Re:Buckminster Fuller predicted PoW, Bitcoin and it's conseq...
by Nomentatus on Friday May 28, 2021 @04:28PM
(#27320092)
That book is probably:
Conversations with Einstein by Alexander Moszkowski
https://archive.org/details/conversationswit00mosz
Re:Buckminster Fuller predicted PoW, Bitcoin and it's conseq...
by tiagotrs on Thursday May 27, 2021 @07:11PM
(#27309756)
thanks, I will look for documentation on that debate.
I think he looked at the energy work value as stable, as you need a fixed amount of Jaule to boil 1 liter of water from 20C.
In a way, he foresaw an energy based value system. maybe 'predict' bitcoin was a stretch
Re:Buckminster Fuller predicted PoW, Bitcoin and it's conseq...
by Nomentatus on Saturday May 29, 2021 @04:19AM
(#27323820)
I found it - see my other comment, I shoulda put it here.
You have a point that I had overlooked, yet in fact the joules needed to make a pencil or anything else do go down a bit each year. Efficiency is not the only kind of economic growth, but a large contributor.
In contrast, the joules needed to mine a Bitcoin go up quite steeply as time goes on and fewer are left to mine, by design. So I don't think this is a fit.
Re:Buckminster Fuller predicted PoW, Bitcoin and it's conseq...
by Nomentatus on Friday May 28, 2021 @04:30PM
(#27320112)
This is Marx's "Theory of Value," of course.
We obviously aren't going to have one catastrophically interdependent grid distributing energy from a few sources, either.
FWIW There's an interesting debate between an author and Einstein during the 1930s on whether energy is the limiting factor in economics, or human labor is, as Marx said. Einstein took Marx's side, but our more automated world tilts the other way a bit more every day.
No Buckminister Fuller didn't predict PoW, Bitcoin etc, in any way.