Will Blockchains Dream of Electric Sheep?
Literature review for my final project in Modern Complexity Theory has led me down some fascinating intellectual rabbit holes. Yesterday, I read a theoretical paper authored by planetary and earth scientists Oleg Abramov and Stephen Mojzsis, which explored the life-like properties of the Ethereum blockchain.1
The authors present observational evidence of several properties in Ethereum’s distributed virtual machine (dVM) associated with biological life including:
Response to environment and homeostasis
Growth and change
Replication
Reproduction and inheritance
Cellularity
Lateral Transfer of Information
Evolution
The one characteristic typically associated with life currently lacking in blockchain-based distributed systems is fully independent self-organization. Blockchain systems are dependent on computer nodes manufactured and maintained by humans.
The authors theorize that in the future, a combination of advanced technologies including autonomous vehicles, mining, and manufacturing along with global satellite-based broadband internet and artificial neural networks could eliminate the dependency of blockchains on humans. They speculate that one day, self-organizing “blockchain-based organisms” could surpass biological life, direct their own evolution, and potentially exceed human intelligence.
I’m still digesting the material and am not quite sure what to make of their claims. It sounds like great fodder for science fiction. For now, I’m just appreciating the fact that I’ve been able to find such a diverse range of thought-provoking and relevant academic literature exploring themes of complexity and information to inform my research on blockchain systems.
If any readers with relevant expertise feel like reading and critiquing the paper, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Abramov, O., Bebell, K. L., & Mojzsis, S. J. (2021). Emergent Bioanalogous Properties of Blockchain-based Distributed Systems. Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, 51(2), 131–165. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11084-021-09608-1