A solitary planet circling a star begins to stir. On the surface, life begins to form. A kaleidoscope of species emerges, culminating in evolutionís magnum opus; intelligence.

And then technology is invented. In a flash, they create planetary scale artifices. They adapt the environment to themselves, instead of being forced to adapt to their surroundings as they once did. They dream of grand cosmic conspiracies and futures, and safely pass their perilous infancy.

Others, not so lucky or prudent, perish.

This may be a common pattern in the universe, and explains why life is uncommon. That life develops high technology and then in a flash, promptly wipes themselves out. A glimmer of brilliance before the long enveloping dark. Billions of years wasted because of unforgiveable carelessness.

We stand at a unique vantage point in the history of our species, the history of all species and the history of our planet. We face dangers to ourselves, and everything around us. We are living through an anthropogenic extinction epoch 10,000 times greater than anything since the meteor that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Nation states play a shrewd game of chicken with nuclear weapons, probing the other sideís weaknesses. We have constructed a false economy based on greed and lies.

Itís as if we are standing waist deep in petrol with a match in one hand, in a deadly doctrine of deterrence. Our ignorance, endangers our future.

The timescale for change is not millenia or even centuries, but decades or even years.

This will involve changes in government, industry, ethics, economics and religion. Weíve never attempted such an undertaking before. At least not on a planetary distance.

And it may be too difficult. Better to stay at home, they say. Or that large changes are deemed impractical or impossible- as if destruction is practical! The right change may not happen. There may be too many quarrels between nations, ethnicities and politics. Corruption may be too endemic.

But we humans have a history of overcoming adversity and rapid change. Weíre an adaptable species that aspires; sometimes dreams of the impossible well outside our means- and then reaches them! We have pulled together to explore new lands and new worlds, and have overcome diversity. Or defeated a common enemy.

And a new emerging economy. It started with software, but has expanded beyond its humble origins. The bazaar of the free software world is seriously challenging the old logic and dogmas of the cathedral. People are now exploring how to use this peer economy in non-software and non-computer contexts. We can look forward to a 21st century of liberty, free speech, education, information, environment, wealth, capitalism, community, culture, sharing, innovation. We will have a future no longer dominated by the dominance hierarchies of the past.

We have computer technology, a tool so dramatic and empowering in its nature. Anyone with access to the internet has knowledge and information. Knowledge and information is power. Commercial power. Political power. Power to change things. And this power can be wielded against us if we become too sated or ponderous.

Technology can used to destroy human freedom. Equally it can enlarge it. It can destroy or create. Make war, or peace. This revolution could lead to terrible consequences or the greatest advances humanity has ever known. Todayís computers are clunky drones, but they are rapidly becoming immensely powerful and immensely versatile systems.

We are building a new world. And that scares some. We fear the dark and the unknown troubles us. Anything can happen. Ironically, itís our fate to venture into the dark. Our glory is not from the mindless humdrum of our automated lives, but when we allow our minds to soar above our physical constraints. All throughout history there were those who had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future, but would have rather stayed at home.

This epoch will enhance the value of human talent, and devalue unskilled human labour writ democracy.

There are some screwed up morals and ethics in this show. It's a show glamorising corporate robots. In S03E12, they got a husband to sleep with a stripper to win a divorce settlement and take custody of his daughter. To limit anyone finding out, they scrub their documents of this info.

Great. That is seriously unethical and immoral. I hope we don't see the same thing with bitcoin where following the law like a corporate robot but behaving unethically is seen as good. I hope it becomes about flouting the law for greater good.

On February 1, 2012, the block-chain will be examined to determine the number of blocks supporting pay-to-script-hash for the previous 7 days. If 550 or more contain "/P2SH/" in their coinbase, then all blocks with timestamps after 15 Feb 2012, 00:00:00 GMT shall have their pay-to-script-hash transactions fully validated. Approximately 1,000 blocks are created in a week; 550 should, therefore, be approximately 55% of the network supporting the new feature.

If a majority of hashing power does not support the new validation rules, then rollout will be postponed (or rejected if it becomes clear that a majority will never be achieved).

Calm down. All the developers in the world won't help you. This is a complex problem.

Unless more happened in the last 8 hours, we were discussing before dropping OP_EVAL as an explicit instruction.

This simply means that there is a new template transaction type which bitcoin detects and handles gracefully. The top item in the input script is EVALuated without there actually being an OP_EVAL there to tell it to do that.

Lol Ron Paul is a Racist. Does that mean that he Hates everyone who's not white ? Well according to his news letters published and signed by him he SURE does LOL!!!

Cmon, anyone with half a brain who has looked into this properly, knows that the language is completely different to that used in his other publications and is obviously not him. Ron Paul is not a rascist.

Bitcoin is starting decentralising as any healthy free thinking communityshould. Projects are thiving and the economy is growing. New ideas arebeing realised and will edge out old models disruptively.

My hope is that we don't all become fractured. By having weekly regularmeetings, projects can harmonise in lock step. Concepts and algorithms canbe proposed and debated. You'd be surprised what having a scheduled regularplatform can achieve. A soap-box on an island in central waters.

For me, I don't have time to wade through IRC discussions, forum posts andmailing lists. At least if the important things are discussed in one placeit makes bitcoin development and the system more accessible.

Before meeting:

- A wiki page is created for in advance of a weekly meeting.- Announced on forums/mailing lists.- Throughout the week talking points are added to the meeting page.

After:

- Log of discussion is posted online.- I will type an accessible summary for the community at large onhttp://bitcoinmedia.com/- Next weekly meeting is scheduled.

Amir Taaki

*We can go over this hour, but this is to stop meetings dwindling off topicinto banal banter and stay focused.