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All right, so Lucas and I today were talking about chapter three of Jason Lowry's thesis,

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Softwar, a Novel Theory on Power Projection and the National Strategic Significance of Bitcoin.

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We had two previous conversations.

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The first one, we did the executive summary and the introduction.

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That was a really broad overview of the whole thesis of the thesis.

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And then the second conversation was the methodology that Lauer used in doing his qualitative assessment that enabled him to formulate his thesis.

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So chapter three is power projection tactics in nature.

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And so how we kind of got here then is that the thesis is that kind of, I think, we haven't got finished the book or the thesis, obviously,

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But the thesis, roughly speaking, is that Bitcoin is a novel way to project power into cyberspace in the same way physically, in the same way that armies project power on land, navies project power on sea in order to secure vital thoroughfares.

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And so that's kind of the overall thesis. And then now we kind of take a step back and we're going to build up to establishing the validity of that thesis by starting at kind of ground one or kind of the ground, the square one, power projection tactics in nature.

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And we're going to build chapter four is, I think, power projection tactics in human society and then on to applying Bitcoin as power projection into cyberspace.

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So this, again, power projection tactics in nature will not get us directly to Bitcoin, but it's going to get us far enough there where we can start talking about it.

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And so there's I'll try to get all the ideas on the table.

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And then, Lucas, you can help me patch holes in what I what I missed.

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There's a lot of really interesting concepts here.

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That's the nature of this thesis.

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We talked about the methodology last time.

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It's drawing from a lot of different areas.

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It's just really volatile in that way, intellectually volatile,

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in that it kind of goes from here and there, but it does tie it all together,

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and it's incredibly interesting in all of its parts.

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So we'll try to get enough of those parts on the table to understand what the chapter is about,

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but we're certainly, I'm not going to, in this little introduction,

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before we get going, say all the parts.

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So I think to where to start is that ownership of property is not an abstraction.

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It needs an owner.

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And so there needs to be a protocol to decide, a way to decide who that owner is.

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And this chapter talks about there's kind of two ways you can divide that, power or beliefs.

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Beliefs would be deciding the ownership of property, like first come, first serve,

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as a way to do it as a pure belief-based abstraction.

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finders keepers or even our rule of law these are all beliefs that are abstractions that say

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this person owns a piece of property but the kind of basic meta way to own property is power that's

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that's what animals do there's a proof of power protocol for owning property that is not an

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abstraction it is how many watts you can project to achieve the consensus over the rightful owner

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of a piece of property. Say a carcass of meat on the ground, a wolf comes up to it and snarls to

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make the other wolves in the pack, and other predators acknowledge that the wolf that is

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snarled is the one who is projecting the most watts, and so is projecting the most power, and so has

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an objective physical signature over that piece of property. That's the proof of power protocol

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establishing an objective marker for ownership that's not belief-based.

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It's not the wolf's belief that he got there first and so owns the property.

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It is, I'm the most powerful, I'm projecting that power, and so ownership is acknowledged.

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There's positive and negatives to a proof-of-power protocol,

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projecting power as a way to mark one's ownership objectively.

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The negative is that it's energy-intensive.

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It's about who can project the most watts of power.

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It's also prone to causing injury.

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Obviously, if it has to escalate into a battle, into a probabilistic physical power competition to determine the legitimate owner, both sides can be injured.

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So those are the negatives.

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The positives, it's zero trust.

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No one has to trust the wolf.

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It's about who has the most power.

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In that way, it's also egalitarian.

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Everybody is subordinate to watts.

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There's no rule of law that someone can manipulate.

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It's also permissionless. You don't have to get permission from others to project your power or to take over a resource.

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You simply have to project power over that resource to acknowledge your ownership.

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So Lowry in the thesis then goes deep.

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So there's an evolutionary argument in here, an evolutionary story beginning with abiogenesis,

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the very kind of genesis of organic matter from inorganic matter.

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Lowry talks about pressurized membranes forming over vents to capture resources

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as kind of the most basic form of power projection.

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It's just a membrane passively pushing back against things that come into contact with it,

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but it is marking off, delineating, owning objectively a pool of resources

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around some hydrothermic event in some primordial soup.

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so this leads, this very basic way of power projection

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by inorganic matter leads to structuring order

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from chaos based on these resources are acquired, more and more structure

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develops, again this is an evolutionary

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story and the organic emerges

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from the inorganic colonies of microorganisms organizing the single

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celled organisms, single celled organisms

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organized into multicellular organisms and you get basically a darwinian inspired ecological arms

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race um that in which um of course i think we're all familiar with that story a little bit that

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the if you're not fit and adapted to your environment if you're fat and lazy then you

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get devoured and your resources get repurposed by those who are fit and adapted that way leads to and

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That leads to an innovator die in which those that are most fit and adapted, lean and mean, devour those who are docile and fat.

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And this, again, is an ecological arms race motivating an innovator die framework in which novel power projection techniques are further developed.

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We move from that membrane into other sorts of things.

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So just take one step back from that.

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As part of that evolutionary framework, we have predation as something that emerges.

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Predation is just when those who are weak are devoured by those who are strong in order to acquire their resources.

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So those who can project the most power claim the weak essentially as their resources and devour them.

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The negatives to that are obvious.

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Darwinian evolution is red in tooth and claw.

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It's a horrific process.

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The positives, though, there is a positive to predation and that it weeds out the unadapted, redirects resources to those who are most fit to survive.

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If there wasn't predation, the other protocols that don't involve proof of power that lead to predation would lead to a centralized, unimpeachable monopoly over resources.

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If it was finders, keepers, or whoever got there first, then they just amassed their resources, and that right is unimpeachable.

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There's no way to break it up.

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But if it's power, then somebody can come in and knock up the monopoly, and resources can be redistributed based on who has the most power.

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As part of this ecological arms race, again, we get different power projection tactics emerging.

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We get the emergence of predation that accelerates this Darwinian arms race as predators emerge to pick off the weak.

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cooperation emerges as a power projection tactic um it emerges interestingly unconsciously

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no eyes no brain these kind of single-celled organisms begin to clump together um

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lowry says no sight no foresight no eyes no brain no ideology no morality saying get together guys

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they're literally cells just stuck together um these cells then colonize um or conquer uh two

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ways that cooperating organisms can take on and kind of acquire resources they can colonize by

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invading we know invasive plants move in and colonize a region or they can conquer which is

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what kind of humans do cooperating humans we co-op we conquer an area and then subjugate all

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the resources. Cooperation leads to pack animals, which are animals that are cooperating as a group,

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which leads to the necessity of distributing resources within that group, which leads to a

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further necessity of how do you then distribute those resources among cooperating members of a

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group. And this implicates a dominance hierarchy or pecking order. Pack animals have to cooperate

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to see who gets what within the proof of power protocol.

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How do you do that?

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Determine who gets what among cooperating animals.

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What's been universally established is that,

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again, it's a proof of power protocol.

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The most powerful alpha projects, and they feed and breed.

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So under the dominance hierarchy,

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the most resources and the breeding rights or whatever

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go to the most powerful member of the pack.

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that then has a positive reinforcing feedback mechanism

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of breeding more and more powerful people to protect the pack

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so there's also a virtuous cycle to what seems like a very vicious

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endeavor which is kind of common

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with a lot of Darwinian stuff. It's horrible in the specifics but

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we see value emerging from something that's horrible as

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fitness and adaptation are the results of a very messy and bloody process

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so again dominance hierarchy is not they're determined by the proof of power protocol

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not by a belief protocol we let's see here i think another important point to get on the table

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in this is that domestication becomes a risk and a systemic danger if a proof of power protocol is

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not selected or is consciously selected against for example wolves become dogs if you castrate

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them and select for if you castrate the vicious and aggressive and strong ones and you select for

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the deformed and passive ones and then breed those you can then domesticate and turn a species

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into something that cannot project its own power and domesticate it and humans can also become

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domesticated if a dominance hierarchy for humans is not motivated by a proof of power protocol.

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Were animals subject to Darwinian adaptive forces just as wolves are?

