Bitcoin Tech Talk #474
Interesting Stuff
Belt and Road Failure - The article is about China’s Belt and Road initiative, which has been promoted by China as an infrastructure investment into developing countries that have not been able to get investment from the G20 nations. Because it’s written from a western perspective a lot of the dirty details come out in this essay, such as the fact that almost all of the infrastructure contracts go straight to Chinese companies and are often done in shoddy ways with lots of cost overruns. The important part is that the debt stays with the developing country and is a method by which China gets control of resources of the country when the debt isn’t able to be paid back. Sadly, what the author doesn’t seem to realize is that the IMF and World Bank do the same thing.
Burning Man Exposed - This is a long and entertaining read about one writer’s experience at Burning Man. Unlike most reflections about Burning Man that you read, it’s not focused on how the event has gotten away from its roots or has sold out, rather, it’s much more a clear record of what actually goes on. There’s a lot of setting up, a lot of discomfort just from the desert environment, but also just the really out-there culture that’s full of degeneracy both pharmaceutical and sexual. What stood out to me is that the people that attend are desperate for meaning but have boxed themselves into a particular progressive mindset that does not allow for a morally ordered universe.
- writes about something I’ve written a lot about. Specifically how fiat money has bloated the administrative state since 1971. The article goes into detail about the mechanism of administrative growth, about how there’s essentially no accountability at the top, and how, if there’s any accountability at all, is generally at lower levels. As the author is a military veteran, much of the article details the many policy failures in the War on Terror, but the general pattern is that every failure justifies administrative growth, rather than shrinkage. The perverse incentive is then to fail as success would mean many of these bureaucrats would lose their jobs. Education, Health Care, the Fed and Environmental Regulatory Bodies are just some of the many that have grown rapidly in this way.
- brings the receipts in this charge that feminism is really Marxist in origin. Citing foundational feminist texts from the early 70’s, much of the modern feminist movement doctrines are almost explicitly from the frame of Marxist thinking. What stood out to me is how much of the feminist terms (burden of reproduction, emotional labor, caregiving cost) are in Marxist-economic terms. The Marxist imperative to dissolve the family figures prominently as well, which is why the same 70’s feminist academics asserted lesbian superiority. Reading this article, my suspicion is that modern feminism is an economic delusion more than anything else.
- has one of the more creative conspiracy theories, specifically about Bugs Bunny, the Looney Tunes character. The main assertion is that this particular character is something like a trickster god that can conjure all kinds of things out of nothing to torment his enemies. And by being exposed to Bugs Bunny, we were being set up to accept all sorts of demonic ideas from various death cults. But more intriguingly, the attitude and vibe of this cartoon character has more or less been US foreign policy the last 80 years.
What I'm up to
Zuby - I interviewed rapper and fitness enthusiast Zuby Udezue. We talked about motivation, programs and diet among other things, discussing the role of exercise in your life and how it makes life much better. We also talked about disruptions like travel and young children, how to manage burnout and discouragement of plateaus.
Tone and Murch - Tone and I talked for almost 3 hours with Murch, a Bitcoin Core developer who signed the Core position letter back in May. We had what I thought was a pretty productive conversation where he explained his priorities for the network, which are mostly around utility both at the user and macro levels and allowing certain kinds of data in places that are easy to prune.
Bitcoin Matrix - I talked to Cedric Youngleman on his podcast about the Knots vs Core debate, mostly about my positions that I put out in the vlogs I did a couple months back. We discussed breaking precedent, Taproot and scaling among other things.
Bitcoin Historico - I will be in San Salvador this week to participate in this event and will be giving a talk on Noblesse Oblige. The setting couldn’t be more appropriate as I hear the venue is truly beautiful.
Nostr Note of the Week
What I’m Promoting
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