In San Francisco, there's an emerging consensus that AI will take jobs en masse. Perhaps the usual reassurance, that technology always creates new jobs, won't hold this time. AI replaces cognition itself, is deploying faster than any previous technology, and our institutions can't retrain workers at scale (and for what?). In Washington, politicians are terrified of how Americans will react. If the…
•son of the revolution: ancestors fought in the american revolutionary war •12- dropped out of middle school to compete in surf contests (nssa gold coast mens champion) •homeschooled; philosophy, economics, and technology •18- interested in new cities, moved to nyc to work at pershing square, which was investing in the largest new city developer in the us ($hhh); pitched bitcoin, and hertz as a…
Startups consist of two elements: 1) Fundamental Business: expect it to have the unit economic profile of incumbents; choose carefully -- you may have these unit economics forever. 2) Memetic Premium: usually wrapped up in a technology story about structurally improving the unit economics of the Fundamental Business; this is your capital budget for tech R&D, and what spins your talent flywheel;…
Introduction. We are fighting a war for the soul of the West. Artificial intelligence is driving the greatest power transfer in human history. As AI surpasses human capability, trillions in annual economic value will shift from labor to capital, never to return. AI’s omnipresence in physical production, media, and governance will remake the world in the image of whoever’s moral paradigm it serves.…
The technology industry should be the most powerful political coalition in the history of man. Great founders are some of the most relentless, intelligent, talented people in the world, and they’ve built institutions faster than anyone in human history. Meta has tens of thousands of employees, Alphabet has hundreds of thousands, and Amazon has millions. However, their wins in the political arena…
A New Type of Special Economic Zone for Technologists (Mostly from NA post ) I want a radically better future. I believe that technology, in coordination with institutions, can deliver it. At Praxis, we announced a new kind of Special Economic Zone today: Acceleration Zones. Acceleration Zones. Acceleration Zones (AZs) are a new type of Special Economic Zone that accelerate technological progress…
How to Implement a Program of Techno-Optimism Now INTRODUCTION. I want a radically better future. I believe that technology, in coordination with institutions, can deliver it. Beyond philosophy, what follows is a plan that we can begin executing immediately. Technology. Technology is the set of tools we use to do new things, and old things better. Technology is how we shape our world and build the…
For the first time in recent memory, we are seeing elites condemn elite institutions. For example: Larry Summers, the former President of Harvard, on Harvard : "In nearly 50 years of Harvard affiliation, I have never been as disillusioned and alienated as I am today." The Israel / Palestine conflict – on which the American elite range from firmly to exuberantly in support of Israel – has strangely…
Thanks to Vitalik Buterin, Tarun Chitra, Sreeram Kannan, Arthaud Mesnard, Maxwell Tabarrok, and Robert Drost for feedback. TLDR. Crypto is threatened by decentralization. Decentralization is the transfer of power from Direct Leaders to Opinion Leaders; Opinion Leaders inform the voting preferences of Token Holders. There are fewer Opinion Leaders than Direct Leaders, as Opinion Leaders have…