I am commenting on this podcast. Mainly the second half about blockchain and time found here.
http://jmrphy.libsyn.com/ideology-intelligence-and-capital-with-nick-land
The podcast overall is great and both Nick and Justin raise some serious points. However I also do have some comments and I am not certain exactly if my comments are correct. I just wanted to raise them in any case for further discussions.
I am not sure I completely agree with Nick Land's take on how Nakamoto consensus shows that the blockchain can simply not function because the relativistic structure does not obtain.
I also think that both Justin Murphy and possibly Nick Land might not get network value. Maybe they do get it but listening to the podcast sometimes I found circular discussions. It would be interesting to hear Nick Gogerty's opinion on that. Nick Gogerty is the author of The Nature of Value where he explains the network affect and how it can grow value per node inside the network.
Quoting Nick Land.
Satoshi Nakamoto said that distributed consensus resolves a set of problems that include the priority of messages, global co-ordination and various problems that are exactly the problems that relativistic physics says are insoluble.
My comment:
I think that yes, the blockchain can work within the bounds of special relativistic physics on an Earth sized scale because the relativistic distortions in time and space are within the 10 minute block time and negligible so the errors and distortions can be resolved within the block time; as an aside it would be interesting to talk to Dan Larimer about the Graphene blockchain about this with 3 second blocks functioning well. It maybe that 3 seconds could still absorb the distortions as time distortion would be minimal.
But Bitcoin itself with its 10 minute blocks might get co-ordination problems say if we were running the blockchain between Earth and say Mars for example as the dimension in space is much further. We would need much longer time spans between blocks and then time and space becomes less ordered. I think the light time to Earth-Mars is 13 minutes one direction.
One more side-note.
Regarding "spooky action at a distance", it could be possible to exploit this super-position to run a blockchain also.
At the quantum level, it could be possible to run a new type of blockchain.
Quoting Nick Land.
In relativistic physics between two sufficiently distant points in space its simply impossible /meaningless to say which event comes first. (e.g. twin paradox). The notion of simultaneity is lost. Time order is lost.
Instead you have space-time co-ordinates in a certain reference frame, there is a certain ordering of events, but from another reference frame, that order of events may be completely inverted. So absolute Newtonian time is lost. Absolute Newtonian space is lost. The blockchain simply cannot function because that relativistic structure does not obtain." Nick Land.
My comment:
If you've seen the movie interstellar you might realise that this would be interesting to run a blockchain on a fast moving spacecraft and say another node on Earth. I can begin to imagine the affects. Has anyone crunched the numbers?
Additionally, from my own research. I think that time (in universe) might be a construct of human perception. Notice that as soon as it is hard for humans to perceive at the human level, massive long numbers and distances or minute small numbers and distances Newtonian physics breaks down. Further notice that the choice of frame of reference in the double slit experiment pre-determines the measurement outcome. That is, if the humans and our best measurement devices agree that they were measuring a particle, it was measured as a particle, and if the humans agree that they were measuring a waveform, then it was measured as a waveform.
Quantum mechanics is the best theory we have for describing the world at the nuts-and-bolts level of atoms and subatomic particles. Perhaps the most renowned of its mysteries is the fact that the outcome of a quantum experiment can change depending on whether or not we choose to measure some property of the particles involved. [1]
It might also be possible that the human brain itself can function in super-position at the quantum level deep within the structures of our brain. Some research is looking into this. [3]
Blockchain helps by creating artificial time anchor that agreed human perception can confirm with confidence.
To wind up and zoom out. If you want to go more fluid and start to look at what some of the ancient great hipster master philosophers said about time. The Zen hipster writer master Mumon was onto something I believe, and he did this by just meditating.
An instant realization sees endless time.
Endless time is as one moment.
When one comprehends the endless moment
He realizes the person who is seeing it. -Mumon [2]
Mumon is talking about the observer, the frame of reference and possibly collapsing the wave-function so the frame of reference can be changed. This is just my humble opinion.
References:
[1] http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170215-the-strange-link-between-the-human-mind-and-quantum-physics
[2] http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/glg/glg47.htm
[3] https://www.sciencealert.com/are-we-all-quantum-computers-with-quantum-brains