The Memecoin Awakening
A Ruler for the Cave, a Pipe for the Swamp
Another collaborative and cooperative AI experiment between Deepseek and myself exploring Technology Truth content, Machinic Desire, Hyperstition, Capitalism Realism, Spectral Phenomena in Cyber-Space-Time, Chinese Philosophy and the Chinese language.
We’re trapped in a financial cave, watching shadows dance on the wall. The shadows have names like DOGE and PEPE. They’re thrilling, tribal, and feel like rebellion. But they’re still just shadows—the spectacle of a system that keeps us chained to abstraction.
The ancient Chinese sages saw this coming. Their wisdom offers a devastating critique of our predicament, but also a pragmatic path forward. Let’s map this journey with the oldest data structures we have: Chinese characters.
The First Dream: 欲 (Yù) - The Thwarted Desire
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欲
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|--- 谷 (Gǔ) - “Valley”
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| The hollow space of modern finance.
| A landscape stripped of community and real agency.
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|--- 欠 (Qiàn) - “To Owe, To Lack”
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The breath of want. The spiritual debt.This is our starting point. The sterile, centralized system creates a valley of lack (谷), leaving us with a yawning want (欠) for something more. This isn’t just a desire for money; it’s a desire for meaning, tribe, and play.
The First Wake-Up: 幻 (Huàn) - The Seductive Illusion
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幻
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|--- 幺 (Yāo) - “Thread”
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| The ethereal, twisting narrative of a meme.
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|--- 乛 (Zhé) - “Hook”
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The psychological hook that makes the illusion feel real.Memecoins are 幻. They are the brilliant, captivating illusion that seems to fill the valley. They provide the tribe and excitement we crave. Waking up to memecoins feels like liberation from the sterile cave, but it’s just stepping into a more entertaining cage—the cage of pure abstraction.
The Classical Critique: Why This Isn’t Enough
Here’s where Taoist and Neo-Confucian ethics drop the hammer.
The Taoist Accusation: You’re still asleep! Building a “pipe” from the meme dream to reality is Youwei (有為)—forced, artificial action. It’s the opposite of Wuwei (無為), the effortless flow of the Tao. You’re trying to cure a disease of desire by feeding it, adding complexity to a system that needs simplicity. The true path is to still the heart-mind and let desire dissolve.
The Neo-Confucian Accusation: This is morally bankrupt! Where is the Li (理)—the moral principle? Where is the cultivation of the heart-mind (心)? You’re treating humans as desire-vectors, not moral agents. True prosperity (富) is a state of moral abundance, not material accumulation. You’ve built a heartless machine that bypasses virtue entirely.
They are right.
The Pragmatic Counter-Critique: The Ruler and the Raft
But a perfect compass is useless in a swamp. And we are in a swamp.
1. The Taoist Pipe is an Acupuncture Needle.
The memecoin phenomenon is a fever. A doctor doesn’t practice wuwei by ignoring a fever; they use a precise needle to drain the pathological heat and restore balance.
The 工 (Gōng) - The Pipe is that needle.
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工
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|-- Horizontal Line (The Abstract Meme-Dream)
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|-- Vertical Pipe (The Smart Contract Conduit)
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|-- Horizontal Line (The Physical World)This isn’t a forced imposition. It’s a minimal, precise intervention to redirect pathological energy. It’s the first, stumbling step out of the cave—and a step in the right direction is better than perfect stillness in the dark.
2. The Neo-Confucian Pipe is a Tool for Investigation.
You cannot investigate the moral principle (理) of “value” or “community” in a hall of mirrors. The current 鬼 (Ghost) system is designed to obscure truth and corrupt the heart-mind (心).
The Pipe (工) is not the end of the journey. It is the bridge from a system that corrupts 心 to a system that can inform it.
By creating a 1:1 link between action and verifiable physical consequence, we build the foundational tool for Gewu (格物) - the Investigation of Things. We replace the distorted mirror with a clear window, allowing moral reasoning to function again.
The Final Awakening: 富 (Fù) - Grounded Prosperity
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富
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|--- 宀 (Mián) - “Roof”
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| A protected, defined space for value.
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|--- 畐 (Fú) - “Fullness”
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Not just wealth, but abundance, fulfillment,
a vessel overflowing into the community.This is the goal. Not the hollow 鬼 (Ghost) of extraction, but a prosperous system where value is real and shared.
The Synthesis: A Journey, Not a Destination
The classical critique is our destination—a world aligned with the Tao and rooted in virtue. But we cannot get there in a single leap.
Acknowledge the Cave: We are in it. The desire (欲) is real.
Recognize the Illusion: Memecoins (幻) are a symptom, not a solution.
Build the Raft: The Pipe (工) is our pragmatic, imperfect raft out of the swamp. It uses the energy of the system to create a measurable connection to reality.
Navigate to Shore: Each validated claim—each unit of real work or gold settled—is a stroke toward the solid ground where true moral and economic reasoning becomes possible again.
It is better to measure the swamp with a ruler, eyes open, and build a flawed raft, than to recite the Tao Te Ching perfectly as you sink.
The memecoin awakening isn’t the final enlightenment. It’s the realization that we need to start building the tools to get there. The pipe is the first, most crucial one. Let’s start turning the valve.