The rays of the sun, slowly sneaking into the salty mist of the Pacific, foreshadowed the scorching heat and honey-like humidity typical of the season, like the morning shiver that ran through me upon waking up.
Unusual were my reaction to the sound of my phone ringing, and even more so my immediate response to an unknown number, as if unconsciously waiting for that call.
The stamp, tone, cadence, emphasis of the voice, and the occasional well-pronounced Sicilian expressions, were not enough to conceal the Venetian origin of the person on the other end, confirming within seconds that it was indeed him, the “Wizard of Oz of Brenta,” as he had jokingly nicknamed him many years before during their first meeting.
For his ability to “pull rabbits out of the hat,” certainly, but also in response to the “Pico della Mira….bella” that alluded to his surprising memory.
Almost twenty years had passed…
At that moment, the Wizard of Oz, whose real name was Massimiliano Nicastro, a Paduan with a Sicilian father and a Venetian mother, a student of communication science and marketing, was actually a born entrepreneur, a visionary with his feet on the ground. And Pico, whose real name was Santi Mirabella, a Sicilian with a Florentine mother and a lawyer, writer, musician, and “adventurer,” had that particular, unique and peculiar approach that only “Italians abroad” have, a different species, a “variant” of the Italian language.
It always starts with coffee and a glass of water, elements that are already suitable for mutual evaluation: espresso, Americano, long but not too long, macchiato, corrected, cream of coffee…mineral water, natural, from the tap, alkaline, smooth, carbonated or Ferrarelle….
If the “feeling” is good, one soon finds oneself snacking, toasting, opening the doors to emotion, ineffable nostalgia, memories, the reasons for a separation or a choice. In this way, the Wizard, absolutely teetotal despite being born in the most “witty” cradle in Italy, gave appropriate instructions to the diligent waiters of Haiti di Miraflores, pulling out of the hat for the occasion a Venetian Spritz, worthy of Silvio Pellico.
They talked about climates, customs, monumental riches, and enigmas of Peru, including the “Quipus,” then about preferences, attractions, and interests, but above all about Antonio Raimondi, the feeling of shame they felt as Italians when they couldn’t interact with taxi drivers, waiters, shoe shiners, and locals in general who, recognizing them as Italians, exclaimed, “like the great Italian sage Antonio Raimondi…,” about the astonishment and dismay of coming across squares, avenues, “malecones,” “alamedas,” and museums dedicated to the great Italian sage and not being able to admit, out of modesty, that in their homeland, the “Great Sage Raimondi” was an illustrious unknown.
A Milanese doctor, botanist, and naturalist, he was impressed as a young man by some enormous Andean cacti in the Botanical Garden of Milan and later became a promoter of the “Five Days of Milan.” After an initial euphoria, he had to emigrate to Peru to escape the reprisals of the Austrians, where his overflowing talent was soon recognized with the task of creating the Archaeological, Ethnological, and Botanical Museum of Peru.
He traveled the vast Peruvian territory (4 and ½ times the size of Italy) on a mule, surveying every nook and cranny, creating maps and cartographies of Peru (still in use), systematically classifying geography, meteorology, geology, minerals, animal and plant species, discovering many unknown, such as the giant and enigmatic cactus, an authentic Andean totem, which was named “Estela Raimondi” (Raimondi’s Stele) in his honor, as well as leaving a record of his activity in encyclopedic writings.
All this and much more came to mind as he was on the phone, like a cinematic sequence, a real “flashback,” feeling a growing emphasis, satisfaction, and that indescribable sense of pleasure peculiar to a meeting between friends.
“Besides urgently needing your professional translator services, you are invited to come to the new company’s headquarters because, among other things, I have some surprises for you….” – he emphasized excitedly.
But when he added: “Aside from a couple of rabbits that I would love to pull out of the famous hat, given the opportunity….” nothing else was necessary, and he quickly jotted down the address, already on his way.
It was only then, as he reluctantly put on the KN95 mask, suddenly smiling, that he realized it was January 7, his friend’s birthday.
He thought back, chuckling to himself like a madman, to what he had told him many years before: “So it’s true that…. the Befana left the firstborn Massimiliano for your parents….”
The effusive warmth of the meeting in the 7th-floor office of the elegant Miraflores building was indeed enlivened by surprises, the most welcome of which was seeing Ivan again, a Peruvian lawyer and constitutional law expert with whom he had shared legal management in another of Massimiliano’s companies, forging strong bonds of friendship. Passionate about politics, he had started his career at a very young age as a legal consultant to Dr. Valentin Paniagua Corazon, interim President of the Republic, after Fujimori’s shameful flight to Japan.
