Reputation, Oracles and Bridges
A fundamental question to ask about our base reality is – what sets the universe in motion? Where did all that power come from to whiz everything round and about? That power is an invariant remnant from the birth of the cosmos – called energy. We actually don’t know yet the
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¹⁴² See Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science. Computational universe theory states that all processes, whether they are produced by human efforts or occur spontaneously in nature, can be viewed as computations.
¹⁴³ This idea, part of the computational universe theory, states that, due to computational irreducibility, we are bounded observers, embedded with the meta-existence of all rules in a computational universe.
¹⁴⁴ Why does the universe exist?
¹⁴⁶ See Time and Causal Networks in Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science, page 486. This idea was also explained by Stephen Wolfram here and here.
¹⁴⁷ In physics energy is closely related to time – see Noether's theorem.
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exact cosmogenic story for the base reality as a whole¹⁴⁸. What we know is that energy is an invariant property of the absolute kind of the universe according to the fundamental law of conservation of energy¹⁴⁹. Note that conservation of energy applies to closed systems, such as the universe – that’s why this law is absolute regarding the universe as a whole. But from computational universe’s bounded-observer[44] understanding, many times being limited observers we can’t meaningfully follow a closed system, such as in the case of life. A conservative system¹⁵⁰ that conservation of energy applies is a closed system with equilibrium behavior. The opposite, a dissipative system[13] is an open system that operates far from (thermodynamics) equilibrium. As discussed earlier[13, 28], life is a dissipative system, so is DAC economy[29]. And where DAC economy goes, DACmos[41] (dacmos, DAC cosmos) goes as well. One thing about dissipative system is that it does not need to have a conservation law¹⁵¹.
Now armed with a rudimentary understanding of energy and systems, let’s move from base reality to alternative reality realms, such as the metaverse and DACmos. The counterparts of time and energy in the base reality are blockchain and value in alternative reality – cryptocurrency, DAC economy, as well as the metaverse and DACmos. We have already discussed blockchain as log[32] to represent arrow of time[44] in the previous section, let’s take a closer look at value-as-energy in the alternative reality.
Energy in the base reality is everywhere and can take many forms. Although for life on earth, all the power (energy) comes from the sun¹⁵². In nature, whereas there exists ruthless selection pressure¹⁵³ for species to compete for energy and resource in order to survive, the overall ecosystem is mostly generative¹⁵⁴, not zero-sum (although zero-sum phenomena are everywhere when one takes a snapshot approach in observing nature). At the individual level, energy intake and consumption are perfected over millions of years of evolution to support a bigger ecosystem that is also extremely efficient in waste management¹⁵⁵. The energy efficiency comes from life and ecosystem’s dissipative nature where how energy transfers and flows through complex structures matters more than simple heat cycles. Those complex structures and processes in human-centric systems become value – real value[31] actually. So real value begets energy efficiency. Unfortunately current human-centric systems utilize another kind of value entity called preordainment of value[9] – an impostor of value[31] – instead of real value, as the communicative device[31] to transmit and coordinate energy transfer and utilization – which led to great energy inefficiency and waste. Despite the energy and resource management inefficiency this pretender of value elicits another, more malignant side-effect – centralization.
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¹⁴⁸ We know quite a lot about the beginning of the universe, but not enough to reason about the origin of the universe.
¹⁴⁹ Conservation of energy – note that a system’s conservation of energy is a consequence of time translation symmetry (TTS) and for systems that do not have TTS, it may not be possible to define conservation of energy.
¹⁵¹ More accurately it should be stated like the following – dissipative systems with continuous symmetries need not have a corresponding conservation law – again, see Noether's theorem.
¹⁵² The Sun is the ultimate source of energy for most of life on Earth.
¹⁵³ See Evolutionary pressure.
¹⁵⁴ Or regenerative, for that matter.
¹⁵⁵ See Energy flow through an ecosystem and Food web.
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In alternate reality value-as-energy should be interpreted through a computational universe[44] sense because we don’t have physical counterparts there like in the base reality – nonetheless since computation is fundamental to both realities, we could still understand and model alternative reality through system dynamics compatible with the computational universe framework (CUF)156. CUF can be the foundation to interpret and model both categories of reality – that is because value-as-energy comes through gateways between base reality and alternative reality. Those gateways are computational entry points – human minds (they are not digital computers but nonetheless computational in nature157) and computers – in mind- machine hybrid systems that produce alternative reality.
Through those value-as-energy (let’s call it VAE) gateways, we could observe two different categories of VAE corresponding to two different categories of systems – zero-sum VAE (zVAE) of conservative systems[45], and generative VAE (gVAE) of dissipative systems. In conservative systems of the base reality energy is an invariant scalar (quantity) which predicates the zero- sum characteristic of this system property. An intuitive observation of our base economy should reveal its dissipative and generative nature yet its dominant value entity, preordainment of value – money (and its derivatives) – is of the zero-sum VAE (zVAE) kind, not the generative VAE (gVAE) kind – real value[31] – that corresponds to a naturally dissipative economy. Why?
