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NET Society is unraveling the latest in digital art, crypto, AI, and tech. Join us for fresh insights and bold perspectives as we tap into wild, thought-provoking conversations. By: Derek Edwards (glitch marfa / collab+currency), Chris Furlong (starholder, LAO + Flamingo DAO), and Aaaron Wright & Priyanka Desai (Tribute Labs)
00:00:15:05 - 00:00:29:15
Aaron
Guys are we in a bubble. It seems like we're getting the, all the bubble luminaries kind of weighing in on everything. Did you guys check out that, new post article from Howard Marks? The bubble, the bubble master.
00:00:29:17 - 00:00:53:05
Pri
The bubble master? Yeah. The bubble. The bubble. Yeah. I actually thought it was a really well written. I was, like, kind of impressed with it. I mean, I would say I'm like, 70% done, so I haven't fully finished because it's quite long, actually. But, I thought he, like, was able to comment on bubbles. He even, like, nodded the telecom bubble in his his piece too.
00:00:53:06 - 00:01:13:07
Pri
He talked a little bit about all of like the circular funding around it. I mean, I feel like the tldr of his point of view is like AI is and is not a bubble, and that some of these valuations, like you saw with, who is a, that, CTO of OpenAI, I'm blanking on her name all of a sudden.
00:01:13:07 - 00:01:41:16
Pri
But she was like, yeah, they can machine. She was able to raise on like little like not even really a core product, or even a product idea is just given her and her ability to attract talent was, you know, raise the largest seed round in history. Like, that's definitely signaling of a bubble. But the larger trend of investing in AI is actually not really a bubble in AI becoming this like paradigm shifting technology.
00:01:41:16 - 00:01:49:21
Pri
It's not really a bubble. So it's more just like if you have money, put it and allocated into AI, but do so wisely.
00:01:49:23 - 00:02:07:12
Aaron
Yeah, it was pretty much like we are not I mean, I read it, he was a bit ambivalent that it didn't feel like he saw like huge red signs of bubble dumb. It kind of aligned with what like Fred Wilson said, a couple of weeks ago. And I, I don't know, it's kind of my personal view too. Like there's definitely some warning signs.
00:02:07:12 - 00:02:28:06
Aaron
And I think he flagged it, but it doesn't feel like that bubbly to me. And even with that, the the projects called Thinking machines, that they do have a product, they do have tech. It seems super useful. Actually, the past couple of weeks have been looking to use it for some of the things we're building. So I you know, I think, Howard, you know, Howard's always done a really good job at calling bubbles.
00:02:28:11 - 00:02:39:06
Aaron
He is the bubble master. So, I don't know. I thought that was pretty encouraging. And it feels like the markets have kind of responded and have kind of shaking off any, any worries related to it. It's kind of interesting.
00:02:39:07 - 00:02:48:16
Chris
I don't know, can we have a bubble and a boom? Can just be like inception where it very bubbles inside, bubbles inside bubbles that aren't actually a bubble.
00:02:48:18 - 00:03:04:05
Pri
Bubbles are good for humanity. That's also where he starts, actually, which I thought was kind of like the history of bubbles and all that I, I was I love that stuff personally, just because like, bubbles are actually good because that means like new technology is here and that should be exciting.
00:03:04:06 - 00:03:25:01
Aaron
I feel like, you know, the aeaC thesis is just really beginning to rear its head. You know, like we're building now data centers in space. So it feels like we kind of have like five tech trends, like happening all at once. You've got just AI and the adjacent technology there like data centers, etc., just firing on all cylinders.
00:03:25:03 - 00:03:49:02
Aaron
You now have like robotics really kind of like moving forward at what looks like an exponential, pace. Then you have space kind of kicking up now where we're beginning to see like some really cool stuff happening in space. You have crypto, which has been, you know, like kneecapped by regulations, like, and that's clearing up. And I think a lot of the life sciences biotech stuff is also there.
00:03:49:02 - 00:04:10:02
Aaron
So it's just kind of wild. I mean, there's like five vectors that you can kind of explore. And I think there's a lot of stuff kind of at the edges of that too. And even like Google, they're just like their research lab is just like pumping out stuff that is like looking magical. It just it's it's I don't know, I'm super optimistic.
00:04:10:02 - 00:04:17:21
Aaron
I think 2026 is going to be ridiculous in like, a good way. I hope I'm not wrong about that. Chris, do you think we're in a bubble?
00:04:17:23 - 00:04:22:00
Chris
Yeah. No. Maybe I like.
00:04:22:01 - 00:04:24:16
Aaron
Your bubble chill. Your bubble ambivalent.
00:04:24:18 - 00:04:56:19
Chris
I think there's going to be some spectacular disasters and some major flame outs in this whole booting up phase. Will, you know, that spread contagion. It's really impossible to tell nowadays because, you know, the way the the complexity of the global economy and what can set what off and maybe the fragility, the whole thing, you know, like we could totally have an AI bubble that, you know, throw us in a recession or, you know, we could have a few spectacular flameout.
00:04:56:21 - 00:05:01:15
Chris
I don't know, man. You know, I don't want to look foolish. Sorry, dude.
00:05:01:17 - 00:05:03:15
Pri
That's a that's a pretty neutral answer, though.
