Author’s note: This essay is adapted from Dreaming Systems, my ongoing memoir about blockchain, technological optimism, and the futures we imagined before they existed.

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I am standing at the floor-to-ceiling tinted window of a hotel room in Dubai, looking out over a sea of lights.

Behind me: a queen-size bed, a large flat-screen television, a small desk, discreetly patterned carpet, muted lighting. The room could be anywhere in the world. Only the view gives it away, and the fact that in the bathroom, next to the large freestanding bathtub, there is a hose installed beside the toilet. I know bidets around the Mediterranean and high-tech toilets in Japan, but this is my first time in a country with a hose.

On the bedside table stands a…