Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Balaji Profile picture
@balajis
Sep 15, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Math is harder to MITM than science.

Mathematical claims can be independently reproduced on anyone's computer, while hard-to-reproduce science has to be taken on faith.

As such we should reduce as much as possible to hashed, timestamped, verifiable math.
Normally we don't think of "math" and "science" as being in tension. But it is true that math > science > religion in terms of rigor...and reproducibility.

Billions of phones means anyone can now independently reproduce any mathematical statement. But not all scientific ones.
This suggests that we want to reduce as many assertions as possible to mathematical rather than merely scientific statements.

There's actually much that can be done here using NLP, public datasets, reproducible research, and the ledger of record concept.
Science is how we understand the *natural* world. But math is perhaps even more useful in the constructed digital worlds that we spend more and more of our time in.
With >50% of waking hours spent in front of a screen, much more of people's daily experiences become amenable to cryptographic verification.

Everything that passes in front of you on a screen was at least stored on a computer, if not generated there.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Balaji

Balaji Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @balajis

Balaji Profile picture
Apr 8
REALITY PRECEDES PROSPERITY
I think we agree on one point and disagree on two points.

THE BUKELE ANTIBODIES
1) First, yes, force alone is not the recipe for an ailing country. Ultimately you need community. Latin America suffered from generations of drug dealing and money printing. So now they have developed antibodies in the form of crime prevention and Bitcoin adoption. And Bukele is the incarnation of those antibodies. But society basically has to be ready to turn around before a Bukele can appear. He can wield force against the 1.6% of criminals because he has much of the 98.4% of non-criminals on his side.

I saw this in India as well, after generations of socialism. And in Vietnam, after generations of communism. Those societies finally had the antibodies to fight off the mind viruses that had brought them low. Of course, many societies just succumb. Is Cambodia mounting a comeback anytime soon? Or North Korea, or Cuba? Not really.

This is also the problem in the US. Many in the US have yet to even acknowledge it's declining. Many Democrats are Stalinist Bidenists, whose monthly checks are dependent on mouthing the party line. And many Republicans have replaced G-o-d with G-o-v. They see the US military as a god replacement, in its stern father form, and can't bring themselves to admit the country ain't what it was. They're Soviet conservatives, patriotic to a fault, saluting the worst because they've captured the flag.

I don't think this is true for everyone — people like @realchrisrufo and @davereaboi know what time it is — but it's true for too many. If you still think, like Biden recently said, that his empire is still "the most powerful country in the history of the world" and that it just isn't trying or is like one election away from being fixed — you are wrong in a deep way.

The values that underpin the valuations have been broken. The current society is coasting on fumes. Fixing this is at least a generational rebuild. It's not something one vote will solve.

IT'S NOT RICH
2) We also disagree that the US is a rich country. It has a fake economy, built on debt, with exponentially increasing interest payments, that doesn't have much runway left, and doesn't have factories to fall back on when the money printing stops.

For example:

^ Why are interest payments suddenly spiking? Because the bill for QE is coming due. Either die by high inflation or high rates. Or both.

^ Why is the country issuing debt at emergency levels, without acknowledging it's an emergency? Because that's the only thing that can keep this fake economy afloat through the 2024 election.

^ Why is China the world's #1 trade partner on just about every physical good? Because the US only exports (a) printed money and (b) technology. Anyway, I could keep going, with literally dozens of graphs like this. But X only allows four per post.

IT'S NOT STABLE
3) On the topic of whether it's a country with a "turbulent history of...violence", the level of drug addiction, violent crime, homeless encampments, squatters, road blockages, and massive BLM/Hamas mobs swarming the streets has obviously spiked in recent years.

2020 didn't represent a one-off, it's a preview of what is to come, particularly in Blue America. Crime statistics are systematically faked — in San Francisco, you can actually see some dashboards where things like car ticketing have gone to zero — so we don't have an accurate picture.

