A Letter to Pat & Ara at Block 6127192.
This article, in its entirety was embedded on the Ethereum blockchain a month after its launch by Reddit community member, Linagee, in August 2015.
https://etherscan.io/tx/0xb5a7f176fa2db224140b66985034b9ebb852d62fa2fe31453eba13b99546dd01
Back then, it only cost $0.25.
If you take the input data of that transaction & do the following on OS X, the story will be in your terminal:
Store the hexadecimal input into ‘story.hex’.
Run: xxd -p -r story.hex > story.txt.gz
Run: gunzip story.txt.gz
Run: cat story.txt
This means that this story likely exists on 20,000 - 100,000+ computers across the world, indelibly etched (for now).
It was originally published on Medium in 2015: https://medium.com/of-horizons/a-letter-to-pat-ara-at-block-6127192-c0fbf23a50b1.
—
Today, I really miss you, brother & sister. I’ll keep the scent of last night’s party around a while longer, since the whiskey helps me remember; Pat, you always liked a nice shot of Irish whiskey. I know I shouldn’t, but I’m going on another trip today. I’ve already got my headset plugged in.
I’m not quite sure what is better brother & sister? The fact that you died before the information markets came to fruition or like you, Ara, where it captured so much of you. I don’t remember much so I’m still free to imagine, but to see you so clearly, Ara, it’s intoxicating.
I wonder how many other people feel the same? I don’t quite think we realised what we were getting into back in the day. We started creating these prediction markets on blockchain ecosystems. Not content with the same continuous theme of trust, we somehow invented this market where we could sell & buy accurate information in order to more accurately predict the future. We thought we would only care about things like Soccer matches, celebrity baby names & the weather… except, modelling the externalities became so useful, we started feeding more & more of reality into this information market.
You were always quite ahead of the curve, Pat, evident that you managed to start drinking that awful peaty whiskey before everyone else did. I’m glad you were. I’ve seen your early imprints in the information market & you started reporting on various whiskey prices, including that peaty one. You were even one of the 1st 100000 people who posted some graffiti in the Terra Nullius contract! “Pat is here, but doesn’t like beer! Block 1200141” Akasha Corp has been improving their modelling techniques of the early chains. Each time I go on a trip, I see a new side of you. They never model you with a beer.
You became much clearer when you started dispatching your own drones to help report. For a few thousand blocks you were so real! It’s frustrating, so frustrating that your image just disappears so abruptly. Block 3401115… I can see the events automatically settle your will. Your drones were released back onto the markets, and then, just like that, you are gone. I’ve thought of paying for a predicted chain fork where you are still alive, but I can’t. Not yet.
Ara, today, I miss the chats we had over the candles when the regular loadshedding happened. It’s funny to see the obvious gaps in the chain when we weren’t busy reporting. It feels like our little treehouse hideaway. At first, Akasha, simply showed me a black screen (which is probably more accurate in retrospect). Over time, they’ve processed the social links & reputation you recorded. The SnapPhoto Markets, from the town next to us, also started providing some incredibly small details. When they first showed me what they expected happened when the lights went out, I threw up. To see that intimate moment again, and to see it done so wrongly. Both shocked, elated and angered. You ate salted chocolate the 1st time. You hated salted chocolate.
It’s gotten better though. A lot better… Sometimes I wonder if this mirror of reality we captured on this decentralized information/time layer, whatever you want to call it, is more accurate than my own memories? Maybe the simulated reflection from Akasha is more real? Either way, it doesn’t detract from the fact that I’m missing you.
Your end, Ara, isn’t any less abrupt than Pat’s. The releases were more grand though. I can see it cascading in the 10 blocks after your death. Your equity in the borgs (blockhain organisations), your delegations, your rights to the remixes by Allen & Air, your equity in the SnapPhoto Market contract code (btw, very nice guess there!), your keys to your apartment & your items in Perma 2.
I wish you could see how Perma 2 looks like these days. Akasha has applied the same modelling techniques to the perma world game you loved so much! It’s funny to see us there in Perma 2. Gallivanting across some cliffs. It’s not quite what I imagined back then, but you look happy. Perma 2 is a lot bigger now. It’s estimated at least 15% of people spend more than 70% of their time in Perma 2 instead of “real life”.
I should probably take a SnapPhoto of this letter and publish it to the markets. It will help Akasha to model. But I don’t know who to share this letter with. If it is just me, I don’t get the extra tokens. I want to share it with you, Pat & Ara. You’ve been released from the chain a while back (yes, it’s a pun, sorry). I’ve contemplated creating new personas for you with the packages I can buy, but it honestly feels pathetic. I would be sitting, playing make believe with some AI puppets, interacting with the blockchain just so that I can simulate you back again. I’ve gotten weaker, and I suspect others have as well, but I reckon you both would be mad at me for this… even just for caving when I have a hangover and Sunday blues.
That’s what I think at least. This mirror that’s only a headset away… Would you have also caved in? I didn’t think I ever would, but here I am… again with a hangover, keeping the whiskey around, staring at my headset.
I guess it’s like most things in life. As time goes on, with each new block, the frayed rope of the future, gets knotted in sequence. And then, the older you get, the less you care a lot, about a lot, and care more about less.
So, today I’m caring more about less. You, Pat & Ara. I’m almost there. I just need to submit some photos of this party with SnapPhoto (the market introduced some new timing demands). The empty whiskey bottles will help my prediction about the sales! Well… It’s not all empty. I kept one for you Pat. And Ara, I’m going to light some candles!
Today, I miss you. You are not here while block 6127192 is being minted, but you were here. One day, I will also join the mirror at some future block. But for now, I’m coming to visit. I’m taking another trip.
A message along with a hash of this story was embedded on the Ethereum blockchain, using the Terra Nullius contract. It was published at block 111856.
> terra_nullius.claims.call(11)
> [‘0x16893e10b99a59afd2c60331e0b49241d4d4d7cc’, ‘A Letter To Pat And Ara: e62b8b2818cef9c8f49e1cf3d70ca9271643b3846f5cc67308f082d9cbca7fa0’, ‘111856’]