00:05:03:17 - 00:05:26:06
Aaron
Very measured, Chris. Very measured, I don't know. I mean, the other thing that kind of jumped out there was, as somebody kind of noted this, but the cost of AI, like at least from OpenAI, it it's decreased 400 x this year. And yesterday OpenAI released its newest model, which is called 5.2. I thought what was interesting about that model is two things.
00:05:26:06 - 00:05:51:02
Aaron
One is they're claiming, and I don't know how you measure this, that they're like 50 plus percent towards AGI. Like abstract reasoning tasks. And then there's like another thing that they measure, which is how good, how good is the model in doing kind of like complex expert level things, you know, the type of things that, like a human would do if they were asked to do it in like 4 to 5 hours and seven out of ten times.
00:05:51:02 - 00:06:06:08
Aaron
This model is beating. There's like expert tasks, which is which is kind of wild. That means practically, if you're, like, running that task multiple times, like, let's say like ten times, it's going to be better than any expert. So it kind of feels like we're,
00:06:06:10 - 00:06:27:11
Pri
We're as I just like the official death knell of the expert class, because I feel like that was already like a cultural shift from, like, expert institutions. And just like the whole, like, professorial managerial class. And now you have, like, a machine, the that that is also like, it's like the official death of that group of people.
00:06:27:12 - 00:06:30:02
Pri
So I think they needed what they needed right now.
00:06:30:02 - 00:06:49:08
Aaron
I think it just makes experts stronger. Right? Because like, you know, things are complicated. You oftentimes you need like a couple different people weighing in. So I don't know if it's the death of it, but like, it, it just, I don't know. I think it is really continuing to kind of cross the Rubicon of what we, what people were projecting these systems would be able to do.
00:06:49:08 - 00:07:07:22
Aaron
So, you know, and I think the notable thing is that human labor doesn't become 400 times cheaper every year. And so I imagine in 2026, the same downward pressure on costs is going to happen. And, you know, it's going to cost like pennies to kind of get answers, which is pretty wild.
00:07:08:00 - 00:07:37:03
Chris
I bet my token consumption is way down right now just because of the efficiency of the not the coding models. Like I'm getting more things done. First shot, second shot like Codex five one and opus 4 or 5. Really leveled up. Software like it was a major step function in late November, and I'm seeing it in my workflows for sure.
00:07:37:05 - 00:08:00:08
Chris
On the experts thing. I can give a take here. I won't be neutral on this one. To me, it's about your ability to update your priors and pattern match into the correct thing. I think that is, I. I'm just feeling that out in the air right now. I'm seeing a lot of people, you know, sort of note on this, like Matt Dry Hirst.
00:08:00:10 - 00:08:40:08
Chris
A couple of other articles I've read the little clip from that, bubble thing you guys shared in discord. Right? Like if you can and treat the new things on their own terms and address them for what they are, rather than trying to fit them into past paradigms and past behaviors, you're going to be fine. Like to your point, Aaron, it's going to help experts who can stay current and, you know, think adaptively, critically, creatively versus like, if you're an expert and all you know is, a particular other thing, you know, the whole if everything is, well, you have a hammer, everything's a nail type of problem.
00:08:40:10 - 00:09:07:09
Chris
And so if your expertise is rooted in something that is no longer current or whose frameworks are like, just don't really matter in today's day and age, you're cooked. And I think that's a big problem, like just with the world writ large, is people are using old ways of thinking or old ways of doing things and trying to jam everything new into that, and it's not working for them.
00:09:07:11 - 00:09:24:17
Aaron
Yeah, it's kind of like not the end of the expert. It's the end of specialization almost. And like experts can now have, you know, infinite spent, you know, infinite expertise if they know how to wrangle the tools. So I don't know, I think it's great. Like let's move from there of experts to the area of creativity and building.
00:09:24:20 - 00:09:27:12
Aaron
It's all bit middle all the way down.
00:09:27:14 - 00:10:00:18
Pri
Well, yeah, I mean, that's actually kind of interesting that you say that because I, I've been seeing more and more and we've talked about this, Aaron. But just like the cultural shift around like Anto world feels like it's shifting. I feel like Patrick Collison tweeted this out. I don't know, was it like earlier this week basically saying that like a weed consensus is turning on anti-woke and that whole esthetic and and and now that like now, wholesome sincerity is kind of back.
00:10:00:18 - 00:10:20:02
Pri
And now it's all going to be about like moral virtue and craft and building things and like having a pure soul and being a good person. Like that's sort of the the potential vibe shift that could be on its way. I don't know if that has anything to do with some of the technol like the tech enablement though, but it feels like it could.
00:10:20:08 - 00:10:24:02
Pri
I'm just like realizing that those two things could be related. Actually.
00:10:24:04 - 00:10:42:10
Aaron
I think they are. You know, I think, you know, we've when the public's been polled about like our purported expert class, they're unhappy. But I do think that there's like some level headed folks that now can do more and hopefully fill those gaps. And I don't think that expert class like intentionally did that. I think it just the world's complicated and it's really hard.
00:10:42:10 - 00:11:01:14
Aaron
And there's a lot of interconnected stuff. And we could just manage that better, hopefully get better answers. So you're not just relying on like not to pick on somebody, but like a guy like Larry Summers who purportedly needs to manage the entire complex U.S. economy and call it right every time. Like, I don't think that that's that's like sustainable personally.
