The Ledger of Life
“Reputation is what strangers think of you and character is what your friends know you are”
Ricky Gervais
One of the broken features of Steem is the reputation system as it was so easily gamed at the start through the circles and then, even more so through the use of bidbots to artificially increase it. Sure, profits were the main reason that bidbots were used, the bump to reputation was just a side effect of the process. However as broken as it is, the idea behind it is quite solid, use community support to develop a trust metric.
Last year at Steemfest3 I was listening to @blocktrades talk about his hope to one day build a "web of trust" system and some of the difficulties associated with it. In the world of blockchain which is a trustless system, when it comes to social interaction it might be beneficial to be able to have the ability to have a trusted metric to evaluate individuals and with blockchain, this might be somewhat possible through sheer amounts of data being able to be tracked and cross-referenced.
In many ways, blockchain has the potential to get "dystopian nightmare" very fast if it is used in this way, and most likely it will be attempted. However, wouldn't you want to know the track record of your doctor? A doctor might have a good reputation but, what would their friends have to say about them, with the "friends" seeing the real person, the reality of the outcomes of action in the case of a blockchain.
You know those people who brag about their winnings yet never seem to acknowledge any losses? What are the chances of them beating the system that no one else is able to best? Would the "great husband" be labelled that by his mistress? The trader who only talks in percentages and gives advice, yet has nothing to show for all the great investments made? Besides the dystopia of having our every move tracked and leveraged against us, I wonder what our character would become if the reality of all of our actions were knowable.
When I was a young kid around 7 or 8, I would imagine this in a different way. What I thought about is what kinds of statistics I would have accomplished in my life time and pictured that after death I would be given a searchable ledger that could tell me how many times I did this, that or the other thing. My figuring was that if there was a God that new everything, this shouldn't be an issue at all.
The immutable Godchain?
These days I am agnostic on the existence of God and the ledger of life but perhaps in some way through the development of technology, it would be possible to get a similar outcome. For example, how many blockchains are we going to be recorded on in the future and what would happen when we are able to cross-reference points of data in time with dozens of other points. Will that be a web of trust?
I find it an interesting thought exercise to think about how different our opinions might be if we saw ourselves through the eyes of others, through our friends, strangers an the thoughts that we generate through our interaction, whether active or passive. Would our character that we believe we have shine, or would we be something altogether different - would we like ourselves?
I find that we have created a networked world where what people know of us is largely half truths and for many, the reality of who we are is quite different to the online reputation we hold. I wonder what happens when the worlds collide and we begin to see our reflection in what we have created, in how we have made others think and feel.
I wonder that if we met in real life, would we support each other?
It is something that one would have to consider in a social world isn't it? Unfortunately it seems that this is no really the case as most of the social medias encourage "branding" of an identity, and often that is directed at what sells, not what the person actually is. It is the picture of the burger with fresh lettuce and tomato in the advert, not the reality of the processed grayness of what is received over the counter.
Perhaps we have built online trust to match our experiences where we expect that someone who appears a certain way online is not going to be that in reality, that the online presence isn't their character, it is their presented persona designed to deceive for gain. That gain may be financial, it may be the attention that so many seek, but gain of some sort is the goal.
We all have to live our own experience yet, all of our actions are interconnected, they all feed into and influence the things they touch and, that includes they way we interact with others. I wonder how many people would be comfortable looking at the ledger of life and say;
That was the best of me, that was all I was, all I could be.
So many these days have an overinflated sense of self yet I wonder, would the people around them corroborate their online story, or would they not recognize the character at all?
When the web of trust meets reality, some will stand tall, many will fall.
A conflicted life begins with the illusion of who we are in our own eyes and the gap to who we are in reality. Is the ledger of life taking notes? Your reputation may precede you, your character is what people will come to know.
Know thyself is only possible if one can see oneself clearly first.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
I did actually meet an online friend a few years back who turned out to be nothing like I imagined...at least from our conversations.