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I think, I'll just end putting the last concept, I think, on the table, and then, Lucas, you

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can add whatever other ones that I kind of missed in patching this together.

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So we've seen that the proof of power protocol is natural in nature.

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It is, in fact, what nature has selected for as a way to divide resources,

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to determine the owner of resources objectively,

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both interspecies and intraspecies through dominance hierarchies.

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Those dominance hierarchies, a negative aspect of those,

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again, the proof of power protocol, one of the negative aspects,

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One, it's energy intensive, but two, prone to physical injury.

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Two wolves are fighting, they could hurt each other.

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They kind of evolutionarily developed then this reflex where one wolf will not clamp down for the killing bite once it subdues another wolf in a dominance contest.

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The metaphor that Jason Lauer really settles on as kind of the perfect example of this for what he's going to go on to do with Bitcoin is the beauty of antlers.

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So antlers are this complex geometry of horn on the head of a deer.

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What they serve to do is as a buffer when two deer are engaged in the dominance contest.

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There's a physical projection of power between them.

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They're hitting prone to injury, except for these antlers are, one, the antlers would help them against a predator externally.

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But in the power competition, because the antlers hit the antlers, they actually serve as a buffer.

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So they make it a safer way for them to settle disputes.

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So there's been the evolution of a power projection protocol for intraspecies, dominance hierarchies for deer.

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So, again, all that's very suggestive.

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The next chapter is actually going to go on to apply a lot of this to human society,

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and then after that to apply it to Bitcoin.

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I don't know if this is relevant, but I had this quote from Sicario I wanted to read because I think it is in some way.

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This is at the end when Alejandro, the Sicario, the hitman, is counseling or saying to a small town cop type person who's not ready for the type of violence she's encountered.

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He says, you should move to a small town where the rule of law still exists.

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You will not survive here.

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You are not a wolf, and this is the land of wolves now.

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so when evolutionary theories

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applies the world is always

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the land of wolves and power projection

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is always what determines

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who lives and who dies

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who replicates and who becomes the future

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so that's kind of I think the main points

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Lucas what did I

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what gaping holes did I leave in

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the summary of this chapter

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no gaping holes

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just

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when I think about

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so I guess I don't think about it in terms of like

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horrible or bad

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or that it's a negative that power is expended or that it's a negative that injury is possible.

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I think about the benefit-to-cost ratio, which Lowry talks about,

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and that benefit-to-cost ratio is a decision that's made prior to projecting power.

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And so in the example of, let's say you're outmatched greatly by something or someone that can project much more power than you,

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that if you aren't able to basically get lucky with like a first mover attack, then you are going to be utterly demolished.

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And so that's actually, it's good for avoiding conflict because when you have a rational actor who is choosing not to engage in a power projection competition due to a low benefit cost ratio, then you end up with actually much less attacks and much less violence than you would otherwise.

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And I think the way that we see this play out in Bitcoin and in cryptocurrency world is you've got the two different.

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Well, I guess there's a couple more.

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Two effectively two main types of consensus protocols You got proof of work and you got proof of stake And proof of stake is just everybody who has a share gets a vote for however many shares they have And proof of work is it the power projection competition

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Who can project the most power is able to solve the block and thus be able to write the transactions.

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And then the counterbalance of that is that everybody else has to agree.

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And so that's like recognizing the power hierarchy where when somebody solves a block and they broadcast the answer to all the other miners and the miners go, yep, you got the right answer.

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We're going to go ahead and confirm this block.

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What you've done is you have established that pecking order of a dominance of power projection.

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and therefore it is a waste like the benefit cost ratio is not worth it for someone to try and attack

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the bitcoin network because let's say you were able to overpower the network for 10 minutes and

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then try to rewrite transactions in your name then what would happen is that the competitors

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would just simply not recognize your power they would branch off to another fork and you would

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lose all of that value. On the other side, you've got proof of stake, which most notably Ethereum.

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You can basically attack proof of stake as much as you want for effectively no cost. I mean,

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it's basically all the cost you have is organizing a political monopoly by engaging other large

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stakeholders and saying, hey, let's get together, let's all vote the same way, and let's not

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confirm these transactions as suggested, and let's rewrite them in our own name.

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And we've seen that happen with Ethereum before, and obviously with other protocols as well.

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So I think that's something that you can literally take from that single cell organism all the

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way up to where we're at to the cyberspace.

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But going back, I mean, there's just so many things that you can think of in life where

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this is relatable.

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Like, and Lowry, I've seen in interviews, does a really good job of making sure that

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we aren't talking about this in terms of an offensive or defensive power projection tactic.

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It's an active or a passive one where, you know, so a border wall, that's something that's high in the public consciousness right now.

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Is a border wall an active or is it an offensive or a defensive thing?

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And some people would say it's defensive, but other people would say, well, if nothing existed there before and you put a wall there, you are doing something first.

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and so therefore that's offensive but really what it is it's passive it's a passive power

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projection tactic that if you try to be active against that if you try to punch that wall run

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into that wall climb over that wall it will most likely impart some kinetic energy upon you that is

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destructive to your continued long-term health.

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I'm sitting in a car right now.

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And so this car is like my membrane.

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It's protecting me and all of my resources against the ravages and the entropy of weather.

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And when we're able to do that, when we are able to put a wall around things,

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and we see this in the Bible too, right?

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the uh the um what is it called what is the the walled garden right um nirvana um that we have the

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walled garden um and the walled garden what does it do it keeps um peace inside and it keeps other

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things at bay and it allows for you to thrive within that yeah yeah so yeah yeah go ahead i

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just want to say like right i mean i think that's so paradise the walled garden right yeah like

217
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that's actually etymologically where it comes from,

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per ed, like that's wall.

219
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So it's essential to the framework that if you're going to have that,

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it's going to be demarcated by some power projection technique.

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Even the afterlife has separated us from us

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by something projecting power to prevent us from acquiring it unduly.

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I just wanted to note that you're totally right

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when you mentioned that the benefit to cost ratio of attack,

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Lowry has formalized a way where he talks about

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when predation occurs, when the benefit of attack is greater than the cost of attack.

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And so this is technical in part.

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He develops a way, he calls bowtie notation,

229
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of really pictorially representing this process of how kind of we select

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for an increasing cost of attack or increasing power projection over time.

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And so his thesis, again, very technical but very good.

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And another type of kind of technical thinking that he uses is systems thinking, where you analyze a system.

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And you touched on this by looking.

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Systems thinking enables us to hold the function of a system constant and look at the different forms that a system might take.

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So, for example, for typing, for word processing or whatever, the function of the system is like the production of the words.

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The form might change from manual typewriter to touching a screen, something like that.

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So we can look at the function of a survival system as like decreasing entropy.

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He talks about that in this as well, or surviving.

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And then what are the function is to survive?

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What are the different forms that enable this?

241
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and you said you were in your car that's a membrane,

242
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there's a border wall that's like a protective membrane,

243
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that's a good way of systems thinking because it connects us back to the membrane

244
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stretched over a hydrothermic vent at the aviogenesis of life itself

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as a power projection technique.

246
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The form is different, but it's comparable to what we're still from a pressurized membrane,

247
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than shells for animals and bark for trees,

248
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those protective coverings, walls nowadays,

249
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the car that's protecting you.

250
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We see the evolution of that, so to speak.

251
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So I think that, again, there's a lot of complexity and subtlety

252
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in the way that he's talking about the development evolutionarily

253
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of these different power projection techniques

254
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and really carefully tying them back to nature,

255
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that these emerge from nature.

256
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And there's a sort of naturalistic argument that he's justifying our use of power projection techniques by saying it emerged in nature and it has been bestowed upon us in this evolutionary path that embeds a certain wisdom of like four billion years or whatever of incremental development.

257
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And so if you think another protocol is better than power projection, why has it not emerged from Darwinian process of selection as a way to successfully mark the ownership of property?

258
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So, yeah, I just wanted to say that I think you're right on in how you're talking about that, that nature is consistent.

259
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There's an analogy between nature and human power projection for sure.

260
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Yeah, I think that people mischaracterize what humans do as non-natural at their own risk.

261
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Because what you see occurring in the political world is a natural thing as well.