00:11:01:16 - 00:11:24:10
Chris
No, I don't think that's sustainable. It never was. It's like we're past our ability to top down manage anything. And anyone who is still trying attempt to do so. I mean, that's a little bit ego, a little bit, hubris. But again, it's a failure to update your mental models like we're not in the post-World War Two, you know, economic paradigm anymore.
00:11:24:11 - 00:11:28:14
Chris
Like we're we're in some, you know, strange new place, exo capitalism.
00:11:28:14 - 00:11:31:05
Aaron
Apparently it's in the air, Chris.
00:11:31:07 - 00:11:54:12
Chris
It's. Yeah. I mean, I've come to accept I think that we've turned a corner. It's already over. And now we just need to see it play out. You know, the horse has left the barn. And so it's best to just, you know, live in the world as it is. And there's going to be a lot of collateral damage.
00:11:54:16 - 00:12:10:18
Chris
And I'm going to feel for that. I'm certainly not thrilled to see it at the same time. Like, you know, there's a survivorship thing going on here in which, like, we have to live in the world as it is. If you want to live in the world of the past, you're cut.
00:12:10:20 - 00:12:11:22
Aaron
Your uncle.
00:12:12:00 - 00:12:23:22
Pri
Your boomer. Yeah. We basically we got to we got to yeah. We got to keep our edge. I saw LCD Soundsystem, so I'm losing my edge was like kind of top of mind for me this.
00:12:23:22 - 00:12:25:15
Aaron
Morning where you saw that.
00:12:25:17 - 00:12:27:10
Pri
Last URL.
00:12:27:12 - 00:12:29:13
Chris
You went out to Ridgewood for the show?
00:12:29:15 - 00:12:31:03
Aaron
Yeah. How were they.
00:12:31:05 - 00:12:40:18
Pri
There? Pretty good. I mean, they're all dude, like I saw them like ten years ago. And I was like, wow. They like like they're old. But you know, it it it was fun.
00:12:40:19 - 00:12:46:23
Chris
I went to that show last year and my only complaint about it was the system wasn't loud enough.
00:12:47:01 - 00:12:49:00
Pri
It was like the sound center, too.
00:12:49:02 - 00:12:53:06
Chris
Yeah, they do residencies at Knocked Down. They've done them for like the last three years.
00:12:53:06 - 00:13:10:21
Pri
Maybe the first time I saw music at that venue, I feel like I've been to like other events there, but, no, the sound was fine. But yeah, it kind of like when he was singing, like, I'm losing my edge. I was like to these, like, kids in, like, Paris and London. I was like, oh, yeah. Wow. I really feel like we're in that phase right now.
00:13:10:23 - 00:13:12:08
Pri
Got to keep our edge.
00:13:12:10 - 00:13:27:16
Chris
My, my favorite bit of trivia about, James Murphy there is, he could have written for Seinfeld. Like he. Larry David offered him a writing gig on Seinfeld. Yeah, look it up. I don't know the full story behind it, but it's one of those, like, random ass, like, bits of trivia.
00:13:27:18 - 00:13:32:02
Aaron
He's just like the Walter Payton of media. He just can do everything.
00:13:32:04 - 00:13:38:11
Chris
I guess. So I mean, he certainly, certainly funny and sarcastic enough to live in Larry David's world.
00:13:38:13 - 00:13:41:12
Pri
Damn, that's actually a nice bit of trivia. Nice.
00:13:41:13 - 00:13:45:00
Aaron
Yeah, that was a good deep cut, Chris. I like that.
00:13:45:02 - 00:14:05:14
Pri
I mean, the other thing just on the on the, on the bubble thing, though, that's been kind of floating around is apparently there was just like that Andreasen episode. I haven't actually listened to it, but I saw like a clip of it or that like, bubble. It's like the prevailing input to bubbles is that there's an excess of exuberance relative to the ability to underwrite the new thing.
00:14:05:16 - 00:14:27:00
Pri
So those flow into old structures, vehicles, ideas. So it's like kind of similar to just this larger conversation. It's like not only does the does it expert class are those people building around this new technology. Maybe they if they don't adapt quickly or they're not actually from the ground up, they end up getting just as like excess funding, which is basically what calls these bubbles.
00:14:27:00 - 00:14:39:21
Pri
Doesn't mean that the legit stuff from the ground up doesn't necessarily become something one day, but then you just have all this like it's it's excess capital. I just thought it was like a simple but, you know, good point.
00:14:39:23 - 00:15:03:08
Chris
Well, we can, tie that back to crypto because we're supposed to be a vaguely crypto related podcast. So Kwong got sentenced yesterday, and we can certainly see the lessons of trying to fit capital into adjacent things and not negative things. And then the disaster that ensues. You know, that that was certainly what what took the industry out after the last bull run there?
00:15:03:10 - 00:15:24:05
Aaron
Well, I think, you know, crypto, I think there's a legitimate case that it does create speculative bubbles, although that premium has gone down considerably. You know, I'm sure some folks saw it. But there's a great investor. His name's Richard Chen. He was at a great fund called one confirmation. They back you know like Coinbase and or they were from Coinbase and Bakkt and like Poly Market, OpenSea.
