Tela Network

People: - StJohn Piano - Nicholas Piano Items: - Trust can only be based on honest signals - Signals: -- Physical meetings --- Local city --- Remote city (so plane flights, Dubai) -- Spending money (pay to register, pay subscription) -- Spending time (e.g. lots of video calls) -- Public statement of affiliation e.g. badge, costume -- Certificate granted by an authority (e.g. HTTPS tree, FCA registration) - Problem: In the online environment, it was already difficult to distinguish between fake and honest signals. Now, post-AI, really difficult. Conclusion: - Tela Network can provide credible online social proof through posts of meeting notes, publicly validated by the participants. - Such proof must be long-lived, clear, and accessible. - This could provide a public basis for trust, even in the new environment of AI noise.

Been thinking about AI a lot recently. Had a discussion with a friend, which I then turned into an article. Start: ----- StJohn Piano: A thought i am circling around a lot recently, which has relevance to your career: StJohn Piano: There is value in synthesis. StJohn Piano: With AI, the value of the raw production of information, e.g. an article or a code module, is approaching zero, or at least a very small amount. For example, the physical and mental cost of typing and grammar checking has dropped precipitously. StJohn Piano: However, difficulty and scarcity and therefore tradable value always remain, somewhere, somehow. ----- Read the rest here: https://telablog.com/there-is-value-in-synthesis

/ The God of Norway is the God of Genesis 1-2, the spirit that moves over the face of the deep before anything has been separated or named, before light had been divided from the darkness or the waters above from the waters below. It’s the God that precedes language. It’s the God who exists in the formless void, in the silence before the first command, who is not happy or unkind but simply terrifyingly there and everywhere. Sitting on that ridge in Lofoten with the Norwegian Sea stretched beyond you in every direction, grey and endless and alive with a power that has nothing to do with you, you understand why the world’s ancient first instinct was not to worship this God but to survive his wrath. The separation of the waters in Genesis is not a creation story but a survival one. Someone had to put a boundary between the sea and the sky so human beings could exist in that small little space between them. / https://minutes.substack.com/p/reflections-on-norway

An interesting demographic strategy: / Moroccan families pool resources to facilitate hrraga (illegal crossers) specifically for their most problematic members. The family calculus is brutal and rational. That cousin with addiction issues who brings hschuma (shame) to the family? Pool money from uncles, aunts, and grandparents to pay a smuggler. That nephew with a criminal record who cannot find work and sits unemployed bringing disgrace? Finance his boat crossing to Spain. The binary outcome serves family interests either way: he dies attempting the Strait of Gibraltar crossing (problem eliminated, family can claim tragedy rather than disgrace), or he reaches Spain and eventually sends remittances (problem exported, potential income stream created, family honor preserved). / Morocco reduces domestic crime, increases remittances (7-8% of GDP), and exports social problems to Europe. / https://asmium.substack.com/p/on-muslim-immigration-to-europe

Bitcoin is the first modern monetary system that is outside of the political control of any state. In the pre-modern era (earlier than the French Revolution), gold (and to some extent silver) was above the state. If the state issued too much currency, its value would visibly decrease relative to gold. However, tech advancement caused gold to become too difficult to protect on a small scale. Gold centralized into a few major locations inside states. It became impossible for an individual to escape the effect of money printing. Inflation is effectively another tax. (It also destroys the measuring stick that we use for value, and therefore for business.) For most young people, a house is out of reach. This was one of the only remaining ways to escape (somewhat, and badly) the debasement of inflation. For the next 15-30 years, despite the scams / fear / uncertainty / doubt, I think that Bitcoin will remain the most achievable method available to a young person to save for the future.