262
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So we've got a, we've got cooperation which allows us to form groups.

263
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And those groups create the herd mentality.

264
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And that herd mentality, in order to maintain the health of the group, develops an ideology that they ascribe to.

265
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And that ideology then divvies up the resources.

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and if you were in a uh a pack of wolves and the lead wolves that were the best hunters

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no longer got to eat more to eat better because they're doing all the work to kill all the game

268
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if somehow everybody else ganged up on them and started saying well you're going to eat last

269
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what would happen and what would happen would either be a fight as effectively a civil war

270
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or those wolves would simply go to another pack and they would lead that pack in securing the

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resources that the other pack needs to survive and that pack would die out and we see this i think

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very clearly not only among the states in the united states with their different tax laws and

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how they treat um how they treat the biggest hunters i mean if you're if if money if you know

274
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if resources are you know are the way that we get energy and money is energy so the people that earn

275
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the most money um if due to a collective ideology that says that we need to redistribute that

276
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to other people that we unfairly take more from those than from those that are not producing.

277
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What happens?

278
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So Washington state passed a law that they called it the billionaire tax.

279
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And what did Jeff Bezos do?

280
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He moved to Florida.

281
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He took his billions to Florida.

282
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And they, you know, I remember reading the story like they expected $4 billion worth of state revenue from this.

283
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but they forgot to mention that like 2.3 billion of it was expected to just come from Jeff Bezos.

284
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And he was like, no, actually, I can just change my address.

285
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I can get my newspaper somewhere else and I can keep that.

286
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And you saw that with Elon Musk moving out of out of California and taking a trillion dollar company with him.

287
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So now California no longer has that lead hunter.

288
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and then collectively as a as a country the united states is you know it's the heaviest

289
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taxed industrialized nation in the world and so what do we see is we see all of these incredible

290
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developers and incredible entrepreneurs packing up and going to saudi arabia and portugal and

291
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south america and just simply saying look if you're not going to respect the power that i have

292
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for this pack, if you're not going to acknowledge this hierarchy,

293
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then I will simply go to another pack where I am able to feast upon my share.

294
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And so, yeah, I think I don't make a delineation between nature and humans

295
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because I feel that what humans do, even if it is involved with some ideology,

296
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those ideologies always self-correct back to a power projection a hierarchy a pecking order

297
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you know so they can't last too long right the power projection protocol is always the ultimate

298
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settlement layer for the ownership even if above it we've erected rule of law as a belief finders

299
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keepers or whatever at the end of the day if you need to resolve a dispute objectively in the real

300
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world, it's going to come down to power projection. The rule of law is only a rule of law because

301
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there's an army that backs it up. But I think what you say is essential that we're continuous

302
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with animals, that we are animals. And I think that's one of Lowry's big points in this chapter

303
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is that the lessons that we can draw from the natural world are actually, I mean, they are

304
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abject lessons for us they are they should be taken seriously because we are not as far from

305
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animals as we might suppose the lot of things you mentioned people fleeing to better jurisdictions

306
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defecting from a pack that is not rewarding the alpha male so to speak like these these are i think

307
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why the danger of self-domestication like lowry goes into this that if you're not selecting within

308
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a pack for

309
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power

310
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which is the ability

311
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to project watts, which usually comes down to

312
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strength and intelligence, intelligence more so

313
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nowadays for humans.

314
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If you're not selecting for that, then you run

315
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the danger of

316
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not multiplying those who

317
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are best able to project

318
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the most strong and the most intelligent, best able to

319
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project that, which is systemically bad

320
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for the whole pack. It's not just

321
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bad, it's not good for

322
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everybody in some sense if you can

323
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get rid of

324
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an act of mutiny against the Alpha

325
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that seems oppressive or that seems to have

326
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a lion's share of the resources.

327
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It's actually systemically

328
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a risk for the whole pack because,

329
00:29:14,536 --> 00:29:16,656
like you point out, the Bezos' flee to

330
00:29:16,656 --> 00:29:18,716
a better jurisdiction and the pack

331
00:29:18,716 --> 00:29:20,376
becomes systemically weaker

332
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and more open to somebody

333
00:29:22,736 --> 00:29:23,716
else conquering it.

334
00:29:24,476 --> 00:29:26,336
These are all hard truths, though.

335
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In this chapter,

336
00:29:29,696 --> 00:29:30,716
Lowry has a series

337
00:29:30,716 --> 00:29:32,516
of disclaimers. I mean, you're

338
00:29:32,516 --> 00:29:33,536
You accept this.

339
00:29:34,256 --> 00:29:36,336
You, I think, have lived close to nature.

340
00:29:36,556 --> 00:29:39,876
You've looked up at the night sky and seen the profusion of stars.

341
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You saw that we're not a different thing.

342
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But nowadays, I think people have a hard time accepting that.

343
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And there are a series of disclaimers.

344
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Because, again, I mean, evolution, you point out that the fruits of evolution, what it gives us, are good.

345
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But the process, it is pitiless.

346
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And it does weed out the weak.

347
00:30:01,456 --> 00:30:06,996
and the weak are good in i mean in a christian sense i mean that was not to get too nietzschean

348
00:30:06,996 --> 00:30:14,936
or whatever but like the the weak you know in in our in our kind of human framework we believe

349
00:30:14,936 --> 00:30:19,016
those quote unquote the weak deserve to live and be a part of society and whatnot and also have

350
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access to resources so these are hard truths when we begin to talk about darwinism becoming

351
00:30:24,516 --> 00:30:29,856
like social darwinism that leap into that it becomes a bad word because people don't want to

352
00:30:29,856 --> 00:30:35,056
import evolutionary facts, natural facts, into the running of a society that we think should be much

353
00:30:35,056 --> 00:30:40,336
more compassionate towards those who are not the most powerful and the most intelligent.

354
00:30:41,416 --> 00:30:47,016
So that, again, I think Lowry wants to, that's why he has a series of disclaimers in there.

355
00:30:47,016 --> 00:30:54,636
He ultimately sides and does side explicitly with, I mean, that, again, not accepting the

356
00:30:54,636 --> 00:31:00,296
evolutionary truths is going to lead to systemic risks to the pack to society but i mean i do

357
00:31:00,296 --> 00:31:06,956
acknowledge that i think evolution is a horrific slaughter bench of a process that um from like the

358
00:31:06,956 --> 00:31:13,476
failed abortions of the past the the stronger selected and you know like evolution kind of

359
00:31:13,476 --> 00:31:18,456
throws mutations into the void to see which ones are going to survive and those that don't simply

360
00:31:18,456 --> 00:31:26,576
their genetic material is is is you know a non-fact for the rest of history so it's a terrible process

361
00:31:26,576 --> 00:31:33,816
but it's necessary yeah so again i i don't i don't think of it as terrible i think if you if you come

362
00:31:33,816 --> 00:31:41,336
at it from the view of am i a fan of humans or am i a fan of certain humans and if you're a fan of

363
00:31:41,336 --> 00:31:53,672
humans then it very good for humanity if you a fan of certain humans or if you happen to be one of those certain humans that coming out on the wrong side of it then obviously you know you not a fan of it

364
00:31:53,672 --> 00:32:09,112
But I think about, I just got done doing an eight-day fast. So for eight days, I didn't eat. The reason why I didn't do it was, or the reason why I chose to do this, both my parents have contracted cancer.

365
00:32:09,112 --> 00:32:20,352
I grew up on a farm, well aware now that there's a lot of things that I was exposed to that are cancerous, including the sugar that I ate and all that growing up.

366
00:32:20,352 --> 00:32:39,032
And so the reason is because doing that fast, it induces autophagy, which autophagy is the recycling of damaged and weak cells in your body in order to repurpose those resources to make new and healthy cells.

367
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And so I don't pity the loss of those damaged and weak cells because I cheer for the glory of what could be the whole, my body.

368
00:32:50,952 --> 00:32:55,212
Right. And so it is a difficult process.

369
00:32:55,212 --> 00:32:57,932
It is a violent process.

370
00:32:58,052 --> 00:33:06,592
However, I would make the argument that it is far less violent than any other process that you could think of.

