Yes, but also crypto people are correct. I started building the case for why that's so in this series, but never really finished it or reorganized it properly. Only the parts are here, but I don't quite put them together clearly: jonstokes.com/p/the-blockcha…
To stub that in here, it goes something like:

- At the heart of every complex civilization everywhere is a system of records. Such ledgers predate even money (the barter => money evolution story is a myth, BTW).

- All ledgers require central custody, & central custody == power.
- Only in the past 20yrs have we had the tech & the math to create a ledger that doesn't require central custody. That's a novum in human history.

- We now have the ability to build forms of civilization on a ledger that no one party custodies.

This could change everything.
Not to go all Derrida, but an archive that no single entity or hierarchy owns -- an archive with no ἀρχή, no connotations of ruling or commanding, or even origins -- is a completely new possibility in human experience. It just is. There has never been anything like this.
What I've said here is basically the mindset & intuitions around why Adam is correct in the QT. The goldbug mentality is a conservative mentality that warns of danger because we've strayed from millennia of human (monetary) tradition.

The crypto mentality is 180 degrees opposite
Obviously, there's no guarantee that we'll make something new or good with this new human possibility. In fact, we'll probably spend a bunch of time re-making old things with it. I may never see anything truly new win within my lifetime. I don't believe in techno-determinism.
In fact, among the first things we've done with this new human capability is build a family of Ponzi schemes! Not an auspicious start. Still, I believe that many of us can & will build something better. THAT's the true sprit of crypto, but not of any kind of maximalism.

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More from @jonst0kes

25 Oct
Despite the strong impression given by the tweet & the article, the offer is open to ALL officers from out-of-state, regardless of vaccination status. This story is finely tuned by WaPo for maximum vaccine culture war damage. 😒
That state down there on the bottom right corner of the NYT COVID hotspot map? The one that's now done with COVID? That's the state DeSantis is inviting any out-of-state officers to move to & telling them their vax status doesn't matter for their job. I dunno. Seems not that bad? Image
I used teh googles & found that it costs about $100K & 18mo to fully train a new police officer, from recruit to cop. So DeSantis's $5K offer ploy sounds pretty savvy. This is info you might learn from the article if the point of it weren't culture war. policefoundation.org/recruiting-sel… Image
Read 7 tweets
23 Oct
LOL this is completely wild. This is the head of freaking NASA giving a UFO speech that ~5 years ago you could only have gotten from a dude at a conference w/ panels on topics like "Remote Viewing Your Past Lives" & "Nephilim: Grays or Reptilians?". What a time to be alive, man.
At this point, I really hope it's literal aliens, because if it's not then all the alternatives I can think of are worse -- e.g., ultra-advanced foreign adversaries, mass delusion at NASA & DoD, a rogue black budget program, etc. None of that is really very attractive.
I do understand that the alternatives are more likely than "literal aliens." I'm just saying that everyone one of them (at least that I can think of) is a hair-raising "yikes!" Aliens is the least disturbing, because if it's them then clearly they're mostly just leaving us alone.
Read 4 tweets
23 Oct
I think this wrong, tho. Goldbugs were perpetually broke contrarians during a long bull market for civilization. Bitcoin maximalists are newly rich accelerationists during the present bear market for civilization.
I dipped into goldbuggery back in ‘09-‘11, so I was pretty into that scene. One of the things I bought after we sold Ars was a gold bar at the Perth Mint, I got out & now have a very small $GLD position. I am not a Bitcoin maximalist, & as an ex-goldbug I think they’re different.
I think Bitcoin maximalism is important & under-analyzed. Squashing it into the existing goldbug frame is a mistake. It’s to dismiss something that’s probably going to matter.

If you must use an existing frame, then the correct one is Boogaloo Bois.
Read 4 tweets
22 Oct
Hi, former professional prepper here who has spent years gaming this out:

The answer to your question is, "yes."

Have you actually never seen cellphone footage of gunfights from Lebanon, Mexico, Syria, etc.?
The more internet satellites go up, the more of a definite "yes" that is for pretty much all forms of disaster no matter how widespread. If the world totally collapses into grid-down chaos in, say, 2030, we'll still be on various decentralized services via solar + satellites.
Ok, I'll cop to having a weird feed. I guess not everyone regularly sees commentary on the "incredible drip" of this or that insurgent or street fighter from a series of crumbling cities, thanks to their choice of sneakers, watches, etc.
Read 6 tweets
22 Oct
As a thought experiment, I wonder what would happen if we took all the arguments around how "cancel culture doesn't exist" or that "concerns over it a moral panic because nobody lost their job," & applied them to the media climate of the post-9/11 run-up to the Iraq war?
It's widely agreed that the media was in the grip of war fever & pro-war groupthink, & that this was ruthlessly enforced somehow. But did any media anti-war voices lose their jobs? Couldn't we say the efforts to shut down anti-war voices were just a few isolated incidents?
How many people in the media or elsewhere really suffered lasting career damage for opposing the war? Isn't the absolute number of incidents here quite small? Why does anyone care about that, then? Why not say there was no groupthink or pressure?
Read 11 tweets
22 Oct
I don't think people grasp the degree to which Biden dangerously mangled a critical issue at a critical time. The US has a doctrine of "strategic ambiguity" with respect to whether we will or won't invade Taiwan. Our legal cmtmnt to come to their defense expired decades ago
In this interview, though, Biden said that of course we were committed to coming to their Taiwan's, and seemed to suggest an Article 5 obligation to them. This is a really big blunder on major, live issue.

This was very quickly walked back. cnbc.com/2021/08/20/us-…
Biden is really slipping, and has been since before he even started campaigning. A lot of people are in denial about this, but it matters. He's slipping, and his confusion here on this basic point was kind of a big deal.
Read 6 tweets

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