efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Over the past year we've all seen a concerning trend which has by now been given an official term, and even chosen by the Oxford English Dictionary as their word of the year: post-truth.
Many of us have been discussing, throughout various threads, possible ways to deal with this trend in a manner that is not just technically feasible, but more importantly democratic and realistic. Most agree our society desparately needs to change the way we handle information and misinformation, but as far as leaving such changes up to humans there doesn't seem to be a lot of optimism currently.
While browsing another thread an interesting idea occured to me, which after some searching I am happy to say has been thought of by more capable people before and is being experimented with around the world. Below is an excerpt from the economist which I think does a good job setting up the general idea and hinting at a possible vision for the future.
If this has already been discussed elsewhere on GAF or online by all means please link here. I'm especially interested in the opinions of more technically-minded gafers.
Continue reading the full article here:
http://www.economist.com/news/brief...not-know-or-trust-each-other-build-dependable
And for a more in depth explanation of what a blockchain is and how it works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain_(database)
For the less technically minded:
This idea requires at least a basic understanding of some of the technology behind bitcoin to understand, but there are explanations provided in the links above as well as in a more accessible manner below, and I (and hopefully also other, more knowledgable GAFers) would be glad to answer any questions that arise.
I know it's technical, but if it can actually be applied in such a way as to help the facts rise above the noise, then I think it's something every person concerned with truth in a "post-truth" era should learn about.
Additional links:
http://fortune.com/2016/05/08/why-blockchains-will-change-the-world/
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/unlock-the-blockchain
Many of us have been discussing, throughout various threads, possible ways to deal with this trend in a manner that is not just technically feasible, but more importantly democratic and realistic. Most agree our society desparately needs to change the way we handle information and misinformation, but as far as leaving such changes up to humans there doesn't seem to be a lot of optimism currently.
While browsing another thread an interesting idea occured to me, which after some searching I am happy to say has been thought of by more capable people before and is being experimented with around the world. Below is an excerpt from the economist which I think does a good job setting up the general idea and hinting at a possible vision for the future.
If this has already been discussed elsewhere on GAF or online by all means please link here. I'm especially interested in the opinions of more technically-minded gafers.
- Do you think there is potential to create such a platform - a distributed ledger of facts - based on principles similar to those of the Blockchain?
- Could such a platform provide the necessary influence to combat the growing trend of intellectual laziness?
- What system of rewards could be put in place to encourage people to use it?
Blockchains: The great chain of being sure about things
The technology behind bitcoin lets people who do not know or trust each other build a dependable ledger. This has implications far beyond the cryptocurrency
WHEN the Honduran police came to evict her in 2009 Mariana Catalina Izaguirre had lived in her lowly house for three decades. Unlike many of her neighbours in Tegucigalpa, the country’s capital, she even had an official title to the land on which it stood. But the records at the country’s Property Institute showed another person registered as its owner, too—and that person convinced a judge to sign an eviction order. By the time the legal confusion was finally sorted out, Ms Izaguirre’s house had been demolished.
It is the sort of thing that happens every day in places where land registries are badly kept, mismanaged and/or corrupt—which is to say across much of the world. This lack of secure property rights is an endemic source of insecurity and injustice. It also makes it harder to use a house or a piece of land as collateral, stymying investment and job creation.
Such problems seem worlds away from bitcoin, a currency based on clever cryptography which has a devoted following among mostly well-off, often anti-government and sometimes criminal geeks. But the cryptographic technology that underlies bitcoin, called the “blockchain”, has applications well beyond cash and currency. It offers a way for people who do not know or trust each other to create a record of who owns what that will compel the assent of everyone concerned. It is a way of making and preserving truths.
That is why politicians seeking to clean up the Property Institute in Honduras have asked Factom, an American startup, to provide a prototype of a blockchain-based land registry. Interest in the idea has also been expressed in Greece, which has no proper land registry and where only 7% of the territory is adequately mapped.
Continue reading the full article here:
http://www.economist.com/news/brief...not-know-or-trust-each-other-build-dependable
And for a more in depth explanation of what a blockchain is and how it works:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain_(database)
For the less technically minded:
This idea requires at least a basic understanding of some of the technology behind bitcoin to understand, but there are explanations provided in the links above as well as in a more accessible manner below, and I (and hopefully also other, more knowledgable GAFers) would be glad to answer any questions that arise.
I know it's technical, but if it can actually be applied in such a way as to help the facts rise above the noise, then I think it's something every person concerned with truth in a "post-truth" era should learn about.
Additional links:
http://fortune.com/2016/05/08/why-blockchains-will-change-the-world/
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/unlock-the-blockchain