371
00:33:06,592 --> 00:33:12,052
And the reason why I say that is like, what is the most violent ideology that's ever existed?

372
00:33:12,532 --> 00:33:14,152
It's the fairest one, right?

373
00:33:14,412 --> 00:33:14,892
Communism.

374
00:33:15,212 --> 00:33:18,132
Like, everything's going to be fair.

375
00:33:18,332 --> 00:33:20,412
Everybody's going to have what they need.

376
00:33:20,612 --> 00:33:21,972
We're going to take care of everybody.

377
00:33:22,652 --> 00:33:28,012
And then we're going to kill 150 million people in the most horrific ways in doing so.

378
00:33:28,012 --> 00:33:45,732
So it's one of those, like, it sounds bad because people are not, many people are not willing to accept that any violence, any sort of competition is necessary.

379
00:33:45,732 --> 00:33:54,012
But the truth is that, you know, capitalism is the least destructive form of an economy.

380
00:33:54,592 --> 00:34:00,132
Power projection is the least destructive form of resource competition.

381
00:34:01,572 --> 00:34:05,552
And I do believe, I will say this, though.

382
00:34:05,612 --> 00:34:13,532
I do believe that, yes, we have transcended power projection in terms of pure physical power.

383
00:34:13,532 --> 00:34:19,172
And we have moved to intelligence as a way to project power.

384
00:34:20,752 --> 00:34:23,552
And we're seeing that right now.

385
00:34:23,692 --> 00:34:26,372
We're seeing the people that are able to project.

386
00:34:28,512 --> 00:34:29,952
Actually, I thought about this.

387
00:34:30,372 --> 00:34:34,712
So you're human and you have a brain.

388
00:34:35,512 --> 00:34:35,852
Thank you.

389
00:34:35,892 --> 00:34:39,232
And that brain requires, yes, I've seen it.

390
00:34:39,552 --> 00:34:43,192
And that brain has watts and it runs.

391
00:34:43,532 --> 00:34:45,712
And it runs on electricity.

392
00:34:46,532 --> 00:34:51,032
And one of the things that I don't know if, I don't think he explicitly notes it,

393
00:34:51,512 --> 00:34:55,352
but power projection is not just projecting power.

394
00:34:55,632 --> 00:34:59,372
It's projecting power over a surface area.

395
00:34:59,852 --> 00:35:04,492
So I can, you know, I can push, or sorry, a surface area and a time.

396
00:35:05,232 --> 00:35:12,512
So, you know, like the difference would be I can push a car and it can run into a wall

397
00:35:12,512 --> 00:35:16,712
and it might exert X amount of power.

398
00:35:17,032 --> 00:35:21,172
But if I take that same amount of power and I put it behind a bullet,

399
00:35:21,452 --> 00:35:23,852
then I can blow straight through that wall.

400
00:35:24,512 --> 00:35:26,392
So it's the same amount of power.

401
00:35:26,512 --> 00:35:28,712
It's just condensed over a smaller surface area.

402
00:35:28,712 --> 00:35:31,712
And so what is that?

403
00:35:32,052 --> 00:35:34,812
Taking it from here to here, it's focus, right?

404
00:35:34,992 --> 00:35:38,272
And so what are we doing when we're studying Bitcoin?

405
00:35:38,272 --> 00:35:42,952
because we find that there is something about this that is different,

406
00:35:43,492 --> 00:35:47,772
something about it that seems to be relevant,

407
00:35:47,772 --> 00:35:54,352
is that we're taking this energy and we're focusing it on a single focal point.

408
00:35:54,952 --> 00:35:58,892
And by doing so, we are projecting power towards something

409
00:35:58,892 --> 00:36:03,732
that does have an asymmetric benefit to those who are able to project it

410
00:36:03,732 --> 00:36:07,912
in the correct way, or not correct, but in that direction.

411
00:36:08,272 --> 00:36:19,292
So, yeah, you could project the same type of focus on being a video game player and you would have certain skills and such.

412
00:36:19,852 --> 00:36:30,052
Or you could project that type of focus towards something like this and obviously perhaps be at the forefront of a global financial revolution.

413
00:36:30,052 --> 00:36:40,292
Yeah. So I want to push back again a little bit on what I see as the underlying horror of evolution.

414
00:36:40,292 --> 00:37:08,052
But I want to acknowledge that what you say is absolutely correct, that power projection was settled upon as the protocol because it produced the most value over time in the ecological arms race that was evolution, including and being much better than alternate protocols, especially in the human realm of like communism, where these forced belief based systems are used as alternate protocols that lead to mass death.

415
00:37:08,052 --> 00:37:14,012
right so you're absolutely right but so you know like that you were fasting autophagy you were

416
00:37:14,012 --> 00:37:20,192
getting rid of these bad cells in order to ward off cancer but it is evolution itself apoptosis

417
00:37:20,192 --> 00:37:26,832
is programmed cell death evolution itself also has given us cancer it has given us this limited

418
00:37:26,832 --> 00:37:33,732
lifespan so that our genetic material makes way for new potential mutations iterations in order to

419
00:37:33,732 --> 00:37:40,812
keep the evolutionary propulsion moving forward in this ecological arms race that we're now going to

420
00:37:40,812 --> 00:37:46,692
you know keep on evolving because we don't live forever so evolution lowry refers to aging as a

421
00:37:46,692 --> 00:37:51,212
form of suicide in here i thought that was a really existentially interesting remark i had

422
00:37:51,212 --> 00:37:56,512
never looked at it that way that we age and die as an evolutionary tactic because again we want

423
00:37:56,512 --> 00:38:02,712
to make way for new iterations of dna to potentially evolve new strategies to fit and adapt to make us

424
00:38:02,712 --> 00:38:09,192
more fit and adapted to our environment um my pros my speaking is lured enough i think on the

425
00:38:09,192 --> 00:38:16,192
the hordes of evolution but i'm reading nick land's zen of systems and he has a bit on darwinism that

426
00:38:16,192 --> 00:38:23,112
i think goes right to the reason that lowry has disclaimers and also like the horror of of the

427
00:38:23,112 --> 00:38:29,652
war of all against all that is evolution and the necessity of power projection is actually like

428
00:38:29,652 --> 00:38:33,692
what validates his thesis for Bitcoin as a novel form of power projection,

429
00:38:34,132 --> 00:38:38,172
physically projecting in a nonviolent way, I think we haven't got there yet,

430
00:38:38,172 --> 00:38:42,332
but into cyberspace, like a war in which there's not bodies on the ground, right?

431
00:38:42,372 --> 00:38:47,872
In which watts are projected without this fallout of death and dying around us.

432
00:38:48,152 --> 00:38:49,472
But here's what Land says.

433
00:38:50,032 --> 00:38:54,832
The logical consequence of Darwinism is that everything of value has been built in hell.

434
00:38:55,312 --> 00:38:59,532
It is only due to a predominance of influences that are not only entirely morally indifferent,

435
00:38:59,652 --> 00:39:02,512
but indeed, from a human perspective, indescribably cruel,

436
00:39:02,952 --> 00:39:05,052
that nature has been capable of constructive action.

437
00:39:05,212 --> 00:39:09,012
Specifically, it is solely by way of the relentless, brutal culling of populations

438
00:39:09,012 --> 00:39:14,072
that any complex or adaptive traits have been sieved with torturous inefficiency

439
00:39:14,072 --> 00:39:15,872
from the chaos of natural existence.

440
00:39:16,312 --> 00:39:20,852
All health, beauty, intelligence, and social grace has been teased from a vast butcher's yard

441
00:39:20,852 --> 00:39:24,872
of unbounded carnage requiring incalculable eons of massacres

442
00:39:24,872 --> 00:39:26,792
to draw forth even the subtlest of advantages.

