Man V Mob

Welcome to the start of the next 100 episodes. In this inaugural episode of season 2, Tom and I discuss the context of how the practices and attitudes from 20th century history have led to this moment. These include the Cold War, advertising, debt, the internet and unsustainable, wasteful power concentration in an economic and political system known as corporatism.

We then get into how exactly information technology such as blockchain will decentralize and transform every aspect of society away from concentrated power toward interconnected innovation, empowerment, personalization and options. How it will enable ideas like universal basic income and disable the idea that a massive central authority is capable of making wise decisions and interventions on behalf of everyone.

How it can merge novel and meaningful experiences with a social fabric that complexly connects humanity to family, community, environment, creativity and self both physically and digitally. The idea of an ethical and intellectual framework known as technological humanism and the Matrix subplot about the defeat of cynicism and nihilism also find their ways into this longer than usual conversation.

Centralized institutions and income are no match for the empowerment of information, networks and technology. First we must understand why our industrial era systems and their incentives are broken beyond repair before we can thoughtfully consider the blueprint of technological humanism.

Sarah returns for a conversation about how to use unexpected, stressful down time to your benefit, disengaging from trolling, willingly exposing yourself to discomforts and the recent loss of her brother Derek to addiction.

Tom and I talk about what to look out for in the emerging antipropaganda culture of active thought toppling the assumptions and mental models which compose our attitudes of complacency and resentment. Our immediate future is studded with domestic tribal political divides and geopolitical rivalries like what has emerged with Russia and China yet there is substantial room for optimism.

In the 21st year of the 21st century my resolution is to bring together minds to create the blueprints for networks of media and education which abandon thriving on propaganda, narrow-mindedness and outrage in favor of empowered engagement, collaboration and self-actualization.

One of the biggest problems with our economy is that it is a market that traffics in the single metric of monetary value. I suggest our global economy will transform into parallel economies with alternative currencies of time, attention, creativity and other exchanges. This will make it harder to dominate and monopolize because of tradeoffs. We'll be able to convert from one to any other form, transact using blockchain and most importantly define human value and the vast societal contributions beyond solely what makes the most money.

If we want benevolent artificial intelligence and a pro-human future that empowers our individual flourishing then why don't we use groups of ethical thinkers as the training data? Would this be the best way to ensure that the most considerate and thoughtfully nuanced human tendencies and patterns are the ones that influence and compose our algorithms?

Can we sustain a real-life team of renegade thinkers and empathetic vigilante ethicists who propose solutions that mediate between Washington DC and Silicon Valley? How could a new checks and balances superstructure influence prosocial innovation and policy, serve as a conduit of public engagement, empower individuals, redefine journalistic integrity and promote the new education movement? How can we prevent such a group from becoming cynical and dystopian government contractors like the Watchmen or corporatized and opportunistic merchandise like The Boys?

This isn't history with names and dates as you've been forced to learn it. In this slightly longer episode I break history down into 6 domains: paradigms, narratives, ego blows, saeculums, supercycles and alliances. After listening you'll recognize alignments and more fully understand the moment we're in right now.

This episode on why Yin and Yang need each other focuses on the complementarity of conservatives and liberals, libertarians and socialists and men and women.