An interesting book where Rick Levine, Chris Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger posted 95 theses on the web, asserting that there was a new reality of the networked marketplace. This was written in 1999 and many of the points still resonant today. There are so many wonderful quotes such as: “Just because you’re not seeing a revolution — or what Hollywood has told you a revolution ought to look like — doesn’t mean there isn’t one going down.” “A useful expert is not someone with (containing) all the answers but someone who knows where to find answers. The new experts have value not by centralizing information and control but by being great “pointers” to other people and to useful, current information.” “The most important lesson Linux hackers teach is that whole markets can rapidly arise out of conversations that are independent not only of business, but also of government, education, and other powerful but hidebound institutions, thanks in large measure to something hackers helped invent precisely for that purpose: the Internet.” “The Internet is inherently seditious. It undermines unthinking respect for centralized authority, whether that “authority” is the neatly homogenized voice of broadcast advertising or the smarmy rhetoric of […]
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Worth a read and research https://ia800808.us.archive.org/17/items/GuerillaOpenAccessManifesto/Goamjuly2008.pdf Also here if the above link breaks: Goamjuly2008
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A very futuristic book with some really futuristic concepts. Great research and collection of stories and insights from many in the industry. Having been in this industry for just under 3 years I’m familiar with many of the concepts but when I talk about these concepts with those around me, I always get a blank stare. With my background in electrical engineering, software, hardware, electrical wiring skills, previous experience in working at an energy metering company and an interest in renewable energy, and combining this with blockchain technologies and micro payments, I thought about selling excess solar energy to my neighbour via the blockchain. What a cool and unique idea I thought! Then I read this book and the concept was already outlined there. Oh well. On a positive note, it at least validates it as a distinct possibility. The only thing to note about the book is that although all the ideas and concepts are amazing, it’s going to take time because this stuff is not easy. My selling excess energy to my neighbour idea is probably a 12 month project just for a small proof of concept. All going well, commercial reality is probably 5 years away. All in all […]
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The study of crypto-currencies and blockchain technologies has led me on a path that I would have never travelled on otherwise. Never in a million years would I have thought to read this book. The Creature from Jekyll Island is about how the Federal Reserve was created. It talks about where does money come from? Where does it go? Who makes it? The book is pretty chunky and I must admit, from about half way to 3/4 it got a bit heavy but the first half and the last quarter are brilliant. They say that to predict the future, one must study the past. From reading this book, I am not surprised that we are in the financial mess that we are in today. What is more alarming is that I don’t think it was even preventable. In fact, it was inevitable! Crypto-currencies with it’s fixed supply won’t solve all the problems, but it’s a start. Just the mere concept of being able to create a trillion dollars out of nothing blows my mind knowing what I know now.
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What is the link between this book and digital currencies or cryptocurrencies or even blockchain technologies? Surprisingly, the first part of the book goes into the history of where money came from, how in 1971, the USD was severed from the gold standard and from then on the US and other countries started printing money. Printing money is regarded as a bad thing for many reasons. This is why when bitcoin was created, it has a fixed supply of around 21 million. It was designed to mimic that of a natural resource like good. Finite. Everyone nowadays is jumping on this band wagon of blockchain technologies and smart contracts, which is great. I am as well. The difference being that my apprenticeship has started at the bottom. Learning about bitcoin has forced me to learn about what money is, where it came from and hopefully where it is going. Bitcoin wasn’t invented just for fun. It wasn’t invented so we could have smart contracts to automatically contracts without the need for lawyers. It was invented because there is a fundamental problem with the worlds money supply. There is an imbalance which means there will be a shift if something is […]
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