443
00:39:26,792 --> 00:39:30,372
this is not only a matter of the bloody grinding mills of selection either

444
00:39:30,372 --> 00:39:35,252
but also of the innumerable mutational abominations thrown up by the madness of chance

445
00:39:35,252 --> 00:39:39,792
as it pursues its directionless path to some negligible preservable trait

446
00:39:39,792 --> 00:39:45,952
and then still further of the unavailable horrors that fitness or sheer survival itself predominantly entails

447
00:39:45,952 --> 00:39:50,392
we are a minuscule sample of agonized matter comprising genetic survival monsters

448
00:39:50,392 --> 00:39:54,872
fished from a cosmic ocean of vile mutants by a pitiless killing machine of infinite appetite

449
00:39:54,872 --> 00:39:59,352
this is still perhaps to put an irresponsibly positive spin on the whole story but it should

450
00:39:59,352 --> 00:40:07,852
suffice so again like not to like revel or you know focus too much on the horrors of evolution

451
00:40:07,852 --> 00:40:15,172
but i think that shows the reluctance of people to accept that analogy with nature and why lowry

452
00:40:15,172 --> 00:40:21,992
has to dedicate a chapter to it and again why bitcoin if it can help us as a power projection

453
00:40:21,992 --> 00:40:30,092
technique of the beauty of antlers again to wait a way to project power with less violence um you

454
00:40:30,092 --> 00:40:41,092
know that's a good thing i'm going to push back on the pushback so i mean violent well so um okay

455
00:40:41,092 --> 00:40:46,792
let's uh let's say that you can use the term horrific to describe evolution but compared to

456
00:40:46,792 --> 00:40:56,212
what, right? So what's the next, like, is there a less horrific way to adapt and evolve?

457
00:40:56,912 --> 00:41:03,812
You know, adapt or die, right? And so it could be that it's peaceful, but, you know, think about

458
00:41:03,812 --> 00:41:11,832
a forest that we don't allow to burn naturally. What happens is that, oh, you know, things are

459
00:41:11,832 --> 00:41:15,472
good, things are good, things are good, this is okay, this is okay, and then all of a sudden

460
00:41:15,472 --> 00:41:23,772
everything burns in the most massive unstoppable tinderbox explodes and um and then everything

461
00:41:23,772 --> 00:41:30,292
dies um so to let that natural selection occurs and that's why i said i you know personally i

462
00:41:30,292 --> 00:41:36,852
just don't i actually think of it in the optimistic way like evolution is the the least violent least

463
00:41:36,852 --> 00:41:44,392
horrific um you know you can you can look at it um just by itself but everything is relative you

464
00:41:44,392 --> 00:41:47,352
You know, like, is Bitcoin the best?

465
00:41:47,572 --> 00:41:48,952
Is Bitcoin perfect money?

466
00:41:49,272 --> 00:41:53,272
Maybe, not sure, but it certainly is better than all of the other ones.

467
00:41:54,672 --> 00:41:59,132
Is, you know, is round a better shape for a wheel than a square?

468
00:41:59,632 --> 00:42:01,012
Or is it the perfect shape?

469
00:42:01,012 --> 00:42:04,592
It might not be the perfect shape, but it's certainly better than a square.

470
00:42:05,212 --> 00:42:13,312
So to look at everything, and truly, I think, I mean, really, to come at life without absolutes

471
00:42:13,312 --> 00:42:18,292
and to come at life only with a relativistic perception

472
00:42:18,292 --> 00:42:21,532
and to say this is better than that thing

473
00:42:21,532 --> 00:42:23,352
because like as Thomas Sowell says,

474
00:42:23,472 --> 00:42:25,992
there are no choices in life, there are only trade-offs.

475
00:42:26,592 --> 00:42:29,772
We are always trading this for that

476
00:42:29,772 --> 00:42:35,492
and any choice that we make means that we are saying no to every other thing.

477
00:42:36,892 --> 00:42:43,192
And you see this so much with people in the Bitcoin community

478
00:42:43,192 --> 00:43:03,872
Obviously, I don't know if there's a word for it yet, but just the general health and well-being of people improves when they realize that the longer they live, the more wealthy they get as opposed to the longer they live, the more fear of outliving their money they have and dying penniless and eating cat food.

479
00:43:03,872 --> 00:43:07,772
that yeah I just think that it's

480
00:43:07,772 --> 00:43:11,712
I guess I try to I just think of it as like the optimistic

481
00:43:11,712 --> 00:43:15,772
bent on it where yes yeah you can I think you can

482
00:43:15,772 --> 00:43:19,832
acknowledge the violence but you in order to acknowledge

483
00:43:19,832 --> 00:43:23,112
that evolution is violent and is destructive

484
00:43:23,112 --> 00:43:27,992
we must also acknowledge that all other forms

485
00:43:27,992 --> 00:43:32,052
of resource allocation

486
00:43:32,052 --> 00:43:37,892
are inherently more destructive and more violent and more cruel and more unfair.

487
00:43:38,852 --> 00:43:47,172
You know, that's the thing about a meritocracy or a lightning strike is it's fair in the grand scheme of things.

488
00:43:47,312 --> 00:43:49,472
It's not fair to the guy that gets struck by it.

489
00:43:49,552 --> 00:43:51,252
It's not fair to you if your house burned.

490
00:43:51,512 --> 00:43:56,412
But generally speaking, it's like, hey, you could have lived at the beach where forest fires don't happen.

491
00:43:56,972 --> 00:43:57,332
You know, so.

492
00:43:57,532 --> 00:43:58,152
Yeah, yeah.

493
00:43:58,332 --> 00:44:00,192
No, I agree with you.

494
00:44:00,192 --> 00:44:03,652
evolution is what is

495
00:44:03,652 --> 00:44:05,092
it's the process that

496
00:44:05,092 --> 00:44:07,672
it's almost a logical process

497
00:44:07,672 --> 00:44:09,192
that which is fit survives

498
00:44:09,192 --> 00:44:11,832
the future is composed of what of the past

499
00:44:11,832 --> 00:44:12,932
was the best of the past

500
00:44:12,932 --> 00:44:14,492
because that's what got the resources

501
00:44:14,492 --> 00:44:18,072
we can condemn it, wave our finger at it

502
00:44:18,072 --> 00:44:19,212
but that doesn't matter

503
00:44:19,212 --> 00:44:21,132
it's also like you say, compared to what

504
00:44:21,132 --> 00:44:22,812
so I totally endorse that

505
00:44:22,812 --> 00:44:26,012
Lowry, he has a section called

506
00:44:26,012 --> 00:44:26,952
Nature is a Sociopath

507
00:44:26,952 --> 00:44:29,012
so he does want to ram home to us

508
00:44:29,012 --> 00:44:36,112
that nature has these things, but he's with you that, I mean, he wants, he says, like acknowledging

509
00:44:36,112 --> 00:44:42,232
that nature is a sociopath, he says, means allowing ourselves to feel uncomfortable for a short period

510
00:44:42,232 --> 00:44:47,732
of time so we can better understand the dynamics of physical power projection and how it relates

511
00:44:47,732 --> 00:44:52,912
to security and survivorship. So if we're, if we're, if we're honest with ourself about what

512
00:44:52,912 --> 00:44:57,952
evolution entails and has entailed, then we'll be honest with ourselves going forward about

513
00:44:57,952 --> 00:45:01,712
the need to project power in watts,

514
00:45:02,032 --> 00:45:06,192
the inbuilt wisdom, inbuilt evolutionary wisdom of that.

515
00:45:06,632 --> 00:45:08,132
And I guess I want to say also, too,

516
00:45:08,192 --> 00:45:10,692
that there's a lot of really beautiful prose.

517
00:45:11,312 --> 00:45:13,492
There's lots of beautiful prose in this poetic.

518
00:45:14,992 --> 00:45:17,032
Lowry says in another part, I wanted to read this,

519
00:45:17,552 --> 00:45:20,952
a quick glance into the night sky reminds us

520
00:45:20,952 --> 00:45:23,152
that the universe does not owe us our lives.

521
00:45:23,152 --> 00:45:26,872
We have what we have because we take it using physical power.

