Sunday’s Schizophrenization #9
A world without future: the concept of store of value in the Era of AI
Your weekly ritual to decode the mutant language of the digital age, blending occult insights, technological cut-ups, and shards of a cyber horizon. Dive in, reformat.
SCHIZOHIGHLIGHTS, by
Semiotic flashes: moments from social networks and personal considerations about stuff.
A world without future: the concept of store of value in the Era of AI
I’m somewhat obsessed with time. Perhaps you’ve noticed from some of my articles and schizo-comments. Or maybe time is humanity’s obsession.
After all — and if you don’t know this, you should — temporal preferences shape our society on both individual and macro levels. Our relationship with time determines almost all of our choices, our philosophy of life, and our concept of death. Everything revolves around the idea of linear time: from point A to point B.
One concept in particular, that of the "store of value" — extremely popular among Bitcoiners — is closely tied to the idea of linear time. A store of value refers to a means by which wealth can be preserved without significant degradation over time, thus ensuring that the economic power embedded in the asset (gold, bitcoin, real estate) remains roughly the same in the future.
One of the main characteristics of a store of value is scarcity: an asset retains its value over time only if its supply remains constant or decreases. But there are other important attributes: durability, probable future acceptability, and liquidity. Gold has always been considered an excellent store of value because it is sufficiently scarce, extremely resistant to corrosion, widely accepted for thousands of years (because it’s beautiful, shiny, and useful), and reasonably liquid (meaning there will always be a market for it).
The same could be said for Bitcoin. The protocol ensures, barring substantial changes, its digital scarcity. It is highly durable thanks to the distribution and decentralization of its protocol, and it is extremely liquid. It is not yet widely accepted as a store of value, but it likely will be in the future.
In short, the function of a store of value is to preserve economic capacity over the passage of time, measured in linear terms (days, months, years). It’s like a temporal battery.
Linear time makes the concept of a store of value rational and predictable, but is that really all there is to it? Is time truly linear?
In reality, it is not. Even from a physical perspective, according to the theory of relativity, time is a dimension integrated into spacetime — a four-dimensional "fabric" where space and time are intertwined and transform into one another. Essentially, time is relative, and the notion of linearity — from point A to point B — is a human mental construct.
The relativity of time’s passage was also confirmed by scientist Michel Siffre, who in 1962 isolated himself for two months in a cave in the Alps, completely removed from any contact or instruments to measure time, relying only on his body’s regular rhythms.
His perception of time altered radically. He lost track of the days, and his biological cycles desynchronized from the 24-hour rhythm. By the end of the 63 days, he believed he had been in the cave for about 35 days, showing a significant compression of time.
Siffre empirically demonstrated that the human mind loses its ability to anchor itself to time, proving that it is a construct deeply tied to the environment and interactions with others.
So what happens if we introduce artificial intelligences, robots, and computer systems into our environment, entities that, unlike us, do not have a linear conception of time?
We humans are trapped in the perception of time as linear. In this structure, the store of value becomes essential for addressing future uncertainty. It’s a sort of psycho-biological device that answers our need for continuity in a precarious and transient context, such as our short lives.
Artificial intelligences, on the other hand, do not share this perception. For an AI, time is not linear. There is no uncertainty about the future because there is no future. AI operates in an eternal computational present. Every input is processed “here and now,” with no anxiety about the future and no reflection on the past.
An AI’s memory does not function like a human’s: it is not a narrative sequence but a vast lake of data where every memory exists simultaneously and can be accessed, manipulated, and rewritten at any moment. Past, present, and future collapse onto themselves, forming a timeless singularity.
The idea of preserving any kind of value for tomorrow makes no sense to artificial intelligence. The concept of a store of value is irrelevant. Value is not something to be preserved but to be processed, adapted, and utilized continuously.
So, if the concept of a store of value is tied to the linear perception of time, can it survive in a world increasingly dominated by artificial intelligences that will soon have full autonomy to act, work, and create on our behalf?
An artificial intelligence operating in the digital realm, in an a-temporal condition of eternal “here and now,” will it prefer to use economic tools with store-of-value characteristics, or will it instead choose instruments that maximize computational efficiency, speed and scalability?
