Blockchain - Yes, Prime Minister!
First an interesting throwback to “Yes Prime Minister”, that was a British Sitcom on the Idiot Box that was aired in 1986. The story is set in the fictional private office of a British Prime Minister, Jim Hacker at Whitehall and his various struggles to formulate and enact policy or effect departmental changes. These are opposed by his Cabinet Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby while the PM’s Principal Private Secretary Bernard Woolley, is usually caught between the two.
What comes next in mind is yet another interesting story that alludes to the Yes Prime Minister and the travails of power and its attendant efficiencies and deficiencies that tango together. It’s the story of four people named ‘Everybody’, ‘Somebody’, ‘Anybody’ and ‘Nobody’.
There was an important job that needed to be done and ‘Everybody’ was sure that ‘Somebody’ would do it. ‘Anybody’ could have done it, but ‘Nobody’ did it. ‘Somebody’ was angry about that, because it was Everybody’s’ job. ‘Everybody’ thought ‘Anybody’ was supposed to do it, but ‘Nobody’ realized that ‘Everybody’ wouldn’t do it. It ended up that ‘Everybody’ blamed ‘Somebody’ when ‘Nobody’ did what ‘Anybody’ could have. And how?
Its simple, while the individual moving parts of any government remain as they are, strong, immutable, rigid also inflexible, compartmentalized, tightly leashed and accountable, each efficient in its own ways, a ‘thought’ however, does not become an ‘ought’ as it takes more than one part to become a whole. That in turn, makes it very difficult to establish ‘provenance’ or origin of any activity within the Govt. and turn it to be the ‘proven outcome’.
The accountability finishes at achieving outcomes or defending and justifying what could or could not be done within one or ‘some’ moving parts, while the ‘whole’ is rarely and with difficulty achieved, as the ‘sum of the parts’ just never sum up!
An old idiom comes to rescue and defends the two stories above. It says, “A Camel is a horse designed by a committee”. Committees, due to their reliance on several different opinions and viewpoints, produce results that are fragmented, inefficient, or of poor quality.
That idiom defends because that idiom exists so its ok to blame it on the idiom! As long as the ‘one part’ did what it was expected to do! In doing so, that idiom rescues because it recuses ‘Everybody’, ‘Somebody’, ‘Anybody’ and ‘Nobody. In pun, one might say its like everybody that gets into Google looking for something but invariably gets out of Google with something completely different.
Simply put, there is a provenance or origin of each activity and there is accountability of each act, and yet, the responsibility of not achieving it can only be pinned on ‘Nobody” since ‘Everybody’ never looked at it as the ‘whole’! Blockchain then arises as the finest cure for the epilepsy, inertia, Alzheimer or Parkinson’s that afflicts governance.
That next takes us to the Parkinson’s law articulated byCyril Northcote Parkinsonas part of the first sentence of an essay published along side many others inThe Economistin 1955 and since republished online. The Parkinson’s law suggests that “work expands to fill up given time”.
To absolve us of any crime, the reference is to the British functioning, though an apple will rarely fall far from its tree and we are still not talking of India. (That disclaimer may be noted!)
The arbitrage then has to be between the derived efficiency versus deemed deficiency. With the stress that's becoming incremental in our lives, what, if because of our work-efficiencies, time expands as a result of the work that gets done faster, it may make for a healthier planet not nit-picking rather pic-nik’ing!
Elon Musk though feels that the world must pay a premium for keeping the Blockchain algorithms going. This comes at a cost. As an example, one of the most important applications of Blockchain, the Bitcoin, to keep it running on the network for a year, will consume as much energy as is used by 160 world’s nations. If we can create the regulations or smart contracts in overseeing its use, it will play like a song.
While the jury will be out on that! It will certainly make for a reduction in the ‘quantitative transaction’ time and an improvement in the ‘qualitative transformation’ time thus invested in our lives. That stretches thin the argument in favor of ‘costs’ and expands a counter argument in favor of ‘cost benefits’
In Shakespeare’ comedy, twelfth night, the lovelorn Orsino is frustrated in his courtship of countess Olivia. He asks for more music because he muses that an excess of music might cure his obsession with love, in a way that eating too much removes one’s appetite for food. Thence, the famous words, “if music be the food of love, play on!”
At this time a road has just been completed and the road has been inaugurated between tiara and tiari. At this time the same road is being dug to lay a telephone cable. In a block chain if the provenance of that asset were known, then if not the cable, the duct could have been prioritised too since that is a natural companion of a road. Alas, PWD reports and is responsible only to the Ministry of housing and urban affairs and the cable perhaps to the Ministry of telecom or perhaps Ministry of I&B. ‘Mere dosto tum karo faisla, khata kiski hai, kisko de hum sazaa’! In this case I am the plaintiff because I paid taxes!!
How about WhatsApp and Twitter on blockchain! It will be so easy to identify the wrong doer! The analogy of the 4 friends above again comes to mind with respect to social media and the ills that confound the governement or individuals. Is it not the same water that softens a potato, also hardens an egg!
The New York Times says that Blockchain has the potential to cut through millions of hours of red tape every year, hold public officials accountable through smart contracts and provide transparency by recording a public record of all activity,
Here is a point to ponder for the Prime Minister,…errr!!.. Jim Hacker to put his ducks in a row and resolve the confusion between his cabinet secretary and his principal secretray. Is he listening?
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