522
00:45:26,872 --> 00:45:29,532
and I mean that's a beautiful quote

523
00:45:29,532 --> 00:45:30,292
and it also

524
00:45:30,292 --> 00:45:33,232
it's like a really practical aspect

525
00:45:33,232 --> 00:45:35,232
of this chapter we can take into our daily

526
00:45:35,232 --> 00:45:37,412
and personal lives is the need to be grounded

527
00:45:37,412 --> 00:45:39,332
I think daily or

528
00:45:39,332 --> 00:45:40,972
in some way in nature

529
00:45:40,972 --> 00:45:43,352
if you live in a city you don't

530
00:45:43,352 --> 00:45:45,312
see the stars, you forget your

531
00:45:45,312 --> 00:45:47,232
smallness in the

532
00:45:47,232 --> 00:45:48,732
grand framework of existence

533
00:45:48,732 --> 00:45:51,312
if you take all of your meat off the

534
00:45:51,312 --> 00:45:53,252
rack, pre-packaged, you don't know

535
00:45:53,252 --> 00:45:54,632
the bloodshed that went into that

536
00:45:54,632 --> 00:45:55,812
if your

537
00:45:55,812 --> 00:45:59,192
you pet your cat, you play with your cat,

538
00:45:59,272 --> 00:46:00,352
you roll a ball to your cat,

539
00:46:00,552 --> 00:46:03,892
you don't think of the long process of cruel domestication

540
00:46:03,892 --> 00:46:07,652
that went into turning a panther, a jaguar, or whatever

541
00:46:07,652 --> 00:46:11,872
into this deformed Ewok creature that we now shower love upon.

542
00:46:12,412 --> 00:46:17,132
So acknowledging nature in its fullness, in its horror,

543
00:46:17,592 --> 00:46:19,192
and then stoically saying,

544
00:46:19,352 --> 00:46:21,392
this is good, this is what is,

545
00:46:21,612 --> 00:46:24,572
and this is what we have to deal with,

546
00:46:24,572 --> 00:46:26,892
I think is like, yeah, it's what we need to do.

547
00:46:26,972 --> 00:46:30,972
I think that's a really important part of not blinking, not looking away.

548
00:46:31,472 --> 00:46:34,832
And I'm glad that Lowry does say nature's a sociopath.

549
00:46:35,152 --> 00:46:44,952
And I'm glad that the framework or the groundwork, the foundation for his theory is built on truths too terrible or so terrible that usually we don't want to acknowledge them.

550
00:46:45,152 --> 00:46:48,112
But he's saying, open your eyes and look and let's build a theory on this.

551
00:46:49,092 --> 00:46:50,972
Yeah, I think sociopaths are fair, too.

552
00:46:50,972 --> 00:47:07,292
I'm not sure if I can actually back that up, but I think, like, isn't a sociopath is somebody that, like, they truly care about no one other than themselves, and if they don't care about anyone but themselves, then obviously they're not picking favorites, you know.

553
00:47:07,632 --> 00:47:13,732
So I think, you know, nature as a sociopath, again, it's meritocratic.

554
00:47:14,672 --> 00:47:15,212
Yeah, yeah.

555
00:47:15,212 --> 00:47:23,872
One thing I wrote down was that living is an act of projecting physical power to capture physical resources.

556
00:47:24,852 --> 00:47:29,072
And having been through some dark times, I thought about that.

557
00:47:29,212 --> 00:47:46,088
You know like we occasionally hear somebody like going through a depressed period of time where they describe it as basically being alive but not living And that truly is like people that are in that state they are not projecting physical power

558
00:47:46,248 --> 00:47:51,648
They're not jumping out of bed and running five miles and doing push-ups and doing that.

559
00:47:51,648 --> 00:47:59,648
They're just slowly moving through life with the minimum amount of physical power exerted.

560
00:48:00,108 --> 00:48:00,208
Yeah.

561
00:48:00,208 --> 00:48:14,348
And so, like, yeah, if you're not projecting physical power, if you're not doing stuff to capture resources, to get stuff, then you're truly not, you know, you're not living.

562
00:48:14,348 --> 00:48:42,068
And I think that's such an encouragement for people that, you know, we have at times lived in a society that has really made evil those who produce and those who would dare, you know, would dare dare to do great things.

563
00:48:42,068 --> 00:48:51,168
by calling them greedy or by accosting them for some sort of megalomical approach.

564
00:48:51,368 --> 00:48:56,408
But if we think about it in that way, it's like such a wonderful thing to do.

565
00:48:56,408 --> 00:49:06,528
Like you think about being able to bring a protective envelope of a membrane of resources around yourself and your family

566
00:49:06,528 --> 00:49:11,388
so that those that you do love and care for, those that you are favoring,

567
00:49:11,888 --> 00:49:18,068
have a better chance at survival and adaptation and being able to move forward.

568
00:49:18,068 --> 00:49:24,128
So I think I'm glad that you bring that up because I don't think that it is,

569
00:49:24,708 --> 00:49:28,728
I don't think anybody's talked about this enough, not to accuse anybody of not,

570
00:49:28,808 --> 00:49:35,288
but the way that Jason Lowry writes is there's poetry to it.

571
00:49:35,288 --> 00:49:50,988
And for anybody who, again, is following along with this and not reading because they're intimidated by picking up a Ph.D. thesis, I strongly urge you to go grab it because it really is beautiful writing.

572
00:49:51,448 --> 00:49:52,128
It's thoughtful.

573
00:49:52,588 --> 00:49:53,308
It's pensive.

574
00:49:54,208 --> 00:50:00,548
And it paints a wonderful picture, even if at times it does talk about things that make us feel uncomfortable.

575
00:50:00,548 --> 00:50:02,668
But that is, of course, how we grow.

576
00:50:02,828 --> 00:50:03,608
That's how we get better.

577
00:50:03,608 --> 00:50:09,108
yeah I think you're totally right to note the existential angle to this that power projection

578
00:50:09,108 --> 00:50:15,528
is living and that in our daily lives um we can be conscious of that I mean we live within this is

579
00:50:15,528 --> 00:50:22,188
the I think one of the disclaimers is about the sensitiveness of this but we live within a

580
00:50:22,188 --> 00:50:25,728
dominance hierarchy every day you go to the office and there's a pecking order every day

581
00:50:25,728 --> 00:50:30,468
you're with people there's a pecking order you know and so you're asserting dominance whether

582
00:50:30,468 --> 00:50:37,408
you want to or not and you do want to you know you don't have to be a jerk but um have agency

583
00:50:37,408 --> 00:50:42,688
and take responsibility for your life these are powerful things intelligence is power that's a

584
00:50:42,688 --> 00:50:49,488
way to project power um dispel entropy dispelling entropy in any way is power making a tool to do

585
00:50:49,488 --> 00:50:57,148
something better that's power um so yeah that's a beautiful point to make we have a an origin story

586
00:50:57,148 --> 00:51:00,388
for agency and power projection here,

587
00:51:00,568 --> 00:51:01,848
like aviogenesis.

588
00:51:02,068 --> 00:51:03,688
I just think he starts with that.

589
00:51:03,728 --> 00:51:04,608
It's just such a lovely,

590
00:51:05,268 --> 00:51:06,868
like it's a creation story.

591
00:51:06,868 --> 00:51:09,668
We start with literally the origin of life

592
00:51:09,668 --> 00:51:12,728
begins as a power projection technology,

593
00:51:12,848 --> 00:51:15,188
begins as a result of power projection technologies.

594
00:51:15,448 --> 00:51:16,968
We get structure from chaos

595
00:51:16,968 --> 00:51:19,628
because power is being projected

596
00:51:19,628 --> 00:51:24,208
to cordone off resources in areas,

597
00:51:24,368 --> 00:51:25,828
dispel entropy locally

598
00:51:25,828 --> 00:51:32,628
so that structure can emerge in what is otherwise an entropic, constantly degenerating world.

599
00:51:33,708 --> 00:51:39,408
And so from chaos, order is emerging through the projection of power.

600
00:51:40,268 --> 00:51:44,208
And the chaos is terrible. We've beat that to death.

601
00:51:44,428 --> 00:51:46,748
But the order is also beautiful, as you point out.

602
00:51:46,968 --> 00:51:48,928
And it's the order we have in our daily lives.

603
00:51:49,068 --> 00:51:53,228
And we can have more of it if we do take the agency and do those things that you mentioned.