And we humans, twenty, thirty, or fifty years from now… will we still choose to place our trust in assets with store-of-value characteristics, affirming our humanity, or will we surrender to the conditions dictated by super-intelligent artificial intelligences?
ECHOES
Timeless reflections: philosophical, esoteric, and historical wisdoms that resonate into the present and beyond.
The actor represents, but what he represents is always still in the future and already in the past, while his representation itself is impassive and divides, splits, without breaking, without acting or being acted upon.
— Gilles Deleuze
RETROWAVE
Visions from the past: excerpts and visions from cypherpunk mailing lists and the writings of the Cybernetics Culture Research Unit. From 1992 to 2003.
Genesis of neolemurianism, part three
Burroughs treats all conditions of existence as results of cosmic conflicts between competing intelligence agencies. In making themselves real, entities (must) also manufacture realities for themselves—realities whose potency often depends upon the stupefaction, subjugation, and enslavement of populations. These realities exist in conflict with other "reality programs."
Burroughs's fiction deliberately renounces the status of plausible representation to operate directly on this plane of magical war. Where realism merely reproduces the currently dominant reality program from within—never identifying the program's existence as such—Burroughs seeks to step outside the control codes to dismantle and rearrange them.
"Every act of writing is a sorcerous operation, a partisan action in a war where multitudes of factual events are guided by the powers of illusion..." (The Western Lands, pp. 253–254).
Even representative realism, albeit unknowingly, participates in magical war by collaborating with the dominant control system, implicitly endorsing its claim to be the only possible reality.
From the controllers’ perspective, Kaye notes:
"It is, of course, imperative that Burroughs is thought of as merely a writer of fiction. That’s why they have gone to such lengths to sideline him into a ghetto of literary experimentation."
Burroughs names the dominant control program the One God Universe (OGU). He wages war against the fiction of OGU, which builds its monopolistic dominion upon the magical power of the Word—upon programming and illusion. OGU establishes a fiction that operates at the most fatal level of reality, where questions of biological destiny and immortality are decided.
"Religions are weapons." (The Western Lands, p. 202)
To operate effectively, OGU must first deny the existence of magical war itself. There is only one reality: its own. By writing about magical war, Burroughs is initiating an act of war against OGU, injecting contestation directly into the "primal unity."
OGU incorporates all competing fictions into its own story, becoming the ultimate metanarrative. Alternative reality systems are reduced to negatively marked components of its mythos—other reality programs become Evil, associated with deception and delusion. OGU’s power lies in its ability to create fictions that repudiate their own fictional status: antifictions and unnonfictions.
As Kaye explains: "And that is why fiction can be a weapon in the struggle against Control."
DIGITAL GRIMOIRE
Digital security tactics: OpSec, Cybersec, OSINT, and AI tools to dominate the Digital Age.
Minimize your online exposure while taking notes
I’m sure that many of you use the default notes app on their android smartphones. Surely, it’s very convenient, but not really a good choice for your privacy. These apps, although they might offer data encryption (such as Google Keep) also let the providers acquire personal data and metadata such as IP address, device data, location data, etc.
If you care about minimizing your footprint online, you could instead use Notesnook — which you can also find on the F-Droid store. It employs top grade encryption, ensuring that notes are protected from unauthorized access. The app's zero-knowledge architecture also ensures that even the developers cannot access user notes. The developers also declare that no data or metadata is acquired during use.
Users can also access their notes on other devices, including computers, tablets, and other smartphones. You can also export your notes in various formats such as PDF, HTML, Markdown, and plain text. This is especially useful if you plan to feed your notes to an AI.
Try it out!
SYMBOLS
Memes: visual symbols that decode the schizophrenia of the Digital Age.
SUBNET
Emerging voices: articles and contents handpicked by me to inspire and connect.
The Tech Oligarchy Is Stealing Your Sexuality, by
. The article explores themes of digital culture, algorithmic manipulation, and the disintegration of social and sexual connections in modern society, focusing on a phenomenon known as "gooning." Emerging theories, such as the Red Pill movement, suggest that apps and algorithms are pushing men toward a state of social and sexual isolation. I don’t agree with all the conclusions in the article, but it offers an interesting and, in many parts, truthful reflection.Did you read the latest on Cyber Hermetica?
Return next week for another schizotechnic rendezvous.