By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 10 Sep 24
Jim talks with Toufi Saliba about the Toda/IP protocol and HyperCycle, a decentralized network for AI-to-AI communication. They discuss the high-level view of Toda/IP & HyperCycle, enabling communication of value, what Toda adds on top of UDP, time & cost constraints, cryptographic proof in the first handshake, how Toda transfers value in very small quantities, how settlement occurs, who has custody of a dollar, transaction machines, where money is kept & what prevents stealing, an actual non-fungible token, fully decentralized smart contracts, whether or not Toda is analogous to paper money in a gold standard world, Toufi’s motivation for building
Jim talks with Toufi Saliba about the Toda/IP protocol and HyperCycle, a decentralized network for AI-to-AI communication. They discuss the high-level view of Toda/IP & HyperCycle, enabling communication of value, what Toda adds on top of UDP, time & cost constraints, cryptographic proof in the first handshake, how Toda transfers value in very small quantities, how settlement occurs, who has
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 29 Aug 24
Jim talks with Stephen Webb about his book If the Universe Is Teeming With Aliens… Where Is Everybody?: Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life. They discuss Jim’s obsession with the Fermi paradox, the meaning of the Fermi paradox, the Drake equation, discounting claims about UFOs, a question that everyone can contribute to, Perplexity AI’s estimates, optimistic scenarios, anthropic principles, Kardashev civilizations, the principle of mediocrity, getting to the bottom of the UAP phenomenon, problems with the zoo scenario & the interdict hypothesis, the simulation hypothesis, Oumuamua, solar chauvinists, Stapledonian thinking, the signaling problem, 3 types
Jim talks with Stephen Webb about his book If the Universe Is Teeming With Aliens… Where Is Everybody?: Seventy-Five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life. They discuss Jim’s obsession with the Fermi paradox, the meaning of the Fermi paradox, the Drake equation, discounting claims about UFOs, a question that everyone can contribute to, Perplexity AI’s estimates,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 27 Aug 24
Jim talks with Malcolm and Simone Collins about declining worldwide fertility rates and pronatalism. They discuss when fertility started declining, the pre-World-War-I fertility catastrophe, the countries entering fertility freefall, a population-based pyramid scheme, different cultural frameworks’ resistances to fertility collapse, the urban monoculture, the rise of an anti-natalist mindset, preparing for a consistent economic decline, the UN’s misleading statistic, the debt overhang, whether the downsides are overstated, why this is not a wealthy person problem, guillotines, how the urban monoculture affects the gene pool, equality vs removal of in-the-moment pain, oversensitivity to negative stimuli, causes of the current fertility collapse,
Jim talks with Malcolm and Simone Collins about declining worldwide fertility rates and pronatalism. They discuss when fertility started declining, the pre-World-War-I fertility catastrophe, the countries entering fertility freefall, a population-based pyramid scheme, different cultural frameworks’ resistances to fertility collapse, the urban monoculture, the rise of an anti-natalist mindset, preparing for a consistent economic decline, the UN’s misleading statistic, the
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 22 Aug 24
Jim talks with Glenn Loury about his recent memoir, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative. They discuss the problem of self-regard, Glenn’s mentorship under Thomas Schelling, his upbringing in the South Side of Chicago, his matriarch aunt Eloise, his best friend Woody, the one-drop rule, the social construction of race, the influence of his uncles, stealing a car for prom, the Illinois Institute of Technology, working at a printing plant, community college classes, discovering the life of the mind at Northwestern University, choosing MIT, macro- & microeconomics, separating from his wife, choosing a department to work in, getting the
Jim talks with Glenn Loury about his recent memoir, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative. They discuss the problem of self-regard, Glenn’s mentorship under Thomas Schelling, his upbringing in the South Side of Chicago, his matriarch aunt Eloise, his best friend Woody, the one-drop rule, the social construction of race, the influence of his uncles, stealing a car for
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 20 Aug 24
Jordan Hall tries to convince Jim that the reality of the Christian God is logically necessary. They discuss points of agreement & resonance between their views, relational ontology vs substance ontology, belief as mental operation vs existential commitment, a hierarchical stack of concepts, the complexity lens, the conceptual level on which relationship belongs, relata as contained within relationship, relationship as the most real, the impossibility of imagining being without relationship, oneness & multiplicity & relationality, moving from the philosophical to the theological, hypostasis, the standard model of physics, the coordination of experience with theory, dehumanizing the persons of the Trinity,
Jordan Hall tries to convince Jim that the reality of the Christian God is logically necessary. They discuss points of agreement & resonance between their views, relational ontology vs substance ontology, belief as mental operation vs existential commitment, a hierarchical stack of concepts, the complexity lens, the conceptual level on which relationship belongs, relata as contained within relationship, relationship as
