Author

Topic: Speculating on the unknown unknowns (Read 596 times)

legendary
Activity: 2156
Merit: 1018
Buzz App - Spin wheel, farm rewards
December 16, 2015, 09:00:24 PM
#10
"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."  --hero of the empire Donald Rumsfeld
legendary
Activity: 1260
Merit: 1000
December 16, 2015, 08:58:01 PM
#9
I think Donald Rumsfield ended up owning the patent to some artificial sweetener (maybe aspartame) and the FDA said it was basically rat poison but he pulled strings to get it rubber stamped for the public.
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 500
December 16, 2015, 08:33:07 PM
#8
I thought Litecoin was about hashing with Scrypt in an attempt to get away from ASICs.
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
21 million. I want them all.
December 16, 2015, 07:27:08 PM
#7
It's quite strange question, but there's a flaw to it; you can't not know that you not know, because the second you do, you no longer not know.
I'll be interested to see some of the attempts tho, but i'm fairly certain i'm right.



You're right. It's a paradox. The act of identifying something as an unknown-unknown changes its character to "known unknown."

I make this thread half-jokingly.

there is an infinite number of unknown unknowns with also unknown probability scale, so speculation on such matters will not be beneficial.

I can make one categorical prediction, though:
it will be impossible for bitcoin to be both a dominant crytocurrency driving world's commerce and having just 21 mil units of account.

I know about infinite divisibility, but such matters will look progressively silly at some point and there will be pressure to allow for more coins.
Maybe bitcoin will be a founding substrate of another coin (BTC 2.0), but the total coin number will not be able to be fixed at 21 mil in perpetuity.
There will be unbearable pressure on developers to adjust in some way...and they will.

I think, in a way, that this is what the whole shitcoin explosion was about. Litecoin, for example, isn't really about "scalability" or "decentralization" or "speed." Maybe those things are 10% of the reason for LTC's existence.  In reality, litecoin is about having more coins. It's about giving another group of people the experience of being a bitcoin early adopter at the "top" of the new pyramid.
legendary
Activity: 3892
Merit: 4331
December 16, 2015, 07:14:44 PM
#6
It's quite strange question, but there's a flaw to it; you can't not know that you not know, because the second you do, you no longer not know.
I'll be interested to see some of the attempts tho, but i'm fairly certain i'm right.



You're right. It's a paradox. The act of identifying something as an unknown-unknown changes its character to "known unknown."

I make this thread half-jokingly.

there is an infinite number of unknown unknowns with also unknown probability scale, so speculation on such matters will not be beneficial.

I can make one categorical prediction, though:
it will be impossible for bitcoin to be both a dominant cryptocurrency driving world's commerce and having just 21 mil units of account.

I know about infinite divisibility, but such matters will look progressively silly at some point and there will be pressure to allow for more coins.
Maybe bitcoin will be a founding substrate of another coin (BTC 2.0), but the total coin number will not be fixed at 21 mil in perpetuity.
There will be unbearable pressure on developers to adjust in some way...and they will.
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
21 million. I want them all.
December 16, 2015, 06:44:19 PM
#5
It's quite strange question, but there's a flaw to it; you can't not know that you not know, because the second you do, you no longer not know.
I'll be interested to see some of the attempts tho, but i'm fairly certain i'm right.



You're right. It's a paradox. The act of identifying something as an unknown-unknown changes its character to "known unknown."

I make this thread half-jokingly.
hero member
Activity: 630
Merit: 500
PM me to buy traffic for your site!
December 16, 2015, 06:42:20 PM
#4
It's quite strange question, but there's a flaw to it; you can't not know that you not know, because the second you do, you no longer not know.
I'll be interested to see some of the attempts tho, but i'm fairly certain i'm right.

legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1016
December 16, 2015, 06:08:59 PM
#3
Yellen is satoshi?
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1016
December 16, 2015, 06:07:41 PM
#2
I know I don't know what I just read. Maybe my brain is unknown?
hero member
Activity: 798
Merit: 1000
21 million. I want them all.
December 16, 2015, 06:05:13 PM
#1
Quote from: Donald Rumsfeld
[A]s we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know. And if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones.

Bitcoin examples:

Known knowns:
We know that we know there will be a block halving in 2016.

Known unknowns:
We know that we don't know who Satoshi Nakamoto is.

Unknown unknowns:
We don't know that we don't know_________________?

Let's speculate on the things that we don't know that we don't know!





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