In my ever-hungry attempts at Denstravaganzas, I must pile onto the B&A territory (all my econ attempts are failing/falling short of the extremely competitive marketplace over there!)

Alas, more BOOK on BOOKs... because I've been neglecting that. #1613391

My impression is that this bitcoin-themed future/fiction play from a few years ago died down quite a bit?

21 Futures: Tales from the Timechain was a cute collection of futuristic bitcoin stories from, almost to the date three years ago. Our dollar exchange rate is 88% up from that moment; CPI about 10% higher; gold at smack-on 100%; NVIDIA stock... (#877723) lol, even after today's debacle, 235% higher. Guess that tells you what you should have been doing during the last three years.

(Also, I believe I have a code at Konsensus -- BOOK -- in case you were ordering stuffz):

"Remember the words, Vincent. Just remember the damn words!"

In its first stand-alone publication, the Bitcoiner powerhouse Konsensus Network brings something quite unique to Bitcoinland: fiction. Mostly known as a collaboration for publishing Bitcoin books translated into various European languages, since Knut Svanholm’s flagship Everything Divided by 21 Million [no more; Knut's books are in his own shop, Bitcoin Infinity store] a few years ago, Konsensus is now becoming a publishing house in its own right.

In 21 Futures, the first Bitcoin fiction anthology, we are treated to 21 short stories by 21 excellent authors, most of whom are unknown to you. All tales imagine a far-off future where bitcoin has already won, their authors trying to divine what a hyperbitcoinized world or universe actually looks like. I say “universe” because in true Extropian spirit, about half of the stories are space-related and hyper-futuristic, filled with robots, cryonics, or mining endeavors in faraway star systems. Flint and Iris, for instance, are two kids in a struggling family on a refueling hub a million miles from Earth who see their lives radically change when they find a discarded OPENDIME with 0.25 BTC on it. Johanna buys half a mining planet with locally mined bitcoin during a meteor shower blackout where the colony lost its connection to Earth’s mainchain.

"Two tales have wild goose chases after inherited bitcoin, where the journey itself might be more valuable than the reward; one is personal and took months, while the other is political and took decades."

The myriad of authors use humor, pain, colorful descriptions, vivid characters, and fast-paced action. Some tales are captivating; others funny, cringe-worthy, or on occasion rather dull. There are self-contained stories that leave the reader content and smiling, while others seem unfinished with plot lines left unexplored.

Some imagine the supernatural nature of Satoshi. Some are mystical and futuristic. All are weird; playfully weird; Bitcoiner weird. We are treated to millisats and Finneys, the latter being “a subdivide of sats named after Hal Finney” (page 44). Clara, imbibing a truth-serum — a not-so-subtle metaphor for orange-pilling — sees “the source code of the universe, equations as living tendrils of light materializing into particles, planets, and stars” (page 129). In one illuminating dialogue that follows, Clara’s apologist opponent nonchalantly states, “It’s how things are”, to which Clara powerfully responds “It’s how things were” (page 132).

One segment, where a mob attacked a bank branch, seems more fact than fiction in 2023: “WE WANT OUR MONEY”, they shout; “These people weren’t there to rob or loot the bank. They only wanted what was rightfully theirs — or it should have been before the government decreed otherwise and stole billions in one go” (page 142).

In the most terrifying yet uplifting of the many visions 21 Futures presents, the aliens are already here and they are actively acquiring our bitcoin: “At this juncture”, reads the memo sent out by the Emerging Civilizations Council in the story, “the galactic playbook permits members to approach a pre-federation civilization undetected in order to fairly attain small quantities of their local implementation of inviolable absolute scarcity” (page 242).

The book is impeccably edited and tastefully assembled, and the AI-inspired art does a lot to aesthetically complement the stories. “Only stories have the power to stop us, to wake us, to make us feel rather than think”, (page vii) lead editor Philip Charter powerfully observes in the opening remarks.

True. Dat.

SELECTED QUOTES:

• “It isn’t just the vast chasm between noderoids and clear-bloods that disturbs me. It is the undeniable rift growing between us noderoids — each lost in our cycles, each becoming more machine than the last” (page 36).
• “Slowly, yet with unyielding certainty, the kingdom shifted over the years. It changed not through a coup or uprising but through a still, relentless force, like water eroding stone. As the seasons passed and more villagers imbibed the Elysian brew, the weight of their invisible chains lessened, their atoms scattering into the evening air” (page 133).
• “Vincent stood at this threshold, poised between the familiar and the abhorrent. Shadows danced around him, their macabre waltz an unsettling omen of the horrors that awaited within the village. Yet, driven by determination, Vincent summoned the courage to push on, to brave the unknown that dwelled within the unhallowed embrace of this accursed place. ‘Remember the words, Vincent. Just remember the damn words.’”(page 54).
• “No need to worry, my English crumpet! Our back-of-the-napkin calculations suggest that, with a little help from the Texas of the North, there’s enough flared natural gas in the U.S. to run the entire bitcoin network” (page 168).

you remember this @realBitcoinDog?! you and that little English crumpet!

Just as with the Gradually, Then Suddenly review (#1536970), I believe this review was featured in The Halving Issue (Q1, 2024), but can't be sure... same BM issue anyway; online backlog and ToC of past magazines are removed from the website and I don't have all my physical mags with me.

BOOK on BOOKS Archive

Going Infinite, by Michael Lewis (#1604939

The Age of Time, by Scott Dedels (#1591951)

Bitcoin: Separation of Money and State, by Josef Tětek (#1586863)

The Bushido of Bitcoin, by Alexandar Svetski (#1584380)

A Progressive's Case for Bitcoin by Jason Maier (#1574659)

Principles of Bitcoin: Technology, Economics, Politics, and Philosophy, by Vijay Selvam (#1573664)

Better Money? Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin by Lawrence White (#1556942)

I Am Not Your Bruh: 21 Keys to Sound Parenting, by George Mekhail (#1548087)

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (#1540851)

Gradually, Then Suddenly: A Framework for Understanding Bitcoin as Money, by Parker Lewis (#1536970)

Fiat Ruins Everything: How Our Financial System is Rigged and How Bitcoin Fixes it, by Jimmy Song (#1530254)

Bitcoin One Million, The Final Chapter of Fiat, by Fred Krueger & Ben Sigman (#1521960)

Hijacking Bitcoin: The Hidden History of BTC, by Roger Ver (#1525907)

The Philosophy of Bitcoin, by Álvaro D. María (#1517354)