Hacking State

Mark Wilcox on 21e8, his information architecture company, computational data markets, why compute is money, Bitcoin’s role in all this, price discovery via compute, how AI is destroying people’s belief in the computer, deleveraging from the U.S. dollar, decision theory, the curse of dimensionality, and moving back to base primitives. “The problem to solve is how much compute it takes to generate...

I speak with Doomer Optimist cofounder and faculty in the Department of Sustainable Development at Appalachian State University, Jason Snyder, about finding the others, using the internet to encourage localism, Balaji Srinivasan’s The Network State , homesteading, the value of embodied work, regenerative agriculture, resource independence, and our disagreement on degrowth. Doomer Optimism is an ec...

Jonah Davids' new Substack, Mental Disorder , explores the science and politics of mental health from a data-driven perspective. Jonah is also Communications Director at the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology. We spoke about why being a psychologist has no noticeable effect on the efficaciousness of talk therapy, the lack of evidence in mental health treatment, how CBT became the go...

Cody Moser is a PhD student in the Department of Cognitive and Information Sciences at University of California, Merced. His work focuses primarily on the evolution of human behavior and human institutions. We spoke about his work generating formal network models with agent-based modeling, the life history of organizations, core-periphery dynamics and why "loser" nodes are necessary for network in...

Jae Yang and John Bugnacki of Tacen join me to discuss financial sovereignty, the regulatory state of crypto in the United States, the Wyoming stabelcoin, and why you have to go to the frontier for better governance and technology. Tacen is working on a crypto exchange that is fast, non-custodial, and cross-chain. Project TXA is a settlement network that allows cross-chain settlement. Jae Yang is...

Matthew Mehan is Associate Dean and Assistant Professor of Government for Hillsdale College’s Steve and Amy Van Andel Graduate School of Government in Washington D.C. We spoke about the relationship of poetry to philosophy, the value of a classical liberal arts education, technology and the Tyranny of Velocity, raising children with social media, politicization of education, the moral training of...

The new show, Hacking State is now up and live. Please go check it out at hackingstate.substack.com . All future interviews and audio essays will be located on the new feed. Thank you all once again for listening. Hope to see you there. Support Hacking State: https://hackingstate.substack.com/subscribe Listen on: Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@alexmurshak Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/po...

Robin Hanson and I discuss prediction markets, decision markets, Futarchy, and Demarchy. We cover simple and more elaborate applications of prediction markets, common objections to them and barriers to implementation at the organization level, when a prediction market becomes a decision market, his vision for Futarchy--a proposed system of government whereby elected officials use prediction market...

I speak with Mike Elias and James Ellis of IdeaMarket.io , who are building out a market for attention-worthiness. IdeaMarket is a peer-to-peer zeitgeist management system with a mission to replace corporate media as the public’s arbiter of credibility. The core idea is to apply a risk-management approach to sensemaking and public discourse. Visit https://ideamarket.io/ to learn more. Mike Elias i...

Samo Burja is founder of Bismarck Analysis, a consulting firm that investigates the political and institutional landscape of society. He is also a research fellow at the LongNow Foundation, where he studies how institutions can endure for centuries and millennia, and a Senior Research Fellow in political science at the Foresight Institute where he advises on how institutions can shape the future o...

Gabriel successfully cofounded and sold one of the earliest Bitcoin exchanges in Canada. We talked about his decision and experience starting a cryptocurrency exchange, the limits to automated governance, decentralized statecraft, and ta smart contract constitution. Agora Politics is dedicated to upgrading our outdated theories of politics. Doing so requires honest and forthright engagement with n...

William Johnsen is former graduate chair and coordinator of undergraduate programs in the Department of English at Michigan State University, editor of “Contagion: The Journal of the Colloquium on Violence and Religion”, and general editor of "Studies in Violence, Mimesis, and Culture” a book series through Michigan State University Press. We talk about his work spreading the ideas of René Girard,...

Anna Brodsky is cofounder of the Global Redesign Institute, a childcare activist, and advocate for Structural Satyagraha: the design and implementation of infrastructure which supports and rewards nonviolent behavior. We talk about the meaning of structural satyagraha, American inventor Buckminster Fuller’s term Dymaxion, Project Cybersyn, and their lovechild, Dymaxyn, open source cities, educatio...

