Bitcoin Tech Talk #366
Interesting Stuff
CIA Cult? - One of the weirdest stories I’ve come across, which starts with a concerned citizen calling about some unkempt, dirty kids in the company of a couple of well dressed men in 1987. The trail from there leads to a Satanic cult and child abuse ring called Founders, whose investigation gets stymied by the CIA. Before Jeffrey Epstein, I would have dismissed stories like this as conspiracy theories, but that scandal has sadly made possibly related stories like this much more credible. Maybe there is a deep state that controls politicians through these front organizations.
A Palestinian’s Perspective - One of the most sobering and sad accounts of what it’s like to be Palestinian. This was written by my friend Afkar Ammous (Saifedean’s wife) and it has some very uncomfortable truths in it. What I’ve observed about the conflict is that there’s a lot of blood lust on the neocon Republican side that contrast sharply with the Israelis I’ve talked to who are far less enthusiastic about war and are a lot more understanding of the Palestinian plight. There’s a lot of propaganda at play here, and though I doubt it’ll come to pass, I really hope and pray for peace.
Pop Culture Oligopoly - The article shows through data how books, movies, music, video games, entertainment of all kinds, have become dominated by franchises, which are essentially set in the same universe. A few people are getting more of the pie, even as all of these types of entertainment have become easier and more accessible to produce. I suspect that a lot of this has to do with just how risk-averse everyone has gotten. Not just the gatekeepers (studios, publishers, record labels, etc) but also the consumers. I believe this is because there’s so little of that spirit of exploration and curiosity, which not coincidentally is the fuel for entrepreneurship.
What I'm up to
Financial War - I talked to Preston Pysh about his thesis that theft, particularly through money printing is what leads to violence. I didn’t want to talk specifically about Israel/Palestine or Ukraine/Russia, but this was a great conversation about the reasons why these wars seem to be happening so often. We also talked a bit about how there seem to be another conflict just in time as another one winds down (Afghanistan to Ukraine to Israel).
Renaissance of Men - I talked about my new book on this podcast for Christian men, going through the different consequences of fiat money. We talked specifically about how civilization is crumbling due to all the talented people going into rent-seeking, how fiat money lets you suspend reality for a while, and why jobs that provide real value, the trades, are a good place to be as the financial system blows up.
Freedom Footprint - I talked to Knut about the same book, but interestingly we talked about completely different topics! We talked about AI and how the fear of it is a metaphysical mistake, how praexeology changes in a fiat system of status and of course, we had some good fun talking about his Atheism. I assert that fiat is atheist money because it does not have an external moral order.
Bitcoin Amsterdam - My panel with Rene Pickhardt and Joe Hall was about improving Bitcoin (Dan Held didn’t show). I also moderated a panel with two non-Bitcoiners, Hugh Hendry and Eva Vlaardingerbroek, which I’m told was very entertaining. I was also on the live desk a couple times. The first was a quick comment on the macro panel. The second was wrapping up the whole conference, where I made fun of the “crypto” exchanges.
Lugano Plan B Forum - I’m staying in Europe this week and headed to Lugano for the Plan B Forum. I’ll be moderating two panels, one on El Salvador (Max, Stacy and Josue) and one on the Cypherpunks (Adam Back, Phil Zimmerman, Paolo Arduino). I’ll also be giving a talk and probably sign some books. Please stop by and say hello if you’re around!
Nostr Note of the Week
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