Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 PhD Candidate, Department of Cultural Policy, Baqir al-Olum University, Qom, Iran
2 Associate Professor and Faculty Member, Department of Cultural Policy, Baqir al-Olum University, Qom, Iran
3 Associate Professor and Faculty Member, Department of Social Sciences, Baqir al-Olum University, Qom, Iran
Abstract
The application of blockchain technology can have meaningful and significant effects on the "public domain", especially in the space of public governance, public culture and ethics, social issues, public health, public economy and transactions, public organizations and cyber security. Several studies have identified governance challenges for the application of blockchain in the public domain and have assessed some of its implications in the public governance space.
Now, technology in its ups and downs history has manifested "postmodernism" in an objective way this time. Blockchain, on the one hand, has made it possible for a wider number of thoughts, opinions, and narratives to emerge, and on the other hand, it has made it possible to exercise decentralized and plural power; Both of these functions have led to the weakening and sometimes the destruction of the foundations of the government's authority and as if it has sounded the death knell of modern centralism.
Blockchain in the space of cyber technology philosophy indicates the beginning of a new space in technological and social developments; Worlds based on decentralization, distributedness (based on distributed ledger technology), challenges the levels and levels of the previous social order - with an emphasis on decentralization or decentralization of central power and governance; It is on this basis that the regulatory institutions in the public space and governance of societies seek to determine their relationship with this transformative technology.
Regarding blockchain technology, especially in the view of the creators of blockchain-based technological products such as cryptocurrencies, several metaphors have been proposed, and their analysis will be important in the blockchain ontology project. Based on the credit theory, among these metaphors, the metaphors that played a role in the beginning of this technology will have more important meanings.
Blockchain technology, like any computer program in the cyber space, has emerged based on the logic of systems. In the following, we will further discuss the “Blockchain as System” metaphor, which we consider to be the “most comprehensive metaphor” about Blockchain and, beyond that, a kind of default for other metaphors. However, the author's assessment of the various metaphors related to blockchain, corresponding to the metaphor of blockchain as a system, can be divided into three levels:
Transsystemic metaphors. Metaphors that are generally about the existence of blockchain technology, such as blockchain metaphors as a system, network, discourse. Metaphors about the structural and internal space of blockchain technology, such as the metaphors of address, code, coin.
Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies, and in a larger category of public and private blockchains, each is a product and system of blockchain technology, and each of these systems can be mentioned as a metaphor and example of blockchain; As in today's space, the most popular metaphor is "Blockchain as Bitcoin" and mainly in popular culture, people equate Blockchain with Bitcoin. In this type of metaphor, it is about how we get from a blockchain-based system (such as Bitcoin) to other blockchain-based systems (such as NFT) or to a blockchain-based meta-system.
Blockchain is an algorithmic system and network that is both orderly and order-creating, and can take people out of the conventional and everyday order that humans and citizens have achieved today in interaction with government institutions and in the conditions of political and political governance. Blockchain, based on that internal order and social order creation, is powerful and empowering; There is a projective power in his institution that can transform the foundations of existence, knowledge, man and society; This block chain can build both human and society (human blockchainization) and blockchainize existing human societies (digital society) and develop and expand blockchain societies.
Among blockchain metaphors, these three metaphors are more important than others: (1) Blockchain as cryptography. In blockchain, the nature of "message" is changed to "code" and on this basis, "meaning" is changed to "symbol". (2) Blockchain as a treasury. Blockchain, in addition to changing the nature of meaning, also changes the nature of power. Blockchain takes power from humans and turns it into cryptographic information in its treasury; stores power; It distributes power and ultimately supplies power. (3) Blockchain as God. Blockchain can be "everything" and contain anything; And at the same time not depend on anyone. Such a meaning will not lead to an understanding other than being "the Lord". Today's man is so intertwined in the digital society's taropods that, from the point of view of some, he will be able to achieve immortality by creating "immortality" in a digital artificial world. The design of categories such as "transhumanism" or transhumanism has become a basis for the realization of a post-humanist and post-humanist society.
In a way, this view can be seen in a kind of new theology based on technolism. A view that is based on the metaphor of "technology as God" and believes that the absolute power in the world and in the not-so-distant future belongs to that technology, and it is with technological advances that the control of technology over everything, even humans, will be realized.
Humans will gradually surrender their minds to the space of cloud computing and the logic of artificial intelligence algorithms, and life will be calculated, agreed upon and impossible to "make a mistake" (because it is impossible for a machine to make a mistake in its calculations); Based on this, imagine an orderly society without mistakes and problems, where everything is in its place and in the correct position; This is the "virtual paradise" provided by the digital God.
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