00:15:24:10 - 00:15:59:06
Aaron
They've had a a really great track record. And he noted that a third of all the token projects are like under their seed investment cost basis or the price they paid for it. So it just feels like the markets are actually reasonably efficient here. You know, I think the argument really is just like people are under, you know, under appreciating the impact that, I will have just because they can't figure out how to allocate it or use it inside of their organizations yet, which is not surprising because like we mentioned before, most of these organizations are run by, you know, an expert class.
00:15:59:06 - 00:16:17:22
Aaron
And this is, you know, this really puts their jobs like under duress. And so I think there's a lot of internal friction related to it. So that probably will take some time to kind of do. But if you look at those numbers right, where you know, a problem is the cost $4,500, and AI tokens, you know, a year ago from now.
00:16:17:22 - 00:16:39:03
Aaron
And now that costs, you know, ten bucks, a next year probably will cost a fraction of a penny to kind of solve. I just don't see how those exponentials don't bleed out. A lot of efficiency inside these organizations. Like, as resistance to change kind of begins to dissipate a little bit. I just think we're going to get a lot of efficiency gains.
00:16:39:05 - 00:16:48:16
Aaron
Personally, I don't know, I just I just feel like they're software engineers. You talked a lot about this. Are like the tip of the spear here. And, that's just going to happen everywhere I want.
00:16:48:17 - 00:17:00:10
Chris
I want to, like, clarify or comment on that. It's not that the resistance is going to dissipate. The resistance is going to get sidelined. They're just going to get thrown out. I think there's a difference.
00:17:00:12 - 00:17:27:09
Aaron
Yeah, completely. I think, and even like Google is like the story that. Right. Like even internally inside of a great organization like Google, there was resistance to like going full AI. Right. And it took Sergei coming back, you know, clearing out some of that resistance for them to begin to transform, you know, an iconic American company. Right. And if they were facing resistance to kind of going AI first, just imagine what it's like in some more, you know, stable or sleepy parts of the economy.
00:17:27:11 - 00:17:49:15
Aaron
And so I just think that that story is going to be the story of 2026 of 2027, probably into you know, the 2030s, you know, as like people that don't want to do this, just get kind of pushed aside, you know, the the young folks that, you know, just want to, you know, build their careers, come in and just kind of do run laps, run laps, you know, over the the old guard.
00:17:49:17 - 00:18:22:19
Pri
Stuff like going to happen. I saw something on Twitter though that was saying how like some extremely high percentage, I don't remember, of people at large companies saying they don't use AI for their job. And I was like, shocked by that. Do you think there is a world where people mischaracterize or frankly, just lie about their usage of it because it's so much more because they want to take, you know, drag out the full adoption of it and also, you know, do work, efficiently, but then not report that it's being done efficiently so that they don't have to do as much of it.
00:18:22:19 - 00:18:33:19
Pri
I don't know, I this is a little bit of a cynical take, but like, I could see that work. That stat felt so off to me that I'm like, I feel like people are not being honest with their usage of it.
00:18:33:21 - 00:18:42:15
Chris
I wish I could answer pre. I haven't had a boss since 2005, so I don't know what it's people are like, empowered to do or not do anymore.
00:18:42:15 - 00:18:47:06
Aaron
You think you're the boss of the slave but Chris but that that's way butts driving you know.
00:18:47:08 - 00:18:54:13
Chris
No no no, the system's driving me to drive the slave. What I work for, except capitalism, whether I want to or not.
00:18:54:15 - 00:19:28:21
Aaron
Yeah, that's true. I think that's true. I mean, I, I, you know, if you're like a clever, efficient worker, like, why would you not take those efficiency gains and just park it with yourself? I think the challenge is going to be just the expectations of what a singular person can output will go up. It's reasonably simple to kind of track this stuff and, you know, eventually like the the like consulting class or whatever is remaining of that consulting class will just like hop in and, and and make sure everybody's using it, you know, in a full tilt type of way.
00:19:28:23 - 00:20:01:02
Chris
And think of it this way, like at a certain point, the function of organizations becomes to protect themselves. And that's what you're going to have to be fighting, fighting against. And so within the organization, a are you, as an employee, even empowered to use AI, or is how you work so heavily dictated and controlled that even if you wanted to, you know, maybe you necessarily you can't jump out, but then say you do, but then say your boss, right?
00:20:01:02 - 00:20:25:06
Chris
He's an organization. Within an organization, your boss needs to protect budget, headcount, etc., etc. and so maybe there's a level of like misaligned incentives going on and then, you know, just kind of work your way up, right? Like, I don't know if it I don't want to get into organizational labor right now. It's beyond me. Like I said, I haven't had a boss in 20 years.
00:20:25:06 - 00:20:32:14
Pri
So yeah, fair enough. It was just like a thought that has crossed my mind where I'm like, I feel like people might might not be totally honest with how they report it.
00:20:32:16 - 00:20:50:05
Aaron
I think that's true. I think that's natural. I think it's no different than what we've always seen, though. You know, you know, starting in like the, the mid 90s. Right? A lot of the Silicon Valley web one startups, they started changing norms, just basic norms, right. Like you don't need to wear a suit into the office, which used to be the norm.
