"Crypto", in its infancy, presents a worldview that we've come to take for granted.
FUD = "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt" FOMO = "Fear of Missing Out"
If it's true that the two forces in the universe are fear and love, why is fear the only option presented by these memes? What happens to each if we toggle the first variable to its other position?
LUD = "Love, Uncertainty and Doubt" LOMO = "Love of Missing Out"
LUD is a productive stance. "Certainty", the binary opposite of uncertainty, might be safe, but too much of it is boring. Uncertainty is not a condition to be avoided. It is the truth of any worthwhile adventure. Doubt, when blocked by fear, is crippling. But when tended by love, doubts are what we share with each other to build bonds and face the uncertainty of reality together.
LUD calls to mind those always misunderstood "Luddites" of the industrial revolution. They did not possess an all-encompassing fear of technological progress. What they rejected was its cost, the binary trade they were being offered, to abandon all other variables for those of industry, and a kind of progress that was never designed to be lovingly distributed.
And what about LOMO? Do not mistake it for laziness. A "love of missing out" is not passive. It is not to be confused with a withdrawal from life. LOMO is the state of a living acceptance of our limits.
LOMO is focus.
LOMO is looking at our friends and loved ones and collaborators and saying, "today, in this world where there are so many people I could spend my time with, I choose to spend it here with you."
In the finite time I have today, I am focused on what I can do. I understand that I am making a hard choice to focus on "this" today, and to not be distracted by the fear of all that I am not doing. From a place of love, I can see that other people are focused on other things, and I can trust that what I am missing out on today might be the perfect complement to my focused work tomorrow.
"Technology" is not a monolithic force, destined for continued consolidation toward one way of being (with a few winners and a great many losers), no matter how much FOMO and FUD might ask us to think so.
LUD and LOMO are the promise of a mature blockchain industry that stands up alongside AI. They are complementary and designed for co-existence. They prompt us to weave new ways for people to maintain their own unique identities and worldviews, while forging relationships through shared, focused, and fully sustainable initiatives that, one feedback loop at at time, make love more likely than fear.
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