I recently converted a bitcoin seed phrase into a DNA sequence, just because I can. Using just the first four letters of the BIP39 seed words, a 12-word seed phrase can be stored in just 48 nucleotides of DNA. (For comparison, the average gene is several thousand nucleotides long and the entire human genome contains more than 3 billion nucleotides.) Any genetics graduate student could, in just a few days, convert my seed word sequence into an actual strand of DNA and insert that DNA into E.coli or some other host suitable for storage (and propagation) within a living organism.
DNA is just a modality for storing and transmitting information. There are many other ways to do it and once information is widely distributed it is almost impossible to extinguish, which is why it will be impossible to stop bitcoin on a global scale with regulation, legislation or even violence. The mere fact that a bitcoin private key can be stored in DNA demonstrates the futility of trying to ban bitcoin. Once released, information is difficult to contain.
But why is it so difficult to contain information? Perhaps because information is a fundamental entity of the universe. For centuries scientists thought that the universe was made up of only matter and energy. Today we know that it is made of matter, energy and information. Information can be stored in matter and transmitted by energy, but information itself is neither. Einstein showed us that matter and energy are interchangeable (E=mc2) but In its whole It cannot be created or destroyed. On the contrary, information can be created and destroyed, but neither is easy. And once information is created and widely distributed, it becomes increasingly difficult to destroy it.
The parts of the information
The information is intended to be sent and received between two or more parties. The sender does this with a purpose and is intended to stimulate action in the receiver. Information has five hierarchical components:
- Fidelity
- Syntax (code or grammar)
- Semantics (meaning)
- Pragmatics (action)
- Apobetics (purpose)
Fidelity
Fidelity is the lowest element of information, but it is absolutely necessary for successful transmission. It was once a major problem for cell phone and Internet communication. Remember the “Can you hear me now?” commercial? With technical advances, low fidelity eventually became high fidelity (which strangely became wireless fidelity or Wi-Fi). Generally, we do not worry about faithfulness unless it is lacking. (Can you hear me now?)
Code and language
Syntax refers to the code or grammar used to transmit information. A code is a set of symbols that represent temporally or spatially interconnectable bits of information. That is, symbols can be linked in time or space to reach the next level of information (semantics). The symbols used can vary greatly. They include, among other things, the letters that make up an alphabet, hand gestures (for example, American Sign Language), musical notes (for example, those ancient modern connections and touch-tone telephones) or nucleotides of the DNA and RNA. The number of symbols used can also vary. Most alphabets use between 20 and 35 letters, the nucleotide code uses four chemicals (abbreviated A, U, C and G) and the binary code used by computers has only two symbols (0 and 1) that represent the on and off states. The number and type of symbols used are not selected at random. For example, they may be determined by the mode of transmission or to meet a specific need (Table 1).
Table 1: Symbols can be chosen depending on the transmission mode or to meet a specific need.
A common code is essential for information to be communicated successfully. That is, the code must be known by both the sender and the receiver. Furthermore, because the code is not itself the information but simply the provider of information, any particular code can be translated to any other code. For example, written human languages can be translated from one to another:
Go say it on the mountain…
Go say it on the mountain…
Go the other way on the mountain…
The above sentence can also be translated, using human eyes, brain and mouth, from symbols on a page to sound waves (acoustic symbols) in the air, which can be picked up by a microphone and converted to electrical signals in wires and then to waves radio signals transmitted through space to be picked up by an antenna on the space station, converted back into electrical signals and then converted by a speaker into sound waves to be heard by the ears of another human being. In our human astronaut's ears, the signal is converted from air waves to liquid waves in the cochlea and then into electrical nerve impulses transported to the brain to be interpreted by neurons. In the brain, those neurons somehow make sense of the original string of symbols, which takes us to the next level of information: semantics or meaning.
Semantics, pragmatics and apobetics
Semantics is the meaning or intent of a message (a string of symbols). Assigning meaning to symbols is a mental process. This does not happen at the machine level but at the human level. When you read a book, you don't care about fidelity (unless it's lacking) or syntax (unless the grammar is horrible or it's a language you don't understand). Instead, you are interested in the meaning what conveys the message, that is, the semantics. Although computers can easily store and transmit information, and can even perform logical operations through transistors, they cannot interpret information in a meaningful way like a human can. Do Raspberry Pi nodes, hardware wallets or ASICs understand bitcoin like a human does? I do not think so.
The goal of meaningful communication is to provoke some action in the recipient. This action objective represents the pragmatic level of information. The reason why the sender wants to generate this response is the purpose of the information, which is the apobetic level of information. These higher levels of information require genuine intelligence on both sides, even will. It remains to be seen whether computers will ever be able to possess a will or not.
“Go tell it to the mountain…” is a chain of symbols (code) that create a meaningful message (semantics) in which the sender expects (apobetics) some response from the receiver (pragmatics). The message can only be received if it is transmitted properly (good fidelity).
bitcoin as information
bitcoin (the program) is a computer code written in a particular coding language. From software to blockchain to wallet key pairs, bitcoin is information. This information can be stored, transmitted, and replicated on flash drives, printed books, or DNA molecules. Because it is now so dispersed, it is virtually impossible to destroy it at this point. The politicians and bankers may not like it, but the genie is out of the bottle and it cannot be stopped now. As they say, you can't ban bitcoin, you can only ban yourself from using bitcoin.
Fidelity and syntax are the operational parts of information. Semantics, pragmatics and apobetics are the higher levels of information related to the purpose and response of intelligent beings based on the meaning of the message. In bitcoin, fidelity (or transmission clarity) is achieved over the Internet (and has even been achieved through amateur radio), connecting a network of nodes, miners, and wallets. bitcoin syntax consists of the coding languages used to write and run bitcoin Core and related software on those devices. The meaning, or semantics, of bitcoin is an immutable and perfectly scarce digital token. The higher purposes of bitcoin (the pragmatic and apobetic) are demonstrated in the users running miners, nodes and wallets, who are motivated and seek to protect their wealth from theft, whether through theft or degradation.
The Internet is now a mature, high-fidelity communication system. It cannot be destroyed without simultaneously destroying humanity as we know it. The computer codes and languages used by bitcoin are sufficiently distributed that removing them is essentially impossible. But even if you could somehow destroy the fidelity and syntax of the network, the idea of bitcoin (the semantics, the pragmatics and the apobetics) is too widely distributed to defeat. Until now, it has reached the minds of millions of people around the world. Perhaps you could destroy the Internet and every last hard drive containing the blockchain and every last computer running bitcoin, but we would have to hunt down every last Bitcoiner to eradicate the idea of bitcoin. And who knows, due to the unruly actions of some mad scientist, you may have to hunt down all the E.colialso.
This is a guest post by Daniel Howell. The opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of btc Inc or bitcoin Magazine.
