Hacking State

Hacking State

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Hacking State episodes

  • 19 - Bitcoin Gandalf: Satoshi’s Immaculate Coinception

    I sit down with Bitcoin Gandalf for a deep dive on Satoshi's immaculate coinception. Gandalf is a large influencer in the Bitcoin space and works in Bitcoin mining.

    Bitcoin is one of the most innovative technologies of the last century from a governance and coordination perspective. I believe it has the potential to be a vehicle for civilization-level reconfiguration of value.

    We cover our respective journeys in becoming "orange-pilled" on Bitcoin, the Bitcoin mining industry from the inside, Bitcoin maximalism, its potential to supplant existing fiat currencies, the virtues of self-custody, Bitcoin ETFs, Bitcoiners (community), proof of work vs. proof of stake, where we are in the current hype cycle, and getting into Bitcoin for noobs.

     

    You can find Gandalf on:

    https://x.com/BTCGandalf

     

    Suggested Reading:

    Bitcoin White Paper: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf

     

     

    If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

    1 hr 6 min
  • 18 - Nikolai Yakovenko: Exploring DeepNews

    DeepNews is using LLMs to aggregate and summarize the latest news across the internet, seeking to change the way we digest news.

    Nikolai Yakovenko is an ex-Twitter, Google, and Nvidia machine-learning engineer who initially forayed into Web3 with his venture 'DeepNFTValue,' which uses machine learning to estimate the value of NFTs; before also going on to create DeepNews.

    We cover using generative AI for compression, why this application of LLMs could better deliver news from primary sources across the internet in real time, the narrative neutrality of the AI-platform, concerns about information accuracy, misinformation, fidelity, and robustness, as well as potential areas for improvement.

     

    You can find Nikolai on:

    https://twitter.com/ivan_bezdomny

    https://nikocrypto.substack.com/

    https://substack.com/@nikocrypto

     

    Relevant Links:

    https://deepnewz.com/

    https://www.deepnftvalue.com/

     

     

    If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes. Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

    57 min
  • 16 - Grant Dever: Nuclear Texas

    We envision a nuclear Texas. Grant Dever is a research fellow at FREOPP (Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity) who writes about energy policy, with a focus on nuclear power. He earned his degree in economics and business from the University of Rochester. During the pandemic, Grant cultivated community for IndieThinkers.org—an accelerator for independent thinkers on the internet. He also authored "Lead The Future: Strategies and Systems for Emerging Leaders."

     

    The conversation touches on Texas as an independent energy powerhouse and the challenges with its power grid. Dever also speaks about the role of tech giants in advancing Nuclear Energy. By adopting demand response and managing intermittency, power-intensive applications like bitcoin mining, training LLMs & hydrogen production can be transformative in nuclear energy proliferation. 

     

    The discussion concludes with a note on the  opportunities in the Texas energy sector, particularly when diverging from federal directives, standing as the lone star state.

     

    You can find Grant on: 

     

    Website: https://grantdever.com/

     

    Substack: https://www.seekingtribe.com/

     

    FREOPP: https://freopp.org/the-freopp-scholar-grant-dever-badbe66c8b7e

     

    X: https://twitter.com/grantadever

     

    Book: https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Future-Strategies-Systems-Emerging-ebook/dp/B0828895H4

     

    Relevant Links: 

     

    https://freopp.org/rethinking-u-s-nuclear-energy-regulation-7639c7e88642

     

    https://blog.freopp.org/were-not-going-to-have-another-chernobyl/

     

     

    If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

    1 hr 17 min
  • 15 - Brendon Marotta: Children’s Justice

    Brendon Marotta is a filmmaker, author, and podcaster. We talk about his book, "Children's Justice", which applies critical theory to the controversial topic of infant circumcision.

    We go through his decision to appropriate the tools and tactics of critical theory in service of this issue, apprehensions around taking circumcision up as a social justice or human rights concern, my discomfort with everything about this, childhood trauma and its reverberating effects on adults and institutions, rhetorical methods borrowed from Foucault and others to make his argument, barriers for men and parents to discussing circumcision, and why he sees advocacy around this issue as a microcosm for opening a broader discussion around the treatment of children.

     

    Brendon Marotta's feature-length documentary, "American Circumcision" garnered numerous nominations and awards at film festivals, including Best Documentary at the Lone Star Film Festival (2017), The Silver Jury Prize at The Social Justice Film Festival (2017), Best Documentary Feature at Outer Docs Film Festival (2018), and is available on Netflix (non-US) and Prime video.

     

     

    Children's Justice (2022): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735113425/

    American Circumcision: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7628146/

    Gods of AI (2022): https://www.amazon.com/Gods-AI-AI-Generated-Art-Book/dp/B0BMTFSNQ5/

     

    Brendon Marotta

    Site: https://brendonmarotta.com/

    X: https://twitter.com/bdmarotta

     

    If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

     

    1 hr 38 min
  • 14 - Stephen Pimentel: Reviewing ”Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy”

    Engineer and essayist Stephen Pimentel joins me for a review of the recently released bestselling book in Political Philosophy, Costin Alamariu’s “Selective Breeding and the Birth of Philosophy”. In this discussion we go deep in tracing the argument, point-by-point, of Costin’s thesis concerning the twin emergence of philosophy and tyranny out of the idea of nature, and its teaching and preservation in the aristocratic regime.

