Taking a cursory look through history we see how bold and powerful new ideas have emerged from human creativity, the powers that be immediately panicked and derided it, and it eventually propagated through the population causing titanic advantages for our species.Literacy Revolution: For example, starting around 1600 we saw a revolution of literacy (and by extension art and science) that initially threatened the powers that be, but whose advantages were so immense that they soon overwhelmed those same powers and led the societies that embraced them into a new age of prosperity which culminated in:Industrial Revolution: The realization of factories and machinery ballooned in this well documented and studied time period that lasted through the early 20th century. But it wasn't the last 'revolution' our species has lived through.Transportation Revolution: With the invention of the car, mankind entered into a new paradigm in productivity. The railroad may have marked the true beginning of this particular age, but it was upon the invention and popularization of the personal auto that it went full exponential on us. It no longer took weeks to cross the country, and within a few decades air power allowed world wide travel in mere days... an impossible feat in the previous century. The only flaw was when humans tried to reason - what comes next? The future world they imagined merely extended their existing transportation revolution; They didn't bother to consider that an entirely different revolution was awaiting them. It was around this time that the governments realized that restricting humans from partaking in these new technologies would be disastrous - it was far better to subtly shape how their citizens could partake in these new innovations. For example, see the idiotic rules that Britain tried to enforce regarding automobiles which lead to a retardation of their entire auto industry (the effects of which can still be felt today).Information Revolution: Starting with the internet we began to experience the most radical revolution of all, one of information itself. The first seeds of this can be traced all the way back to the telegram, but it didn't really go exponential until digital computer networks began to light up across the country in the 1960's. This threatened governments more than ever before as they (and the other powers that be) realized that humans would have infinitely more sources to get their information from that before, and state controlled media (and by extension, thoughts) would become a thing of the past. Imagine how tough it was for someone in the 1960's to form a truly unbiased opinion about the world and their nation! They had only a limited amount of news channels and work gossip to go on, and if they stepped too far out of line ("hey, you aren't a commie are you?") they risked the destruction of their livelihood. These days we are encouraged to question everything, and the results of our new informational abilities has propelled us into a dizzying rocket of scientific and cultural progress: it seems like every day we are making moral and scientific breakthroughs across the globe now that the brightest minds in our species are no longer limited by distance.Financial Revolution: Though informational innovations aren't finished, I think its safe to say that with the majority of our species online the largest hurdle has been crossed in the information 'revolution'. Now we face one of money, and by extension influence. The first catalyst in this new social earthquake? Bitcoin. With it, we have created true financial innovation for the first time in centuries. True, stocks and bonds are neat, but they are artificial and social constructs: tricks of faith. Bitcoin was the first time that money itself emerged in a new and powerful form (made possible by the culmination of previous revolutions). Now, we have expanded on even that. We now have even newer and more impressive forms of money (including my favorite, Monero) which allow for the first time in human history the vision of true electronic cash that is untraceable and private.Like all the other revolutions, this one is going to be filled with idiots who say that it's just a cheap parlor trick:"What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches?" - The Quarterly Review, England (March 1825)"That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced." - Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909."The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works ..." -Newsweek, 1995.Just as well it will be filled with fools who say it is the "devil". They must all be ignored, as mountains as invincible as the Bethlehem Steel itself will crumble into ashes in its wake.But once the apex is crossed? Humans will be able to transact with anyone on the planet, instantly and freely. Our economy (due to productivity) is going to see such a mind-boggling acceleration that even you dear futurist would call me a loon if I could tell you about the world of 2045. Right now what is the value of all 'money' on Earth? A paltry $100 trillion? Foolishness!Imagine a world where there are a hundred corporations the size of Apple and Google and the money supply of our civilization is measured in the hundreds of quadrillions. This is the power of increased connectivity - an exponential increase in the ability of a system to generate useful ideas and inventions that we have seen play out time and time again through the history of our world.What comes next after this financial revolution? A revolution of consciousness itself as virtual reality and nano-machines let us connect our neurons with each other and AI in ways that would seem preposterous at the present? A revolution of medicine and biology? A revolution of intelligence? Who knows - if the past has taught us anything its that those who attempt to extrapolate too arrogantly are inevitably humbled by the awesome power of exponential progress in unexpected areas. via /r/Bitcoin http://bit.ly/1j00xAf
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