The dystopian present of the United State
The dystopian present of the United State
Canonical: https://dscompounding.com/2022/12/22/the-dystopian-present-of-the-united-state/
What my experience has taught me about the values of a sound country us.exitartwork by Diben Blog Articles NFTs collection available on OpenSea.ioMy blog doesn’t have ads, investing in my NFTs supports my contents. When they no longer trust themselves, they begin to depend upon authority. tao te ching Disclaimer: It is important to note […]
What my experience has taught me about the values of a sound country
us.exitartwork by Diben
Blog Articles NFTs collection available on OpenSea.io
My blog doesn’t have ads, investing in my NFTs supports my contents.
When they no longer trust themselves,
they begin to depend upon authority.tao te ching
Disclaimer: It is important to note that the information presented in this article is largely based on anecdotal evidence. Statistics and data are used to support the writer’s intuition and personal experience. The writer believes that building a mental model through statistics and mathematics is important, but also values the significance of investing money and time to gain a more comprehensive understanding beyond just the numbers.
Premise.
I had the opportunity to meet many amazing people and experience great things during my three-month stay in the US. There is much value and many positive aspects, including the friendly and beautiful people. However, my opinion relates to the management of the country and should not be taken as a criticism of its people, who I believe are merely victims of poor incentives.
To be clear, I would like to distinguish between the expectations people have of the US and the reality I encountered during my stay.
As an explorer and customer of the US Inc., I spent three months and a considerable amount of money, but I have some complaints about the customer service provided by the world’s most powerful country. I was required to pay almost 500 USD for a visa, but I don’t feel that I received adequate value for what I paid for, apart from the country’s massive advertising campaign.
Email Address
First of all, the most important question,
WHY?
Why did I decide to spend 3 months of my life in the US?
I have always been fascinated by the internet and the opportunities it provides for the dissemination of free knowledge. In the earlier part of my adult life, I focused mostly on topics related to physical improvement and conducted my research by finding materials and documents written in my native language. However, over the past decade, I began exploring the field of finance and investments, and I soon realized that it was broader than I expected and was tied to several other subjects such as economics, psychology, mathematics, evolution theory, game theory, and others.
I realized that I was blind to how the “illusion machine” works and had an ontological shock. The best way to gain enough knowledge in these fields, I found, was through the English-language side of the web, which is mainly populated by American literature.
It’s not surprising that the US, with its winning model and cultural network powered by its reserve currency status and attracting smart people and investments, has become the center of information. My willingness to improve my English skills opened up a new dimension of information and a new understanding of the world, as the combination of the English language and the internet has become increasingly global and decentralized, though it still has an American influence.
Fig. 1 The end of the internet hegemony
Other than that, I started a blog that gave me the opportunity to interact with people on the English web from different cultures and perspectives. It’s been a really exciting journey, during which I noticed the rise of a powerful force. This new Leviathan is described in the book “The Nation State” (1729.com) by Balaji Srinivasan.
“But it is the Network — the internet, the social network, and now the crypto network — that is the next Leviathan.”
Balaji Srinivasan
Through a simple blog you can reach any part of the world
A recent example
Reddit VS Melvin Capital, internet vs establishment, David vs Goliath
Over time, I have become increasingly interested in American culture and feel the need to improve my English. I was excited about the prospect of meeting wonderful people, acquiring knowledge, and opening up new opportunities through language. To achieve this goal, I decided to invest some money and spent three months living in the US.
During my stay, I took several trips and spent time in various places. Here are the maps I created and followed during my solo trip around the state of California.
Fig. 3 California
Fig. 4 SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles Rams vs Buffalo Bills
I also visited Arizona and Utah, exploring every national park, and of course, Las Vegas. In the second part of my US experience, I went to Hawaii. On my way back home, I made a stop in New York City (NYC).
Fig. 5 Arizona, Utah
Fig. 6 Arizona, Utah
Hawaii
Fig. 7 Hawaii
In addition I stayed for a day in NYC
Fig. 8 NYC
I don’t like traditional vacations; I prefer adventures, which I call “explorations.”
I did the majority of my adventures alone, as I like being alone. It helps me to focus on the environment instead of being distracted by social interactions and the comfort zones that come with friends and their dramas.