    We attempt to tour the line of argument in sequential fashion, laying out the basic premises, consequences, and conclusions Costin provides, as well as its potential reverberations for our understanding of classical political philosophy; and hint at potential future implications, given advances in technology and age of the current regime, of this timely and unexpectedly popular hit.

    We go through the early anthropological account of pre-philosophical societies under the sway of collective nomos, the introduction of natural law from martial-aristocratic pastoralist conquerors, the discussion of Pindar and his insights for the aristocracy's self-understanding, phusis and its connection to physicality, the emergence of nature outside the city by breeding and training as a re-wilding project aimed at cultivating men of andreia and phronesis, Callicles and Socrates in Plato's Gorgias--turning Platonic political philosophy on its head, and Nietzsche's resurrection of aristocratic radicalism in service of the preservation of philosophy for the production of genius.

     

    Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Selective-Breeding-Philosophy-Costin-Alamariu/dp/B0CJ3ZDHF6 

     

    Stephen Pimentel: https://twitter.com/StephenPiment 

     

     

    If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

     

    1 hr 50 min
  • 13 - Steve Hsu: Polygenic Embryo Selection, Improving LLMs, & Getting Nearly Cancelled

    Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics at Michigan State University, as well as the founder of Genomic Prediction and SuperFocus AI; he also hosts the Manifold podcast, and the Information Processing blog.

    Steve and I speak about polygenic risk scoring and embryo selection, using AI to predict phenotype from genotype, in-vitro fertilization (IVF), egg freezing, eugenic public policy, addressing Christians' and right-wing traditionalists' concerns over reproductive technology, SuperFocus AI's plan to eliminate hallucination in large language models (LLMs) by separating memory from inference, introspection for LLM error correction, and surviving the failed cancellation attempt at MSU.

     

    Steve Hsu:

    On X: https://twitter.com/hsu_steve

    Personal Site: https://infoproc.blogspot.com/

    Manifold podcast: https://www.manifold1.com/

    Genomic Prediction: https://www.lifeview.com/

    SuperFocus AI: https://superfocus.ai/

     

    If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes. Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

    1 hr 23 min
  • 12 - Garrett Dailey: Designing Business Around Philosophy

    Garrett Dailey is the founder of Aion Enterprises, a business philosophy and design firm. We speak about the meaning of Aion, building a business around philosophy, individuation, the Candy Cane model of reality, and the importance of aesthetics for catalyzing people with a compelling vision of the future.

    “Any sufficiently complex thought is philosophy.”

    Aion:

    https://www.aion.enterprises/ https://twitter.com/AionEnterprises

    Garrett Dailey:

    https://garrettdailey.substack.com/ https://twitter.com/Liber_Rex

     

    If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

    1 hr 34 min
  • 11 - Disgraced Propagandist: The World of Dissident Marketing

    Disgraced Propagandist (Isaac Simpson) is the founder of WILL, a dissident marketing agency, and The Carousel Substack and podcast. We speak about how WILL does dissident marketing for a cohort of new natural “wholesome” brands, the marketing industry as the canary in the coal mine for workplaces becoming Longhouses, the power of branding, the meaning of The Carousel metaphor, nostalgia, the “hype dad” archetype, his literary influences, and NEVER APOLOGIZE!

     

    WILL, the agency: https://willtheagency.com/

    On X: https://x.com/WILLtheagency

     

    The Carousel:

    https://thecarousel.substack.com/

     

    Disgraced Propagandist: 

    On X: https://x.com/DisgracedProp

    Site: https://isaacsimpson.com/

     

     

    If you enjoyed this interview, please leave a review on Spotify/iTunes.

    Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076

    Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml

     

    1 hr 3 min
  • 10 - Razib Khan: Genetic Time Traveling

    Razib Khan is a population geneticist, has a popular Substack on genetics and history, and is a co-founder of GenRAIT.

    We speak about his role in the scientific ecosystem, the effect of the computing revolution on ancient genetics and genomics, why he’s most interested in Eurasian steppe populations, how ancient DNA has shed light on theories in archeology and philology, the effects of delayed fertility on genetic quality of offspring, prenatal genetic screening and gene editing, selection effects of modern environments, his startup, GenRait, and his antics on Twitter/X.

     

     

    Website: https://www.razib.com/

    Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/razibkhan

    GenRait: https://www.genrait.com/

    1 hr 35 min
  • 9 - Hannah Frankman: On the Education of Rebels

    Hannah Frankman is the founder of Rebel Educator, an all-inclusive resource hub for parents, teachers, and entrepreneurs. We discuss her experiences in educational reform and alternative paths to education, Montessori education philosophy, her involvement in the education space, and the launch of Rebel Educator. We also cover criticisms of the educational system and popular alternatives, homeschooling, the potential benefits of accelerated and decelerated learning, the need for more localized, private, and independent schools, and the importance of values in education.

     

    Hannah Frankman

    Website: http://hannahfrankman.com/

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/HannahFrankman

    Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@thehannahfrankmanpodcast

     

    Rebel Educator: https://rebeleducator.co/

    Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/rebelEducator

     

    Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe

    Listen on:

    Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak

    Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hacking-state/id1689677076  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1XB9XYULrAY4dp0qIJVvCg

    RSS: https://feed.podbean.com/hackingstate/feed.xml 

    1 hr 11 min

About Hacking State

From the publisher's feed

Exploring how technology changes our relationship to power, each other, and ourselves.


Making sense of the techno-acceleration, Alex Murshak conducts in-depth interviews on the philosophy…