{"id":5890,"date":"2020-07-28T11:37:50","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T15:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=5890"},"modified":"2020-07-28T11:37:50","modified_gmt":"2020-07-28T15:37:50","slug":"bitcoin-narrative-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/07\/28\/bitcoin-narrative-truth","title":{"rendered":"The Becoming of Bitcoin: A Narrative Untainted by Illusions of Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understanding Bitcoin as something static \u2014 as some \u2018thing\u2019<\/i><\/strong> with a solidified identity \u2014 is not understanding Bitcoin at all.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Bitcoin is not <\/span>being<\/span><\/i>. Bitcoin is <\/span>becoming<\/span><\/i>. The perpetuation of its identity is not terminal but rather instrumental to something else. Bitcoin maintains identity so that it can serve its meaning. And, like identity, meaning is malleable and exists only in the hivemind that projects it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A more revealing way to think about Bitcoin then is not to understand it as a physical construct \u2014 as a decentralized payment network operating on a cryptographic protocol \u2014 but as narrative. And don\u2019t just think of it as narrative in the most straightforward meaning of the word, as a representation or imitation of reality or a cultural artifact, but also take into account its deeper aspects \u2014 i.e. narrative as being constitutive of consciousness itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Narrative is not just as our mind\u2019s way of describing being, but also as its way of expressing and creating the possibilities of becoming. In other words, narratives aren\u2019t merely representations or imitations of reality \u2014 they <\/span>are <\/span><\/i>reality. Creator and author of Epsilon Theory Ben Hunt, whose ideas we shall visit again later, <\/span>defines<\/span><\/a> the concept of narrative as <\/span>\u201ca thoroughly postmodern idea. What I mean by this is that Narrative is a social construction, a malleable public representation of malleable public statements that lacks any inherent Truth with a capital T[\u2026]\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

While the epistemology of Truth with a capital T is beyond the scope of this piece, and while indeed the brilliant thinkers at Epsilon Theory are never too far from the truth (whatever it may mean) when they opine about narratives, there\u2019s an implied false dichotomy between \u2018narrative\u2019 and \u2018reality\u2019 in the above definition that mustn\u2019t remain unaddressed. If we choose to understand narratives as mere cultural artifacts \u2014 as nothing but products of our idle minds \u2014 then yes, narratives can definitely be deemed \u201cuntrue\u201d or \u201cdisconnected from observable facts.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But if we take the other, more unorthodox approach, and consider narratives as being constitutive of consciousness itself, then the true power of narratives \u2014 as creators and destroyers of worlds \u2014 becomes evident.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, to be perfectly clear, this isn’t just semantic hair-splitting. The point is to convince you that, for all that matters, the narrative is all there is. It is narratives that make the world go round. There isn\u2019t some occult deeper layer beyond the narrative where Truth with a capital T resides. Even if there is, we have no access to it. To borrow a quote from cognitive scientist Joscha Bach: <\/span>\u201cOur experience of the world that we\u2019re embedded on is not a secret direct wire to the physical reality. Physical reality is a weird quantum graph that we can never experience and get access to.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All we get to experience \u2014 as Paul Ric\u0153ur, the philosopher who\u2019s given us the most comprehensive characterization of narrative to date argues \u2014 are phenomena \u201cemploted\u201d with narrative. If we can\u2019t, by definition, experience the noumenon, and we never get to escape our brain\u2019s simulacrum of reality, then all we\u2019re really left with is… narrative.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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