What I really want is to experience the place, be dynamic, explore everything, meet new people, and develop a model in my mind to gain a true understanding of the place and its people. This creates a new lens through which I can better understand reality and adds another piece to the puzzle towards the truth, which is the main topic of my blog.
I noticed upon returning home that people are often misled about the US due to what they have seen in movies. Many times when I shared my stories, I heard exclamations such as:
“oh but then it’s not like the movies!”.
Average Hobbit
In other words, I am curious and want to learn everything, clear my mind of illusions, and gain new knowledge about the reality we face as humans.
People are more likely to be open when you are alone. You appear less threatening when you are outside of your group, and other groups are more willing to engage with you. This is how human behavior works. I explored cities, parks, restaurants, clubs, and pubs completely alone and interacted with many people, conducting informal interviews over drinks.
What I quickly noticed is that most Americans are heavily focused on consumption. There seems to be a vicious cycle where people are induced to consume energy in various forms, such as calories, fuel, and HVAC. To sustain this massive consumption, the quality of products is deteriorating, which is especially noticeable in food and clothing. It may seem strange to start my narration talking about consumption, but it was my strongest impression. I thought, “Wow, these people are overconsuming everything, it’s simply mind-blowing.”
Every time you order food from a fast food restaurant (which is the predominant eating option), you realize that you are consuming almost nothing, mostly carbohydrates, and low-quality protein without much flavor, unless it is accompanied by a sugar-based sauce developed in a laboratory to stimulate our taste buds and release neurotransmitters that give us the impression that we are eating something good.
Our cortico-limbic systems define “good” as highly caloric (Optimalism, Starts with Diet and Discipline), which is ideal in a scarce environment, but not so in an environment abundant with sugar like ours.
“Remember, humans are omnivorous apes who thrive on a wide variety of foods. Grains made up only a small fraction of the human diet before the Agricultural Revolution. A diet based on cereals is poor in minerals and vitamins, hard to digest, and really bad for your teeth and gums.”
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
A diet consisting of mostly cereal products lacks many nutrients and can only increase the portion size and caloric intake, leading to an enlarged gut and more consumption. However, even if stomach reduction surgery is performed, nothing can reset the taste buds except for discipline and self-control.
Fig 9. $TXRH discussion on reddit
This aspect is crucial to understand, as it relates to the old saying “Bread and Circuses”. I will delve into this further in my article.
I also found that the lack of quality was not limited to food. At one point, I was shopping in an outlet store with a special discount on top US brands and I observed the poor quality of the products. The textiles were fragile, and the printed logos were likely to fade after a few washes, forcing people to throw away the product and buy a new one from the same brand, satisfying some sense of hierarchy.
Due to inflation, the quality is expected to decrease even further. Companies with strong brands and significant advertising budgets can maintain their earning power by lowering the quality of their products and deceiving customers into thinking the product is excellent. Food is the best example of this.
A Turo rental car driver once told me, “The solution to the rising food prices is to eat junk food.”
As prices soar, consumers turn to McDonald’s (cnn.com).
Thus, instead of having a strong and healthy model as seen in growing civilizations and empires, we now find ourselves in a decadent state, with poor role models and unhealthful incentives.
Fig. 10 Powerful empire models
What does a decadent empire do?
Fig. 11 Western children heroes The Guardian
How is it possible that we convinced people that eating low quality food is “The Solution”, and eating until developing some illness is something to serve as a child model?
In my honest opinion, the solution to a hostile environment is becoming stronger.
Food is fuel for mind and body, the first element needed to fight the entropy forces which try to bring our species into chaos.
Decreasing the quality of this food isn’t a great approach.
Fig. 12 Diet consequence on mental healt
“Clinical studies have also shown potential causal effects of refined carbohydrates on mood; experimental exposure to diets with a high glycaemic load in controlled settings increases depressive symptoms in healthy volunteers, with a moderately large effect.”
NBCI ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Branded healthy food neither:
“Obesity is a double victory for consumerism. Instead of eating little, which will lead to economic contraction, people eat too much and then buy diet products – contributing to economic growth twice over.”
Sapiens, Harari
In other words the incentives are misaligned with the incentive needed to build a healthy and strong state.
A culture works whether you align incentives with long term results.
This short-termism has consequences.
