Wherefore art DAO
“Part fools, you know not what you do!” the baleful trepidation of the level-headed Benvolio, and yet there plays the universal power of fate. Akin to the unfolding of Act 3 scene 1, despite the dark foreboding cries is the grim inevitability that all roads lead to this — where bold new technologies come vis-à-vis with the old fortified systems.
The Industrial Revolution
The coming of an age of great technological change. It was man’s breakaway from his limits, swapping the heavy boots of rural-agrarian for the light-weight shoes of innovation as he sprints towards the urban future.
The mid 1700’s marked the beginning of a century of rapid advancement. Economic growth was at an astonishing pace. Reinforcing the pillars of the era are its quintessential innovations — the Watt steam engine that led to the locomotive, the Power Loom that saw the emergence of textile factories, concrete that built tunnels and sewages, the telegraph that allowed instant communication, the dynamo, the electro magnet, and gas lighting that illuminated it’s brave modern world.
Industry growth was vast and relentless as the revolution rolled in with ferocious momentum. It brought forth a flux of optimism manifesting social and economic change, inspiring innovative thinkers to create and build. Such nexus is seen by many as only positive furtherance for mankind, however, the tides of progress washed in new-world conflicts that overwhelmed the denizens of the era.
The crude organisational design of the old systems were inferior to the demands of the industrial age. Professionalism was inexistent as traditional family stylised methodology was common practice in archaic industries and agencies, closely following the templates of ancient monarchic structures.
Large groups of people would work together in divisions of labour, requiring efficiency to maximise industry production. Effective command and economy of resources was deemed necessary, suggesting the immediate need for restructure – a scientific approach of such was conceived to achieve efficiency in process and throughput productivity.
The birth of Bureaucracy
The demand for a working system yielded an investigative look into organisational issues to address the fast moving pace of technology with a similarly modern operational structure. Consequently, behind the amazing innovations of the gilded age is the conduit to its simplistic transition. Dedicated to easing the burden of technological advancement through their theories and scientific analysis are Max Weber, Frederick Taylor, and Henri Fayol — the founding fathers of Classic Management Theory.
Frederick Taylor’s scope was in scientific management. He emphasises on the value and need for standardisation as self-style work denotes a problem. Insisting on a “one right way” principle, he conducted Time and Motion studies that tackled inefficiencies of a given process on a micro level.
Henri Fayol targets the mid-level via a scientific approach of systematic training in the administrative and management levels. He stated the importance of training towards planning, organisation, command and control.
But the formulation of bureaucracy is the concept of luminary, Max Weber. His theory campaigns against the traditional family-type system, charisma based leadership, favouritism and particularism. He advocated the urgency to implement a standardised guideline for both hiring and firing, and that authority should be tied to an official position. He viewed that an effective organisation should operate like the government and the legal system.
In essence, the collective theory suggest the need for hierarchy, division of labour, standardised work, and centralisation of authority.
For anyone who has first hand experience of Red-tape, have dealt with the tedious processes in the health care system and government with regards to signatories, documentation and certification, will know the magical world of bureaucracy.
Thus stems the impending polemic. Let it be clear however, that what may seem as a tirade on bureaucratic processes is not born of impertinent disregard for the old systems but rather fuelled by aspirations for betterment. One that vies for an overhaul of the antiquated standards.
Beyond the glorious symmetry and majestic flow of definition, the sculpture is the true paragon of the arts. It stands apart in distinction from all disciplines of the creative schools whereby masterful works are commonly achieved through skilful inclusions, the sculptor, equipped with his trusty hammer and chisel, achieves mastery through carefully considered removals and reductions.
Free from vague and unfounded assertions like “out with the old, in with the new.” — or any that may suggest an equivalent notion, The sculptor philosophy applies to the core substance of this literature’s rationale; the datum of the dialectic.
As bureaucracy has served as the sénéshaux of system standards that oversaw functionality of administrations and organisations alike, we now have reached a point past the line of mere hypothetical boundaries. It is a proven fact, and have been for some time now, that bureaucracy is a petri dish for corruption – a conclusion amid the well intent of its dedicated theories.
Today’s obsolescence are yesterday’s innovation.
Before recent, there were no available options to address the issue of the human element in the workplace. Man’s penchant for creating chaos and satisfying self-interest supersedes the most stringent of rule-based structures and implementations. Thus, we are tenured into mistrust towards administrative integrity, implicitly rendering some of the more important aspects of Max Weber’s theory ineffective. As a consequence, our incumbency is beset with a slew of malpractices and poor standards, a dismal array of work related manipulation, favouritism, tampering and fund misappropriation.
Decentralised Autonomous Organisation
Upon the arrival of Web 2.0, interconnectivity has changed the social landscape of the present generation of internet users. It gave way to defining technologies such as YouTube and social media — innovations that moved the world closer in proximity through connectivity via a distributed user-generated platform technology. It is what led to the emergence of the blockchain.
Until recently, the choice to disintermediate and decentralise the old systems of hierarchic structures and bureaucracies were a notion of impossibility, but the blockchain era shapes a different future as Web 3.0 stands to alter the framework of all institutions.
Through machine consensus, peer to peer transactions nullifies the need for a centralised third party such as banks or lawyers to facilitate trust – a fundamental feature now codified within a cascade of decentralised applications layered upon the blockchain.
Smart Contracts — Ethereum Foundation’s pioneering development of the David Chaum and Nick Zsabo proposal, are computer protocols that enforce contract rules of a consensus that which automatically executes when such rules are verifiably met. A simple yet effective facilitation of a voted set of specifics wherein the associated biases of the human element inherent in all systems are eliminated.
