Bitcoin Tech Talk #504
Interesting Stuff
AI Consciousness - Erik Hoel writes about AI and consciousness and stakes out a middle position: LLMs aren't conscious, but consciousness and intelligence are not the same thing. LLMs have shown they can do hard intellectual tasks, like score high in the International Math Olympiad. But they’re also not really conscious. The most fascinating piece of evidence of this was how AI models did in a text-based adventure game (Zork) from 1977. They all did very badly, suggesting consciousness requires meta-cognitive self-awareness. Hoel compares LLM hallucinations to split-brain patients who invent explanations for actions they don't understand. In other words, it’s precisely the lack of self-awareness which causes the most frequent and disastrous AI failures.
Protest Industrial Complex - DataRepublican shows the Newark ICE protests operated through a four-layer military-style organizational structure. The most revealing detail is that a single Signal message shut down the entire operation immediately. The group of protesters that were coming every day just stopped showing up at the same time. Infrastructure included $100-per-person equipment kits with helmets and gas masks, organized shuttle services along I-95, and delivered meals to the protesters every single day. The financial side of the whole mechanism exceeds $20 million, likely funded by fiat money printing.
Bixonimania - Jordamøn documents an interesting experiment. A researcher invented a completely fake disease called "bixonimania," published papers from a nonexistent university in fictional "Nova City, California" with acknowledgments thanking a professor at "Starfleet Academy," and watched it sail through every information filter. Within months, ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, and Perplexity were presenting it as a real medical condition, and a Springer Nature journal cited the fake preprints as evidence. The hoax was stuffed with obvious red flags (e.g. the suffix "-mania" only applies to psychiatric conditions, not eye disorders) yet nobody caught it until the editors at Nature intervened. AIs look like they’re pretty vulnerable to bad information, and it’ll be interesting to see how that gets exploited in the future.
Low Time Preference Marriage - Aaron M. Renn didn’t want children until at 40, he visited his grandmother at the hospital and realized that when his turn would come in that bed, nobody would come stay with him. Society meticulously guides college prep but offers zero equivalent guidance for choosing a spouse or having a family. Such are decisions that actually determines happiness and in previous generations were greatly emphasized throughout childhood. The fiat version of this family care is instructive. Renn profiles a 65-year-old woman from a WSJ article who prioritized art and independence, wanted children by 40, regretted not adopting by 50, and now coordinates care through spreadsheets of friends now that she’s in the hospital. It’s very easy to forget about the future when you’re used to indulging your desires daily through fiat-based debt.
Ancient Noblesse Oblige - John Psmith reviews a book about Xenophon, a Greek soldier, and later general, who studied under Aristotle. After Cyrus dies in a failed coup, Xenophon leads 10,000 stranded mercenaries home through hostile territory after a divine sign from Zeus in a dream. His political instincts were sophisticated using democratic votes to bind soldiers to obedience, menial tasks to maintain credibility, direct access for any soldier even while sleeping, and possibly manipulated sacrificial auguries. The most surprising part of his leadership is how loyal he was to his soldiers, which is a sharp contrast to modern founders who abandon their (employees, customers, supporters) for personal wealth. Xenophon felt a sacred duty to the people who trusted him, which unfortunately is greatly lacking in leaders in fiat systems.
What I'm up to
Servant Leadership Podcast - I was on this Christian Podcast to talk about Bitcoin, the moral aspects of money and why Bitcoin is much better than fiat money. Money created out of nothing creates all kinds of problems and we talked about some of those things along with practical steps to getting into Bitcoin.
RoxomTV - This is something I recorded a couple weeks ago, talking about the $250 bill, inflation, price action, news and so on. My general take is that most news isn’t worth paying attention to, and the few things that are will either not be obvious as to be missed by most people, or so obvious as to be immediate on every platform. Anyway, it was fun to be on the show.
BTC Prague - I’ll be there later this week and participating in 2 panels and giving a talk. Hope to see you there!
Nostr Note of the Week
