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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Charles Stross on Libertechbro Bitcoin Flim-Flammery

Of course, bitcoin is just warmed over 90s libertechbro cryptoanarchy. Here are some sections of my dissertation written a damn decade ago -- a close reading of Tim May's crytoanarchic nonsense (with a little Clay Shirky and Dorothy Denning nonsense sprinkled in), and a close reading of Eric Hughes' cryptoanarchic nonsense as well. For me the money (as it were) quote in the Stross takedown comes from the comments: A lot of people who should know better seem to think it's a good thing. Cryptoanarchic precincts were of course continuous with extropian transhumanoid futurological precincts -- no death! no taxes! Never forget that millennial market fundamentalists all came from cyberspace home of "Mine!" We've spent a generation in the smoking ruins of mercenary, deregulatory, financializing, crowdsourcing, austerian, crony libertechbrotarian schemes a lot of people who should know better still seem to think are good things. "Smart" devices that aren't, the internet of things that isn't, the 3Dfabbingnanofactorizing Revolution that isn't, the longevity enhancing therapies that won't, the geo-engineering solutions that aren't... are all unkillable zombie futurological fails the interminable successive failures of which will kill dead any future presents worth living in unless a lot of people who should know better kill them first with critique, with ridicule, and with progressive programmatic alternatives we educate, agitate, organize, and legislate on. For more on libertechbrotarian bitcoin in particular, the indispensable David Golumbia promises Bitcoing Will Eat Itself.

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