00:20:50:05 - 00:21:10:01
Aaron
And then that cultural shift just took about 20 years to kind of dissipate, where there's very few, places where, you know, that level of formality is still there and, you know, maybe that level of formality still, you know, works for those organizations. But, you know, most people kind of, follow what we see in the, the tech and startup ecosystem.
00:21:10:03 - 00:21:26:14
Aaron
And I think it's the same thing here. You see, like new upstart companies and projects, you know, where they have like one engineer that's doing what a team of 50 would do before. And that's just going to be the norm, I think, in all these organizations just over time. And it's just going to take, you know, ten, 20 years to do that.
00:21:26:16 - 00:21:50:09
Aaron
But Chris, on the organizational design piece, I do think when that happens, like you do have a different organizational structure kind of related to that. You know, that's why I think some of the things we've been exploring with like dowsing crypto, like eventually we'll kind of have their time in the sun because, you know, people can do more, or these AI systems are picking up a lot of the cartilage that's necessary for organizations to operate efficiently and kind of at scale.
00:21:50:11 - 00:22:04:20
Aaron
So I just think things are going to get leaner, meaner, you know, these agents are going to be working with us. It's kind of like, it's kind of people's art all the way down, like these weird critters are going to be around us, whether they're in physical form or in the genetic form or you name it.
00:22:04:22 - 00:22:11:03
Chris
And are these critters going to be forced to transact in Usdc and not is? Yeah.
00:22:11:05 - 00:22:13:08
Pri
Oh yeah. That was.
00:22:13:10 - 00:22:13:18
Chris
Like.
00:22:13:19 - 00:22:16:00
Aaron
Why now? Like, why are we doing that now?
00:22:16:02 - 00:22:18:17
Pri
Yeah. I was very curious about, you know.
00:22:18:19 - 00:22:24:10
Chris
Like on his open. He hasn't hasn't piss people off in like 60 days. I think that was the reason.
00:22:24:12 - 00:22:30:04
Aaron
It's just like, do we need to do that? Like, do they have any evidence that that's going to be helpful for driving more?
00:22:30:05 - 00:22:30:20
Pri
I'm actually saying.
00:22:30:22 - 00:22:48:13
Aaron
Was a non-fungible good, like if that's the case, sure. But like they're just it just feels like arbitrary and it doesn't align with the way I think a lot of folks think about this. So I don't know, I thought that was a bit a bit odd personally. And I'm I'm generally pretty supportive of OpenSea, and I think they do a pretty good job.
00:22:48:15 - 00:22:54:16
Chris
I don't even think about OpenSea anymore. Maybe they're just doing this to like keep mindshare with me.
00:22:54:18 - 00:22:58:14
Pri
It's working. It's right thing.
00:22:58:16 - 00:23:01:00
Aaron
Yeah. They're just rage baiting you, Chris.
00:23:01:02 - 00:23:02:19
Chris
It's the retention plan.
00:23:02:21 - 00:23:17:08
Pri
Yeah I don't I don't understand it fully. I wonder if it's like coming off the because I know they supported a lot in Art Basel and I think they're like in Abu Dhabi now. Like for I think there's Art Basel. They're like maybe it made sense to do that, I don't know.
00:23:17:10 - 00:23:32:01
Chris
Well, we're talking about curious things in crypto. Can you think of a less appealing place in time to be then Solana Breakpoint, Abu Dhabi, like right before the holidays?
00:23:32:03 - 00:23:36:07
Pri
Honestly, no. I, like you could not pay me to go with that.
00:23:36:09 - 00:24:02:06
Aaron
Yeah. Chris, I, I couldn't imagine wanting to be there. I just feel like a lot of the energy around Solana has just dissipated. I mean, I thought that that would happen. So. And I'm not I don't I'm not like happy that that did happen. But yeah, it just there's not much going on there. It was really like a repricing that I think we saw a year and a half ago, where there is some developer activity related to it, but not much of it's that notable.
00:24:02:10 - 00:24:21:16
Chris
Failure to update your priors and institutional search. You've made a big investment into the salon ecosystem. You're not committed. The world is moving on, and yet you're stuck in your priors and you got to get dragged out to do biz dev in Abu Dhabi because of choices you made two years ago.
00:24:21:18 - 00:24:26:06
Pri
Summary. For a lot of yeah, the summary for a lot of people that are probably.
00:24:26:08 - 00:24:59:13
Aaron
Yeah, but I will I will say though, Chris, I do think the using a digital asset for the agent economy, I think that's coming. You know, it's funny and I didn't like how it was packaged up. But, you know, with the beginnings of some of these like 2026 predictions, there was one that, some folks at A16z were, were posting up where they were arguing that the future of work would really be more bounty based, where you'd basically say what you want to pay, and these agents would be kind of like lurking around the internet and just pick up that work that they could do for you, which I think is possible.
00:24:59:18 - 00:25:27:18
Aaron
It kind of feels like annoying to kind of do that. But you could imagine, like, you know, organizational structural shifts that happen, you know, once you have like a more genetic economy and once you have, you know, digital assets as a means of payment, right? Because the fees are like zero, then, you know, maybe you could pay $0.50 for, you know, some tasks that you want to do, whether that's a programing task or like a planning task or something along those lines.
00:25:27:20 - 00:25:33:01
Aaron
Feels early, but you know, everything that kind of feels early right now may actually be reasonably well timed.