My point is character like you rightly said isn't something we can just estimate. It's something we have to build up on others
I have had the opportunity to meet a few Steem people and most of the ones that have put themselves out there in various ways are quite similar to the reality, others not so. I find the difference the greatest between friends I have in the world, and their Facebook/instagram profiles.
This and your "Falling prices raising opportunities" posts have echoed mine (or mine echoed yours). Sems like we're on the same channel these past few days as I interpret it. I didn't see either of your posts until after my last two were written, but it's cool to see how we sort of had similar seeds of thought for the two posts, after which we then took them in different directions.
Quite often there is overlap in thinking (perspective can change) as we might consume from the same sources and use it to build upon. In my opinion, this is what social media should be like instead of each of us blurting out whatever we might be doing as individuals into the void and hoping for an echo back.
What an interesting read to collide with. There was a time I took my broken to social media and assumed the thousands on Facebook and other zillion profiles were actually friends then I met whom I thought we were the closest and went back home to pull down each and every one I could remember how down. It was like a wake call and with it came too much caution. I have some respectable fear for strangers now.
Nothing wrong with fearing strangers as that is what we are hardwired to do. The trick I guess is having the skills to differentiate friend from foe, something that social media has discouraged by incentivizing "branding" instead of reality. I find that those who have spent the most time on social media have the lowest skills in reading face to face intentions and, are the most sensitive to criticism.
I rarely do spend time online (my contributions to this awesome village should tell you that) but I still find face to face a bit of an uphill task. People are not what they seem if you asked me or maybe I am just being negative.
My time now is invested in my real life work and I see the joy, confusion, and the same fear I know of in my clients faces. Sometimes, I feel like I relate to them more than I would to anyone out here.
About criticism, I sort of agree but I am learning to take it in. No one can criticize me more than my own inner man so where's the need to worry about what anyone says 🤷
Your writes make me think 💞
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This reminds my of the old MySpace site. There was more fake people there there then in our current political system.
I do believe, or want to believe, that Steemit users I follow are somewhat more honest then on the other major social sites (Facebook and Instagram) it seems the majority of those pages are nothing more then "the best of" so and so.
I could be wrong. Maybe I do not know the right people or have had to many negative experiences in the past on those sites. Things seem more honest here. at least that's how it seems with the people I follow.
I think the users who are presenting themselves and know that they are likely to one day be known generally are pretty okay. Those who plan to always be anonymous are less likely to feel the need to be consistent as they don't need to worry about checks and balances for alignment socially. But, this is observational on the ones I have met.
This is what EOS and its Voice is probably envisioning over the long term but it will have its tradeoffs as technology will always be able to game in some way or fashion. Even code cannot think of everything unless some level of AI is deployed but then Skynet concerns come into consideration.
THere is nothing wrong with KYC as long as it is an opt-in system. I think that on Steem it will be a part of some of the application layers but, it shouldn't be part of the Steem code. AIs are likely coming thick and fast as they are already ubiquitous everywhere else.
Pretty sure we’re merrily plunging into an amazingly convenient and useful dystopian nightmare and we’re all doomed 🤣😑
I’m kind of curious about the character thing though as I’m quite aware that how I see me and how other people see me is probably completely different and more so again depending on who it is (I don’t act that much different between groups but I moderate a bit more around older and younger generations and people I don’t know).
For other people that I’m meeting for the first time regardless of preceding reputations or whatever else I generally don’t have many expectations beyond basic politeness because it’s much easier that way 🙃
Posted using Partiko iOS
At least this one will be self-owned ;D
I wonder if you saw what they saw would you feel you would want to change or, would you be content. This isn't as a judgement on you now, just the different perspective could bring insights you hadn't considered earlier.
It is impossible to truly be in another's perspective though, so it is moot. :)
I think I've also already written my fair bit of 'stuff' about these same sort of subjects long time ago...
And you know it!! :)
I remember that post now :)