By the way, I had the best discussion of my life with Uber drivers, often immigrants or children of immigrants. Despite being grateful to the US, they have a deeper understanding of the true state of the country.
One of them, from Afghanistan, told me,
“You know, everything here is fake. The food often lacks flavor, and they add sauces to make it taste better. That’s the only way to feel something.”
Indeed, everything is filled with sugar and artificial flavors. The reason is simple and was discussed in my previous article on nutrition: sugar causes insulin fluctuations, which leads to an addictive cycle with food and carbohydrates.
“Ok Dave, but this shit is tasty!
Average Joe
“New goods could be produced without reducing the production of old ones. For instance, one could open a new bakery specialising in chocolate cakes and croissants without causing bakeries specializing in bread to go bust. Everybody would simply develop new tastes and eat more. I can be wealthy without your becoming poor; I can be obese without your dying of hunger. The entire global pie can grow.”
Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari
This works until the group of producers reaches its limit, and people are compelled to over-consume due to marketing campaigns that manipulate their body through their mind. What we like is a result of our culture, and the culture is shaped by the types of physical and cognitive content we consume.
Healthy physical food is fuel,
fuel is energy,
energy need a direction,Healthy mental food is clarity,
clarity is direction,Energy with a direction is the force which change a system.
an excess of energy generates entropy,
1/
— davesoma (@dscompounding) November 26, 2022
The common assumption is that the government harnesses the free market forces, centralizing the power in this way. It is not surprising that those with power desire more.
My assumption is that the free market responds to the demands of the population and sometimes defines their needs through well-made advertising campaigns (those with more money can have a greater influence on society). However, culture acts in opposition to this. Culture is a set of knowledge that serves as a fundamental value for society’s agents and decentralizes power by placing the responsibility on each citizen, just as Satoshi did with finance through a self-custodial protocol. A strong culture plays the role of a bridge between what improves the life of each individual in a system and the narrative that unites the agents of the system, allowing them to improve society as a whole.
Therefore, strong fundamentals are necessary for building a society based on healthy protocols, rules, and a sense of responsibility for every citizen.
“Your task is to stand straight; not to be held straight.”
Markus Aurelius,
CEO of a company which worked well until he died
(Rome, the biggest network at time, 161 – 180 CE).
People must be better informed and able to resist the ongoing degradation of product quality, health, and life experience.
When the free market force becomes strong at the point of influencing the culture and the ability of the people to understand the reality, which is the protocols needed to build a healthy and safe society, it signifies that the culture has been compromised and the future of the community is in jeopardy.
What is a protocol?
“A system of fixed rules and formal behaviour”
Oxford dictionary
Narratives drive humans, good narratives ignite virtuous cycles, bad narratives cause vicious cycles.
so many things we eat in america are banned in other countries
– 300 million lbs of pesticides including atrazine
– titanium dioxide, in many candies & tampons
– BHT in cereals like frosted blakes and honey bunches
– yellow dye 5 and 6, found in mac n cheese
– coffee mate— Carnivore Aurelius ©🥩 ☀️🦙 (@AlpacaAurelius) November 4, 2022
My trip to the US was a unique opportunity to experience freedom and live my own adventures. To achieve this, I enrolled in a language school, which allowed me to travel abroad with the permission of my employer. However, the environment I encountered was hostile, with people shouting in the streets and homeless and drug addicts lying everywhere. This was my first impression and it was not just backed up by statistics but by my personal experience.
A few days into my trip, the security chief of the school, who was a former LA police officer, taught us how to defend ourselves against aggressive homeless people using just a pair of keys to kill them. He explained that some of them could be dangerous and would attack people in search of money. Although I have traveled to many metropolitan cities around the world and I am used to dangerous people, I was not prepared for the number of such individuals in the US, most of whom showed symptoms of mental distress. The local population seemed to be used to avoiding interaction with such people, which made me think about the situation if I were to fall ill or have a heart attack in the street. People might mistake me for a homeless or drug addict and not offer help.
I believe that such an approach is not healthy for a population over time, and it could have serious consequences for the mental well-being of the people. This made me think about the situation in the US more deeply. Treating it only as a security issue is a shallow approach, and I believe that the US is suffering. Dismissing the problem with statements like “homeless people choose to live this way,” “they are drug addicts,” or “it’s a widespread problem in the US” is a simplistic and dismissive way of addressing the issue.
