Interesting Stuff
Authenticity and Hyperreality - The article is about the obsession with authenticity, how the desire for it is actually searching for a core that doesn’t exist. The main example from the author is about classic cars and what counts as an actual classic car. What was fascinating is that a lot of classic cars are manufactured again once they become popular collector’s items, to the exact specification of the original, either made by the original manufacturer, or sometimes even licensed to some other company. The main idea being that the core of authenticity is actually empty and that everything in the modern world is in a sense fake and that we should enjoy the pieces as art and not based on some connection to the original. The artificial scarcity is what made these pieces popular in the first place, and it’s the value of scarcity that got mixed up with artistic value which causes this disconnect.
Death of Rent Seeking - The article is about the meaningless corporate jobs that often are state-sponsored adult daycare centers, where work is made up, produced and go unconsumed. Rent-seeking, of course, describes how these jobs function, but the article is surprisingly hopeful. Many Millennial and Gen Z workers now recognize these jobs for what they are, and instead of despairing and drowning the meaninglessness of it all through alcohol, sports and entertainment as previous generations did, they’re doing side hustles that are at least a step closer to providing value instead of draining it.
Quantum Computing Paper - A must read describing how the “results” of quantum computing, particularly with respect to Shor’s Algorithm for factoring prime numbers is a slight-of-hand stage trick. Particularly noteworthy is that a lot of these supposed factorings multiply twin primes (primes which differ by 2) or a similar class which differ by 6, which are particularly easy to factor and the impressive sounding results are really gullibility tests for journalists that don’t understand anything about number theory, or even multiplication. The best line, though, is the fact that the factorization of 15 was really more like getting a dog to bark three times, that is, not actually using Shor’s algorithm, but manipulating the quantum gates to say what the researchers wanted it to say.
Making Villians - This is an essay on a topic that I’m not particularly interested in (in-group drama among feminists about the role of men) but the writing is so good that I couldn’t help but finish it. The writer is very self aware and articulate about expressing where her mind and heart are at and argues that feminists are demanding too much from men, resulting in isolating both men and women. For me, the complexities and contradictions of the kind she describes is more the result of an incoherent ideology than the fanatical devotion to ideology as she suggests.
The Protester’s Veto - There has been a lot of commentary about Charlie Kirk, particularly about the degrading of free speech. But as this post points out, oftentimes, the issue of free speech just comes down to economics. Conservative speakers have to pay for security and take out insurance to speak in hostile places like college campuses and they are silenced, not through government mandate, but through economic unaffordability. This is what’s called the Protester’s Veto, where the ruckus opponents cause silences free speech more than any direct censorship or ban. It’s unfortunately one of the weapons of the bureaucratic, managerial class to suppress speech and it’s way more effective than any government law.
What I'm up to
Center of Hash - I talked with my friend Parker Lewis about what’s going on with the OP_RETURN debate, how mining is central to the debate and what the possible forking scenarios might be if there’s a similar controversy around a soft fork. It was a great conversation, and I laid out my views about what I think may be happening.
Bitcoin Center - I was also on Cedric Youngleman’s show to talk about why I won’t be upgrading to Core v30 along with why the consensus process is becoming a bit worrisome. This one wasn’t nearly as long as the other appearance but hopefully, I made my point.
Young America’s Foundation Road to Freedom - I will be speaking at this conference in Raston, VA (alongside Yeonmi Park and EJ Antoni) to a bunch of college students October 3-4. I’ll speak about the trucker protests as a launching point for embracing non-governmental, politically neutral money.
Lugano Plan B Forum - A few weeks later October 24-25, I will be in Lugano for the Plan B Forum. It looks like I may be doing a debate and running a workshop for my open source project, the family Bitcoin banking app.
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Promoting
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