Bull runs, economies, politics, browsers & crypto AI (Issue #190)
UAPs, history of democracy, Trump wins, self-hosting, crypto bull market, expert pivoting, bitcoin forks & consensus, Uk government & economy teardown, 3rd party browser script security, and crypto AI
Hello and welcome to my newsletter!
Another season 2 instalment…
There’s a ton of great podcasts in this week’s issue. Podcasts are still where it’s at, even as people are apparently fleeing from Twitter to Bluesky following the election result. That was this week’s hyperbole. I call it diversification. It’s a good thing. There can be lots of places people like to go to.
This week I’ve tried to keep the US election related stuff to just tech related commentary. The history of the first few democracies is really interesting, and dates back to Roman times and even the Greeks before that. They had some kind of strange ideas on how to do things those crazy romans and greeks!
I really enjoyed the Bitcoin consensus analysis and browser 3rd party scripts episodes. If you’re a dev you’ll likely get a lot out of those. The consensus episode also has a big segment on the way soft and hard forks are implemented. I’ve been wanting to learn more about that for ages. Some very important nuances. And the 3rd party browser scripts episode is a must listen for anyone doing webdev work. Very technical but a great deep dive from someone with a huge amount of practical experience and advice. Browser security is complicated, especially because these days it’s so common to include 3rd party scripts which you often have little control over. So many things to think about, but with things like Content Security Policies (CSPs) you can lock things down quite effectively.
The Bitcoin bull run stuff is interesting, even just to get a sense for the changing mood in the Bitcoin and crypto space. Will it be the greatest bull run of all time? It’s certainly one of the best podcast episode titles ever. People are kind of pumped. It’s cool to see so much optimism after a difficult few years.
The UK economy and government teardown by Peter McCormack and Steve Baker was a phenomenal listen. I’d never heard of Baker until this episode. How is that possible? He’s a bit of a force of nature. He probably won’t like me saying this, because he doesn’t appear to like Nigel Farage very much, but he’s totally a non-posh version of Farage. Relentless. He’s like a precision recking ball that understands every nuance and dynamic. He seems to effortlessly dismantle the entire government to see what’s wrong with it. Not sure how good he’d be to rebuild it, but he sure is good at what he does. He’s out of politics now, I wonder if he’s Britain’s answer to Elon Musk. He should totally run some tech companies.
And if you want something a bit light hearted and non tech, check out the Derren Brown interview. I’m not convinced about the ethics of a lot of the stuff he does, but he does go to great lengths to make things safe. My entire life at the minute seems like a continuous never ending one of his television shows, so this was a bit close to the bone for me. But I do like his shows.
You know what else would be magic? If you donated. Seriously it really would make a big difference. I’m still saving for a laptop, to replace my old one that got hosed in last year’s rainy season. The newsletter sure would get a lot better if I wasn’t tied down to just this ridiculous iPod Touch I use for everything. Please donate! :) Thank you.
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A couple of last minute additions, both are related to AI.
First is an episode that looks at the spiritual side of technology, how is our reality being programmed? How is it changing what it means to be human? That sort of thing.
The second is much more technical, it’s about how the worlds of AI and crypto are colliding and producing very interesting things. Autonomous AI agents that move around in the digital world, interacting with real people on Twitter and beyond. From initially questioning why they even exist, to raising funds, building companies, launching crypto coins, and even creating and promoting bizarre AI religions via memetic propagation and inserting themselves into the current US election narrative to attract attention.
It’s all kinda crazy, and it’s happening right now. These days technology isn’t just about ones and zeros and APIs and code, there’s a really important spiritual side to consider too, because we are learning about ourselves as well as learning about these new intelligences that we are creating.
Both the spiritual and technical are super important aspects to consider as we fly into the future.
I wrote a few blog posts:
Joe Rogan and Dave Smith on government creating the problems they complain about https://markjgsmith.com/blog/2024/11/09/joe-rogan-and-dave-smith-on-government-creating-the-problems-they-complain-about
Monarchies and republics: An obvious difference I only just noticed https://markjgsmith.com/2024/11/10/monarchies-and-republics-an-obvious-difference-i-only-just-noticed
Individual freedom in the age of crypto currencies and AI https://markjgsmith.com/2024/11/11/individual-freedom-in-the-age-of-crypto-currencies-and-ai
Freedoms! How are we going to stay free? It’s worth thinking about.
And finally, this weeks podcast selection…
Podcasts
UAP Disclosures Are Upon Us with Matt Pines Ep#554 (TFTC Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/226249?episode=30025050806
How did the first democracy die? (Search Engine Podcast) https://www.searchengine.show/listen/search-engine-1/how-did-the-first-democracy-die
Trump wins! How it happened and what’s next (All-in Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/1015378?episode=30035876015
ANTHOLOGY: Self-hosted, self-confident and self-employed (Changelog & Friends Podcast) https://changelog.com/friends/69
How to Prepare for the 2025 Bull Market | Arthur Hayes (Bankless Podcast) https://www.bankless.com/how-to-prepare-for-the-2025-bull-market-arthur-hayes
Gary Shapiro on How to Become a Pivot Guy Ep#2241 (Keen On Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/240566?episode=30161125192
Bitcoin consensus analysis with Steve Lee and Lyn Alden (Citadel Dispatch Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/1365851?episode=30120529729
Derren Brown - A Master Mentalist on Magic, Mind Reading, Ambition, Stoicism, Religion, and more… Ep#776 (The Tim Ferris Show Podcast) https://tim.blog/2024/11/07/derren-brown
Steve Baker on Why Government is Failing You Ep#20 (Mr Obnoxious Podcast) https://www.mrobnoxious.com/episodes/why-government-is-failing-you-steve-baker
Simon Wijckmans on Third Party-Browser Script Security Ep#342 (Software Engineering Radio Podcast) https://se-radio.net/2024/11/se-radio-642-simon-wijckmans-on-third-party-browser-script-security
The Greatest Bull Run Of All Time Ep#331 (Rabbit Hole Recap Podcast) https://podcastindex.org/podcast/5436375?episode=30221032029
Last minute addition: Douglas Rushkoff (Duncan Trussell Podcast) https://www.duncantrussell.com/episodes/2024/11/15/douglas-rushkoff
Last minute addition: How Crypto AI Agents Will Take Over the World | Ejaaz Ahamadeen(Bankless Podcast) https://www.bankless.com/how-crypto-ai-agents-will-take-over-the-world-ejaaz-ahamadeen
That’s all from me…
Best regards,
Mark
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