00:25:33:02 - 00:25:55:09
Pri
You know? You know, it's funny hearing about that comment that juxtapose this to like what I heard at the Do It like That Aaron Sorkin Dealbook summit, I think it was because she founder said something along the lines of, you know, you could set a prediction market for when your food delivery arrives. So you could say, I bet my, you know, bagel will get here in 15 minutes, and then you have people then run to fulfill that order.
00:25:55:09 - 00:26:21:15
Pri
It's funny to me that, like, you have these agents that do all the internet tasks for you, but then now you set a prediction markets for humans to like potentially deliver your food in a competitive way with one another to get it on time or, you know, using a robot or something. But like, yeah, it's just an interesting, like juxtaposition of like, we're like, you know, competing with each other in a market based way to do a task for someone.
00:26:21:15 - 00:26:29:07
Pri
Whereas like the agents just pick up all the work, like it's a little bit bleak, but it's just because I heard that this week that it's like an interesting.
00:26:29:09 - 00:26:30:00
Aaron
Yeah, it's.
00:26:30:02 - 00:26:30:20
Pri
I think parallel.
00:26:30:20 - 00:26:48:05
Aaron
I think that I don't know if the prediction market is the right way to, to, to judge that. But, I think the idea of a market handling that is I don't know. I mean, that that makes a lot of sense. Like it's pretty, you know, cozy and and just its approach. Right. It just like, what is an organization?
00:26:48:07 - 00:27:10:22
Aaron
An organization internalizes things you can't get from a market. But if you have these, you know, superhuman, low cost systems, AI agents that could do work for you, there's less of a need to have like a monolithic organization. At least that's the theory. I guess we're going to find out if Coase was right, or if there's a lot of other friction that that kind of exists in these organizations.
00:27:10:22 - 00:27:28:08
Aaron
Like I kind of land in the middle of it, like I think some some more stuff, a move to market based. But like, I don't know if I'm going to be, you know, setting a price for a burrito and then there's going to be 500, you know, like burrito robots that are competing to deliver that to me. Like, I just don't know if that's going to be the case.
00:27:28:10 - 00:27:31:23
Chris
No, it's not going to be the case. That's like libertarian brain rot.
00:27:32:01 - 00:27:36:09
Aaron
Yeah, I like it so much. I like that, Brandon. I mean, I like the cozy.
00:27:36:09 - 00:27:43:20
Pri
I don't like I mean, I think it's sort of stupid and unrealistic. It's not. Yeah, it's. But. Yeah. Anyway. Sorry, Chris.
00:27:43:22 - 00:28:06:11
Chris
No, no, I mean, look, there's a certain class of goods and services where maybe market based competition, makes sense. And then then there's a class of goods and services in which. Hey, look, I know you've got a prediction market, and I know it's your job to extend the market share, a prediction market. But you know what? Like Instacart, DoorDash, like this is a solved problem.
00:28:06:16 - 00:28:51:08
Chris
And your hammer doesn't need to go on this nail because it's not a nail, it's a burrito. And so, you know, like some of that stuff just has no, like second, third order thinking applied to it and is laughably dismissible. And then stuff that you're talking about airing in which the fibers of the world, right are disintermediated. And now it's an advantage competition because you have a really low cost of goods on the production side, and you have no logistics, sourcing, delivery to worry about, then that that's where yes, maybe sort of this marketplace bidding of tasks can work, but it's certainly not going to work in meatspace.
00:28:51:10 - 00:29:17:22
Chris
Like, do we really want to get into a world where, I mean, is that snow crash, the Yakuza pizza delivery? Yeah. Like that's like just pure dystopian libertarian brain rot that was originally meant to satire and social commentary, which, you know, this whole class of, like, disconnected, tech founders, you know, actually, like, are trying to apply is is real is a real thing.
00:29:18:00 - 00:29:46:00
Aaron
Yeah. I think that that's fair. I, you know, I think it's fun to kind of think about those things and like all things like at their extremes, they kind of reveal the actual answer. So I'm glad people do it. But that's kind of why I land in the middle of it. Yeah, I, I still have a hard time seeing like few turkey and, you know, like 100% market market based mechanisms like winning, just in part because I think there's a lot more complexity and entropy in the world than we like to admit.
00:29:46:02 - 00:29:51:08
Aaron
Nothing's as simple as it seems. That's what I think the postmodernists they got right.
00:29:51:10 - 00:30:00:11
Chris
Are we post postmodern? We're having this discussion in book club, this week about George Thorne. Yes, I get I got a weird little Syracuse talk in there now.
00:30:00:12 - 00:30:20:01
Aaron
Yeah. I mean, I actually think that I think that, you know, tying it all together like the, the, I think there's a second vibe shift that's happening and it's kind of like there was the first one, which was kind of like the first nail in postmodernism. And now there's the second one that's reformulating where we're going next.
00:30:20:03 - 00:30:44:19
Aaron
And I do think where we're going next is exo capitalism. So, I think we're kind of done with that. And I think that that's why the public has largely like rejected the end point of that, which was a lot of the like the woke stuff. And, you know, everything being like completely non determinative. I don't think the first solution for that is what everybody wants, which is just like, I don't know, fascism.
00:30:45:00 - 00:30:47:04
Aaron
So I think we're just going to something else.
