Bitcoin Tech Talk #492
Interesting Stuff
Academic Panic - Tom Golden writes about an academic study that purports to map the right-wing “manosphere.” As he argues, this is one of those pieces that reveals more about the authors and their world view than anything about the actual thing they’re purporting to study. The way male and female preferences are presented is especially insightful, and what’s clear from even the tone of the paper is that it’s more propaganda piece than it is any kind of study. In a sense, this is the temperature being turned up, which is normal for online screeds, but for an academic paper, signals some panic. The gatekeepers/rent-seekers are losing and they’re pulling out all their big guns.
Contemporary Christian Music - Matt Whiteley writes about Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) and what it says about the evangelical churches where it’s popular. The author is a bit harsh, but there’s a lot of truth on what he’s saying about Christian music in that it’s a very limited genre, where there’s only a few acceptable kinds of songs. Which isn’t that different from hymns, of course, but hymns have a deep tradition and larger range of meaning. CCM is a little dated, and reflects the aging of the church in general. Something that was popular 20 years ago continues largely on momentum without the grounding of tradition. Perhaps a bit of rent-seeking going on, even in places you wouldn’t expect it.
BS Jobs - Yuri Bezmenov reflects on the seminal essay “Bullshit Jobs” in light of what’s going on with AI. The original essay became a book, and the concept has many synonyms now, such as “email jobs,” “meaningless work,” “managerial class” and my personal favorite “rent-seekers.” His analysis is that AI is an existential threat as such jobs are clearly uncompetitive in a free market and AI can do them a couple of orders of magnitude cheaper. Yet I don’t think he’s entirely correct in that analysis. Our system is not a free market and rent-seeking is ultimately a function of the monetary system and as long as the monetary system stays in place, much of the rent-seeking, the kind that has zero competitive pressure, will stick around.
Liberal Moms - Jane Psmith is at it again, reviewing another book as a way to discuss something bigger. In this case, it’s what she describes as the worst book that she’s ever finished, a book about raising boys written by a very liberal mom. As she points out, the author of the book views nearly every masculine behavior as a pathology and is clearly conflicted by the love she has for her sons and the ideology she holds. For me, such attitudes explain just why so many people on the left are so infertile. Not only are their ideologies against large populations, but they’re against what’s observably true in nature. The disconnect, is thus, much easier to avoid than to resolve.
Iranian Infertility - John Carter writes about the ongoing war in Iran and points out a few almost Girardian points about the conflict. Iran has low fertility, high female education, low youth employment, a large surveillance state and most importantly, a large generational divide, not unlike the one in the US between Boomers and those younger. Rene Girard would say that wars happen most between groups that are more similar than different and the problems that Iran has points to perhaps a similarity that’s hard to admit. Indeed, they both share the foundational thing and that’s the fiat monetary system.
What I'm up to
CoinJuice - I was on this podcast to talk about BIP110, the Knots vs. Core debate and what we can expect going forward. The host was a bit more on the “let’s use Bitcoin for interesting data” side, which made for some good discussion.
Max and Stacy Invitational Interview - This was a short interview I did at the Max and Stacy Invitational back in January, talking about how so many Bitcoiners start to take health seriously after they take care of their savings with Bitcoin.
BitBlockBoom - One of the oldest Bitcoin Conferences continues its run in Dallas, TX in a few weeks (April 7-11). I’ll be there to speak and it should be a fun one. There’s also a Thank God for Bitcoin conference and a few other side events I’ll be at.
Nostr Note of the Week
