Jeremy Wagstaff: New Kids on the Block Chain

You’ve probably heard of Block Chain. But what is it? How does it work?

Those are just two of the questions we put to my guest this episode, Jeremy Wagstaff, a Chief Technology correspondent in Asia. It’s a complex situation, one that’s important now and that is going to be more important in the future.

This is the New Kids on the Block Chain episode.

What does the future hold?  Are we on the cusp of a Utopian existence where virtual reality and the Internet of Things blend seamlessly with our higher selves? A moment where every thought and desire can be instantaneously translated into action to generate an evolved state of being?

Or are we staring down the barrel of a dystopian future, where the least of our decisions is carefully monitored by governments and corporate security units who profess good intentions while unleashing A.I. bots to decipher and predict your every move.

It’s not that you’ll be powerless to change the mind of the machine that decides your future, or control the companies that right now are mining your data, it’s that you won’t know those verdicts are happening in the first place. You may never know they’re happening at all. Your insurance rates will rise magically, inexplicably. You will be denied a loan for no discernable reason.

When things get bad enough, the people will revolt. They will take back their data. And if that happens, the block chain is going to be at the center of everything.

Thanks, as always for listening.