Until you see undeniable things like stores closing and people moving out of blue states. And then blue politicians yell at those companies, and try to stop them from moving out. This is systematic: blues always disable the warning lights that tell you we're crashing into the ground, just like the mortgages labeled AAA in 2008, just as a mosquito anesthetizes you before drinking your blood, just as a snake evolves to employ camouflage before it strikes. Alongside lawfare, faking the stats is a core competency of both communist reds and woke blues.

TLDR: I think we just have very different mental models of the prosperity and stability of today's United States. Wokeness is hegemonic and the damage is deep. I wish it weren't so — but agreeing on reality precedes prosperity.

A few more citations follow 👇Image
Image
Image
Image
Here's how SF fakes its crime statistics. The law is not enforced so the crime is not reported.
This is a BLM/Hamas mob.
And this is a scene from World War Z.
Complete with the fast zombies.
That guy in the car did nothing wrong.
Other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Namely, Blue America.
This doesn't happen in a stable country.
Read 4 tweets
Balaji Profile picture
Feb 17
I just got back from Prospera.
A startup city on the island of Roatán.
It’s crypto, it’s bio, it’s robo.
And it’s not San Francisco.
We’ve started new companies, new communities, and new currencies.

Now we’re starting new cities.
My body, my choice.

That’s what personal medical sovereignty means.

If you can legally go skydiving or bungee jumping, you should be able to take a calculated risk on new treatments.

And that’s what Prospera has legalized.
Read 4 tweets
Balaji Profile picture
Jan 21
We now understand the 2010s.

It’s when legacy media fought a ferocious but ultimately doomed rearguard campaign against the Internet.

That’s why they pushed censorship so hard and constantly thumped their chest about being “journalists.”

It was protectionism.
They were dying.
Image
Many journalists spent the better part of a decade attacking the Internet for a living.

You understand it better when you realize it was existential for them. They didn’t just lose money, they lost power.
Even legacy media now admits it. Trust in newspapers has collapsed. Image
Read 5 tweets
Balaji Profile picture
Nov 16, 2023
1) Ban China
2) Be China
3) Beat China

These are the options. I get the logic, but banning signals technological and cultural weakness. Yet so does capitulation of the Newsom variety. The best way is to build something *better* than China, as Elon and others in tech have done.
Image
Democrat concern about Russia is similar to Republican concern about China.

I get where it comes from. But the real answer is to build a more compelling product that can win on the global internet.

Otherwise you're giving up on soft power.
Why isn't China submissive anymore?

The unspoken truth: because they don't respect America anymore. For example, they feel they can build better cities than the US.

The best way to prove them wrong is to outbuild them.
Read 5 tweets
Balaji Profile picture
Nov 15, 2023
Democrats cleaned up San Francisco for Communists.
Newsom admits they removed the drug addicts for Xi.

“That's true because it's true.”
And don’t let them pretend this was just like cleaning up before some friends come over!

We are talking poop, needles, syringes — raw sewage on the streets.

And we are talking about addicts, thieves, and arsonists.
Read 8 tweets
Balaji Profile picture
Nov 6, 2023
Congress blew him kisses.
Journalists gave him applause.
Regulators promised to take no action.
So it was only Crypto Twitter that uncovered his deception.

Read the actual history of what happened with Sam Bankman-Fried, before it gets memory holed.
balajis.com/p/crypto-twitt…
Meanwhile, Coindesk's Ian Allison was revealing[1] that SBF had no money, while Axios' Dan Primack was asking[2] whether SBF could cure world hunger.

[1]:
[2]:

archive.ph/y7YOi
archive.ph/nlYCj
Remember when Bankless was playing hardball with SBF[1], while Joe Weisenthal was throwing him softballs[2]?

Dunno why @thestalwart is tweeting from behind a block, but maybe you can ask him.
[1]:
[2]:
archive.ph/6Wl2t
archive.ph/wuwOp
Read 5 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(