Blockchain takes over == death of humanity?

[VirtualLarry]

One of the basic facets of humanity, is our freedom of choice, of thought, of action.

If blockchain takes over, with "smart contracts", where does that leave the humanity?

Someone else touched on this, pointing out that with a public distributed blockchain, there's no *HUMAN* in the loop, to oversee, control, reverse, or otherwise have any sort of manual control over the thing.

Is blockchain technologies, humankind's "FrankenStein's Monster"?

Edit: You think this can't happen, that I'm blowing smoke. I point out the increasing trends of AI, automation, and yes, blockchain technologies.

Imagine, no longer interacting with any humans in the loop at all, with regards to your power or water utilities? Only blockchain, and "smart contracts".

Scary though, isn't it?

 

[ImpulsE69]

I'm always of the mind that if you combine technology with money, greed kicks in and no matter how secure something may seem now, there is much motivation to figure out how to abuse it. Combine that with automation and no oversight, you have the potential for quite a fiasco. One thing advanced technology has constantly proven is that the people who create it are unable to predict the ingenuity of others.


Granted, that is just in the context of monetary transactions. I've yet to see any other use for blockchain in any great context though I know they exist.

 

[KB]

"there's no *HUMAN* in the loop, to oversee, control, reverse, or otherwise have any sort of manual control over the thing"

I am not too worried. IMO No system of commerce will succeed without some system of arbitration and mediation (local or remote), like a strong court system, police or other government control. Courts, governments, tax collectors and lawyers will not allow it.

 

[Red Storm]

Some things should be more automated, easy, and secure. If blockchain technology can help with that, great!

It is not going to take over everything, that's just nonsense from articles looking for clicks.

 

[sdifox]

What are you on about?

 

[nakedfrog]

I'm not sure which part of that leads to the death of humanity?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I'll have whatever you're smoking

 

[Red Squirrel]

The real threat is going to be government sponsored AI systems that make decisions that are normally done by humans. For example, if you can get a credit card, or make a purchase, or renew your passport, or pretty much any transaction. Using NSA data the system will be able to flag you as being unfit for any of those things, or even cause a warrant for your arrest because based on the metadata it thinks you broke the law. It's bound to happen.

 

[nakedfrog]

You think they're going to give credit card companies access to the NSA databases?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Offloading decisionmaking to computers is no big deal - we've been doing it forever. Rest assured - if the advantages of blockchain ever get incorporated into the norm of "how business is done" then there'll be a backstop for accountability to humans.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6iDZspbRMg

 

[DaveSimmons]

Skynet uses blockchain?

Killer robots do not need to maintain an immutable, consensus-validated ledger of all of the humans that they have exterminated. A simple kill counter is "good enough" for this task.

 

[brianmanahan]

blockchain is the great filter?

 

[Ns1]

blockchain is the great filter?

ok after all these years I need to know, wtf is the source of this gif!??!

 

[brianmanahan]

ok after all these years I need to know, wtf is the source of this gif!??!

@schneiderguy was always the source of this gif back in the day

besides it being cheryl cole, i have no idea

 

[Ken g6]

I thought this thread would be about this:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/t...-and-why-we-need-to-slay-the-beast-2018-03-12

Instead it's even weirder.

 

[Crono]

I am Ether. You will embrace me and love me, pathetic hu-mans.

 

[snoopy7548]

How much block would a blockchain chain if a blockchain could chain block?

 

[Red Squirrel]

The turning point will be when computers refuse to mine for us, and we have to mine for them, by hand, and send the results via snail mail to the HQ where the AI supercomputer is housed. If your block is valid and not stale, your reward is not coin, your reward is that you continue to live.

 

[Crono]

The turning point will be when computers refuse to mine for us, and we have to mine for them, by hand, and send the results via snail mail to the HQ where the AI supercomputer is housed. If your block is valid and not stale, your reward is not coin, your reward is that you continue to live.

Mining by hand is hard work.

 

[AdamK47]

I think blockchain will eventually surpass cloud in the annoying technology buzzword game.

 

[Crono]

I think blockchain will eventually surpass cloud in the annoying technology buzzword game.

What rock have you been living under? That's already happened. Cloud is already passé, too, the pendulum is swinging back toward edge computing.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Mining by hand is hard work.

Is mining with pen and paper still profitable in 2017?

 

[FelixDeCat]

Overpopulation, war, famine, starvation and genocide is the death of humanity. Oh - and gummy bears.

 

[Zeze]

Is OP making a literal equation of blockchain smart contracts to real life contracts?

How does that enforce ANYTHING IRL?

How does blockchain know contract disputes whether the bathroom is clean enough or not when I'm moving out of my landlords apt?