604
00:51:53,228 --> 00:52:01,108
Yeah, and Bitcoin actually is more fair for the little guy than real life.

605
00:52:01,408 --> 00:52:05,768
So you think about the way that the mining competition works.

606
00:52:06,388 --> 00:52:15,368
If it was purely power projection, then Mara or one of these big mining pools, they would win every single block.

607
00:52:15,468 --> 00:52:16,928
But that's actually not the case.

608
00:52:16,928 --> 00:52:24,248
And you've seen, if you follow on X every once in a while, you'll see that, you know, like a solo miner mined a block.

609
00:52:24,428 --> 00:52:26,388
And the odds of that happening are insane.

610
00:52:26,548 --> 00:52:37,008
But it is because it is first a power projection competition, but there also is luck involved where it's like, you know, where does it start?

611
00:52:37,128 --> 00:52:42,448
Where does it start to crunch numbers and start to make guesses and get there?

612
00:52:42,448 --> 00:52:47,968
in the real world, you don't get that type of fortune and luck.

613
00:52:48,408 --> 00:52:50,608
And the way I think about this is like,

614
00:52:50,668 --> 00:52:52,608
so you think about like what Bitcoin mining is.

615
00:52:52,708 --> 00:52:53,868
Everybody has the same equipment.

616
00:52:53,868 --> 00:52:57,548
Everybody has ASICs and they're competing.

617
00:52:58,468 --> 00:53:03,648
The real only competition is who can have the cheapest power.

618
00:53:04,048 --> 00:53:07,388
So who can keep their miners on the longest when the price goes down

619
00:53:07,388 --> 00:53:09,648
and it becomes untenable to carry on.

620
00:53:09,648 --> 00:53:18,048
But the way that I think about this in the physical world, in our world, is you think of a NASCAR race or you think of an IndyCar race.

621
00:53:19,848 --> 00:53:22,568
Like, they have the same engines.

622
00:53:22,848 --> 00:53:24,968
Like, they have the same bodies.

623
00:53:25,268 --> 00:53:26,568
They have the same type.

624
00:53:26,648 --> 00:53:31,168
Like, everything is the exact same and it has to be the exact same.

625
00:53:31,608 --> 00:53:34,368
And then the winner is based upon strategy.

626
00:53:34,968 --> 00:53:36,688
And it's based upon intelligence.

627
00:53:36,688 --> 00:53:41,888
And it's based upon reaction time, which is effectively just adaptation.

628
00:53:43,468 --> 00:53:51,188
And so we get to see this play out in real life where I, again, like there's so many things that are beautiful about Bitcoin.

629
00:53:51,388 --> 00:54:06,668
And this is one of them is that it is it is not only meritocratic, but it also has a chance of luck in it that gives you hope that, you know, if I was if I was to enter a weightlifting competition.

630
00:54:06,688 --> 00:54:09,188
I would never have any chance of winning.

631
00:54:09,728 --> 00:54:13,428
However, if I was to enter a Bitcoin mining competition,

632
00:54:13,728 --> 00:54:16,068
I would actually have a chance of winning.

633
00:54:16,288 --> 00:54:17,268
It's minuscule.

634
00:54:17,748 --> 00:54:21,568
It's minuscule, but it does exist, and it does happen, and we see it.

635
00:54:22,028 --> 00:54:22,488
Yeah.

636
00:54:22,688 --> 00:54:24,608
Yeah, so that's kind of pretty, too.

637
00:54:24,688 --> 00:54:25,188
I like that.

638
00:54:25,488 --> 00:54:27,628
Yeah, and it'll be interesting to see.

639
00:54:28,548 --> 00:54:30,108
I haven't got that far.

640
00:54:30,548 --> 00:54:35,168
How Lowry does describe the probabilistic element of Bitcoin mining.

641
00:54:35,168 --> 00:54:45,828
I mean, he does say right up front that acknowledges in his definition through Clausewitz in the first conversation of the nature of war that it does involve a probabilistic element.

642
00:54:46,028 --> 00:54:52,728
And he defines like a battle is a test that it's like a probabilistic physical power competition determined legitimate owner of something.

643
00:54:52,908 --> 00:54:59,048
So he does acknowledge that that that probability and chance is an aspect of it.

644
00:54:59,048 --> 00:55:04,428
And, you know, the stronger even the stronger amongst two wolves doesn't automatically win.

645
00:55:04,428 --> 00:55:08,768
they do damage there's the possibility for the play of chance one had an off night of sleep or

646
00:55:08,768 --> 00:55:14,588
whatever so yeah it's going to be interesting to see where we again have saw in this chapter

647
00:55:14,588 --> 00:55:21,508
we've got a we've gotten an evolutionary story about nature um that there's so much truth in

648
00:55:21,508 --> 00:55:25,528
it it's almost difficult to look at from that we're then going to talk about how that applies

649
00:55:25,528 --> 00:55:31,668
to human society and then from that we're going to talk about the role of bitcoin as a form of

650
00:55:31,668 --> 00:55:39,428
power projection analogous to what occurs in nature so we now have that foundation we've now

651
00:55:39,428 --> 00:55:46,168
accepted the terrible truth of darwinian selection and even knowing that we know that there is

652
00:55:46,168 --> 00:55:50,668
antlers there is the beauty of antlers out there there are power projection technologies that can

653
00:55:50,668 --> 00:55:57,828
begin to make more pacific and less damaging than this the necessary projection of power to secure

654
00:55:57,828 --> 00:56:05,888
resources. Yeah. Well said. Very well said. I like, um, you know, it is the only thing again,

655
00:56:05,888 --> 00:56:10,328
I'll push back on the pushback on the pushback. It's not the, you know, it's not the, the horrific

656
00:56:10,328 --> 00:56:15,328
terror. It's the beautiful, you know, the beauty, you know, it's, it's all in what side of the coin

657
00:56:15,328 --> 00:56:23,128
you're looking at. Um, so yeah, it's, uh, it's a cool journey to go through this book with you.

658
00:56:23,128 --> 00:56:24,808
and it's been fun.

659
00:56:25,668 --> 00:56:28,748
And man, yeah, let's keep at it.

660
00:56:29,068 --> 00:56:31,008
You got anything else that you're throwing out here?

661
00:56:31,508 --> 00:56:33,368
Man, I had an unnecessary quote

662
00:56:33,368 --> 00:56:34,968
from Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian.

663
00:56:35,348 --> 00:56:37,048
I had a bunch of, I'm not going to end with that though.

664
00:56:37,068 --> 00:56:38,768
I want to end with something that Lowry wrote

665
00:56:38,768 --> 00:56:39,668
because I have some more of his.

666
00:56:39,908 --> 00:56:41,988
And again, such beautiful writing.

667
00:56:42,748 --> 00:56:43,968
Some of these are really aphoristic.

668
00:56:44,308 --> 00:56:47,188
Like nothing in our observations of the universe

669
00:56:47,188 --> 00:56:49,788
indicates that life on earth has an inherent right

670
00:56:49,788 --> 00:56:51,188
to live or to keep living.

671
00:56:51,648 --> 00:56:52,668
So that's a dark truth,

672
00:56:52,668 --> 00:56:56,028
But we've talked about that, and I think that it's backed up.

673
00:56:56,628 --> 00:56:59,528
I also, I mean, that's a separate point.

674
00:56:59,648 --> 00:57:00,468
Maybe I don't want to get into that.

675
00:57:00,508 --> 00:57:01,108
We don't want to get into that.

676
00:57:01,228 --> 00:57:04,968
But we could end there.

677
00:57:05,248 --> 00:57:08,368
That's dark and pessimistic enough to keep us going for the next time.

678
00:57:08,828 --> 00:57:12,548
I'll throw something in there, which is I told you this a while back.

679
00:57:12,628 --> 00:57:14,568
I can't remember how I came up with it.

680
00:57:15,728 --> 00:57:18,028
It's partially original, I assume.

681
00:57:18,028 --> 00:57:24,668
But it's the idea that that which seeks to protect you is that from which you need protected.

682
00:57:25,348 --> 00:57:43,508
And I believe that that is true both in the sense of an ideology that claims that it's going to offer you protection and also in the form of a superior organism that offers you protection.

