Beyond Engineering: Crypto Aesthetics

Author: Fang Ting; Source: Waibo Three Views

The crypto world is often called a “rabbit hole,” but that rabbit is a mechanical cyborg rabbit. It did not lead us into a restored and lively encrypted garden, but into a noisy cyber construction site. In this code construction site of the first half of the 21st century, various infras are constantly being built, torn down, raising dust, and then completed or unfinished (in most cases).

Engineers play a decisive role here, and accordingly, engineering problems are most often regarded as the underlying problems of the world.

01****Abstract Lego and Engineering Construction

In this world, technical understanding determines the right to speak. People with more technical/engineering knowledge will gain the power to obtain more "construction consumables" (corresponding resources). This creates a problem: more and more building materials are allocated to more and more professional engineers, and more and more professional engineers can only focus more and more on their own engineering skills in engineering competitions.

The ZK (zero-knowledge proof) arms race may better illustrate this point, but no other field that requires the use of abstract cryptography, mathematics, or high-level architectural tools is immune. **An abstract Lego pile is rising higher and higher, while dust is still rising on the ground. **

Everyone knows, or expects, that one day there will be a breakthrough that will prove that one direction is feasible, while other directions will be declared closed and resources will be misallocated.

**But resources are inherently misallocated. **

In the above description, what has been ignored is the issue of "engineering aesthetics".

The order of engineering aesthetics and engineering construction has long been easily considered to be that the latter comes first ("construction"), and then the former ("framed"). "Hardware decoration is not enough, so soft decoration is needed." Therefore, on the crucial infrastructure issue, engineering aesthetics has become a "ribbon-cutting date" on an infinitely postponed calendar, the icing on the cake, but at the same time dispensable.

But the important thing is just the opposite: engineering aesthetics should always come before construction and occupy the dominant design position. **Because otherwise, engineering construction would be no different from a violent solution of using a bunch of consumables to build a space structure. And violent problem solving is an industry-level gamble.

02 Anesthetic: Blocked Perception

In "The Role of Aesthetics in Engineering," Rolf Faste, a professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford, lists possible roots of aesthetics: aisthetikos, pertaining to sense perception; aistheta, perceptible things; aisthenasthai, to perceive; aisthesis, sense perception. [1]

“Aesthetics” arises from embodied perception. Engineering aesthetics is not a narrative, but a body feeling based on accuracy, just like the "felt temperature" is often far from the "actual temperature". Aesthetics is the key to solving the misallocation of resources, and it itself contains the meaning of "everyone gets what he deserves".

Truly original engineering contributions are often based on a sense of "treating oneself as a human being". If the cryptographic world still hopes to have its human inhabitants, then it must respect human beings' true feelings instead of training humans to adapt to what the program will do. is the only way.

Rolf later proposes the opposite of the word "aesthetics", namely "anesthetic", which blocks sensory perception. It is often used for anesthesia, but blocking perception cannot be selectively filtered. It can only block all perceptions at the same time. **A lot of times, it feels like this is what is happening in the crypto world right now, and the “anesthetic” is the real experience if you use certain crypto products as a user.

The infrastructure is further away from the users, so at this stage it seems reasonable to avoid all kinds of subtle subjective areas, claiming that all this will be done by the application layer. This subjective field serves as a blank field of "aesthetic realization", leaving a space for aesthetic performance.

The aesthetic here refers not only to product aesthetics (of course very important), but also to a more general "encryption aesthetics".

03 Encryption Aesthetics

Aesthetics is not a word opposite to utility. It represents the natural rhythm of being in line with the long-term development tone of the industry and following the right beat. It is a non-purpose-oriented, process-oriented utility.

Obviously, products developed "for three years" are bound to be different from products developed "for ten years", and there are essential differences from the concept of "for fifty years."

How easily products become obsolete; even theories or even concepts that should have a longer life cycle are in danger of yellowing and becoming obsolete in history. Just as Alexander's ideas had such a great influence on the architectural community in the last century, they are considered slightly outdated by some colleagues today. No matter how powerful a thesis is, it has context and therefore its own life cycle. To find a powerful, generalizing first-level concept is like an adventure in a huge time coordinate system.

To find a word and find this first-level concept is an aesthetic category.

