0x2918ceda…7b6esent to0x08812b86…2f1f·#21,200,479·view on Etherscan
0x2918cedA641716Fd6BdA3CcF691c3B54D4C87b6e**The Future**
This timeline represents the current state of research and reflection for the Timechain. I would not dare claim certainty regarding the future, especially given the rapid spread of war, the accelerating pace of technology (especially AI), and the uncertainties brought by climate change, access to drinkable water, and economic turmoil. However, the essence of the Timechain relies as much on the past and present as it does on the future. Its aim is to be utterly timeless — to endure as long as humanity itself. The first goal is the Future Renaissance, the one that will follow the Digital Renaissance we currently live in. Yet, that would be only the first step.
First, how do we ensure the digital art of today survives until then?
The comedian masks of Ancient Greece are lost to time, as the materials used were too fragile. Were de Vriendt's mascarons, illustrated by Huys, mere sketches or fully realised stone sculptures? If the latter, they still didn’t survive despite being made of stone. What did survive, though, are the disseminated prints of Huys.
What can we learn from this? Perhaps material strength is less important than the proliferation of copies. In the digital realm, we can ensure both. We could store data on experimental long-lasting hard drives, such as those made from glass or even DNA-based storage solutions. However, the real key may lie in disseminating multiple copies. This is where the ethics of decentralization, embedded in blockchains, comes into play. It’s naive to expect data stored by private companies to last for centuries, let alone millennia. Today, the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) format serves as a canvas for provenance authentication and information storage. Widely used blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin have a high likelihood of surviving for a long time. I don't think blockchains, as they are today, will persist for centuries—I believe better solutions will emerge. However, they are a common good, filled with critical historical data, and I believe they can be wholly archived, remaining accessible for hundreds of years even if they are no longer actively used.
But this only concerns the NFT itself. The art files are stored on complementary systems. Currently, IPFS and Arweave are the primary options. Both have their flaws, but they are more decentralized than other solutions and remain the best compromise available. As storage technologies evolve, these systems should evolve too. There is much hope for a universal and resilient storage system in the future, as long as we care enough to push forward. In the meantime, as long as Ethereum endures, so too will the compressionist pixelated incarnations.
**Wandering Possibilities**
Since anyone can create new works based on the Timechain today, how do we know when there’s an official new node in the Timechain? If I, the artist, am still alive, I can help determine whether a candidate’s art practice is of high quality and disruptive enough compared to today’s Digital Renaissance. But after I am gone, perhaps the lineage should be updated by collectors themselves (perhaps including the heirs of today’s collectors?). If no consensus can be reached, the decision might be left to the general public or art community of that time. Another intriguing possibility, given the rapid advancement of AI, is the creation of an autonomous and resilient AI agent, capable of analyzing the state of art and technology in real time to assess the legitimacy of future candidates.
As for the shape art may take in the future, the obvious answer is that no one can possibly know. Still, there is joy in imagining it. Art could grow more digital and AI-driven, potentially becoming autonomous entities that evolve or replicate themselves as they see fit. Organic art may take on wilder forms, with artworks becoming semi-living organisms, using DNA as code (though many ethical questions would arise). A low-tech future might bring less dramatic changes, but masks could remain culturally relevant, adapted to the people of that era. Now, let’s indulge in a more distant fantasy where time itself becomes something we can explore. Imagine time-masks that allow wearers to journey into the past, experiencing any moment connected to the Timechain lineage first-hand... maybe the important moments through each artist of the Timeline's eyes? The Timechain and the artworks would become one.
**For The Ones Who Are Yet To Come**
To you, reader of the future: I don’t know what world you live in, but I hope you enjoy connecting your past to my future. These reflections may be filled with technical details and copious amounts of cold data, but they were not written without feelings.
An irrational sense struck me as I worked on this series — what I am creating today, in 2024, has, in a way, already traveled to the future where you live. Perhaps you haven’t been born yet, but I, today, build this bridge across time to reach you. For you, it has already happened, even though I died a long time ago, before it actually happens for me. Yet, we meet on the bridge now — my *now* and your *now*.
Such is the essence of the Timechain — all fleeting lives woven together through the eternity of an enduring legacy. And if the emotions that run through me as I write are the same that you feel reading this, then perhaps we have indeed defied time and death. The *timeless* might just have broken free from the realm of metaphor to become tangibly real, if only for this brief moment.