Re: <nettime> Ten years in, nobody has come up with a use for blockchain

[Morlock Elloi <morlockelloi@gmail.com>]

I more or less agree with this, not sure if others do.

Having gone through cycles of development, I see randomness - sheer 
luck, and not doing something utterly stupid as key factors, in that 
order. The original volume of proposals is high, people try everything, 
and only a tiny fraction gets a traction (rhymes!) The most dramatic 
successes are often accidental, the designers had something else in mind 
- which is to be expected, as the hardest thing when creating something 
new is unlearning the context, one simply doesn't invent on demand. Once 
the traction happens, it's attractive to re-create the narrative and 
'explain' how it came to be, deep insights, talent, mystical powers, etc.

Moving ahead from the invention point, there is progressively more 
influence "culture, world view, and politics", reacting with invention 
in novel ways, and in the end that is the only factor that matters.

On 12/30/17, 14:04, Matt Nish-Lapidus wrote:
> Do you see a possible scenario where it's not a nefarious plot, but
> instead that technology is invented, iterated, and adopted based on
> culture, world view, and politics that are often latent and/or are held
> in complete obliviousness?

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