Bitcoin Kuu peal

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If there is a case for sending bitcoin to the moon, then it is this; to charge those who look to the night sky with the task of imagining a more just world.

See artikkel ilmus algselt Bitcoini ajakiri "Kuu probleem." Koopia saamiseks külastage meie kauplust.

Tšiilis Andide mägedest läänes asub Atacama kõrb - Maa kõige kuivem koht. Ekstreemne kuivus säilitab seal Maa vanimad muumiad ja tagab, et kõik peale kõige vastupidavama taimestiku ja loomastiku ühinevad nendega kiiresti surmaga. Sama varustus, mis ei suutnud Marsil elu tuvastada, andis Atacama pinnasega identseid tulemusi. Maastik sarnaneb nii väga kaugel asuva punase planeediga, et nii ulmefilmide tegijad kui ka NASA teadlased kogunevad sinna, et filmida ja katsetada kosmosekulgureid. Kõrge kõrgus koos praktiliselt olematu valgussaaste ja niiskusega loob täiesti selge taeva rohkem kui 200 ööl aastas, muutes Atacama piirkonna inimkonnale taevavaatluste esmaesitluskohaks.

Umbes 38 aastat enne Maa suurima maapealse teleskoobi ehitamist mõtisklesid USA toetatud diktaatori Augusto Pinocheti poliitvangid koonduslaagri kohal sama öötaevast. Üks, astronoomiat hästi tundev arst, juhtis väikest rühma oma kaasvange, kes uurisid igaõhtuseid tähtkujusid. Mõeldes nendele õppetundidele 2010. aasta dokumentaalfilmis, mäletas ellujäänud Luís Henriquez: „Meil kõigil oli … suure vabaduse tunne. Vaadeldes taevast ja tähti, imetledes tähtkujusid… tundsime end täiesti vabalt. Sõjavägi keelustas need astronoomiatunnid peagi, kartes, et vangid kasutavad oma teadmisi tähtkujude kohta põgenemisteede kavandamiseks.

Inimene on tuhandeid aastaid vaadanud taeva poole, et määrata kindlaks oma asukoht ja kaardistada kurssi tundmatu poole. Umbes 4.5 miljardit aastat tagasi toimunud vägivaldsest kosmilisest kokkupõrkest tekkinud Kuu vaimustas kõige varasemaid inimesi ja on sellest ajast peale jõudnud peaaegu kõigi maailma religioonide ikonograafiasse. Umbes aastal 428 eKr järeldas Kreeka filosoof Anaxagoras, et Kuu on hiiglaslik sfääriline kivi, mis peegeldas päikesevalgust. Umbes 2,397 aastat hiljem kohtus meie helesinine täpp kahe kuu pinnal seisva mehe pilguga. Seda hetke tähistati laialdaselt kui inimkonna suurimat teadussaavutust.

Kuid 24 tundi enne Apollo 11 käivitamist valmistus Valge Maja töötaja William Safire teistsuguseks tulemuseks. Kõnes, mille president Nixon oleks pidanud, kui Neil Armstrong ja Buzz Aldrin oleksid oma ekspeditsioonil hukkunud, kirjutas Safire:

“In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood. Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man’s search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts. For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind.”

USA seisukoht oli selge: olenemata tulemusest loetakse ainuüksi tundmatu poole jõudmine eduks. Ebaõnnestumine oli oleviku piiridele allumine. Selline oli rahvahulk Merritti saarest Central Parkini, kes puhkes rõõmust, kui Armstrong astus oma "väikese sammu inimese jaoks".

Kuid samal päeval, vaid mõne kvartali kaugusel Harlemis, teatas The New York Times, et kontserdile kogunenud 50,000 120 mustanahalise ameeriklase seast avaldas „üks kord [Kuu mooduli] puudutamise mainimine tuju”. Kuna peaaegu iga kolmas mustanahaline perekond elas tollal allpool vaesuspiiri, siis USA valitsus kulutas meeste Kuule saatmiseks tänapäeva dollarites rohkem kui XNUMX miljardit dollarit, illustreeris suurepäraselt seda, mida kodanikuõiguste aktivist Ralph Abernathy nimetas Ameerika „riiklike prioriteetide moonutamiseks. ”

Harlemi muusik, luuletaja ja aktivist Gil Scott-Heron tabas kriitika olemust:

“A rat done bit my sister Nell with whitey on the moon. Her face and arms began to swell and whitey’s on the moon. I can’t pay no doctor bill but whitey’s on the moon. Ten years from now I’ll be paying still while whitey’s on the moon. You know, the man just upped the rent last night cause whitey’s on the moon. No hot water, no toilet, no lights but whitey’s on the moon.”

Kuigi Harlem võis olla pahameele keskpunkt, ei olnud selle elanikud üksi. 1960. aastate jooksul uskus enamik ameeriklasi, et NASA Apollo kulutused ei ole seda hinda väärt. Käivitamise päeval leidis üks küsitlus, et heakskiit ületas napilt 50%. Programmi põhjendused keskenduvad teerajaja vaimule, Ameerika uhkusele ning teadmiste ja mõistmise püüdlustele. Kuid paljude jaoks tundus jutt kosmosevõistlusest Maa igapäevaelu karmide ebapiisavuste suhtes.