During my brief trip, I informally interviewed several Uber drivers who said that the situation on the streets was getting worse every day.
So, what’s going on?
During my language lessons, I noticed that the teachers discussed many troubles in the US, including homelessness, gun control, abortion, and the abuse of sedatives. Listening to them, I felt that they were scared of these phenomena but unable to identify the root causes. However, I am aware that teachers may align with certain political movements, and these topics may be the result of manipulation. During my travels, I realized that these were real worries and I encountered several such experiences.
While I was alone in pubs and restaurants, speaking with strangers or overhearing conversations, I was often struck by the discussions about the homeless situation. For example, while I was in Venice Beach, I overheard two girls and the bartender talking about the problem. They were shocked by the situation in LA and explained that the problem has also been increasing on the east coast in recent years.
Fig. 13 Broad surveys seem to confirm my thesis.
One of my classmates effectively presented the issue of sedative abuse to the class through a video in which they interviewed a school employee.
Interviewer: “because they [doctors] don’t want you to feel the pain”
Interviewed: “yes, I mean that’s the first thing they give you is a narcotic, like anytime.”
Reminds me Huxley’s prediction:
“Within the next generation I believe that the world’s leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narcohypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience.”
Alodous Huxley, 1949
It is not surprising that in the last chapter of the Matrix saga, the Architect is portrayed as an Analyst, playing between the information technology and psychiatric meanings.
Fig 14. Matrix resurrection, sedatives, the last form of control
“One in six adults now is on some kind of psychiatric drugs”
Max Lugavere, science journalist
I want to add more facts to give context to my anecdotes, using this chart which shows statistics on the abuse of fentanyl in the US. During my earlier years, I worked in EMS and fentanyl was a strong opioid used in many polytraumatic injuries where the patient’s suffering was so intolerable that the use of such a strong sedative was justified.
Fig. 15 Fig. Sedative abuse skyrocketed
Proof of EMS
Fig. 16 On the left, that was me at the time of my experience in EMS, circa 2010
Anyways, returning to my first feelings, as I mentioned, I did not feel safe in many places. I spoke with a classmate from South America who told me that he did not feel safer in the US than in Chile, where he admitted the situation is bad even for a native.
This is truly mind-blowing. We are talking about the first military power in the world that is unable to provide a sense of safety to tourists and students who paid a large amount of money to be there.
Fig. 17 Military spending worldwide
I train myself every day. In the past, I practiced kickboxing and many other sports. I’m 1.85 meters tall. What I’m trying to say is not that every place in the US is dangerous, but after visiting many places around the world, I felt uncomfortable and unsafe too many times during my explorations in the United States.
I visited Coronado beach a few times and saw a huge variety of military vehicles cross the skies above the amazing beach almost every minute. I understand that there are many military bases in the area, but at some point, I started thinking that there was some sort of marketing campaign behind these displays.
Sometimes, Western people seem like boiling frogs to me.
The situation is getting worse, but they are adapting and accepting it because there is a good marketing campaign behind the US being the most powerful country in the world. As Juvenal said, “Give them bread and circuses” (or in other words, “Carbs and Netflix”) and they’ll never rebel.
Fig. 18 Juvenal, Rome
In the meantime devaluing the currency to spend even more money.
Fig. 20 US money printing
Fig. 21 Currencies devaluation
“Economic prosperity is declining. All the political infighting of the last decade happened during a period of relative prosperity, even if it was based on the artificial expedient of printing money. But now that we face potentially years of inflation and stagnation, unhappiness will increase.”
Balaji Srinivasan, 1729.com
In some ways, this is also true for Switzerland, my country. Many people have an idea about the stability of a country, which is based on a lost neutrality and an overly bureaucratic banking system that faces competition from highly efficient digital platforms.
I want to share my experience regarding the safety in the US. I took a solo trip around the state of California, visiting many places from San Diego to Los Angeles to San Francisco. I can say that I never felt safe, except in some touristy places in San Francisco like North Beach.
I often check Reddit for advice, and I often come across threads like this.
LPT If you’re planning on visiting San Francisco please for the love of God do not leave ANYTHING of even a vague resemblance of value in your car, or your windows will get smashed and you’ll lose it.
by inLifeProTips
Fig 20. Advise on Reddit
Fig. 21 Reddit trip suggestions
I’m glad that @Coleman, a member of the TNS community, provided me with a map that outlines the areas where it is safer to stay. Essentially, only a quarter of the city is considered the safest zone.
