Vitalik Is The Public Intellectual The Tech World Needs Right Now

Vitalik Buterin is best known for creating the world's second most valuable blockchain, Ethereum, when he was just 19 years old. But in recent years, Buterin's influence has spread far beyond the world of cryptography and into a wider realm of ideas, where the young mathematician, who learned Chinese while traveling the world, offers important treatises on technology and the future.

A recent example is a 10,000-word essay published this week called "My Techno-Optimism." This is a response to the controversial "manifesto" of the same name written by influential capitalist Marc Andreessen. Buterin's article defends many elements of the manifesto, including the claim that technology has brought wonderful benefits to humanity and that fear and over-regulation limit progress in areas such as biotechnology. But while he supports a "put your foot on the gas" approach, especially when it comes to the climate change crisis, Buterin also calls for a more cautious approach to artificial intelligence.

While the creator of Ethereum has long been a leading thinker in computer science, he has also become a thinker in technology and social governance. Here's Buterin on OpenAI and the challenge of limiting the technology with little advice from elite decision makers;

“[It was] a well-intentioned attempt to balance the need to generate profits to satisfy seed investors with the desire to have checks and balances to counter moves that risk blowing up OpenAI. world In practice, however, their latest attempt to fire Sam Altman reveals the establishment as an abject failure; it concentrated power in an undemocratic and unaccountable five-member board of directors that made key decisions based on classified information and refused to discuss the details. . until the employees threatened to leave en masse.

Based on his experience building decentralized communities on the Ethereum domain, Buterin offers new and important perspectives on how to think about artificial intelligence, including how to avoid the very real possibility of people turning into herd machine owners. Of course, he's not the only one with big ideas for the future of technology. But what sets Butter apart is his deep capacity for compassion and lack of ego.

Unlike Andreessen and Balaji Srinivasan, another tech genius whose ideas carry a lot of weight in the tech debate, Buterin doesn't take issue with those who disagree with him or who describe the debate in harsh terms. - show a part of the business elite.

"I think these [technologies] are very good, and that humanity's expansion into the planets and stars is a very good thing, because I think humanity is very good," he writes. In tough times, when fear and negativity grip many, it's refreshing to read a tech genius who relies on compassionate conviction. If you'd like a shorter, more accessible insight into Buterin's worldview, you can also check out Fortune's new Q&A, which explores the moral case for supporting Ukraine and the fascinating sci-fi setting of the popular book and movie , Unproblematic Three Bodies . Happy Saturday - Sunday.

Jeff John Roberts
jeff.roberts@fortune.com
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This story was originally published on Fortune.com.

Vitalik Buterin - Ideas for things worth building