Bitcoin Tech Talk #493
Managerial State, Nihilism, French Revolution, Home Dec, Facebook AI
Interesting Stuff
Origin of the Managerial State - Billionaire Psycho writes about the tyranny of modern life, which is uniquely savage. The article is long and covers a lot of different aspects of tyranny, including monetary. But the one that interested me the most was learning about the origins of the modern managerial state, which is as petty as it is arbitrary. That was the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883, which brought forth the idea of the “civil servant” or the morally unquestionable expert that would be above politics being a part of the executive branch. Previous to this, presidents would change out the bureaucrats to people that would execute his policies, but the act essentially made this illegal. The Enlightenment fiction that it was based on has not aged well.
Garden vs Tower vs Babylon - John Seel, Ph.D. proposes an intriguing biblical civilizational framework of Garden (tradition) vs Tower (modernity) vs Babylon (collapse). Garden civilizations are ones where meaning is commonly received (trust-based), Tower civilizations are ones where meaning is constructed (production-based), and Babylon civilizations are ones where meaning is collapsing (nihilism). He points out that managers are great for Garden civilizations, experts are great for Tower civilizations, but neither are good for Babylon civilizations, which is where we are. The crisis of meaning, or rather, the lack of meaning, partly brought on by fiat money, is what led us here.
The Death of Noblesse Oblige - Chivalry Guild traces how the French Revolution emerged when nobles gained privilege without responsibility. Traditionally, nobles had people that they were responsible for and were in a sense accountable to, in return for the privileges that they had. Under Louis XIV, they were given the opportunity to keep the privileges without the responsibilities, which led to the uprising which resulted in the French Revolution. The parallels to modern America are too many. Except elites are really the managerial state, who extract value not through explicit taxation, but the Cantillon effect. Noblesse without the oblige, in other words, is a recipe for revolution.
Home as Sanctuary - Johann Kurtz writes about how our homes reflect our values. Specifically, how homes in the past, even very modest ones, had spots for worship and decorations that reflected the spiritual beliefs of the dwellers. In his view, the modern sterile home is one that reflects a very shallow spiritual life, prioritizing comfort over conviction. Indeed, it’s hard to believe that the fiat-money produced homes reflect much of anything, given how quickly they are torn town and rebuilt. Perhaps meaning is something built over time, and our buildings simply don’t last long enough to really imbue meaning.
AI and Facebook - Jordamøn writes about the coming layoffs (20% of the workforce) at Facebook and what it portends for the company. The main issue is that their last 3 AI models have not performed anywhere near the leading edge of the technology and because their AI revenue streams are nearly non-existent, heads have to roll. This is a company that has not done well getting into new spaces outside its core competency (social media) and has spent many billions doing so (remember Oculus?) The highly publicized offer of a billion dollars to recruit an AI expert, and that expert turning it down, speaks to just how much of a failure their “throw money at the problem” strategy has been.
What I'm up to
Production Ready - This is a new non-profit organization (501(c)3) that I am a part of that is launching today. We are funding a new implementation built on Bitcoin Core that is conservative and prioritizes the monetary properties. We will be funding developers and also be doing some educational initiatives. If you are interested in being a developer, please contact us here. If you want to donate to this cause, that is a Core-based client that’s not Knots or Core, you can do so here.
Nostr Note of the Week