Fig. 22 Place to avoid in SF, Nota Bene: the black line define the safe zone
I decided, in any case, to venture beyond the border delimited by the map in order to understand the situation in this city. I saw many amazing things and interacted with kind people, but I also saw a decaying city with numerous homeless individuals and drug addicts.
Fig. 23 Situation outside the safe zone.
I also noticed the incredible difference as I crossed from one neighborhood to another. Simply crossing a street can make you feel as if you’re in a completely different environment.
On a positive note, I found some great food in SF, like the Cioppino, which was fantastic, but of course, very expensive. I really love the city of San Francisco; it has a great vibe and style.
Fig 24. Cioppino
As I mentioned before, the social conditions of a neighborhood can greatly vary, with some areas being affluent and well-maintained, while others are struggling with serious societal and mental health issues.
Regarding Los Angeles, I have also experienced the city as being out of control. I have encountered many strange individuals on the street, and the overall feel of the city is dirty and unsafe. I have even seen a naked person on the street and homeless people wearing masks from the movie “The Purge.”
Water
One thing I noticed after spending a few weeks in the US was that I started experiencing cramps at night, which is a classic symptom of electrolyte imbalances. As someone who regularly engages in physical exercise and eats a lot of bananas to replenish my electrolytes, I was surprised to find that this wasn’t enough in the US.
After much consideration, I realized that the problem was with the water. The majority of available water in the US is purified, or distilled water, which is devoid of electrolytes, in short fake water. This has created a market for sports drinks like Gatorade, which are essentially water with added artificial coloring, sweeteners, and electrolytes.
Fig 25. Idiocracy
Many people, in fact, drink Gatorade or other sports drinks as a solution. However, to me, it seems like just another opportunity for companies to sell their branded products.
Pvt. Joe Bowers: What *are* these electrolytes? Do you even know?
Secretary of State: They’re… what they use to make Brawndo!
Pvt. Joe Bowers: But *why* Do they use them to make Brawndo?
Secretary of Defense: [raises hand after a pause] Because Brawndo’s got electrolytes.
Idiocracy movie
It was funny, because at some point I was on a bus for a trip organized by a hostel and I overheard a conversation between two girls. One of them, who appeared to be a nurse, was explaining the importance of electrolytes, and at the end the other girl exclaimed…
“oh, I know, indeed I love electrolytes!”
Average Becky
How can you love electrolytes? Then I realized she was referring to the taste of the most commonly advertised drink for replenishing electrolytes.
“Brawndo – The Thirst Mutilator – had come to replace water virtually everywhere. Water, the basic component of all life, had been deemed a threat to Brawndo’s profit margin.“
Idiocracy movie
What the science has to say
“If North Americans prefer to drink commercially available bottled waters, they should be selective when deciding which water to drink. Individuals should choose to drink bottled water with an optimal mineral profile, i.e., high levels of Ca2+ and Mg2+ and little Na+. However, few of the bottled waters we examined have an optimal mineral profile. North Americans may also be more likely to drink mineral-deficient bottled water, such as spring waters, rather than mineral-rich bottled water. This is because mineral-rich bottled water is generally associated with an unfavourable taste. In addition, most European bottled waters are more expensive than North American waters”.
“The average North American population consumes insufficient quantities of Ca2+ and Mg2+ and too much Na+.”
Again, the problem of taste preferences and the unwillingness to spend money for better health is prevalent.
Another humorous experience I had was when I would sometimes end up at a fast food restaurant. I typically don’t drink soda, so I always ask for water. My first experience was funny because I had a hard time finding a water dispenser. It was usually located with the Sprite dispenser, and I had to push a hidden button under the Sprite logo to obtain the water. I was discouraged and upset the first time I encountered this, because the button didn’t work properly and I had a difficult time getting my desired water.
#obesity #Health #empires #UnitedStates #Rome
“Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt.”
