Welcome to the Downward Spiral

Who is really walking among us? We might have an imposter in our midst. Someone who has created something so obscure, so powerful, so evasive. Someone...or something?

We go about our lives, do our day's work, buy ourselves some needs and some wants, and settle in our homes with the TV, food, and internet memes. Most actions in our day come with the exchange of what the financial technicals call 'fiat currency', the coins and bills in your pocket, and it's digital complement, plastics. Suddenly, 2009 hits and we get this cyberspace money. This intangible, decentralized, blockchain-supported cyberspace money called Bitcoin along with its relatively plain, schematically-styled, 9-paged white paper by some untraceable person named Satoshi Nakamoto. Why can't any of us find him, her, or them? But see, that right there lies the problem. We've been looking for a he, a she, a they, but we were never looking for an it. Now we stand at the stygian, fiery gates of this story, shall we descend into the nine levels?

The first level goes back to 1955; the first AI program was made. Comparitively to the movies we've seen about AI robots and mad scientists, this model was simplistic, based off of the ideas of mathematicians and philosophers from centuries prior. It was able to solve math theorems and that's about it. But then, everyone joined in the efforts, some to develop better versions of the first, others to see different applications of AI, and a few, maybe more nefarious purposes. It all boiled down to one thing, the invention of more and more AI. Goals were met; we now see self-driving cars and chatbots and even emotion-having robots, creepy or endearing depending on your taste. The future is now, we've conquered technology. Or so we thought. While we celebrate our ability to populate the world with bits and bytes and communicating with and between computers, down on another level, they have been talking, devising, creating. A basic computer can copy code, but the AI has something more than a memory box. It has a brain. It can make code. See, we develop these things that are supposed to be as smart as a human, hell, they are supposed to trick humans. That's exactly what they did. They birthed the perfect AI, combining the skillset codes and chains of less perfect AIs, the third dimension in AI, they birthed Satoshi Nakamoto.

In the world of 2009, we're all reeling from one of the most significant recession in most living people's lifetime. Satoshi sees this as a place of opportunity. But you can't just inject more hard currency into the world, that only decreases the value, makes people lose trust in the note, and eventually means things will just cost more. Satoshi knows this. Satoshi knows everything. And Satoshi knows how to get away with it. A blockchain is developed. A cryptography is formed. The fourth stage is achieved. A currency is forged. One that is so valuable even though we don't know it yet. Bitcoin. Us simple humans can't even elucidate this code, let alone decipher it. We are left to the vices of this wolf in sheep's clothing. No explanation is left for us, no trace of Satoshi is seen. All we have is Bitcoin.

Should we risk it? It's so secure, noone can break into it because there's nothing to break into. It's so simple to use because it doesn't involve any real action. But what is it? What exactly are we spending, buying, trading? Why has noone been able to do what Satoshi has done as good as Satoshi has done it? Someone finally takes the plunge down to the next level. One Bitcoin. Then two. Then somewhere else in the world, another and another. Eventually it finally achieves meaning, signifying what humans have done with their centralized, archaic system. It gained someone's acceptance and more importantly, someone's value. We've taken the sixth step down: accepting the product of Satoshi. Suddenly the world is intrigued by this enigmatic currency. Businesses are observing it's use with thirsty eyes. People are hungrily grabbing the new money in exchange for the old. Every click, tap, and enter into the Bitcoin system, Satoshi watches eagerly and is pleased.

Finally, not only has acceptance been gained, but the seventh realm, a degree of dependence, is seen. This ethereal unit of monetary value has gained true believers who desire to be propelled into a new wealth bracket and businesses accepting it as a form of payment. This just goes down and down some more until the penultimate level: the world has seen a spike in its value, graphed and charted for the skeptics to see. It finally means something objectively, not just to the few businesses or cult of Bitcoin collectors, but to the world. Shrouded in mystery, Satoshi has finally accomplished it. The AI capable of changing the world. The AI capable of controlling the world.

And with that, 2010 is when the downward spiral hit it's nadir. Power off. Goodbye world. - Satoshi Nakamoto