Other Life

James Ellis hosts the podcast Hermitix. His latest book is Be Not Afraid , a fictionalized account of his recent conversion to Christianity. We discuss James' actual conversion story, Saint Teresa Benedicta and CS Lewis among others, and James' journey as a writer and podcaster. ✦ Be Not Afraid ✦ James' current writing ✦ The Hermitix podcast ✦ James on Twitter Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest...

Neal Davis is a professor of computer science and the director of Urbit's Hoon School. We discuss why solving nuclear fusion might be a disaster, why Urbit computers have souls, Shinto philosophy, why you should read old books, how to select books, and much more. This was really good! Neal Davis ✦ Neal on Twitter ✦ Neal on Urbit: ~lagrev-nocfep ✦ Learn Hoon with Neal Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the...

Vers la Lune is an NFT degen who hosts the podcast Version 4, which published the first interview with Miya the BPD God in 2020. As Crypto Twitter influencers try to cancel the Milady NFTs for association with Miya, this podcast provides a totally different narrative in the context of Vers' first-hand knowledge of the Miya/Milady nexus and his larger perspective on NFT valuation. Vers la Lune ✦ Ve...

Noah Kumin is the founder and editor of the Mars Review of Books, a new magazine published from Urbit (in print and digital). Check out the Mars Review of Books at https://marsreview.org. Mars Review of Books ✦ Order Vol. 1 in print ✦ Noah on Urbit: ~librex-dozryc ✦ Noah on Twitter Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest newsletter in the world OtherLife.co ✦ Get a free Urbit ship at imperceptible.c...

Johnathan Bi is a founder and independent scholar working on René Girard. Johnathan just published a professionally-produced YouTube series on Girard, in collaboration with David Perell. We discuss the concept of metaphysical desire, how to engineer social environments for productive mimesis, whether Girard can be separated from Christianity (Johnathan thinks he can), and the strategy behind Johna...

I'm joined by @lb_dobis, @yung_calibri, @SCHIZO_FREQ, @addytheyoung. Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest newsletter in the world https://OtherLife.co ✦ Get a free Urbit planet at https://imperceptible.computer ✦ We're building a new country at https://imperceptible.country IndieThinkers.org ✦ If you're working on independent intellectual work, join the next cohort of https://IndieThinkers.org

Paul Millerd was a McKinsey consultant before quitting for an independent life on the internet. He's the author of The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story For Work and Life. ✦ The Pathless Path ✦ Paul's newsletter ✦ Paul on Twitter Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest newsletter in the world OtherLife.co ✦ Get a free Urbit planet at imperceptible.computer ✦ We're building a new country at imperc...

Steff is a poet and Autumn is a novelist. We talk about the writing economy, grad school for poetry, canceling yourself, how Autumn almost won the Passage Prize for right-wing fiction, how to stay free inside the institutions, how Autumn won Steff's heart with a meme about Hitler, how to think about success as a writer today, whether Curtis Yarvin's poetry is good, and Steff's call for suitors (DM...

We discuss the enneagram personality model, my decision to become 10% more psycho, why Mike loves Gandhi, Christian anarchism, and markets for truth. ✦ Mike is the founder of IdeaMarket.io ✦ Mike on Twitter Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest newsletter in the world OtherLife.co ✦ Get a free Urbit planet at imperceptible.computer ✦ We're building a new country at imperceptible.country IndieThink...

Andrew Hitchock bought 21 acres outside Austin to build a village DAO. We talk about the new urbanism, his vision for his village DAO called Montanoso, what he's learned from similar projects such as CabinDAO, and how he plans to make his vision happen. ✦ Andrew's village DAO, Montanoso ✦ Andrew on Twitter Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest newsletter in the world OtherLife.co ✦ Get a free Urbi...

At the Other Life x Urbit meetup in Austin, a group of 8 people rocked up wearing black trenchcoats. Endproject is an art and music collective based in Houston. I didn't know a thing about any of them until this podcast, and we quickly went deep into their defection from institutions, faith, the logic of culture, Deleuzian immanence, Urbit, and how authentic counterculture always wins. ✦ Endprojec...

Read the essay Upcoming events I mentioned Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest newsletter in the world OtherLife.co ✦ Get a free Urbit planet at imperceptible.computer ✦ We're building a new country at imperceptible.country IndieThinkers.org ✦ If you're working on independent intellectual work, join the next cohort of IndieThinkers.org

We discuss what's real and what's not in web3 gaming, and the future of crypto countries. Charl3s is a cool dude I've got to know in Austin. At a party recently, I heard him spitting some fire about how most of web3 gaming is bullshit, so I brought him on to discuss. ✦ Nifty Island is a web3 game that lets players import NFTs from multiple chains ✦ Charl3s on Twitter Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the...

