I bet there's a true hive-mind species out there that would disagree.
Even bees centralize around the queen bee.
Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
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Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#32The point of open protocols is not that there will actually be many providers, but that one could switch providers easily if they do something fishy. It's about the threat, and what can happen on margin. Keeping a sword dangling over the monopolist's head is reasonable.
Plus, if these protocols are built on top of cryptographic methods, it might not be so easy for the providers to do something fishy in the first place.
Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#33Centralisation and decentralization goes in cycles. When we centralized too much, it breaks down, and the cycle repeats.
Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good for you, Mr. Exception-to-the-rule. (Btw, the same is true for me too).
And me. So your "exception" hypothesis is getting weaker :) You've really got me thinking. Is there a word for that thing when "everyone knows" what they think "everyone is doing", but once they start to dig deeper it turns out nobody really is? Everyone is pretending to, because they think that's what everybody should say and do? Mass delusion? Group fallacy? Fashion? Groupthink? None quite capture it.
Sample bias. HN crowd != people I know in real life.
Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#35Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#36And yet our economic and social systems have never been more decentralised...
Meta and Visa suddenly go permanently offline. What does the social and economic landscape look like now?
Meta goes offline, nothing of any importance changes.
Visa goes offline, people switch to mastercard or use cash.
Now compare that to living in the wild west, and the only town in 100miles bans you because you're slight different to them.
Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#37It is true that power laws are seen everywhere, and that there are reason for those. I like the article, because it exposes very quickly a very powerful idea, but I disagree with the conclusion. Information networks are built by humans, they are designed, they are not necessarily bound by the rules of evolution. Which means we may yet be able to find a system that is not afflicted by the curse of perpetual destructio…
"Information networks are built by humans, they are designed, they are not necessarily bound by the rules of evolution. Which means we may yet be able to find a system that is not afflicted by the curse of perpetual destruction and reconstruction."
Given humanity's track record, destruction and reconstruction seem like a solid bet.
Not to mention, systems will require change anywhere nature interacts with it.
Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#38Centralisation and decentralization goes in cycles. When we centralized too much, it breaks down, and the cycle repeats.
The pace at which this happens is determined by the barriers and limits of the context. This is why centralists want to have big barriers such as proprietary technology and government backing by laws and other force that protects their monopoly. To create a more dynamic environment in which we can swing back to more decentralized when a central hub becomes too powerful, we need to support communities and open protocols and resist the barriers, laws, and policies that prevent.
Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#39Tim Wu makes a similar argument in The Master Switch, a history of information networks and monopolies going back to telegraph networks in the 19th century.
Why stop at the 19th century? It's not like the cost of transmitting information was less expensive before then, nor was it less centralized (people who had the resources/knowledge to propagate such information).
The book already was pretty long...
Re: Centralization is inevitable, but decentralization is right behind it
#40That is, until the ease, quality and utility of fully decentralized systems exceeds the pain of the fragility and abusiveness of the current centralized offerings. The power of unenclosable carriers offered by breakthroughs such as Holochain https://holo.host is breathtaking.
This seemed like a cool project that actually had a use for a cryptocoin that wasn't pure scamming. Shame it was a scam ponzi anyway