The Apollo program may not have been the ultimate demonstration of human achievement, but it wasn’t just an expensive piece of Cold War propaganda either. The crowds in Merritt Island and Harlem alike could not have imagined how the mission would alter mankind’s relationship with technology and facilitate groundbreaking advancements in engineering, medicine and technology — from the fuel cell to the modern computer. David Mindell wrote that “Apollo began in a world when hardware and electronics were suspect and might fail anytime. It ended with the realization that as electronics became integrated, computers could become reliable.” Between 1969 and 1972, 10 more men would follow in Armstrong and Aldrin’s footsteps.

Almost 50 years since the last Apollo mission, in the summer of 2021, Atlanta was the host of TABConf, a Bitcoin conference for some of the most dedicated enthusiasts of the technology. Near the end of her shift, an Atlanta bartender watched disinterestedly as a crowd of party-going conference attendees gathered. “It’s for something about bitcoin,” her customer explained. “Bitcoin,” she murmurs, then, more forcefully, “Bitcoin?” any sense of bemusement eclipsed by disdain. “How am I supposed to feed my kids bitcoin?”

She will likely react to the news that we’re sending bitcoin to the moon the same way she did then, along with the overwhelming majority of Americans. I suspect she would agree with sociologist Amitai Etzioni who, five years prior to Apollo 11, argued that all resources used for space exploration should instead be spent on healthcare and education. Or perhaps her core condemnation would center not on the expedition’s cost but on its apparent vanity. She’d find company with philosopher Lewis Mumford, who denounced Apollo as “an extravagant feat of technological exhibitionism” and compared the rocket’s command module “to the innermost chambers of the great pyramids, where the mummified body of the Pharaoh, surrounded by the miniaturized equipment necessary for magical travel to Heaven, was placed.” Of course, she may also feel that sending bitcoin to the moon is not only wasteful and vain, but yet another spectacle distracting us from genuine issues. Etzioni, who saw the space race as an act of escapism, would likely share her view. “By focusing on the Moon, we delay facing ourselves, as Americans and as citizens of the Earth,” he wrote. But perhaps escapism and introspection are two sides of the same coin.

Nii kaua, kui inimkond on kuud vaadanud, on selle müstika ja kaugus pakkunud meile tabula rasa, kujutlusvõime liivakasti, mille abil saame kujutada oma lootusi, ebakindlust ja nägemusi maailmast, mis on meie omast eraldatud. Kreeka filosoof Philolaus teoretiseeris, et Kuu võib uhkeldada inimeste, taimede, loomade ja Maa elanikele tuttavate maastikega, ainult palju suurem ja ilusam. Sellest ajast peale on järgnenud visioonid Kuu utoopiatest. Viisteist sajandit pärast Philolaust kirjeldas piiskop Francis Godwin Kuud kui paradiisi, mille elanikud hoidusid suurepäraselt patust. Neli aastakümmet hiljem pani Cyrano de Bergerac Kuule romaani, et seada kahtluse alla ühiskonna jäigad aksioomid. Kuuteadlane Bernd Brunner kirjutas, et Bergeraci satiiris: "Vanad inimesed kuuletuvad noortele... puud filosofeerivad ja makstakse pigem omakirjutatud luule kui müntidega." Vene autor Vassili Levšin kujutas Kuud ette kui "absoluutset võrdsust, kus pole ei sõdureid ega suverääne". Sajand hiljem, kui tööstusrevolutsioon pühkis üle Prantsusmaa, kirjutas Alexandre Cathelineau kuust, kus pole "mõrvu, sõdu ega haigusi". Püüdes ette kujutada paremat maailma Maal, on autorid kogu inimkonna ajaloo jooksul unistanud Kuu ühiskondadest, et teha kindlaks, millised tänapäevase elu elemendid võivad olla tarbetumad kui vajalikud.

“Old people obey the young… trees philosophize, and payment is made with self-written poetry rather than coins.”
– Bernd Brunner

The year is 2022 now, and bitcoin is on the moon. This, too, will not be without criticism. Seven hundred million people live on $2 a day, with bitcoin on the moon. A child dies every five seconds from preventable causes, but bitcoin’s on the moon. Political polarization, income inequality and the prison population are at all-time highs.

Bitcoin, too. And bitcoin’s on the moon.

Many people, especially those who could think of better uses for the money, undoubtedly will question the worth of sending bitcoin to the moon. Most will likely dismiss the mission as a silly marketing stunt. But a small number will be thrilled that their favorite investment and magazine now call the lunar surface home. All are perfectly reasonable reactions. Regardless of one’s views on the subject, it’s clear that we are stunted when we imagine future life on our planet. The economic, political and social institutions du jour shape our understanding of the world as is, in turn prohibiting us from imagining a world too different from our own. Scholar, poet and prison abolitionist Jackie Wang wrote that “unthinking” the prison requires “a mode of thinking that does not capitulate to the realism of the present.” Nearly 13 years ago, mankind’s first digital, stateless money was merely an idea. When its anonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, pressed “send” on an email containing the Bitcoin white paper, he set in motion one of mankind’s most ambitious endeavors — the creation of a universally accessible, peer-to-peer digital money owned and operated not by governments but by its users. Such an act required nothing less than a mode of thinking unconstrained by the present. Today, with the project still in its relative infancy, Bitcoin asks each of its users to engage in a collective imagination of a better future with better money.

If there is a case for sending bitcoin to the moon, then it is this; to charge those who look to the night sky with the task of imagining a more just world, radically different from our own. From now on, to echo Safire’s words, every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that forever hosts an act of defiance to the boundaries of the present and a dream for a better society. Part of me thinks that’s why Pinochet’s soldiers banned those astronomy lessons — not because the stars could navigate escaped prisoners out of the desert, but because he recognized that challenging power is impossible when we are restricted from imagining a world beyond reality.