683
00:57:44,008 --> 00:57:47,408
You know, one can destroy you in political ways.

684
00:57:47,408 --> 00:57:49,208
One can destroy you in physical ways.

685
00:57:50,428 --> 00:58:08,028
But any time that there is something offering you protection, be it protection from recourse for an action or protection from just anything, it's always something to keep an eye out for.

686
00:58:08,028 --> 00:58:22,888
And I like that Bitcoin doesn't offer me protection other than I have a world and an army of miners that when I own Bitcoin, they are the warriors of that herd.

687
00:58:22,888 --> 00:58:26,048
They are the ones that are fighting and killing for me.

688
00:58:26,648 --> 00:58:38,588
And we have a block reward that properly feeds those wolves at the head of the pack for the kills, for the power that they project.

689
00:58:39,388 --> 00:58:44,228
And I'm just the little domesticated pup on the inside just loping along.

690
00:58:44,288 --> 00:58:45,568
Not if you're a holder, though, man.

691
00:58:45,748 --> 00:58:46,628
For my sacks.

692
00:58:47,448 --> 00:58:48,048
I don't think so.

693
00:58:48,128 --> 00:58:50,688
I think if you're a holder, you're not on the side of domestication.

694
00:58:50,688 --> 00:58:56,748
Those who are holding fiat currency are those who have been domesticated and think that somebody will always protect them.

695
00:58:57,148 --> 00:58:57,748
Yeah, that's true.

696
00:58:57,888 --> 00:58:58,808
Yeah, I agree.

697
00:58:58,928 --> 00:58:59,208
I agree.

698
00:58:59,328 --> 00:59:04,068
You're placing your belief and your trust into a trusted third party.

699
00:59:04,428 --> 00:59:08,908
And as we know, trusted third parties are security holes, and there has never been.

700
00:59:09,588 --> 00:59:11,508
There's never existed.

701
00:59:12,328 --> 00:59:15,948
And I think this is such a prescient point that people really need to think about.

702
00:59:15,948 --> 00:59:20,428
if they're on the fence, if they're considering owning Bitcoin and they don't,

703
00:59:21,068 --> 00:59:27,388
is that every other type of money, every other type of investment,

704
00:59:28,028 --> 00:59:32,888
every other type of everything that you have in life involves counterparty risk.

705
00:59:32,888 --> 00:59:36,188
And it involves trust in an institution or a third party.

706
00:59:36,688 --> 00:59:40,568
And there has never been an instance, and I repeat, never been an instance,

707
00:59:40,768 --> 00:59:45,368
where a trusted third party has not abused the trust that has been put into them, ever.

708
00:59:45,948 --> 00:59:51,848
there's just no such thing as an infallible institution or an infallible person.

709
00:59:52,388 --> 00:59:54,888
And you can come at this, again, from the biblical side of it,

710
00:59:54,988 --> 00:59:57,848
where we're all sinners, we're all broken,

711
00:59:57,848 --> 01:00:02,348
we're all prone to doing the wrong thing.

712
01:00:04,068 --> 01:00:08,908
And so, yeah, keep that in mind if you want to have something pristine on your side

713
01:00:08,908 --> 01:00:12,808
in order to protect your life source and your life synergy.

714
01:00:12,808 --> 01:00:18,668
man i do want to end with him with reading this long and unnecessary cormac mccarthy quote so

715
01:00:18,668 --> 01:00:22,888
you could like if you don't want to hear you just tune out and you want to miss much but

716
01:00:22,888 --> 01:00:29,108
it's it's good pros man i think it's relevant so here we go um games of sport involve the skill

717
01:00:29,108 --> 01:00:33,728
and strength of the opponents and the humiliation of defeat and the pride of victory are in

718
01:00:33,728 --> 01:00:37,428
themselves sufficient stake because they adhere in the worth the principles and define them

719
01:00:37,428 --> 01:00:42,168
But trial of chance or trial of worth, all games aspire to the condition of war.

720
01:00:42,628 --> 01:00:46,488
For here that which is wagered swallows up game, player, all.

721
01:00:47,048 --> 01:00:47,828
Here's the key part.

722
01:00:48,368 --> 01:00:52,108
Suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their lives.

723
01:00:52,568 --> 01:00:53,788
Who has not heard such a tale?

724
01:00:54,068 --> 01:00:54,888
A turn of the card.

725
01:00:55,428 --> 01:00:59,428
The whole universe for such a player has labored clanking to this moment,

726
01:00:59,568 --> 01:01:03,148
which will tell if he is to die at that man's hand or that man at his.

727
01:01:03,708 --> 01:01:06,728
What more certain validation of man's worth could there be?

728
01:01:06,728 --> 01:01:12,188
This enhancement of the game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning the notion of fate.

729
01:01:12,728 --> 01:01:16,728
The selection of one man over another is a preference absolute and irrevocable,

730
01:01:17,528 --> 01:01:23,428
and it is a dull man indeed who could reckon so profound a decision without agency or significance either one.

731
01:01:23,968 --> 01:01:29,528
In such games as have for their stake the annihilation of the defeated, the decisions are clear.

732
01:01:30,028 --> 01:01:36,268
This man, holding this particular arrangement of cards in his hand, is thereby removed from existence.

733
01:01:36,728 --> 01:01:42,728
This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification.

734
01:01:43,688 --> 01:01:47,108
Seen so, war is the truest form of divination.

735
01:01:47,668 --> 01:01:54,488
It is the testing of one's will and the will of another within that larger will,

736
01:01:54,968 --> 01:01:58,248
which because it binds them is therefore forced to select.

737
01:01:58,508 --> 01:02:03,768
War is the ultimate game because war is at least a forcing of the unity of existence.

738
01:02:04,368 --> 01:02:05,568
War is God.

739
01:02:05,568 --> 01:02:08,348
so that's a strong statement of

740
01:02:08,348 --> 01:02:10,328
evolution, a strong statement

741
01:02:10,328 --> 01:02:12,328
of a probabilistic battle leading to the

742
01:02:12,328 --> 01:02:13,468
eradication of

743
01:02:13,468 --> 01:02:16,148
that which will not replicate

744
01:02:16,148 --> 01:02:17,268
and become the future

745
01:02:17,268 --> 01:02:20,168
a strong statement of

746
01:02:20,168 --> 01:02:21,448
the nature of existence

747
01:02:21,448 --> 01:02:24,448
as kind of inherently

748
01:02:24,448 --> 01:02:25,648
bound with war

749
01:02:25,648 --> 01:02:27,688
and a strong statement that

750
01:02:27,688 --> 01:02:30,508
war is not a matter

751
01:02:30,508 --> 01:02:32,648
of fate, that it is

752
01:02:32,648 --> 01:02:34,808
again probabilistic

753
01:02:34,808 --> 01:02:44,688
but its determination takes on the nature of divination as an outcome that was kind of foreordained at the beginning by the cards that were dealt.

754
01:02:45,568 --> 01:02:48,488
There's a Bitcoin analogy in there somewhere, but I don't know where it is. What do you think?

755
01:02:49,048 --> 01:02:51,788
Well, that war is a game and that game is a competition.

756
01:02:51,788 --> 01:02:56,748
And so war as a competition doesn't have to be destructive. It doesn't have to be violent.

757
01:02:56,748 --> 01:03:20,288
It can simply be watts projected through Bitcoin mining in order to take a chance and take a shot at that divination and that probabilistic occurrence in order to resolve a competition over that which is desirable to all and is sustainable to life to all.

758
01:03:20,448 --> 01:03:21,668
So beautifully done.

759
01:03:22,008 --> 01:03:22,588
Beautifully done.

760
01:03:22,668 --> 01:03:23,068
There it is.

761
01:03:23,268 --> 01:03:23,808
That's all I got.

762
01:03:24,268 --> 01:03:25,128
That's all I got.

763
01:03:25,128 --> 01:03:26,368
We'll catch you guys next time.

764
01:03:26,748 --> 01:03:28,548
Later.

765
01:03:30,948 --> 01:03:32,068
Stop.