmed• ‘Reinvent the existing world’

improvement apps• Official legal registry

Stellar


Seeking blockchain collaboration New School New Economies working group

Mission statement: http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf Join: https://www.facebook.com/groups/NewEconomies

Papers CFP 4000-word articles “Philosophy of Blockchains” due Oct 1,

2016, Wiley journal Metaphilosophy http://blockchainstudies.org/Metaphilosophy_CFP.pdf

Events: NY and CA Rethink/ECONOMICS, Thursday, September 15, 7-9 pm,

ConsenSys, 49 Bogart Street, Suite 22, Brooklyn NY 11249 https://www.facebook.com/events/960033624119253/

Book / special journal issue contributions Decentralized economics, Decentralized finance

43Source: http://blockchainstudies.org/NSNE.pdf

Thank You! Questions?


Thesis Statement

44

Beyond digitalizing money, payments, economics, and finance, blockchains are a

singularity-class technology that enables the secure, trackable, automated coordination of very large-scale projects, fleets, and swarms

The implications could be an orderly transition to the automation economy and trust-rich human-machine collaboration in the digital

smartnetwork societies of the future

San Francisco CA, Aug 28, 2016Slides: http://slideshare.net/LaBlogga

Melanie SwanPhilosophy & Economic Theory

New School for Social Research, NY [email protected]

Blockchain SingularitiesBlockchain 101: the Automation Economy and the Future of Money

Part of a Series on Cryptophilosophycryptophilosophy

Thank You! Questions?