Juvenal, Rome, 100 CE pic.twitter.com/iLHduIG5Xm— davesoma (@dscompounding) November 13, 2022
Nowadays, we have all the tools necessary to understand the serious health consequences of a diet high in sugar. The fact that the water is hidden and, even in its accessible form, is often a low-quality product that deprives the body of essential minerals is even more concerning. I understand that in California, being predominantly a desert, it can be challenging to access pure water, but in any case, people need to be informed about the importance of electrolytes and that water is something that is worth investing money in, as it is at the foundation of the needs pyramid.
Fig. 26 Needs pyramid or know as Maslow’s pyramid
At the end of the day everything is fake: body, water, people, meat,…
Everything is the consequence of marketing and people’s ignorance.
Michael Saylor is speaking about inflation during an interview on YouTube
“What’s the price of some manufactured box of macaroni? That’s 5 % food and 95% marketing”
I can provide you with numerous research and studies, but the reality is that I was truly disappointed, not by the fast food, as I was prepared to face that, but by the quality of the ingredients.
The new way of feeding people with low-quality products is through low-quality food for the mind, also known as “FEED.” Yes, because nowadays algorithms controlled by a few people “FEED” our brains with a dopamine sauce. We economize on the quality of content by packaging it in a dopamine-enhancing format.
Another thing I noticed among young people is that they are, in some ways, better informed, but also more confused and certainly more addicted to these “FEEDS.” Every morning, young boys and girls are literally “fed” by an algorithm that may have some interest in injecting biases into the user’s mind.
Who feeds our minds?
A Chinese algorithm? An US algorithm?
#China #usa #TikTok
Chinese have learned their lesson, exporting dopamine hitters like cheap products and social networks. pic.twitter.com/8cuLkI1l9K— davesoma (@dscompounding) December 10, 2022
“In any second Civil War, ideology and geography would only weakly coincide. Look again at that map by county. Is one side really going to invade the other? Or vice 4.5. AMERICAN ANARCHY, CHINESE CONTROL, INTERNATIONAL INTERMEDIATE185 versa? Is the US establishment going to seize corn fields or will its opponents move to capture big blocks of cities? Is either side going to use huge bombs on territories where they’d kill at least 30% of their own team? Could nuclear weapons be targeted enough to use as political tools to get the other side to concede?
No. Instead it will be a war for minds, not lands. And if we look at the map of digital space, suddenly much becomes clear. Here, the two sides are fully separated, as the Union and Confederacy were. And now, we can see why there’s been such an emphasis on cancellation, deplatforming, silencing, and shunning… on making people say certain words and hoist certain symbols. Because making a person or a company post a particular hashtag indicates control of minds which is in turn control of digital territory.”
Balaji Srinivasan
There is a vicious cycle in progress, and unfortunately, I cannot see a solution for the misaligned incentives.
The only solution I see is to examine what went wrong in the old model and make corrections, establish new societies with different core values and new evaluation metrics.
“Poverty, crime, and unhealthiness are clear results of bad decisions.”
@ZANE zaneausten.com
Stanley Druckenmiller, one of my favourite investors
“Because we definitely need a change, half the country hates the other half, we have myopic economic policies, boom and bust policies, we don’t really get change unless bad stuff stuff happens to catalyze the change”
Frankly, it’s something I’ve been thinking about for many years and after reading the thorough analysis produced for free by Balaji Srinivasan, I’m even more convinced that we can do something. We can create a new culture, new rules, and something more solid and anti-fragile.
Then, returning to the title of my article, it is time to think about a new paradigm, new values.
“Invert, always invert,” Jacobi said. He knew that it is in the nature of things that many hard problems are best solved when they are addressed backwards.”
Charlie Munger
What’s a “sound culture?”
FIg. 27 ChatGPT
“Strong and resilient, because built on solid foundation”
ChatGPT
Finally, what has my experience taught me?
It has taught me that exploiting resources and people is not a sustainable model. It has also taught me that incentives come before models and values come before incentives.
For many years, consumption has been used as an incentive, but its impact is evident in the streets of the largest consuming nation in the world, as I described in my article. Unfortunately, the problem is not limited to the US borders but has been exported to the rest of the world.
Back to culture. Yes, actually to culture. You can’t consume much if you sit still and read books.
Aldous Huxley
The key is responsibility.
Fig. Sovereign individual AI generated ArtWork
A society where responsibility is decentralized empowers the agents of the system and incentivizes them to be more knowledgeable, reducing the risks of misaligned incentives, exploitation, and agency problems.
