Explaining the Matrix to my 4-year-old son … and sort of what a blockchain fork is
So the Orbs Marketing Department, which I can subjectively call the best in the industry, is in full throttle. We’re traveling the world, making contact with the coolest possible partners, and showing off the technological knowhow of the Orbs and Hexa teams on the Cryptic Writings blog. We’re also printing t-shirts, hopefully the beginning of some radical swag (not that swag is the most important element of granting a company legitimacy, but I mean who doesn’t like free stuff?). One of those t-shirts is an obvious reference to pop culture.
There is no fork.
The shirt obviously recalls the iconic ‘There is no spoon’ scene from the Matrix, but with a clear blockchain twist. Orbs does not claim to have an “unforkable” blockchain about to be released, but we have made it a goal to disincentivize forking as much as possible.
Naturally, a 4-year-old wants to know what the hell his father is wearing.
“Aba,” ‘Daddy’ in Hebrew, “What does it mean ‘there is no fork?’”
That requires explaining two things, and in a certain order. The spoon, then the fork.
“Well, it’s from a movie — a movie for grown-ups. It can be a little scary, but it’s for grown-ups and it’s just a movie.”
Sometimes my son can take sci-fi fantasy stories like any little boy, but then sometimes, depending on his mood, he might decide a certain story is scary.
“In the movie, all the people are actually dreaming. And they’re dreaming in a computer. They don’t know they’re in the computer.”
This is where the explanation can go make-it-or-break-it. If he thinks it’s interesting, he will keep listening to me for like another five minutes — a golden window in parental time. If he thinks this next part is scary, he will get nervous, and the next two hours will be an arduous adventure getting him to bed.
“And they were put in the computer by robots who actually rule the world.”
…
He’s still listening. Keep going. Keep going DAMN IT. Keep going while you still have the chance!
“Robots?” he asks.
“Yes, robots. The robots built the computer so the humans don’t know. They keep the people dreaming.”
No words about human batteries. I mean, come on, I don’t want to complicate it.
“The whole dream looks like the regular world. But the real world is a mess after a big war between people and the robots. And the robots won.”
…
No panic.
No “STOP ABA!” He’s still listening. Okay. Almost to the shirt.
“So only a few people know the dream isn’t real. And in the movie, they meet a boy who also knows it’s a dream. And they see him bending a spoon.”
“Bending a spoon, Aba?”
Clearly this is going far better than I expected it to go.
“Yeah, he’s bending a spoon. And they ask him how he can do that. He tells them that since it’s just a dream, since the spoon’s not real…” (it’s sometimes good I find to just repeat yourself, or better put to say something in a different way, when you’re explaining something to kids. They must understand you one way, but not another. That goes doubly for kids who speak one language at home [English] and another at school/daycare [Hebrew]), “So he says, ‘There is no spoon.’”
BOOM SHAKALAKA.
“So there’s no spoon?”
“RIGHT. And we changed it to make a joke. This shirt says there is no fork.”
Part I complete on this epic explanation. Then I realize, like someone who just produced an original script in Hollywood that turned into a blockbuster, that the vision for a sequel doesn’t easily translate into something superior to the original.
“And a fork, is, errrrmmm, a fork is a part of the technology Aba’s work does.”
::blank stare::
“It’s kind of like if people make copies of the apps of games on your phone that you have, and that’s called forking. They copy it because they think they can make it better. We want to make something people like so much they don’t want to copy it to make a better one.”
It almost feels too simple. Now the moment of truth. My son says, “Okay.”
…
Does he get it? Does he know? Did I really pull off explaining the entire backstory and every nuance of this t-shirt to a 4-year-old boy? Will my son be the only one in his daycare to understand the basics of blockchain forking, the trend that has cloned and derived new forms of cryptocurrency, both a blessing and a curse to an industry trying to produce great and original technology that could revolutionize the world?!
“So the people are in the computer and there are robots?”
“YES. EXACTLY.”
If you would like a shirt, contact us while supplies last at community@orbs.com with your size and P.O. Box where you want it shipped.
Join the Orbs community:
- GitHub: https://github.com/orbs-network
- Telegram: https://t.me/orbs_network
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/orbs_network
- Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ORBS_Network/
- Read the Orbs white papers: https://www.orbs.com/white-papers