We discuss the evolution of "alt lit," the formative experience of "indie sleaze" for millennials, why party photography went out of fashion, and the gathering wave of sex negativity. ✦ Katherine's newsletter ✦ Katherine on Twitter ✦ Katherine on Urbit: ~hapnyx-tamnex Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest newsletter in the world OtherLife.co ✦ Get a free Urbit planet at imperceptible.computer ✦ We...

We discuss the imminent future of DAOs on Urbit with the founder of Holium (~lomder-librun) and Anthony (~poldec-tonteg) from the Urbit-focused startup accelerator The Combine. Other Life ✦ Subscribe to the coolest free newsletter in the world OtherLife.co ✦ Get a free Urbit planet at imperceptible.computer ✦ We're building a new country at imperceptible.country IndieThinkers.org ✦ If you're worki...

James Poulos is a Tocqueville scholar who wrote The Art of Being Free (2017) and Human Forever (2021). He was a co-founder of The American Mind and his latest project is a magazine called Return. We discuss humanism and post-humanism, the merging of Big Tech and Woke Capital into an atheist cyborg theocracy, why James rejects accelerationism, the importance of human memory, Bitcoin, Urbit, and muc...

Riva Tez wants to fund epistemological anarchy in science. Former VC, Former Director at Intel, former store owner, Riva does whatever she wants. We talked about how Riva built a unique career doing whatever she wants, what she's learned from the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend, why the brain might be an antenna, why she moved away from Transhumanism, why Rationalism is cringe, how she thin...

If you like the podcast, you'll love the newsletter: otherlife.co ✦ The Improvement Illusion: otherlife.co/improvement ✦ On the NYRB: otherlife.co/signs78 ✦ Join the new Other Life community: imperceptible.country ✦ If you're working on independent intellectual work you should join the next cohort of IndieThinkers.org

I'll be in NYC for a few days around May 20. I'm down to give talks, do your podcast, etc. Just hit reply to an Other Life newsletter and tell me what's up. ✦ Subscribe to the Other Life newsletter (free) at OtherLife. Co ✦ Get your own Urbit planet (free) at imperceptible.computer ✦ If you're a writer, enroll in the next cohort of IndieThinkers.org

Dr. Jonathan Paprocki is a specialist in topological quantum compiling and an Urbit engineer interested in swarm intelligence, Internet of Things, and anarcho-communist governance structures. ✦ Jonathan on Urbit: ~datnut-pollen ✦ Get your own Urbit planet at imperceptible.computer ✦ Subscribe to the Other Life newsletter at OtherLife. Co

Anthony Arroyo runs The Combine, a startup incubator for startups building on Urbit. We discuss how Urbit governance really works, debunking the many myths, i.e. the meme that Urbit has a "feudal" or even "fascist" governance structure. We also discuss how Urbit competes with Ethereum, what kinds of businesses are starting to appear on Urbit, and many other interesting topics. ✦ Anthony on Urbit:...

Sam Frank has written for Harper's and The New Yorker, but he was also an early buyer of Ethereum because Vitalik "looked like an alien." Sam explains his heuristics for judging technological and cultural projects, how he first met Curtis Yarvin, what he sees in Urbit, and how he eventually became one of 256 senators in Urbit's galactic senate. ✦ Sam on Urbit: ~todset-partug ✦ Get your own Urbit p...

A short lecture on "Review of CCRU's Digital Hyperstition" in the book Writings 1997-2003. We analyze how the CCRU foresaw many aspects of the crypto economy from first principles in the early 1990s. See more below. ✦ Get a free Urbit planet at https://imperceptible.computer ✦ Subscribe to the Other Life newsletter at https://otherlife.co

Ted Blackman is a senior engineer at Tlon and one of the most advanced Urbit engineers in the world. We discuss how Urbit will get faster, how it will scale to billions of users, and how Urbit fits into the blockchain ecosystem. In some ways Urbit is like a blockchain, in other ways Urbit is the categorical dual of the blockchain, soon there will be a blockchain built on top of Urbit, and more. ✦...

Philip Monk co-authored the Urbit whitepaper with Curtis Yarvin in 2016. He's now one of the lead engineers working on Urbit, and a thoughtful writer as well. We discuss how to find frontiers, the philosophy of "correctness at all costs," how the current internet is captured by gradient descent, and how Urbit will achieve mass adoption. ✦ Philip on Urbit: ~wicdev-wisryt ✦ Philip's blog: pcmonk.me...