A team of young professionals gave an air of fresh and effervescent efficiency to the work environment, and there was no need to ask what the core business of the friend’s new venture was to understand it.
The mass of web pages, user manuals, white papers, engineering drawings and diagrams, platforms, applications, and developments they handed him for translation spoke volumes.
And the work proved to be of enormous interest, an inexhaustible source of knowledge, learning, and study of revolutionary, disruptive new technologies and at the same time a cause of new stimuli, new explorations of unknown worlds, exciting challenges.
So after seeing hundreds of videos attesting to the friend’s tireless work of dissemination, diffusion, and proselytism, heaps of certificates, diplomas, and various recognitions, he couldn’t help but exclaim, amused: “The Wizard of Oz of Brenta has thus transformed into the Indiana Jones of Blockchain!”.
Rummaging through shelves and drawers, smiling and pleased with the latest definition given to him by his friend, the other pulled out from a folder a transparent cylinder, a “white rabbit,” and replied: “Yes, and Pico della Mirabella will soon turn into Neo, the hero of Matrix, Legal Tech of ‘Evoluzione Blockchain Internazionale S.A.C.'”- he said, convinced and enthusiastic, while the diligent Jacqueline of the accounting area showed him different types of contracts, modalities, and remunerations.
Captivated by an authentic whirlwind of anecdotes, experiences, and projections, they delighted in their respective progress, finding themselves improved, evolved, matured, while ultimately remaining true to themselves and analyzing the main characteristics of D.L.T and Blockchain. Both immediately thought of the “Quipus“, enigmatic systems of cords, knots, colors, and insertions of pre-Inca origin that together constituted a real “system of accounting records” of extreme effectiveness during the Inca empire, equipped as they were with enigmatic codes and different cryptic elements. Many years before, the quipus (pronounced “kipus”) had already captured their interest.
Pleasantly surprised to find that each had continued to study, research, and investigate the topic on their own, they found themselves commenting on the life and works of another great Italian: Carlos Radicati di Primeglio, eminent anthropologist and scientist, renowned for the enormous contributions he made to the study and investigation of languages, writings, and accounting and computing systems of the major ancient civilizations of the planet (China, India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Aztec, Maya…).
However, the driving force behind their persistent dedication to research on the real meanings, tasks, functions, scope, and implications of the “Quipus” was the persistent, stubborn belief that it was impossible for civilizations of the level of the Andean and specifically the Inca, protagonists of extraordinary works in many fields of human life, not to know or have a writing system, remaining as if by magic bound to mere oral tradition.
Other great anthropologists had investigated deeply, both theoretically and through incessant fieldwork, managing in some cases to discover decryption codes, but these codes were related to specific groups of “quipus” and only to numerical quipus.
The scope of those that at first sight appeared to be curious necklaces of pendulous threads tied with fascinating asymmetry to the master cord and fancifully decorated with groups of knots, insertions of minerals and plants, changing and variegated colors that formed motifs or polychromatic spectra was quite different.
Or bundles of hanging succulent plants like many “giant quipus” found in various locations in the then “Imperio de los Incas.”
Radicati’s approach to study and interpretation was the real turning point of the immense contribution he was able to make to the exciting attempt to solve the mysteries they contained.
And which, proving insoluble for the Spanish Conquistadors, were detonating impotence and anger, inducing them to destroy and burn much of it.
However, burning books does not ensure the extinction of culture…!
Identity of analysis and perspectives, coincidence of opinions, common passion for the subject were for the two friends fuel to give greater impetus to the demonstration of a thesis they tenaciously shared: the “Quipus” must be, at least to some extent, the forerunners of the Blockchain, the Andean ancestors of Distributed Ledger Technology and in any case an exemplary case in the history of humanity of logic and conception very similar to those that inform the most advanced contemporary technologies such as the Blockchain.
Radicati was sensitive to the fascination for the traditions of exact and esoteric knowledge in ancient societies and to the transmission from generation to generation.
The spectrum of his interests was broad, ranging from mathematics to shamanism, and he was convinced that the “Quipus” could not be just a “technical-mnemonic” resource as was customary to think at the time.
Rather, he believed that in addition to being an efficient resource for recording numerical-quantitative information, some “fold” or subgroup must hide the proof of an Andean writing system.
In his opinion, the Incas had not developed an elaborate two-dimensional or graphical writing system, but rather used quipus: ropes, knots, and colors arranged in three dimensions.
He discovered and demonstrated the existence of three levels of knowledge and use of this resource in Inca society:
- “the knowledge of statistical quipu” is in the public domain.
- “the knowledge of simple ideographic quipu” is the domain of a smaller number of people with a certain level of education.
- “the knowledge of more sophisticated ideographic quipu” is reserved for a small group of “amautas and quipucamayos …”
The degree of knowledge of the quipus by people was also connected to the various social roles and positions they held.
