MARGOTBITS Robotics, Science, and Other Interesting Tidbits

Originally published on Medium on July 16, 2024.

This is what ChatGPT thinks is a visual representation of the thesis of my short essay on the internet as a mode for all possibilities, including the one that lets us exit this failing system.

Dear readers, I’ve been very busy working on my research on Bitcoin mining. I’m trying really hard to get my PhD done by the end of next year. But, I’m still spending my spare time reading and thinking about how we can exit this system and how to frame Bitcoin from a perspective that does not rely only on pro-capitalist dogma and Austrian economics. Since I don’t have a lot of free time, I can’t write very long posts. But, when I have interesting thoughts I want to share, I would like to share them with you. By the way, if you like what I do, please support my efforts and make a donation. So here’s a very short post about the internet embodying both capitalist and anti-capitalist elements, offering us tools that enable us to build a new society by circumventing traditional economic structures.

The internet is both capitalist and anti-capitalist. This duality is reminiscent of late anthropologist Marcel Mauss’s observations on economic societies, where all possibilities occur simultaneously. On one hand, the capitalist structure can fully exploit the internet. On the other hand, people find ways to circumvent capitalist investment modes.

Take crowdfunding, for example. Crowdfunding is, in some ways, a modern example of a gift economy, built on social bonds and debt. It operates on a scale that seems impossible for what we think we understand about gift economies, given that it often involves strangers from around the world. Yet, it works because participants form a community that transcends physical closeness while maintaining essential social properties. Crowdfunding eliminates the need for capitalist money-lenders who seek rent from money lending (opportunity cost).

In essence, when you circumvent the existing structures of the system, you are already laying the foundation for a new society. This is why we must fight to keep the internet free and open. The same applies to Bitcoin. The tools we need to free ourselves from our failing system are already around us. We simply need to assemble the pieces, build, and fight.