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In this week’s podcast, “George Gilder on blockchain and carbon computing,” technology philosopher George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks, our director of the Walter Bradley Center, continued their discussion of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This time they focused on the future of blockchain, quantum computing and carbon computing – what difference will they make? Quite a lot it seems. Today we will see what happens when the blockchain goes global.
You can download Gilder’s new book, Gaming AI, for free here. The previous three episodes and transcripts of this series are also linked below. And so now …
Gilder and Marks discussed both the huge increase in interest in blockchain in China and the core weakness of Bitcoin, the engine of which is blockchain.
Robert J. Marks: What happened to blockchains? You talked a lot about blockchain in your book, Life after Google: the fall of big data and the rise of the blockchain economy.
George Gilder: The Chinese Communist government under Xi Jinping has adopted blockchain as a core technology for China’s future.
And it launched a blockchain platform for the entire Chinese economy and the new yuan digital currency that is affiliated with their blockchain platform, their national blockchain network. While members of Congress and US senators panic that Facebook could throw a Libra on the blockchain and somehow undermine the venerable dollar, the Chinese are navigating that blockchain.
I believe we are heading towards some sort of monetary crisis where Bitcoin will have its time, although Bitcoin has real limitations that make it difficult to become a currency. There is still room to generate a currency that can actually expand with the global economy, rather than being held like Bitcoin at an absolute limit of 21 million units.
Robert J. Marks (pictured): So this is a limitation, right?
George Gilder: This is a limitation that inherently makes it a deflationary currency. And this is a mistake. So, Bitcoin has its flaws, but despite this the blockchain is a new distributed architecture that is crucial for the internet and the global economy. Unlike the current internet architecture which is hacked eight billion times a year. The more we spend on Internet security, the less secure the Internet becomes, it is definitely hackable …
And therefore blockchain still plays a pivotal role in the future of technology. It can provide the foundation for distributed internet architecture rather than this porous pyramid we now have where all data, money and power rise to the top, where they are controlled by a few players, social networks, search engines and whatnot. , and where it can be hacked. You know, where it is, you know where the important information is, it’s at the top of the pyramid.
Note: Although Bitcoin survived the pandemic, it has been in the news a lot lately and not favorably. For example, in July, scammers gained access to a number of high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Kanye West, and Elon Musk, and used the opportunity to scam people with their Bitcoin money. Jonathan Bartlett reports that the security inside Bitcoin actually appears to facilitate scams. So bitcoin is safer from hackers but perhaps less safe from fraud. Some, like economics professor Gary Smith, see it as a classic bubble investment. The underlying blockchain technology, however, is considered to be quite robust and many think it holds the key to a technological renaissance.
It turns out that Gilder’s book, Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy (2018) was a hit in China:
George Gilder: Blockchains are really useful for any type of computational or transactional process, which needs a ground state, needs a secure ground state that cannot be manipulated. Blockchains will be very useful in the future. Advances in blockchain come almost every day, and the Chinese breakthrough is simply amazing. My book, Life after Google, it became a second best seller in China for a while. And last year it won the award for the best social science book in China, published in China. That’s why I’ve been to China so much in the last year, hunting for Life after Google.
They really adopted his message. I don’t know if they will … It will probably be a somewhat porous blockchain with backdoors for communist potentates, but the blockchain is quite difficult to manipulate. So there will be a struggle in China to define the limits of the blockchain and how it works. It will be very interesting to watch, because it gives you identity.
Note: to know more Life after Google, see Imagining life after Google and Why does Google seem to have a corporate nervous breakdown?
Gilder seems much more comfortable than many commentators with the growth of government surveillance:
George Gilder (pictured): Many people think that facial recognition is an identity threat. I want to be recognized when I go to the airport or whatever, rather than being treated like a terrorist like the TSA has to, treat everyone like a terrorist if they can actually identify you as the new Clear system in many airports now do.
They are trying to make progress using facial recognition. It’s great to have your Apple iPhone able to see and recognize your face and let you in right away, instead of having to remember which non-memorable password, complex number password you adopt for a particular app. I like facial recognition, I just think we’re making mistakes in understanding the new technology, which stem from our belief in a Singularity.
This idea that technology somehow threatens the human mind, threatens human jobs, threatens human uniqueness – this belief is really crippling our technology, because it makes people fearful and technology is actually good. Always create jobs. Technology never destroys jobs; at least in a free economy, it generates capital to create new jobs. People are not hired because they are unproductive. AI and other similar technologies make people more productive and therefore more employable and provide better jobs, safer jobs, and more creative jobs. My whole theme is that AI is a hopeful new amplifier of human work and employment, not a threat to human uniqueness or capabilities.
The next: Does Schrodinger’s cat think quantum computing is a sure thing?
Here are parts 1 to 3 of Robert J. Marks’ podcast discussion with George Gilder, including links to transcripts:
Why is AI a key battleground in philosophy and religion? Technology philosopher George Gilder explains. Spoiler: Think humans will win. The belief that artificial intelligence is superior to human ingenuity, according to Gilder, stems from exchanging maps for territory and models for reality.
What if fast computers intruded on carefully considering information before starting trading? Technology philosopher George Gilder explains why the larger computers running the stock market are the way to sudden panic, not stable prosperity.
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Has the Singularity been postponed indefinitely? Called out?
If a human brain has as many connections as the entire Internet, why should we merge with computers in a singularity? Technology philosopher George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks say they hear far less about computers with superhuman intelligence than ever before.
Show notes
- 00:26 | Presentation by George Gilder
- 1 o’clock | Blockchain
- 07:57 | Facial recognition
- 10:30 | Bitcoin
- 15:04 | Quantum computing
- 18:16 | Calculation of carbon
Additional resources
Download the podcast transcript
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