Humans seem to have a great deal more ability to collect, process, and act on information than gorillas and orangutans, both of which are generally stronger and more physically fit than humans. This intellectual ability seems to be the reason that humans master the planet rather than some other animal. Among humans themselves, however, how does this advantage play out?
There have been a number of "meritocracies" in history, and these systems are based on a political philosophy which necessitates the identification of something called "merit." There is a fly in this ointment:
Political philosophies attempt to determine where "certain things, such as economic goods or power, should be" (from wikipedia), and "should" in that context is a justification for coercion. Coercion is a tool used by a party who can't or won't present a convincing argument to those whose behavior he or she seeks to alter. It's up to each person to decide for himself whether there is merit in that and cede goods or power accordingly. The political philosophy of meritocracy assumes that there is merit in the use of coercion, and that's the fly because many people view coercion as dishonorable and wicked.
MENSA, and Intertel-IQ are organizations intended to have members from the top ranks of human intelligence. Let's recognize that the ability to collect, process, and act on information can be called intelligence, and so can the ability to choose the "correct" answers on a standardized intelligence test. These are two different abilities, and it's the first that seems to have given humans the advantage over other species. I don't believe we are intelligent enough yet to understand that first ability in a way that allows for the kind of sorting that evolution does. Eugenicists think they are intelligent enough and I'm pretty sure they are wrong.
Since wealth collection is an effect of the ability to collect, process, and act on information, being wealthy often results from having that kind of intelligence. This is why "Let us control the money of a country and we care not who makes its laws," has become a well-known "maxim of the "money lenders" of the Old World" according to T.C. Daniels (2nd paragraph of his letter to Woodrow Wilson). This is the insight that tells me cryptocurrency will sort out humans. There will be people so poor that they don't want to have children, and people who do want to have children. Their desires will reflect their intelligence, not as measured by standardized tests, but as measured by their ability to collect wealth, ultimately, that fitness that is a kind of intelligence.
I don't advocate that, but I do recognize it. People with genes that provide higher intelligence will have more descendants than those without them. It's not just genes though. Humility, honesty, and transparency all contribute to that kind of intelligence. Learn to pay attention and teach attention-paying to your own kids so that you and yours can prosper in case I'm right about the future I'm predicting:
Many groups of people exist who hold an interest in a particular cryptocurrency. These currencies can be traded through the Internet or in person. Some (probably all) are vulnerable to various kinds of hacking attacks, but no asset is completely invulnerable. Humans been analyzing the pros and cons of various assets since w learned to trade, but trading them has been difficult until now. The cryptocurrencies that aren't worth much will be a playground on which smarter people collect wealth from less smart people. In fact, any free market serves as such a playground.
Smarter people will identify some characteristics that make a relatively useless cryptocurrency look attractive in order to encourage buying it. First, however, they will buy a bunch of it themselves. When less smart people start a rally, the smarter people will sell into it when they feel it's maxed out. This may revive a crypto and restore its usefulness for some time, but it's very difficult to tell when it will fall back into relative obscurity.
Transferring wealth from one group to another is the function of a casino. One can see that a casino offers patrons excitement and fun while investing in something because some smart person said it's a good idea isn't so exciting or fun. It can be fun if you really enjoy the exhilaration that comes from watching your asset get really valuable and the self-debasement that comes as it falls back to where you bought it (or lower) and you're still hoping for the moon. That wasn't fun for me.
I offer a solution. Measure your savings using your favorite numeraire (collect from above - I use dollars), and then decide what percentage of it you'd like to hold as each of the assets you think are good investments (process from above), and then make the trades to allocate your savings that way (act on the info, from above). This solution causes you to sell assets that have increased in value and buy those that have decreased in value. It's the old "buy low, sell high" strategy, where "low" and "high" are defined as relative to the last time you measured what your savings were worth. I trade almost every day, small amounts, driving prices back to where they were yesterday.
The trick is to use only those assets that will actually have some value in the future. If you're not careful, you'll eventually have a lot of something nobody wants to buy and a tiny bit of everything else you thought was good for savings. When using this strategy, more volatility benefits you, but again, you want assets that will hold value - just not necessarily steady value. And if you trade too often, you will waste profits paying transaction fees.
To summarize, collect, process, and act on information in two key ways so that you can participate and profit from the sorting of humans that will result from the age of cryptocurrencies. The first key way is to identify assets that will hold value. The second is to balance your savings. You can do this with any combination of genes and it will have a beneficial effects all around.