00:30:47:06 - 00:30:50:14
Chris
Yeah, we're going to a smaller world that's more feudal. Oh.
00:30:50:16 - 00:30:53:22
Aaron
Nice. Yeah. Techno feudalism. Yeah. Fair.
00:30:54:00 - 00:30:58:12
Pri
The population decline. Commentary. Here we go.
00:30:58:14 - 00:31:01:03
Chris
Oh, no one's feeding into the other.
00:31:01:05 - 00:31:02:07
Aaron
Chris, you.
00:31:02:10 - 00:31:04:00
Chris
I want you to listen.
00:31:04:01 - 00:31:15:09
Aaron
You saw that last week. Did you see the numbers from, Korea that for every 100 people in Korea, there's going to be six people replacing them?
00:31:15:11 - 00:31:30:17
Chris
Oh, I think that was Japan. Or maybe it was Korea. One of the other. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Everyone's finally waking up to the demographic time bomb that it seems to be a, a year in review. Yes. Yeah, it's very wild. I mean, but.
00:31:30:17 - 00:31:38:01
Aaron
That's like a 94% decline, I guess, over what, like a 50 year period, a couple generations. It's crazy.
00:31:38:03 - 00:32:21:20
Pri
Guys, I read something that was kind of interesting this morning that kind of reminded me of our, our population comment, but like, apparently the Latvian female population is like it's like I think it's outnumbered men by some. Like, I don't know, there's apparently like just close to 100, 200,000 women there that like can't find mates because they're just the like the men's population there is like, so low that they, like, can rent husbands by the hour and like, they have, like parades where they're like, blonds do it like there's like these girls like I saw in this article, they're like, blonds are more fun or something just to, like, attract like these, like one
00:32:21:21 - 00:32:29:12
Pri
lot women like, just to attract people because of, like, immigration and other other reasons. Like they're really. Yeah. So it's just like it's.
00:32:29:12 - 00:32:41:06
Aaron
Not like the it's not like some weird, like demographic anomaly, but there's it's roughly 5050 and then a bunch of the Latvian, I guess men are just deciding to leave.
00:32:41:08 - 00:32:55:04
Pri
Yeah, they're deciding to leave, like economic opportunity. Yeah. It's, there was another reason, too. I, like I read this morning, I can find it, but it's like, there's like three times as many women or something. Like. It's crazy.
00:32:55:06 - 00:33:03:16
Chris
So Latvia now looks like New York City or Manhattan and college campuses. That's the big takeaway here.
00:33:03:18 - 00:33:28:08
Aaron
Yeah, I guess, I don't know. It's hard. I find my, I it seems like. Chris, you're beginning to wrap your head around it, but I, I have a hard time picturing what things look like in 50 years because of that. Is it just like the only pockets of people that are particularly good at, you know, reproducing, they just take over all these different countries.
00:33:28:08 - 00:33:50:10
Aaron
Like what? I don't understand what the world looks like in in our, August year, like. Yes, we're just going to be we're just going to be sitting there on the porch yelling at this, like yelling at the clouds is like, like the, the super fertile Amish, you know, class just, like, takes over the Mid-Atlantic. Like, what is that what's going to happen?
00:33:50:15 - 00:34:15:14
Chris
I think this is way too complex a situation to accurately predict anything. I do think some of the trend lines that are going to hold true is we're seeing like stratification and separation of humanity, and that if we, you and I were born in the world where, you know, we could kind of say, okay, everyone in America was on the same page.
00:34:15:14 - 00:34:43:15
Chris
And then as we got into, like, globalization, neoliberalism, we've, you know, there was this Clinton to global financial crisis period where, like, the whole world was on the same page. I think we're now moving into a period where, like we are stratifying on so many different levels, we're stratifying economically, first and foremost, that, you know, capital is clearly like distancing and removing itself from the general population.
00:34:43:17 - 00:35:07:01
Chris
Then I do think we have a lot of these, the second order effects, you know, around relationships, child rearing, etc., etc.. Right? Like part of the reason I made that Abu Dhabi joke is my lifestyle is so incompatible with the idea of flying off to the Middle East, all right, to the Gulf region at this time of year.
00:35:07:01 - 00:35:26:16
Chris
Like we just had family come through for Thanksgiving. We had family come through right after that. Then I had to take my daughter on college tours. Now it's like I got all these holiday things going on, right? Like I live a completely different lifestyle than a 30 year old man in crypto. And so like, you know, there's that part of it.
00:35:26:16 - 00:36:07:05
Chris
Then a lot of these year end things are really getting into, you know, isolated males gambling or the issues around being hyper online. Right. Like I think there's so much separation going on that I don't know if there's going to be like any real sense of coherence that's going to allow you to accurately predict the future, because instead of like saying there is one future, you know, the future actually might be like eight separate futures at eight separate ways of being and, you know, like a real divergence in what it means to be human based on where you are, what your socio economic conditions is, what your interests are.
00:36:07:06 - 00:36:17:19
Chris
And so I just think it muddles the water because we're used to thinking, you know, as a civilization or as Western civilization. And I think maybe that goes out the window.