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 19 Aug 24
Jim talks with John Robb about the ideas in his recent Substack essay, “What Went Wrong With America?” They discuss why there’s a need to address what went wrong, tribal conspiracy theories following the Trump assassination, a breakdown in collective sense-making, cohesion, coherence, legitimacy, OODA loops, the importance of orientation, reorienting after career retirement, America’s choice to orient on globalism, open borders, the end of America’s tribal narrative, Pat Buchanan, the Ross Perot 1992 presidential campaign, how the global orientation shaped the response to 9/11, the current global economic situation, the U.S.’s dependence on sanctions, drone warfare, likely scenarios if
Jim talks with John Robb about the ideas in his recent Substack essay, “What Went Wrong With America?” They discuss why there’s a need to address what went wrong, tribal conspiracy theories following the Trump assassination, a breakdown in collective sense-making, cohesion, coherence, legitimacy, OODA loops, the importance of orientation, reorienting after career retirement, America’s choice to orient on globalism,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 15 Aug 24
Jim talks with Alexander Bard in the last of three conversations about his and Jan Söderqvist’s recent book Process and Event. They discuss the barred absolute as that which is hidden to us in the world, the barred subject, the mamilla in Lacan, barred absolutes vs the Barred Absolute, dissolving nihilism, accepting death as absolute, trans-determinism, Grand Project A, exodology, paradigmatics, the tyrant’s lynch mob, oikophobia, Trumpism as a reaction to oikophobia, attentionalism, the abolition of advertising, consumtariats vs netocrats, the attentionalist paradigm, personal information agents, curators, comparing advertising & slavery, Perplexity, the Messiah Machine, protopianism, metastability, imploitation over exploitation, the
Jim talks with Alexander Bard in the last of three conversations about his and Jan Söderqvist’s recent book Process and Event. They discuss the barred absolute as that which is hidden to us in the world, the barred subject, the mamilla in Lacan, barred absolutes vs the Barred Absolute, dissolving nihilism, accepting death as absolute, trans-determinism, Grand Project A, exodology, paradigmatics,
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 13 Aug 24
Jim talks with Alexander Bard in the second of three conversations about his and Jan Söderqvist’s recent book Process and Event. They discuss eventological monotheism vs nomadological iconology, dualism vs monism, substance dualism, Spinoza’s monism, graded relationality, emergence vector theory, Syntheism & its concepts, God as the ultimate dream, creating God, 4 dimensions of time, a more complete metaphysics, the problem with oneness, the two-headed phallus, priests & chiefs, the 3 fundamental entities in Hinduism, a congress of grandmothers, Plato & Confucius’s idealization of tyrants, libido & mortido, objectification of the mamilla, Julia Kristeva’s discovery, the Gnostic delusion, being embodied and en-minded,
Jim talks with Alexander Bard in the second of three conversations about his and Jan Söderqvist’s recent book Process and Event. They discuss eventological monotheism vs nomadological iconology, dualism vs monism, substance dualism, Spinoza’s monism, graded relationality, emergence vector theory, Syntheism & its concepts, God as the ultimate dream, creating God, 4 dimensions of time, a more complete metaphysics, the problem with
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 9 Aug 24
Jim talks with Pamela Denise Long about the nomination of Kamala Harris and what it might mean for American Freedmen. They discuss the meaning & value of the term “Freedmen,” what it means to be Black & why it matters, misallocated affirmative action, Barack Obama’s ethnicity, the history of Bantu & Nilotic Africans, Kamala Harris as a metaphor, parallels between Harris & Obama, the question of Harris’s Blackness, Harris’s decision to identify as Black, the influence on public policy, her statements about reparation, her hesitance to commit to direct redress for Freedmen, the context of an increasingly multiracial America, emphasizing
Jim talks with Pamela Denise Long about the nomination of Kamala Harris and what it might mean for American Freedmen. They discuss the meaning & value of the term “Freedmen,” what it means to be Black & why it matters, misallocated affirmative action, Barack Obama’s ethnicity, the history of Bantu & Nilotic Africans, Kamala Harris as a metaphor, parallels between
By: The Posts Author | Posted on: 8 Aug 24
Jim talks with Alexander Bard for the first in a series of conversations about his and Jan Söderqvist’s recent book Process and Event. They discuss Jim’s process for reading the book, metaphysics, narratology, the sociont, dividuals vs individuals, a biochemical definition of individuality, eventology, Alexander’s conversion to Zoroastrianism, nomadology, Nietzsche’s concept of the eternal recurrence, 4 varieties of time, a defense of armchair philosophy, phallic linear time, the phallic gaze & direction, transcendental emergentism, the tendency to want a single explanation, problems with emergentism, emergence vectors, the ubiquity of uniqueness, the Great Filter, the narratological triad, 3 brains & their
Jim talks with Alexander Bard for the first in a series of conversations about his and Jan Söderqvist’s recent book Process and Event. They discuss Jim’s process for reading the book, metaphysics, narratology, the sociont, dividuals vs individuals, a biochemical definition of individuality, eventology, Alexander’s conversion to Zoroastrianism, nomadology, Nietzsche’s concept of the eternal recurrence, 4 varieties of time, a