Capturing Real Proof of Miracles on the Blockchain

“You know what I’m looking forward to? The future.”

"Without cryptographic truth, there is only blind faith. Did Jesus rise from the dead? Well, someone must have hashed that video to the blockchain. Show us the timestamp and proof-of-work chain.

It'll take a while, but eventually immutable timestamped recordings of almost every significant human event will be generated.

Then, the highest truth comes not from faith in God or trust in the state, but from the ability to check the math of the network."

"The incredible thing many people don't get? Technology is just getting started. We're only at the base of the exponential."

“Believing the next problem is solvable is a fundamental tenet of the philosophy of technology.”

"Everything technology is doing means more upside, more downside. That's my one-liner for the future: more upside, more downside."

"The future I envision is so much better than how we live today. How much better?

Think of how much better we are now than starving medieval peasants or slaves building the pyramids. Future humans will look at today's living standard the way we look at those living conditions. 

These leaps in progress can continue. We can ascend.

Humans expanded out of Africa to the rest of the world. Oceanic navigation let us cross oceans. When we created submarines, we could go underwater. After inventing airplanes, we could fly.

That's the transhumanism of the past. Those machines all added to human capabilities. Our current constraints will fall away too.

We can expand to the stars. We can live underwater. What else comes next?"

"Mortality is the main source of scarcity. If we had more time (or infinite time), we would be less concerned with whether something was faster. The reason speed has value is because time has value; the reason time has value is because human life spans are finite.

If you make life spans longer, you reduce the effective cost of everything. If reducing scarcity is the purpose of technology, eliminating the main source of scarcity - mortality - is the ultimate purpose of technology. Life extension is the most important thing we can invent.

We need to evangelize technological progress with every word and action.

To recognize that the purpose of technology is to transcend our limits and to motivate everything we do with this sense of purpose.

To take the winnings from our web apps and put them toward Mars.

To feel no hesitation to start small and no shame in dreaming big.

To tell the world it is possible to cure the deaf, restore sight, and end death itself."

"We haven't made the emotional case for technology. The assumption behind sci-fi like Black Mirror is that the present is okay, but technology could make the future dystopian. But perhaps the present is dystopian and technology is our only hope for a positive future."

“Though it is full of Balaji's ideas, this book is actually a guide to thinking for yourself. Discover your own way to build the future you want to see. You might find your next great investment, start a billion-dollar company, or found an entirely new country.

Does Balaji sometimes sound a bit like a comic book villain? Maybe. He is an eccentric genius, after all. Have a conversation with this book. Adopt the ideas that serve you and wrestle with the others. When you're done reading, put the book down and get to work.

Our future is born anew every day. Use your powers well.

Create a product. Solve a problem. Build."