Human HiveMind: The Blockchain Renaissance of the 22nd Century
Oddtopia Design Fiction Shorts #3
Web3.0—a fleeting fad of the 21st century—became the bedrock of the Human HiveMind.
In the early 21st century, blockchain was just another burst tech bubble. Fast forward to the 22nd century, and the decentralized network and immutable ledger system were rediscovered as a compatible core for connecting our collective consciousness.
Every child has a brainchip installed at birth that acts as an auxiliary computer for their brain, each loaded with the basic operating system for everyone, but with a unique blockchain ledger, meticulously recording experiences, thoughts, and memories.
Smart contracts, originally created to automate financial agreements, now serve a social utility as a way we can make agreements with each other, about anything. Parents can set smart contracts for their children, automatically rewarding good behavior by releasing a Parental Lock password they’ve mentally set to private.
People can now trade and share tokenized thoughts in a literal intellectual marketplace. Inventors mint tokens for the ideas in their heads, selling shares to investors while keeping credit for origination. Contracted teams can form mental networks, sharing knowledge and insights securely throughout a project, while the smart contract ensures all memory of the work is deleted from their minds afterwards, ensuring the IP rights is owned by the corporation that hired them.
The decentralized nature of blockchain guarantees the privacy and security of personal data by allowing only authorized individuals to access specific parts of your mental ledger. As a result, sharing memory ledgers become a profound rite of passage for friendships. The act of giving someone a vivid experience of your past forged bonds stronger than words.
Historians emphasize that the grand, society changing promises made by the “cryptobros” of the early 21st century ultimately came true. 100 years later, their beloved technology formed the neural lattice of our social existence. We were all intricately woven together, as blocks on an infinite chain, in a magnificent tapestry of human civilization.
Notes from me:
I turned 33 today!
It’s the age Jesus was crucified, when Einstein published his theory of relativity, when Elon Musk founded SpaceX. It was the end of Alexander the Great’s conquests, and the start of Marie Curie’s research. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. Leonardo da Vinci was painting the Last Supper. MLK Jr. gave his famous speech. And Siddhartha Gautama was thinking about sitting down under a Bodhi Tree.
33 for me likely won’t be to anything historical, but I’m excited : ).
Oddtopia
noun
Neither utopia nor dystopia, but a cultural milieu defined by an (over)embracing of quirky, idiosyncratic societal norms.
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