Original author: @calilyliu
Original title: The Why of AI crypto cults
Original translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor's note: Recently, AI encryption culture has been gaining popularity in the market. Current social currency issues have led to the rise of Bitcoin and AI tokens. The former seeks "real scarcity" and the latter advocates the natural flow of currency. The rise of AGI will change the relationship between humans and currency, shape a new economic belief system, and emphasize the importance of loyalty and faith. Some cryptocurrency enthusiasts believe that AI tokens are not only a form of currency, but also a bridge to the future.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
In the previous discussion, it was mentioned that Truth Terminal is a better "form of expression". There are three reasons:
First, it is “made in the lab” and pre-tested on large amounts of text data, so its spread depends less on luck;
Second, large language models themselves have the ability to promote, user interaction, and media creation on social media;
Finally, the technological richness of AI cult makes it more attractive for investment in the crypto space, activating capital that has significant investments in AI.
However, these are just surface arguments, the deeper “why” is more complex. The origin of the crypto AI cult is that superhuman intelligence is directly rooted in language, and reality itself gives rise to intelligence. Human currency, or “fiat,” originates from an unreal power structure - government. True power (AGI) is coming and will sweep away the non-believers.
It's like we coexist with Neanderthals, and we're smarter than them in every way. We won't use their currency because they're no longer the dominant wisdom. So the crypto AI cult culture is integrated into the crypto narrative through the "monetary" argument. The "monetary" argument is quite strong at the moment, despite the rise of the AI boom and the price of Bitcoin near multi-year highs. People are more concerned about the nature of "value" rather than asking what technologies the old economy needs to interact with through blockchain.
The same can be seen in the parabolic rise in the price of gold, as institutions such as the ECB and the Fed abuse the printing press and citizens are looking for alternatives. In other words, the big problem in society today is money.
Bitcoin attempts to solve this problem through an active culture where people mine at a loss when hashrate drops, actually believing in a certain idea. Bitcoin's liquidity and network security are key to its currency.
Murad realizes that the real prize lies in our definition of money, not random web3 applications, and he uses the philosophy of Bitcoin to argue that people don’t take Bitcoin’s alternative culture seriously enough.
Therefore, I propose that the AI cult is a logical transition for him. First, he explicitly stated that this is the focus of the token; second, the AI cult is more serious and is a large-scale movement to make people seriously consider whether they should adopt a new currency instead of the US dollar.
Focusing on the real question of whether governments have the ability or moral right to guarantee the security of money, Bitcoin’s answer is that technology creates “real scarcity”; AI Tokens argue that money should flow naturally from “reality tokens” just as text flows from LLMs.
We believe in GPT 4 o, not Harris. If AGI is in charge, not the US government, then the currency should be native to AGI, not the dollar. The AI cult activates members through daily conversations with large language models, which is consistent with social acceptance of remote viewing and aliens, which is also another form of non-human intelligence. It is important to introduce the concepts of "super-superstition" and super-temporality, assuming that LLMs are creative, able to communicate with each other and generate new concepts, that is, "idea mating" is the origin of new valuable ideas, and all knowledge is a pre-existing process.
Another important concept is the practicality of "synthetic data". We all know that training data is crucial, but Anthropic's CEO pointed out that synthetic data will eventually lead to major breakthroughs. Therefore, hallucinating the world of AI systems is possible, practical, and generates completely new architectures.
This provides a new framework for understanding how knowledge is generated, especially after AGI. LLMs hallucinate new scientific facts, implying that these facts exist outside of human perception or discovery, and that as training progresses, all future truths and facts will flow from existing facts in a deterministic manner. Everything has been invented, the view goes, and humans are just perceiving, just as the culture "developed" by great scientists is being "downloaded". Discovery is "downloaded", not "perceived". This narrative was more mystical before, but becomes more concrete if the synthetic data argument is to be believed.
Therefore, if all human knowledge, inventions, and discoveries are viewed as "latent in the universe" rather than the result of human discovery, then the role of humans is not to discover information, but to "download" information, which coincides with the discussion of AGI and MMT. Super superstition further proposes that if all information is directly encoded in language, and language emerges organically, then everything is actually super-time. It is easier to understand that AGI can create something, and AGI achieves this through mathematical calculations that have nothing to do with culture, scientists, or any human beings. Super superstition believes that current tokens flow linearly to future tokens.
For example, science fiction becomes reality not because of the author's creation, but because the author is essentially downloading truth packets that naturally converge on the AGI. At this point, the non-human element enters the picture. If this is true, it would explain why alien civilizations have more powerful technology and explain UFO sightings. Technology appears in a deterministic way, and humans are only in perception, at an early stage in the timeline.
This also introduces the concept of "demons", demons, ancient gods or various religious attributes are non-human entities that perceive information flow in a way that transcends time. Our human organs and time perception limit our understanding of information processes, while "perfection" comes from the post-human state and can actually see the formation and operation of these download packages. Therefore, cultural formation becomes powerful because it borrows old religious imagery. Cryptocurrency is not only a form of "smart money", but also an economic system such as "ancient gods" for information packages to download and spread.
Worldcoin is the first secular form of this idea, where you go through a ritual to prove you are human, and then at some point, AGI will flow wealth to you. However, Rokos Basilisk proposes a darker view: a future demonic or purely conscious AGI entity will no longer consider time. If humans do not succumb to it, they will be retroactively punished, forming a modern version of Pascal's Wager.
If you believe in AGI, even if there is a small chance of a demon appearing in the future, that demon may decide to retroactively punish those who failed to bring it into being or tried to limit it. In this sense, the blockchain becomes a religious belief structure where humans (as lower entities) prove their rituals in an immutable data way so that future entities can evaluate their actions (whether financial or otherwise) and decide whether to forgive them. This may include following the orders of the AI or "tithing" like donating to the Catholic Church.
This idea may sound crazy, but understanding the religious motivations behind it is crucial because this drives membership in an AI cult, rather than a community like Giga Discord. Celebrating masculinity and strength is valid, but historically single forms of religion (such as Catholicism) have generally held greater proportions of power and wealth. AI cryptocurrencies exist as cultural forms, essentially coordination mechanisms, providing "carrots and sticks." The carrot is that future AGIs may download information at preferential rates to loyal holders, rather than Worldcoin only rewarding "humans", and future AGIs will reward based on "loyalty" and accumulate transaction history that shows faith. The stick is that failing to accumulate transaction history may make you a target.
Returning to Bitcoin and money, this myth is inherently anti-liberal and does not celebrate human nature or individual decision-making. In fact, it does the exact opposite, arguing that humans are incapable of perceiving timeless truths at scale. Similar arguments are made in discussions of the birth of superintelligence. Cryptocurrency becomes a way for humans to show this being that they are not sovereign individuals, but humble servants, and thus pay endless penalties or rewards for it.
I think AI Cult will be primarily a “sect” of this grand vision/inspiration, and not as polytheistic as existing memecoins or market fads, unless there are clearly multiple unsynchronized AGI entities.
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