But not everyone wants to bear this weight on their shoulder, as most people don’t want a burden.
However, when it becomes clear that there is no other viable option, people who believe in the need for a new paradigm can come together, align their values and principles, and create a 100% democratic nation. This will demonstrate which culture works better and encourage others to join the best culture, creating incentives for change. The purpose of Satoshi is to empower the individual by giving them responsibility.
Decentralization means that everyone bears responsibility.
A community where everyone is responsible is a strong society, as every element is strong and knowledgeable enough to hold the leadership accountable through exit options, which brings dynamism to the system.
This must happen before the leadership becomes entrenched and causes harmful consequences for the network elements, leading to the inefficiency of the entire system.
Every time a system fails, it is due to an overcomplicated set of rules that makes it difficult to determine who bears responsibility. The contract becomes a trust agreement between a smart agent and a group of ignorant parties.
Modern politics, FTX, and other fraudulent companies operate in this way by creating a lot of bureaucratic layers to confuse their stakeholders (citizens, investors, users, etc.) and entrench their positions of power, exploiting their positions for their own advantage.
“Your task is to stand straight, not to be held straight”
Markus Aurelius
On the other hand, if it is built from the ground up, the inevitable outcome is a network made up of aligned, knowledgeable individuals who are motivated to create something new, as they share a common vision.
The results of free market competition, show by an healthy dashboard, become the incentive for others to take responsibility by seeking knowledge.
Bitcoin works because the rules are easily understood by most people, but it requires a willingness to bear responsibility (self-custody); if this is not done, the consequences of misplaced trust (such as centralized entities like FTX, Lehman, or subprime lenders) will be faced.
“If you don’t believe me or don’t get it, I don’t have time to try to convince you, sorry.”
Satoshi
Here, Satoshi was speaking about some technical details, but the meaning of the phrase is clear.
You must understand it, as it is your responsibility.
It’s not a religion or a political movement, it’s a tool and you have to understand how to use it by yourself. Perhaps that is why Bitcoin is the last resort option for people who want to exit the United States.
What are the alternatives?
What fascinates me is the evolution of the prototype of the network state I’m participating in. I’m referring to the TNS community, which is a kind of prototype or first attempt to develop a highly aligned community. In this sense, I find it amazing that the first two autonomous entities born inside the community were the subgroups Writers and Proof of Workout, as if everyone of us were seeking health and truth as basic principles and needs. Something to develop from the foundations, principles, and values that give resilience to a culture, which has a long way to go and many cultural infrastructures to build.
“A network state is a social network with a moral innovation, a sense of national consciousness, a recognized founder, a capacity for collective action, an in-person level of civility, an integrated cryptocurrency, a consensual government limited by a social smart contract, an archipelago of crowdfunded physical territories, a virtual capital, and an on-chain census that proves a large enough population, income, and real-estate footprint to attain a measure of diplomatic recognition.“
Balaji Srinivasan
by starting with a seemingly simple moral premise and taking to its logical
conclusion, a one-commandment-based startup society ends up changing huge swaths
of life, but in a focused, exit-constrained, and intellectually consistent way.Balaji Srinivasan
Adapt the teachings of Marcus Aurelius as a one commandment for a successful startup society
As Marcus Aurelius wrote,
“Your duty is to stand straight, not held straight.”One commandment:
take responsibility for your physical, financial and intellectual well-being.— davesoma (@dscompounding) January 24, 2023
My series on Optimalism aims to provide you with the tools I acquired during my journey to Stand Straight.
Optimalism, Starts with Diet and Discipline
Optimalism, Strengthen your Body
Optimalism, the Mind
Bonus article:
AI and collective consciousness – Optimize your community wisdom
I am creating a collection of Optimalist historical figures who have worked towards a better humanity, but with a futuristic perspective. We must look to the future while remembering our past. These figures will be remembered as heroes and guardians of knowledge and courage. If you would like to contribute to my efforts to spread knowledge, you can do so by purchasing a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) of your favorite Optimalist hero of the past. Not only will you learn something new, but you will also have my gratitude. I prefer this method of crowdfunding as I prefer to avoid traditional advertising methods,
I believe that knowledge should be freely accessible and free from distractions.
Opensea.io NFT collection
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Albert Einstein
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