Crypto as Narratology
Stories of subversion, exit and a decentralist future have already laid the groundwork for the Grey Robes. It's now time to finish the story and build the moral-cultural temple.
We have said we need to conduct benevolent psyops campaigns. We have entertained the idea of Grand Narratives, or more prosaically, Micro-Metanarratives. And, more recently, I have argued—through both my words and actions—that
’s “Grey Tribe” must become the Grey Robes.Perhaps unknowingly,
is a High Priest of Grey. He has an interesting post that is remarkably and perhaps uncharacteristically right-brained. Or at least this is how a mega-left-brained person perceives the power of culture and story.Crypto folks tell a distinctive type of stories about the world, who they are, and how people like them get rich via crypto in a world like that. In these stories, the world is ignorant and broken, and could be much better, while they have unique penetrating insights which let them see past the lies and conformity to bravely and in teams fight to create and pursue longshot bets toward new kinds of tech and systems that could make for a much better world. And when people like that get rich, then in order to continue to support this sort of story, they tend to initiate, fund, and participate in longshot bet projects to make new better tech and systems.
And thankfully, all this is at odds with Patri Friedman’s woefully narrow Californian mindset: Meh, forget the philosophy. View everything as a startup or engineering problem.
Our readers know that engineers and founders without a philosophy mooring are just autists and Boy Pharaohs. Or, as Alexander Bard reminded me in a conversation yesterday, Prospera needs its own Burn or at least a yoga studio. The Bitcoin Center does not suffice as a temple or church.
Here’s Hanson again:
In addition, crypto rich tend to get rich at much younger ages than do other kinds of rich, as speculation under high crypto asset volatility creates wealth inequality much faster. So crypto folks get rich when they are still young and energetic, not set in their ways, with plenty of time to try to prove that all of their other contrarian beliefs are also based on deep insights that could plausibly allow for big revolutionary changes to the world. They weren’t just lucky, you see, and they plan to prove that to you.
And prove they must, or we will descend into a dark age.
But narratology—the art and science of storytelling—is at the leading edge of philosophy. We need a larger, more permanent cultural imprint in the minds of entrepreneurs and innovators. As Robert Breedlove and I discussed, the Bitcoin whitepaper is oozing with philosophical priors.
In other words, the Greys need
s The Network State guidebook, to be sure. But if nothing else, they must remember Balaji’s One Commandment.Every new startup society needs to have a moral premise at its core, one that its founding nation subscribes to, one that is supported by a digital history that a more powerful state can’t delete, one that justifies its existence as a righteous yet peaceful protest against the powers that be.
The fruit of the One Commandment is that for which you are willing to live or die. And for most people, that’s way more powerful than the prospect of getting rich, which, after a few years of couch surfing and HODLing, leaves one spiritually hollow. The fruit of the One Commandment is the stuff of glory, morality, and posterity—the fires that drive true Renaissance Men and Women.
To those who are either acting or LARPing as VCs and founders in the laboratory space, consider Hanson’s relative conversion.
Yes, I see real personal harms suffered by the losers in such worlds of intense speculation, but now I also see real social gains from such worlds. The sorts of stories that people in such worlds tell themselves to as to why it is they who got rich tend to push them to then, once rich, pursue ambitious interesting projects to change the world. And as I tend to agree with them that the world is in fact quite broken, and that there are contrarian-belief-based projects with great potential to improve the world, I now see great value arising from crypto speculation. Even if the use of crypto itself hasn’t yet, and doesn’t seem likely to, add that much value to the world. [Emphasis mine.]
A self-fulfilling prophecy is still a prophecy.
Every great civilization needs, as Alexander Bard says, to “kill the tyrants.” Every great civilization can use a story of exodus. And every great civilization needs a healthy mix of bold leadership and a philosophical and cultural priest class who work with them in tandem.
If this new sort of civilization is going to rise from the ashes of empires, we have to build a new temple in the ruins.
