Bitcoin Tech Talk #506
Interesting Stuff
Autonomous Cars and Real Estate - I got a Tesla with Full Self Driving a few months ago, and I’m still amazed more people haven’t switched. This is an article about how such cars will be changing commercial real estate, though I suspect the long-term changes will be much bigger. The article makes the very insightful point that almost every retail store is essentially a last-mile problem solved with cars and autonomous cars will change the equation significantly. As the article states, a single automated warehouse could replace ten conventional grocery stores. I personally think autonomous vehicles, including self-driving cars and delivery drones, will change more things than AI will.
Quebec Nationalism - Peter Frost examines the resurgence of Quebec nationalism, thanks to mass immigration that added 430,000 newcomers from 2022-2024. This is proportionally equivalent to dropping 3.3 million people into France over three years. Canada's GDP per capita has unsurprisingly declined 2.5% below pre-pandemic levels despite population growth, proving more bodies doesn't mean more prosperity. The Parti Québécois is expected to win October elections, whose goal is independence. Given that 25% of the Canadian Armed Forces are French-Canadian, there would be obvious complications if Ottawa tried to hold Quebec by force. Of course, if Quebec were able to gain independence, Alberta would not be far behind, and a world of smaller states would seem then inevitable.
Failed Democracies - Frank Wright shows how nearly every European country had democracies which collapsed during the interwar period. From the Weimar Republic to Greece, democracies had a terrible reputation until after WWII. The contrast between what we consider governance now and what pre-1914 governance was is striking. Before 1914, governance was so minimal that “an Englishman could hardly notice the state.” What we call democracy now has brought massive bureaucratic expansion in step with the monetary expansion. We place too much emphasis on the form of government and not enough on the character of the people, which unfortunately gets deeply corrupted under fiat money.
Saving LA - Spencer Pratt frames his failed LA mayoral bid as losing a battle but not the war, pivoting to a “new media empire” to expose city fraud. Despite the very sketchy vote counting that seems to have been designed to exclude him specifically, he’s not done fighting. As he points out, his campaign forced officials into at least some visible reform in the beleaguered city. Pratt is also promising some bombshell recordings from city officials to expose corruption. Every single party governance predictably results in this and under fiat money, the corruption is essentially unbounded. And we can see this in the population statistics, which given the weather of the place should be increasing, yet continues declining.
Knockrup.com - Aella (I refuse to link to this person) launched this rather dystopian website to connect wealthy men who want genetic offspring with women willing to bear children for compensation. It features embryo selection technology, offering up to 10 additional IQ points, incentivizing IVF even among women who could conceive naturally. For me, this is an indication of just how bad dating has gotten that both men and women want such a dystopian alternative. Yet this website is sadly the logical next step of seeing partners and children as commodities to be optimized rather than as people.
What I'm up to
Servant Leadership Podcast - I posted this podcast already, but this is a Korean dubbed translation of the entire podcast, which is a fascinating new type of content. I know enough Korean to know that it’s at least not terrible and given I’ll be in Seoul in a month (see next item), it’s content like this that brings people in different cultures together.
Origin Seoul - I will be in Seoul, Korea for this event on July 18th. There’s a gathering of Christian Bitcoiners followed by a more general one afterward. Sign up and come on by if you’re in town then!
Hanging Contest - Fun little fitness contest at BTC Prague. I was as surprised at who won.
Nostr Note of the Week