Everything indicated what the scholar’s objective was: to demonstrate his deep and secure conviction of the sophisticated complexity of Inca civilization compared to other great civilizations of the ancient world, and in this sense, he made efforts to put his extensive knowledge of ancient writing and recording systems at the service of demonstrating that the Incas had indeed developed a writing system.
The cornerstone of Radicati’s research was the theory of so-called “serialization” (1965), aimed primarily at interpreting non-numeric quipus, i.e., those in which knots were grouped in decimal and hierarchical groups.
Radicati believed that such non-numeric quipus contained narrative information.
“Serialization” was for him a common feature of the color format in the group of 8 non-numeric quipus found in the Santa Valley.
The basic arrangement scheme of the cords was a grouping of hanging cords into repetitive color groups.
Radicati explained his theory: this type of differentiation and ordered repetition of quipu cords was the key element in the syntax of non-numeric quipus. The other main components of the paradigm of “serialization” of non-numeric quipus were knots tied to hanging cords, arranged in a repetitive color scheme.
However, unlike the knots with a decimal base of numeric quipus, these knots had a certain semantic value.
The combination of serialized cords and knots they carried formed ideographic units.
The “quipucamayoqs” were able to “read” these “chords” of colors and knots similar to the reading of signs in more traditional reading systems based on writing.
From that pleasant and passionate conversation and the impeccable unity of beliefs and intentions between the two Italian “Amautas” who had just met, more than one project was born …
In the light of the latest “metamorphosis” experienced, the curious “coincidence” of finding themselves on the same ship sailing with unity of purpose and favorable winds towards the appointment of the present with the future, they were induced to intensify in-depth research and meticulous research on that “past” (testified by Quipus), essential to arrive prepared with awareness and knowledge, at the fateful appointment with the future.
They exponentially multiplied academic and informative activities, creating several Blockchain Observatories following the model of the first one created by Indiana at the oldest university in the Americas, the Universidad Mayor de San Marcos in Lima.
Despite Neo being now fully immersed in smart contracts and elaboration of legal-legislative designs for the asphyxiated, lazy regulatory and institutional reality of beloved Peru, and Indiana engaged in a generous attempt to emulate the multiplication of bread and fish to satisfy the legitimate needs of the company’s collaborators, both found a way and time, stealing the latter from sleep or free time, to continue watering the dream of a “journey” that, they agreed, even following a route marked by tireless research work and academic eminence, rigorous investigation methodologies, data analysis, and projections, should have created a simple communicative vehicle, accessible to the learned and the ignorant, the Peruvian native and the world, motivating and inclusive.
Innovative way of making science and information truly accessible to the understanding of any human mind, highlighting and exalting the ritual, metaphysical, and sacred aspects without which any inquiry into the Andean world (or any other), its worldview, rules and principles, laws and fruits of ingenuity, would have remained sterile attempts or daring intellectual ambitions in themselves.
Undoubtedly, the “happiness” (why hide it?) of finding that some of the most relevant research and studies on the subject had been carried out by Radicati, a new Raimondi who chose to assume Peruvian nationality out of love for Peru, also played a role.
However, even greater was the awareness that valuing, narrating, and communicating to as many Peruvians as possible the excellence of an autochthonous symbol of inestimable value, worthy of being declared a World Heritage Site, would have had the double effect of increasing the level of self-esteem and an exponential push towards the deepening of an ancestral value whose existence as Peruvians they had always known about by hearsay but of which they actually knew nothing.
After all, the two friends also took inspiration from Radicati’s perspective and methodology of not disregarding the need to find a code for the interpretation of something or someone, much less the inevitable need to know how to enter, with respect and authority at the same time, into harmony with their respective human and cultural dimension.
Indiana and Neo are pleased to announce that these brief notes executed with four hands represent a preview of the project “From Quipus to Blockchain – a journey into the past towards the future”, in which, through an upcoming book, a video clip, and an adequately high-level documentary, the theory of the strong ties between Blockchain technology and the Quipus System is developed and explained, through the analysis, among other things, of the Yupana (pre-Columbian abacus), the Quilca (pre-Columbian writing system), and other relevant elements…
Santi Mirabella – Massimiliano Nicastro
Main bibliographical references:
-Carlos Radicati di Primeglio – “El sistema contable de los Incas” – Lima, Peru.
-Carlos Radicati di Primeglio – “Estudios sobre los quipus” – Lima, Peru.
-Consejo Nacional de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Tecnológica – Proyecto Quipu – Director Hugo Pereira Sánchez – Editorial CONCYTEC – Lima, Peru. 2011
Thank you, Affidaty!
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