Thread by @wolfejosh

1/ A repeating rhyme of history is never ending competition between EXPLORERS vs EXPLOITERS

(Exploiters here doesn’t mean taking advantage of others—it means settlers extracting some form of yield from a previously explored + discovered opportunity—but sometimes results in it)

2/ And a feature of EXPLORERS is there are branches ENTREPRENEURS + EXPERIMENTERS + ECCENTRICS

Notably root words of
‘entre-preneur’(undertake; to grasp/seize)
‘ex-pert’ (out of; to try/risk)
‘eccentric (odd, whimsical)

All find the un- (or not yet-) known…

3/
Some may find it via TIGHT process + reason + logic (mathematicians, chemists, computer scientists)

Others via LOOSE imagination + dreams + drugs
(shamans, lost souls seeking community— and parties)

4/ In each wave of EXPLOITATION (of people who have discovered + benefit from rewards of *status* or early *access* to…a new land, new set of ideas, new community, new currency (social or financial)

it came from those who risked reputation + energy in EXPLORATION

5/ In past waves of technology development (especially in computing and other domains that have become more ABSTRACT and THEORETICAL—and less material) you had ECCENTRICS + ENTREPRENEURS fueled by disdain for what is, desire for what may be—and sometimes… drugs…

6/ From pot to LSD in the 60s, 70s, 80s—from Katy Mullins (LSD) discovering DNA PCR (that we use to detect covid today)…to Steve Jobs, the ECCENTRICS + ENTREPRENEURS would mix as strange bedfellows with the scientifically rigorous…

7/ Today’s redpill-rabbithole allusions to Alice in Wonderland alterenate reality crypto/web3 EXPLOITERS follow the EXPLORERS who have been ECCENTRICS + ENTREPRENEURS—

A strange brew of…

8/ High-intellect math + computer science geniuses in the same drug-fueled BurningMan camps with high-energy pure permissive psychonauts

The former questioning protocols + why + how things work

The lattter questioning “what even is meaning” + “what is money” “what is reality?

9/ The mix in some crypto/web3 teams of mutual appreciation + respect + collaboration between

computer coders (HACKERS)
+
mind-hackers (TWEAKERS)

has led to most of the innovation we now see
fueled by early USB sticks w/ bitcoin
handed over from early EXPLORERS

10/ In some cases ECCENTRICS a bit lost without ‘regular’jobs/ clear prospects, searching + exploring—in this moment of time—stumbled into extraordinary riches via friends gifting lifechanging crypto + giving them new meaning + mission that would unleash a wave of ENTREPRENEURS

11/ The convergence of hardcore psychedelic psychonauts + hardcore computer scientists—both questioning EVERYTHING (mostly systems of finance, money, exchange, community, communication, institutions, power + protocols)—is the most culturally fascinating combo in many generations