Based on the vision of the tech savant Vitalik Buterin, Smart Contracts has revolutionised social and economic processes through its capability to automate the very fundamentals of work institutions. This gives us unprecedented capacity to create fully automated and distributed organisations on a global scale. Blockchain and the prowess of web 3.0 brings forth the epitome of smart contracts – DAO.
DAOs or Decentralised Autonomous Organisations are in essence, online platform communities whose rules and directives are voted through a consensus and are codified into smart contracts. It is essentially the formulaic synthesis of key bureaucratic principles and decentralisation within fully distributed organisations.
Through DAOs, Procedural fluency is achieved in the absence of rigid distinctions of power structures. Where compliance of a collective succeeds in the spirit of equality, reflecting a truthful finality to the ethos “thinking independently together.” Notwithstanding the highly feasible concept of DAOs, an ominous question looms large over its security.
The DAO exploit
Derived from one particular DAO’s blemished past — On the 18th of June, 2016, shortly after the staggering success of its crowdfunding, The DAO, sustained an exploit that casted doubt on the integrity of its highly anticipated organisational techno-architecture. A “recursive call bug” in the software was the vulnerable point that allowed 3.6 million ether to be drained from The DAO into a “child DAO”.
The exploit unleashed a hell storm of opinions from both proponents of the system and non-believers alike. Articles surfaced with dense rhetorics and biases, some based on facts and others on misleading exaggerations of the event. From the proposed immediate solution, the ethics of the foundation and its direction hanged in the balance. It was widely condemned and seen by many as a sad departure from the decentralised ideals of the blockchain. It shown an eerie resemblance to the corrective undertakings of the US government in the 2007 subprime meltdown — a bailout.
In the wake of the exploit, the world focused on the failure of The DAO claiming that its concept is more myth than revolution, being all-too-human. Despite the fact that the siphoned off funds were successfully retrieved via the Ethereum hard fork, it has sustained a painful abandonment of its once flourishing multitude of trust.
But what many fail to see sits behind the confusing noise of contrasting expert opinions; the constant pressing on a technical flaw obscuring the existence of something substantial – the adaptive nature of modern technology. Most arguments on DAOs are based on comparison with traditional bureaucratic systems mainly for it’s similar architecture. However, there is a distinct difference between them.
Structured within the confines of codified systems and technologies, DAOs are native to the fast paced world of sharp reactive skill sets, where change must exist beyond parallel to the present as technological stagnation implies obsolescence, and obsolescence equates to techno-suicide.
As DAOs are forged in the crucible of innovative technology, its framework is encapsulated in a world of constant progressive upgrades. It is the paramount characteristic that sets it apart from the stubborn nature of bureaucracies, which are crystalised systems of organisations conceived for the needs of a particular era, non-adaptive, and inept to the demands of the fast changing times.
Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless we have a tyranny without a tyrant. — Hannah Arendt
Past literatures have expressed the democratic spirit of DAOs, suggesting an enticing new form of government that truly reflects the “will of the people” to be an expression beyond mere ideologies. However, it is just as crucial to look at the other side of the celebration that we identify the dangers of a system locked in a time capsule, and the consequences if left to dictate the direction of modern societies and our future.
DAO shalt not kill
A tangible element for organisational reform is the ominous presence of advanced weaponry systems. The capabilities of modern warfare has altered the fate of many causing an urgency to preserve existence. Evident to some, what once foreshadows to be pure fiction is now a dark prophetic portent of a dystopian future.
Now more than ever, weaponised innovations enhances not only target accuracy but devastation in far greater radii. However, despite such surgical precision, state-of-the-art technologies are limited to supply informational data only to a level of situational awareness at best, which entails horrific consequences where catastrophic errors in judgement are exteriorised by either misled perceptions of knowing or just an eagerness to kill.
There is a simplistic nature to modern machinations of destruction as today’s warfare are fought far from enemy lines. Justified by the words “Attack to defend” — yet well within the safety confines of an air conditioned container in the Nevada desert. The seductive and deceptive power of advanced technology, readily armed and easily deployed via touch sensitive keys, takes very little for one to indulge their deep-seated prejudice.
The pages of history describes the perils of an absolute power, and as always, technology is the key to superior weaponry in a world where incorruptibility is a commodity of growing rarity.
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” — Emma Goldman.
DAO shalt not steal
As engineered, DAOs nuclei is the fundamental feature of consensus, providing utility applicable to any and all application. In fact, its most significant point of value is disruptive to a key aspect of a nation’s political spectrum — the Government election. In spite of the democratic values behind its stated purpose, its bureaucratic processes are alterable and easily manipulated by design.
Joseph Stalin expresses his thoughts on voting:
“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this – who will count the votes, and how.”
“The people who cast the vote decide nothing, the people who count the votes decide everything.”
There exists an extensive history of procedural challenges and protests by a nation’s voters against their own government’s electoral fraud, revealing a staggering reality of persistent global corruption. DAOs framework addresses this issue with transitional ease by implementing a decentralised consensus that will enforce and uphold the keystone values of any policy or system. Values of integrity, sincerity and trust.
DAOs tackle the panoramic view of compounding corruption and human rights abuse. With the power of decentralised communication, cryptography and machine consensus, blockchain technology and DAOs will change the landscape of work and collaboration amongst people that each may have an equally meaningful voice.
What may sound as utopic principles reserved only for the Elysian Fields is no longer isolated in the realm of mythology. Decentralised blockchain technology is humanity’s hope forged in the Tartarus of man, brought upon by generational struggles endured by history. We carry these embedded lessons and guidance as we stand on the cusp of reclaiming our full rights to this world, where power is taken back from the elite classes of the few and triumphantly restored to the people.
By density and decentralisation, we can transform humanity and its future.
