Shades of reality in computing
"Is there any point i buying a deepfake NFT with your Bitcoin to impress your AI girlfriend during a VR date?"
In this post I talk about the different shades of reality, and use it to look at why fiat, gold and cryptocurrencies are ārealā in different senses.
Shades of reality
I think the essence of reality is objectivity, or mind-independence. Another essence of the concept of reality is to focus on the totality of all that exists. There's also the conception of reality as that which is felt very strongly.
Very mind-independent: Mathematical reality and Material reality.
Mostly mind-independent across humans: Perceptual reality
- We all perceive the world in the same way because we have the same senses
Quite mind-independent across cultures: Social reality, Narratival/Ideological reality and Cognitive reality
- We come to make sense of the world in the same ways because we have similar brains and concerns as humans. E.g. the fact that most languages have broadly the same set of concepts.
Reality created by mediation: Media reality, Prophetic reality, Dogmatic reality
- Here there is meant to be something real, but we rely heavily on reports of others to access it, giving a lot of significance to the content of the reporting
Optional mind-independence: Virtual reality and Fictional reality
- E.g. digital spaces, video games, VR, and stories, films, etc.
Reality because everyone believes it: Memetic reality
- If a meme spreads, and loads of people come to believe in it, then it gains a kind of mind-independence, since it is in all minds. Example: Money - whether fiat currency or Bitcoin or Gold, the concept of a particular Nation, etc.
Speculative realities: Spiritual reality, Altered mental reality (e.g. dreams, hallucinations, psychedelic images)
- I must concede that there is some mind-independence to spirituality in that similar stories and reports appear across time and cultures, but because there is very little common core to the experiences, it creates doubts about how real it is. Cf. Common-Core/Diversity dilemma. I think the kinds of reality are here more because of an inclusive ("totality") conception of reality where we include them as real because we cannot deny the presence and importance of such fringe experiences in our society. Another reason to consider them real is because of conceptions of a strongly-felt ("romantic") sort of reality, where emphatic experiences are registered as more real.
These concepts help to add nuance to discussions of "is it real?".
So, is Bitcoin real?
The US dollar or any fiat currency gets its value from the need to do business in it - if you want to buy something from America, you first have to buy the US dollar. Thatās a kind of material reality. But why do Americans use the US dollar, what gives it social reality to them? Answer: a lot of it is tied to the meme of the nation. But it has slightly more reality than that because of the enforcement of its legal system. That creates another material reality.
Gold seems like a very old and pervasive meme. The use of gold in industrial applications doesnāt explain its price - its use in jewellery and investment does. Itās use as a safe investment is memetic. The use in jewellery is arguably a bit more mind independent. Jewellery quite objectively makes people look more beautiful (across cultures and times - perceptual/cognitive reality), gold has certain physical and chemical properties that make it really good for jewellery. Thereās some reality beyond memes in that.
If blockchain protocols developed real compelling and wide use-cases, then the need to transact in the token of the protocol would give the coin a more fundamental value detached from speculation. But they currently trade at prices far above this value. They trade like memes. Another argument is that they trade on the speculative value of what the compelling use-cases will be and how valuable they will be, including the compelling use-case of storing value in a cryptocurrency. Note that the memetic value of cryptocurrencies is not merely like the memetic value of GameStop stock. Rather, the fact that there are many real computers out there with the same record of transactions established by decentralised consensus - this is a deeper and infrastructural meme that underlies the price meme.
And the thing about memes is that if enough people believe them, then they become mind-independent and so they become true. I donāt know whether culture or conspiracy explains the proliferation of cryptocurrencies, but itās fascinating how much people have just bought into this meme.