I hail from Taft, California...
Home of the Lakeview Gusher in the early days of Wildcat Oil.
'Crude' culture runs thick through the small city's social vein.
Petrol is literally the life blood of the town.
Our high school year book was called "The Derrick" for goodness sake.
On top of this small pillar of factoids, I add that I was a young minister in the Pentecostal Church of God from age 18 - 22.
So, when P.T. Anderson's landmark movie, "There Will Be Blood" debuted, I scoffed at the trailer.
It just hit too close to home!
But, after all these years I have returned to the film and come to appreciate and even love it's subtlety and salience.
Having watched it recently, it was fresh on my mind when I came across a curious quote tucked within the Peerity.io whitepaper...
"Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of the Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather."
-John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, 1996 Source Title
Prior to witnessing this confluence, it had humorously occurred to me that in this movie, Mr. Plainview (played by Daniel Day Lewis) is literally "mining his own business." The obvious play on words being "Mind/Mined."
I was already familiar with chasing rabbits down holes regarding the curious relationship of business, mining, and mind - specifically as these concepts relate to early entrepreneurial crypto enthusiasts. However, the J.P. Barlow quote had registered on new level of intrigue for me, opening up a passage for even deeper thinking (mining the mind, again).
Consider the following, if you please.
The prize of any "boom," be it Crypto, Gold, Oil, etc. tends to command our attention. Yes, the tools associated within the prize industry tend to skyrocket in sales. This much is clear. Yet, there is a sort of simultaneous overshadowing cast by the prize, which often de-emphasizes the adjacent industries which are a direct result from said "boom."
Its easy to overlook some of the unsung positivity that organically arises out of these chapters of history. As a consequence, those things less pronounced often grow fallow, or wither into the forgotten.
Here looms something deeper, that Barlow's quote called to my attention. It is something that stirs in me enough that I wish to share it here.
Tools needed for successful operations have not always existed.
Rather, they were invented in cunning necessity in succession through trial and error. The greatest tools which have advanced any industry have always been according to the fruits of our labor. This is our intellectual property.
We visualize the solution, then vocalize it, then manifest it. We literally draw it up, out, and into the world. Like some form of wizardcraft, we pull our tools from the ether into the material plain.
As we mine for ore, we also mine our minds for innovative means to achieve it.
This captivates me.
It captivates me mostly, because this miraculous alchemy seems to be lost on us as "nothing special."
It makes me wonder, "what is more valuable? The ore, or the tools we create?"
Concordantly, I look at Cyberspace the same way I look at the early days and landscape of primitive oil drilling. It was crude and it was rugged. But over time we refined our techniques, we refined the industry.
It strikes me, that blockchain technology offers what copyright laws once promised.
You see, as we explore these rugged terrains of Cyberspace (the new home of the mind), mining for crypto, we invent tools. Furthermore, we discover and name alien concepts. While this value is often ignored, these names that we assign and these tools that we invent are extremely precious. They are valuable in more ways than one.
I propose that one reflection of their value is that they create legacy. They are valuable because they establish credibility. This is the kind of credit related to reputation - something that money cannot buy.
I for one am grateful that our findings are archived and secured in the "technolegdery" of modern blockchain. Knowing that it counts, that it is accounted for, and that I get can get credit gives me reason to contribute - because I know that what I add, goes on record.
Then the rabbit hole spirals me into a land of wonder...
We "coin" words, do we not?
We are "tenders" to this "mint," are we not?
I think there is a peculiar magic to this.
At the very least, there is certainly some inherent value worthy of evaluation.
This is the most perplexing part of it all -the relationship between code, crypto, traditional money, and language. How we name things is critical. What we name things is crucial. The word is the way. The word is significant because...
...words are keys that can unlock the mind.
This is advantageous to our crypto-enterprise, because these discoveries within the Cyberspace Frontier are not commonplace-knowledge. Part of the "trick" to naming these foreign concepts is configuring a way that affords the layman an accessibility to comprehending their nature. In this way, one might fully yield the empowering elements that accompany the noble tools we forge.
I have heard it said, "naming is prophecy."
This makes sense...
When I observe the vast amounts of new technology, be it software, firmware, hardware, a new crypto-currency, or concepts like "smart contracts," etc, that are being developed in these times, I notice a tremendous amount of mythological association imbued in the names that are being chosen.
For me, this elevates the idea of encryption, (cryptic) to a whole new vantage point, allowing us to see the great notion that we have unearthed. I am then faced with the responsibility that comes with understanding that their is tremendous value and meaning hidden in our names. By this acknowledgment, I feel we are all tasked with being conscientious about how we assign meaning through naming.
I marvel at how we have all been collected in this magnificent mag-net. It's amazing to me, this World Wide Web!
I'm reminded of the story of the Garden of Eden where Adam went about naming all things. The word, "Adam" has undeniable similarity to the words "Atom," and "Etym" (as in Etymology). Adam/Etym is the root man, the root word. Adam/Atom is the base structure, the building blocks of life.
I'm reminded of Michael Ende's "The Never Ending Story."
...where it is proclaimed that "humans are the namers" - which is the embodiment of the essence of human divinity.
I'm reminded of countless other stories like Rumpelstiltskin, where knowing the true name of any deity directly translates to possessing dominion over, and the authority to command it.
I'm reminded of how our currency has forever depicted imprinted Gods and Rulers.
I'm considering that these observations are like guiding stars - fixed luminous points that form constellations which tell the story of the great human pilgrimage through innovation and achievement.
..then I remember...
In Greek, which predates the story of Jesus - "Logos" means, "the Divine Word." It is well established, in modern Christian context that Jesus, is indeed, "the word."
It occurs to me that maybe Adam, as man, is our root. Therefor, Jesus as the word, is our fruit.
Maybe in this age of technology, we are excavating our roots to return to our selves as divine namers. Maybe all this mining is our way of tapping the source of ourselves and remembering our true nature.
Then, I'm reminded of this...
“Visit the interior of the earth, and by rectifying what you find there, you will discover the hidden stone (philosopher’s stone)”
Maybe this is the age of the Techno-Logos? After all...
"technically" speaking...speaking is technology.
A B R A C A D A B A R A
I don't yet have a fully fleshed out philosophy, or a perfectly coherent connection to all these fragmented observations...but believe me, I am mining the mind for a fluency in this currency. With what I'm discovering so far, I'm calling it - "Scripto-Currency," and it goes very very deep. These musings hardly scratch the surface of what lies beneath. I hope these concepts have seeded in you, and that you have taken something from my offering here. I have much to share. We have much to share.
With humble regard,
End Rant.
P.S. I used the word "literally" three times... I am well aware. Each instance was appropriate.
Littering And....