04 Replace “legitimacy” with aesthetics

Danny Ryan proposed in an early discussion with us that "protocol" should be a first-class concept, and that there is full potential and necessity to do so. It is a broadly defined automation device that reduces the intelligence required to perform anything. It has been regarded as a concept for more than ten years by this small experimental team (Summer of Protocols). During several months of exploration, we researchers, who mainly come from humanities and social science backgrounds, all have different perspectives on this word. Deep understanding: death, memory, credit culture, protocols in urban planning, cyberspace, etc.

"Aesthetics" means a completeness, not a Canonical setting. Let’s replace “orthodoxy” with aesthetics: Orthodoxy means a kind of sealing of past experience, just like a restaurant that emphasizes its “authenticity”. But when the sealing is completed, the threshold is also established, not intentionally. But it also means that it is difficult to maintain a sense of the wider world and richer systems. After "discourse" becomes "discourse power", in order to establish itself, it is difficult to have fundamental integrity.

05 Crypto-aesthetics is a kind of free aesthetics

If engineering thinking is a problem-oriented thinking, in the absence of an overall view, it is likely to become a "near-proximity problem-oriented". Problems at hand will be discovered first, while distant and perhaps more important problems will be discovered first. problems, but often do not get the same insight because of the lack of vision. Aesthetics means an insight. In other words, this is the difference between Engineering Thinking and Design Thinking, and the latter refers to far more than just the designer's thinking, but a human-centered observation paradigm after empathy.

Cryptozoism is not libertarianism, but if there is any ultimate goal, freedom must be one of them. In the definition of crypto-aesthetics, there must be the clause "consistent with the best long-term interests of the industry": thus, crypto-aesthetics is an aesthetic of freedom, and "protocol" is a function of freedom. "Protocol" is a "candidate" found by practitioners in this new crypto-aesthetic practice, and it is the number one candidate concept that contributes to this free aesthetics. This is also the real driving force for the research organization I am involved in to systematically publish and promote papers and surrounding content with the "Protocol" as the core in the next few months.

Crypto aesthetics is now the telescope on this construction site. It cannot bring any practical guidance to this construction site, nor can it predict where the market will go in the next six months. Within the boundaries, what survives is predictable technological progress; outside the boundaries, what exists is broader science, humanities, and society. "To go out, to enter, to cross the boundary to see the light; to go, to go, is to take small and gradual steps." ** Encryption aesthetics is a "crossing the boundary to see the light" in the entire encryption engineering world. **

06 Can we still find that rabbit in 2024

Remember that metaphor about the crypto rabbit hole at the beginning?

Saran Friend, one of my "colleagues" in the Summer of Accords project, in her full paper on Accords and Death [2] , quoted this passage, from The Velveteen Rabbit ("Velveteen Rabbit"):

‘Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.’

'Does it hurt?' asked the Rabbit.

'Sometimes,' said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful.

The famous story goes like this: A boy's stuffed rabbit keeps him company, and when the relationship between them becomes real enough, the stuffed rabbit comes to life and becomes a real thing.

"You become real, because a child REALLY loves you, not just to play with." It is such a seriousness in play that makes everything real. 2023 is almost over and 2024 is upon us, and if there’s one thing we’re missing in the crypto engineering world, it’s a living rabbit with a pocket watch to guide everyone from hole to hole. In short, a crypto-aesthetic rabbit.

In the still-fuzzy early days of the crypto-engineering world, whoever followed the rabbit was the real Alice. Aesthetics is an area that smart contracts and silicon-based organisms have not yet reached, and it is the key to resurrecting the rabbit again.

Before you play hide-and-seek with that mysterious concept that will “revitalize the industry again,” don’t forget the friends you play hide-and-seek with. I joined Uncommons last week, and to use the above metaphor, it is a magical organization that "resurrects the rabbit". In the encryption world dominated by engineers, we are more concerned about the more technical, humanistic and aesthetic issues in the encryption world.

Readers who can read this place are welcome to follow and join Uncommons and become Alice in this industry. :D

• "Can you please tell me which way I should take from here?" "A lot depends on where you want to go," said the cat. "I don't much care where I go——" said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the cat. "—as long as I can walk somewhere." Alice added this as an explanation. "Well, if you go far enough," said the cat, "you'll definitely get there."*