A Generation Adrift and the Rise of Catallaxy Culture
n.b. use of the term ‘our generation’ in this article = Gen Z = 1996-onwards
n.b. American spelling of decentralized has unfortunately been universally adopted
With millennials set to become the biggest generation ever over the course of 2019, and Generation Z expected to comfortably outsize even them, there begins to emerge a notable shift in who the narrators of our world are. As we teeter on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, will our generation be ready to step into the cockpit?
Whilst the zeitgeist of any given period tends to be ascribed retrospectively, one might suggest a few terms that may find particular resonance with today’s youth; Frustration, Mistrust, Powerlessness, Privacy, Environmentalism, (anti)Social Media, Identity, Division, Loneliness, Mental Illness.
The imprudent apotheosis of any and all technology over the past several decades has given rise to some unpleasant effects. We have facilitated the emergence of a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to tell left from right and up from down. Garbage TV, mindless video games, targeted advertising, fake news, and speech suppression through political correctness have seriously impacted the group mind. It is not yet clear whether this will have long-term effects. Our critical faculties, our passion for language, our insatiable curiosity, and our sense of responsibility are slowly trending towards oblivion. Instead we have blind acceptance, willful ignorance, and an ironclad victimhood complex!
As we trudge through the muck and the mire, it is important to recognise the unique characteristics of our generation; and from them try to glean some sense of empowerment:
- We are going to be the biggest generation that has ever lived.
- We are the first truly tech-native group of beings on the planet.
- We have easier and more intuitive access to useful information than any previous generation. There is a caveat to this one: you have to be willing to look for it!
It can be hard to maintain mental composure in the face of all the dark, seductive forces that are vying for our attention. But that is exactly what we must strive to do. We are post-religion, we are post-information scarcity, we cannot allow atavistic intellectual constraints to reemerge. The difference between past inhibitors of cognition and those of now, is that we seem to willingly subject ourselves to them. We are aware of the dopamine-driven feedback loops on social media, we know that watching another SJW-owned compilation is not going to help us achieve anything, we feel guilt in our thirteenth hour of Netflix as our reflections stare back at us from yet another exhausted laptop screen. So why do we do it?
“We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” — Jim Rohn
I learnt today of the 1% rule. The result was the disappointing discovery that a tiny fraction of users on the internet contribute/create almost all of the content. How might things look if we could change this horribly asymmetric distribution? What if everyone spent less time fiddle-arsing about on Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and more time on the likes of Slate Star Codex, /r/AskScience, and Wikipedia? In doing so, people might begin to reignite the long-extinguished lust for knowledge, develop a better understanding of the world around them, and perhaps; maybe, begin to present informed opinions for discussion. Did you know that there’s a weird phenomenon whereby clicking the top (non-italicized) term of nearly any Wikipedia entry will eventually lead you to their Philosophy page? There is so much cool stuff to learn on the internet — USE IT. PARTICIPATE.
Might I suggest that the rise of ‘crypto culture’ (a ghastly term in desperate need of replacement; I would like to offer: Catallaxy Culture — reasoning at the end of article), and the problems I have outlined thus far are not mutually exclusive? Would it be too far to propose that it has provided many with refuge from the troubles of our time? As Carter puts it, ‘it’s a casino, and a political forum, and a tribal affiliation all rolled into one.’
It seems to me that those willing to expend the time and energy required to truly familiarise themselves with the Decentralized Revolution are rarely let down. I believe that our generation is frustrated beyond measure with the world around them. It is tricky to find positive things to rally for. Trump? May? The EU? Facebook?? Google??? We need something better. As the individual drowns in a torrent of data, all the old learnings, connections with nature, and belief structures are being atomised. What are we to become?
Fear not! The resurgence of a passion-invoking political, intellectual, and tribal identity is afoot. In some ways, its ideological roots are a form of counterculturalism. The Decentralized Dream has given rise to an entire spectrum of sedition, beliefs, and ideas. The hardliners, dreamers, memesters, maximalists, and polycoiners are all united under one common enemy — the trajectory on which we would otherwise be heading. We are now presented with a system blending political, economic, governance, and technological ideals into an adamantine ark for the Generation Adrift.
The fundamental axioms of Catallaxy Culture should be more or less as follows:
- The emergent properties of self-organised systems beat out those of imposition
- Vires in Numeris (strength in numbers; i.e. computation)
- Don’t Trust, Verify (trust has been tried and it has failed)
- Decentralize only where necessary
My reasoning for the employment of this term is that it hopes to more accurately encapsulate the wider sociological trend, without being so broad as to be devoid of meaning. It also doffs a cap to Hayek and the inspiration for Bitcoin’s monetary policy in the Austrian School of Economics. Hayek derived the word from the Greek verb katallasso (καταλλάσσω) which meant not only “to exchange” but also “to admit in the community” and “to change from enemy into friend.” Driven by Game Theory, the Nash equilibrium, and economic self-interest, actors drop in and out of participation in a thrilling display of dynamism. In this way, we can see how the term’s use may represent the complex adaptive systems of cryptonetworks.
I am very receptive to any suggestions for a name other than ‘crypto culture’!
