Bitcoin Tech Talk #339
Interesting Stuff
Hoax of the Century - A long read on how information warfare is used by the US intelligence agencies against their own citizens. The article is deeply disturbing in that it essentially argues that the politicians have to abide by what the intelligence agencies want as a result of the power they have manipulating the public. Propaganda is insanely effective and it’s now a weapon used to perpetuate the power of those wielding it. I don’t think the author thought too much about how this intelligence agency industrial complex grew from fiat money, but this is one of the scarier outcomes.
Algorithmic Masters - This article asks some very important questions about categories and the power of being able to distinguish. As the article argues, traditional categorization was known to the people being categorized, which meant that they could counter it to some degree. The new age of algorithmic categorization by machine often means that we are blind to these categories that we are being put in. The predictability of the category is very valuable and can be used for control. As there’s good evidence that we don’t understand these algorithms, this is something we really need to pay attention to.
Preaching to the Remnant - An amazing read on the desire to reach the masses, which happens so much in democracy especially. As the article argues, if you’re interested in popularity, you have to aim at the masses, which often has a very low denominator, indeed. But aim at the Remnant, and you can focus instead on telling the truth. That prophetic voice lives in the Bitcoin Maximalist crowd and it is this tension between serving the Remnant vs serving the crowd which is the main conflict in our community.
What I'm up to
Fiat Ruins Everything - My book is near submission with many tens of thousands of words so far. Despite it being my fifth book, it’s the first where I’m both writing it myself and taking on a topic that’s more economics and ethics related than specifically technical. The last few weeks have been particularly fruitful and hopefully, it’s something that will capture the depth of debasement of our age.
Twitter Spaces - I’ll be on one April 10th around when this newsletter is released to talk about adoption in SE Asia and other stuff I’ve been up to. It’s been a while since I’ve done a spaces or any audio recording with Bitcoin Magazine, so this should be fun. Please join!
Seoul - I’ll be doing a couple of meetups in Seoul over the next couple weeks. If you’re in town, please come by and say hi! The first one, I’ll do a talk, the second will be mostly Q&A. If there are interesting Bitcoin related things in Seoul, I’d love to hear about it. Please contact me by replying to this email.
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Shilling
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