This was written on February 21st, 2024.
It’s been 4 days since OpenAI first released their introduction to Sora on their YouTube channel, showcasing their impressive text-to-speech model. Today I feel more pressed for time than usual. This technology is progressing faster than I thought, but then again, that is the point of exponential growth, isn’t it? I’m sure by now you’ve heard of the expression “fold a piece of paper on itself 50 times, it will reach the sun from Earth”. This expression of the truth pertaining to exponentiality showcases the unfathomable speed at which these sorts of things can move.
We are on fold 15.
We are nearing escape velocity if we haven’t already reached it. The next fold could change humanity irreversibly unless that was on fold 14. In that case, we must look forward and be proactive. We are a heavily reactive species. We only start taking the environment seriously after we’ve caused extensive damage to it. We only quit smoking after we develop a bad cough or lung cancer. We only take responsibility after we already have dropped the ball, rather than be responsible in the first place. It’s hard to change habits. Trust me, I know. And changing the habit of our entire species is like changing the direction of an aircraft carrier with oars and paddles. But that’s the thing about momentum. Once we have it, it’s on our side. I believe we can still steer this ship, all of us together, in the right direction. It will be hard. It will be long. We might even fail and sink. But one thing about humanity is that we have always fought against the odds. Mammals held on while the dinosaurs reigned supreme 65 million years ago. When the asteroid hit and Earth underwent an extinction event, there were 4 more before that. In the African plains 200,000 years ago, we weren’t the strongest, biggest, or fastest creature, not even between the Homos. Yet we are here.
Why?
Life is meaningless. No, teen angst wasn’t correct. I mean that life has no built-in purpose; it is up to us to give it meaning. Humanity’s purpose is dictated by our own. Nobody else’s, including AGI. Maybe we can still stop it, but I know we won’t. It’s quite an easy tell, we are a reactive species remember? So, I’ve accepted this reality and chosen to be proactive.
This is why I created LockChain.
If we can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Or rather, distinguish from ‘em. The last stand we can use for digital authentication in a world where humans and deepfake created AI are indistinguishable from each other is our biometrics. The one thing that AI and robots cannot replicate is the very nature of us, what makes us, us. They can be completely photorealistic, have the exact same mannerisms as us and even have access to our personal information. But what they don’t have is our fingerprints.
They may propagate the internet, but they’ll never consolidate the Bitcoin protocol.
Bitcoin is like our biometrics in many ways. Like our fingerprints, our private keys are unique to us and us only. The nodes are our neurons, and the miners are our mitochondria. Bitcoin is on its own S-curve, and I argue it’s past fold 15. To destroy it is to destroy the internet, and to destroy the internet is to destroy AI. So, I don’t think humans or AGI will do that. That’s why it’s the perfect protocol to base our identity on. I know I’ve said this many times and I’ll keep saying it; I wish it didn’t have to be Bitcoin. I don’t want non-monetary transactions on the blockchain any less than the next laser eyes. But human identity in the face of deepfake adversity is just as important, I argue, as a decentralized peer-to-peer cash network. Many know Bitcoin to be a store of value. Isn’t storing a human’s unique identity so they don’t get scammed, impersonated, wrongfully sentenced, defrauded, etc. just as valuable as storing your economic energy? I believe the dangers of deepfake warrant my actions. I love Bitcoin and I have loved it since the first day I discovered it. I’ve been a hardcore believer since day one and it hurts to know that I will most definitely face backlash on my decision to build LockChain on the Bitcoin protocol. But it is a permissionless protocol and I will not ask for permission to build on it. That would be doing a disservice to Satoshi and to the network. If my transactions are valid, my fees rewarding miners and my nodes validating transactions, then my conscience can rest, even if my nerves can’t.
Don’t trust. Verify.