The abstraction of an abstraction
I learned the other day that the New York Stock Exchange was purchased in 2013 by its derivatives exchange.
The fact that the abstraction of the marketplace (the stock exchange) was bought by an abstraction of the abstraction of the marketplace (the derivatives exchange) blows my mind.
How can that be real? Our systems have become untethered from reality.
They continuously bet that the future will be more prosperous than the present.
Which, given the nature of humans to improve improve improve, is a fair bet to make.
But everything we know about the world indicates that things don't, and can't, keep growing forever.
The exception that comes to mind is cancer, and we can all agree cancer is not something we want to keep growing.
If you think about the physical growth cycle of humans, we start small and grow fast.
Then, we stop growing. Why? I encourage you to think about it.
Why don't we keep getting bigger and bigger, becoming more and more powerful?
If you consume a disproportionate amount of the resources in your environment, it will unbalance your environment. The thing from which you emerged will cease to exist in the way that you need it to keep living.
If you ask me, acting as though we are not a part of the natural world is a serious mistake.
It's pretty cool that France was just like "USA u want a big green lady?"
And then we were like "sure." And then we made an island for it and there it is.
As humans, I think it's quite clear that the things we make will outlast us.
That's certainly the case for Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. He hasn't been around for 116 years, but his La Liberté éclairant le monde continues to illuminate the path to liberty every day.
It's easy to forget how fortunate we are to exist in a time of prosperity and peace, because it usually doesn't feel like it.
It's also easy to forget that Manhattan is an island.
Because it's huge, and packed with stuff.
Every time I go outside I see something worth going outside to see.
So I'm trying to do that asmap before winter is here.
The less variety of strategies and tactics -- the less resilient and sustainable we are as a species. Survivability aside, we're also less interesting, less colorful, and less human.