Nina Power is a cultural critic, social theorist, philosopher, author, and translator. Her upcoming book, “What Do Men Want” is forthcoming later this year. Take the Illich course from Nina herself at https://Illichcourse.com Use coupon code AGORA to get 30% off! We discuss the works of Roman Catholic priest, theologian, philosopher, and social critic, Ivan Illich, covering some of his most famous...

Alex Feinberg's work focuses on optimizing performance to get the best in health and business. We cover: - His journey through professional athletics, finance, tech, and fitness - Understanding human nature for success in business and sports - His investigations into conspiracy and the shadow world - Hedging against inflation and rule by fiat - Breaking out of systems that condition learned helple...

I am joined by writer, horrorist, and anonymous internet denizen Zero HP Lovecraft. We discuss anonymity and pseudonymity, peer-to-peer censorship, asymmetric cyberwarfare, the origins of Zero HP Lovecraft, horrific and utopian technological visions of the future, the dark side of technology, acceleration and human agency, his latest work “Don’t Make Me Think”, multi-sensory narrative experiences,...

I am joined by director of the metamodern think tank, Abstract-Org's Brent Cooper, for an exercise in constructive disagreement. We come together from different perspectives to address leaky abstractions, The IDW, Critical Race Studies vs. Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, globalization & cosmopolitanism, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), and thinking big in the face of endemic incrementalism....

Nicholas is writer, author, and creator of the Eclectic Spacewalk project. We talk about the Overview Effect, the dangers of overarching narratives abstracting away from particulars, connection through storytelling, making the invisible visible, information flows, Open Source Everything, the 2nd psychedelic renaissance, and his hope for a moon base. You can find more of Nicholas' writings and lear...

Heraclitus stands alone among the pre-socratic philosophers. Contradictory, riddlesome, and enigmatic, he remains one of the most influential, yet least well-understood figures in Western philosophy. Born to a noble family in Ephesus, a city in Ionia, Greek Asia Minor, present day Turkey. Supposedly, he passed on a kingship, awarding it instead to his brother, to pursue a life as a roaming philoso...

In Western philosophy, we have yet to move beyond the life and death of Socrates. Though his time has long since passed, we would be remiss to think there’s nothing to be gained, or to be remembered, by returning to accounts of this legendary figure. Socrates, the gadfly of Athens. A man, held in such high esteem that he is revered even to this day, despite writing nothing down to be recorded for...

Cody Moser is an anthropologist and PhD candidate studying cultural evolution in the department of cognitive and information sciences at University of California Merced. We talk about science and scientism, famed molecular biologist Rupert Sheldrake, his theory of Morphic Resonance, and what he calls the 10 tenets that make up the ideology of scientific materialism, asking whether evolution has a...

Jim Rutt is the former CEO of Network Solutions, and former chairman of the Santa Fe Institute for the study of complex systems sciences, as well as host of the Jim Rutt Show, an interview podcast series examining cutting-edge thinking in science and technology and the future of our economic, political and social systems and institutions. Jim Rutt joins me to talk Game~B, an ambitious, decentraliz...

Richard Bartlett is an expert on decentralized organizations as well as cofounder of The Hum Team, Enspiral, & Loomio. We talk about practical anarchism, the Occupy movement’s experiments in radical democracy, escaping domination and coercion, Patterns of Decentralization, debt, and the future of work. You can follow Richard on Twitter: @richdecibels You can follow me on Twitter: @amurshak -- Agor...

John David Ebert is a cultural critic, poet, and author of over 20 books, including: Art After Metaphysics, The New Media Invasion, The Age of Catastrophe, and Dead Celebrities, Living Icons. We talk about mentorship, constructing a bespoke education, the Monomyth, the Night Sea Journey, ideology vs. myth, Spengler, civilizational life cycles, late stage American Imperialism, wether Western Civili...

Matthew Pirkowski joins me to discuss crypto, money and the state, sovereignty and global arbitrage, multipolar traps, corporation and defection, information warfare, complexity catastrophe, time preferences, and fitness vs. truth. You can follow Matt on Twitter: @MattPirkowski If you enjoy this episode, please consider funding more conversations like these with our Patreon: https://www.patreon.co...