The reason why we have zVAE instead of gVAE to mismatch a dissipative economy is that historically it is rather difficult, if not outright impossible, to construct reliable operating value transmitting devices[31] to sustain a coherent alternative reality. Since a wholesome, sustainable value transmitting, or consensus[15, 42], range device to embody dissipative, gVAE processes was technologically out of reach, a makeshift snapshot sampling device, created out of a conservative, zVAE process – called market exchange process – which only captures asymptotic value of slices of an economy, was put in place as the dominant value device. A zVAE device gives the chance for centralized regimes to take over our society and economy.
That mismatch mentioned above was felt by many economists and they had tried over more than a century to come at a way to fix it. Most still transfixed by the ubiquitous centralized regimes that dominated our society and economy for millennia and can’t seem to devise past its mind gripping hold. One approach is simply trying to purge zVAE devices from society and economy altogether without building a vibrant gVAE alternative infrastructure as a replacement, which is inadequate. Another approach is to forcefully spread zVAE processes to every corner of our society and economy, infect all other processes and turn them into zVAE zombie processes like a cancer, thus masquerading a disease as a final solution to end history per se. Unfortunately the cryptocurrency sect of the blockchain movement is part of that final solution. Our approach, the Metis Way, is to start building real gVAE devices for a new kind of economy – DAC economy and its metamorphoses[43], DACmos.
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¹⁵⁶ The work has begun to rebuild the fundamental theory of physics with the computational universe framework (CUF).
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VAE is basically the carrier of mechanisms. Let’s look at some VAE samples:
(a) Token, the fungible kind, e.g., cryptocurrency, is a zVAE device, the same as money. (b) NFT158 also belongs to zVAE.
On the other hand,
(c) Ideas are not zVAE, although centralized regime tried hard to bend them into zVAE devices, such as IP159. Most people intuitively know that ideas are naturally not zero- sum, so forcing them to be the zVAE type is very unnatural and can only be achieved through coercive means.
(d) Reputation is also an intuitively generative characteristic; it can’t be traded160 like tokens, so it is definitely not zVAE type.
(e) Oracles[23] are not zVAE type either.
Unlike its counterpart zVAE, which is an invariant scalar, non-zVAE types can’t be assigned a number and then called gVAE, something more is needed – PVE[37], programmable value entity. PVE is a carrier that embodies VAE. Inside PVE the generative nature of gVAE is algorithmically defined. PVE can include & embody both zVAE and gVAE as components, and these VAE components can interact with each other as well (i.e., bonding to some curvature function). An example of a composited PVE could have a token component of zVAE type, a reputation component and an oracle component of gVAE type. The relationships defined by these zVAE and gVAE components also express specific characteristics of DAC, since PVE embodies DAC[37]. With PVE we could create new value types that might not have been thought possible before. One example concerns NFT. Ordinary NFT is of the zVAE type but we could construct a PVE with parameterized ingredients of both zVAE and gVAE to create a super NFT that could bear generative characteristic (from gVAE) – surely a new breed of NFT.
Since PVE embodies the true value[31] mechanism[19, 35, 47] of a DAC[35], we can envision the value dynamics of DAC economy and DACmos[46] to be swarms of PVE bees[23, 27] working hard in keeping a vibrant DAC cosmic garden (or many gardens – each DACmos could be its own DAC cosmic garden). Here PVE bees are participating operators of individual-centric DACs[17]. In concerning bees we’ve talked about cross-pollination[24] of those DAC gardens[24]. The cross- pollination mechanism pattern[24] works through PVE – PVE bears the pollen, the gene-pool[24] of DAC. From a software engineering angle[20, 43], PVE could be templates[38, 43] to make other PVEs and they can be inherited or composed with parameters to derive new breeds of PVE. The way to tweak a PVE is through the mechanism components of PVE – VAE, including both zVAE and gVAE variants.
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¹⁵⁸ Non-fungible tokens (NFT).
¹⁵⁹ Intellectual property (IP).
¹⁶⁰ Trading usually means zero-sum trade.
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PVE is the value communicative device in and out of DAC – and in the case of DACmos they could also be utilized to transmit value among different alternative realities – DACmoses. The conduit device to transmit PVE among DACs and DACmoses is called a PVE bridge (or DAC bridge, for that matter – since PVE embodies DAC[47]). PVE bridge could also be made up by its own breed of PVE – e.g., a bridge PVE could have a zVAE component of token, and a gVAE component of oracle. The traditional blockchain bridges¹⁶¹ only transmit zVAE type tokens – cryptocurrencies – and that might not be adequate in fulfilling interaction among diverse alternative value types of alternative realities. In that sense existing value exchanges for both blockchain games and the metaverse – GameFi[39]¹⁶², which only deals with zVAE types of crypto-tokens and NFTs – are not enough, especially for the real value[31] treading DACmos. We could build a new kind of GameFi with PVE bridges for DACmos that enables the value transmitting of both zVAE and gVAE types, e.g., super NFT. We could call our version DACFi, to differentiate it from the old kind, GameFi.
With that it is time to conclude Part III of our discussion. But our journey into a DAC economy future has just begun. The new mechanism patterns and methodologies we have discussed must be implemented in a computational universe[44] beyond blockchain that we’ve only started to unveil and understand. The complexity, vibrancy of DAC economy and DACmos shall reward us with excitement and quench our curiosity.
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¹⁶¹ Since there are many blockchains, there exist also many blockchain bridges.
¹⁶² Supposedly GameFi is where you can earn money (in the form of cryptocurrency) by playing games online.
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