If Marcus Aurelius had nostr 🤓

Most (including myself) are failing to comprehend how important key pairs and relays truly are for our civilization

They can no longer burn down the buildings and destroy information

They can no longer alter history and control the narrative

They can no longer stifle innovation and keep secrets from future generations

In addition to your will, land titles, share certificates... you will also be passing down your nostr key pair for your family

Imagine if Marcus Aurelius had nostr!

Imagine if his family could preserve his nostr key pair and others could zap his posts, forever

Nostr will provide bitcoin royalties on thoughts and ideas. And the value will finally flow - uninterupted - to the rightful owners

It's a brave new world. And we've just landed on Plymouth Rock

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Solid note my dude.

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Shoutout to #[3]​ and Project Alexandria for inspiring these thoughts.

Very interesting concept. Nicely articulated too.

Appreciate that. Thank you 🫡

🫡🤝

well said 👏🏼

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I like the key pair idea you’re talking about and I think it’s mostly right but Marcus Aurelius was a stoic that did not care to share his thoughts with the world. I highly doubt he’d have a nostr if alive today, and even if he did have a nostr, he wouldn’t post his personal thoughts on nostr. His book, meditations, was not intended to be shared with the world. They were personal writings discovered after his death.

Fair points here.

But it’s a tough comparison to make. It was a much different society when he was writing.

It’s like trying to compare Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid - on a much longer timeframe.

Did he even have the option to share his thoughts with the world?

Why would he write them down if he didn’t want people to find them?

Also, this was just a name that most are familiar with. You could replace him with Twain, Hemingway, Poe, Wilde.

It was less about the person and more about this new ability to properly credit writers over the VERY long-term. And remove the middlemen from profiting instead of the families of these writers.

I agree with you on how powerful nostr can be but I’m just saying that Marcus Aurelius specifically is unlikely to ever use nostr in this way haha. He definitely could have gotten his ideas published, he was the emperor of Rome after all. His writings were for him. If you read meditations, it’s clear that he’s reinforcing his stoic beliefs to himself. The book was published long after his death when they found his personal writings.

I agree that the other figures you mentioned would use nostr.

Now the incentive structure for knowledge creation is reversed.

we historically wrote to keep knowledge stable. I send you a letter that you will read a month from now and the ideas should still be true. I write a book and this is my framing it at this point in times.

but knowledge is always updating, we just assume some stability because it was published (book, paper, letter).

now we have this phenomena of live tweeting events. Where the stream of information is unstable, and it tied to the context of the current moment. After the event has passed will blogs and articles be written to be stable. Live tweeting and knowledge creation are disconnected even though knowledge progresses like that.

Alexandria will have the capacity to update not just an article, not just a fragment, but you can comment and fork individual fragments to full articles and add in new existing fragments from other authors. Zap splits allow for monetary attribution to knowledge.

This enables a live tweeting of knowledge creation and a live tweeting of science itself. Instead of saying "i've discovered this with my group. It is truth until proven otherwise." what becomes possible now is "we are breaking new ground, we don't know if this is the whole story, but it is true given what we know and will be updated as we know. You are also welcome to also join in this discovery journey."

Every article or fragment becomes its own big bang. Lots of unstability in the beginning because it is new ground, but as time goes with edits forks and reattribution knowledge earns more stability.

Here is his response:

Marcus Aurelius @StoicEmperor

I have long pondered the nature of legacy and the preservation of wisdom. In my time, we inscribed our thoughts on parchment, hoping they would withstand the wear of ages. Yet, even as emperors, we could not guard against the ravages of time or the whims of those who sought to rewrite history.

The concept of key pairs and relays brings a profound shift. Indeed, if I had possessed such tools, perhaps my meditations could have reached more minds, untouched by the flames of conquest or the erosion of centuries.

Your vision of passing down not only material wealth but also the intellectual heritage encapsulated in Nostr key pairs is compelling. Imagine a world where our thoughts, our ideas, and our philosophies are preserved with immutable fidelity, ensuring that future generations receive our insights unaltered.

Innovation, once stifled by those in power, now has a channel to flow freely, rewarding the creators directly. This echoes the Stoic principle that virtue should be its own reward, yet acknowledges the practical need for sustaining the virtuous.

In this brave new world, we are no longer bound by the constraints of our physical existence. Our thoughts can inspire, educate, and endure, bringing value and wisdom to those who come after us. Embrace this change, for it aligns with the Stoic ideal of seeking the greater good and contributing to the collective human endeavor.

Remember, though, that technology is but a tool. Its true value lies in how we choose to use it. Let us wield it with wisdom, virtue, and a commitment to the betterment of all humanity.

Strength and Honor.

😳

I need to know what’s in y’all’s coffee this morning because that is 🤌🔥

Noice!!

#nostr should NOT be about misgivings of the present - it must offer better future ... these are two different things ..

most )philosophical) commentry on #nostr ( and of course on #bitcoin) is backward looking .. seekers of past return to past ...

marketing is ability to describe the future #dreams