00:36:17:21 - 00:36:39:02
Aaron
Yeah, I don't know. I think there's some stickiness to that. But I definitely feel that there could be like a yeah, it's almost like, like a balkanization of some sort between like these different like classes or, different countries. But it's going to be weird when you kind of think 50 years out. I mean, maybe, maybe we solve this with tech.
00:36:39:05 - 00:37:05:09
Aaron
My gut tells me, like, we'll either solve it with tech or culture. Just because that's not sustainable. I think when people start really confronting those questions, they're it's too bleak. And I just think humans are instinctively optimistic, like at its core. And if if capitalism is demanding it like you were, you were amusing last week. I just feel like, well, we'll probably, softener or change the requirements kind of related to it.
00:37:05:11 - 00:37:23:03
Aaron
And frankly, like if, if, like the cost of, if the point of capitalism is to, like, order, you know, like, people and, you know, we have all these agents doing the work, like maybe we move post capitalism. Dun dun dun. But pre you're right. But I guess it's a bad time to be a Latvian woman.
00:37:23:05 - 00:37:25:19
Pri
Yeah. Renting. Renting husbands.
00:37:25:21 - 00:37:32:00
Aaron
Do you think they, What do you think that lands? Do you think they, like, move around some more or what happens? That's kind of a bummer.
00:37:32:02 - 00:37:49:16
Pri
Yeah, I think they might have to, I mean, it's like becoming a thing. Like, people are, like, writing stories about the fact that there's just, like, a lot of Latvian women around and, like, husband rentals and like, all of these, things and like, yeah, it's just all the men are going abroad.
00:37:49:18 - 00:38:01:21
Aaron
Is that, like, on the margin or is that, like the norm? Is that like, you know, like a fun article for some, you know, some journalists to write because it's like a catchy headliner and that's happened like five times, or is that actual?
00:38:01:21 - 00:38:22:10
Pri
I don't know, I think it's hard. There was a picture that I saw were like literally people like parading like Latvian women are great. Like that's like it was kind of it was like this blond parade or something. I don't know, whatever. I feel like I don't know enough about this story, but I just like, saw a couple headlines and images and I was like, well, that's crazy.
00:38:22:10 - 00:38:25:20
Pri
So yeah, I'm not the right person. Answer. I'll do more research on it.
00:38:25:22 - 00:38:36:13
Chris
I will say for you, for all the rabbit holes you run down like Latvian blonds on parade is one of the more like optimistic or like interesting ones of the bunch.
00:38:36:15 - 00:38:38:04
Aaron
Keep it up.
00:38:38:06 - 00:38:42:05
Pri
It's pretty dark, so keep it out of we.
00:38:42:05 - 00:38:43:17
Aaron
We fully support that energy.
00:38:43:20 - 00:38:47:08
Pri
So yeah, I'll find out what's really going on on the ground there.
00:38:47:11 - 00:39:10:23
Chris
I will say in my neighborhood, like there is the ratio. The gender ratio of dog walkers is like decidedly female, like maybe at a 3 to 1 clip. And this isn't like normal queens, like I do think like there's certain, I don't know, maybe behaviors or like there's certain lifestyles that you end up in if you fall into certain conditions.
00:39:11:00 - 00:39:26:11
Aaron
Yeah, I mean, completely there's definitely like structural issues that people are all kind of subject to, just it's, just kind of interesting, I guess, like, does that mean that there's now less blonds in 50 years and then blonds become even more aspirational? Probably.
00:39:26:17 - 00:39:27:12
Pri
Or maybe.
00:39:27:12 - 00:39:30:00
Aaron
It's like some like, sort of like you need a.
00:39:30:00 - 00:39:31:21
Chris
Blond prediction market.
00:39:31:23 - 00:39:43:12
Aaron
Yeah. It's like a, blond people collusion to make them extra rare in the, the dwindling human population. So they're even more desirable. Yeah. Who knows.
00:39:43:14 - 00:39:48:16
Pri
I mean, blonds have I feel like the, the population of blonds has dwindled a lot through centuries.
00:39:48:18 - 00:39:51:08
Chris
So when we're, we in a blond bubble.
00:39:51:10 - 00:39:59:16
Aaron
Yeah, a blond bubble. Yeah. Like the 1950s. Marilyn Monroe is like peak, blond bubble. Chris.
00:39:59:18 - 00:40:05:20
Chris
I mean, we can we can see with, like, the Barbie movie we were in, like, peak blond, just like a couple of years ago.
00:40:05:22 - 00:40:06:20
Aaron
Right? Hollywood.
00:40:06:20 - 00:40:08:15
Chris
The blond hair.
00:40:08:17 - 00:40:18:23
Pri
Then you could argue that some of the biggest, the biggest actress right now, some of the biggest actresses, or like most of them, they're all blond. I mean, that's actually not true, but like, compare, it's kind.
00:40:18:23 - 00:40:19:18
Aaron
Of true.
00:40:19:19 - 00:40:25:06
Pri
Compared to the number of blonds. There's like definitely like I mean, Sydney Sweeney, Margot Robbie, like.
00:40:25:08 - 00:40:28:23
Aaron
Yeah. Even the generation before. Right. There's a lot of blond there.
00:40:29:01 - 00:40:45:15
Pri
Yeah. Pam Anderson that whole era, there's always there's always a thing with that. So that'd be good for because like, bode well for Latvia. Lean into that. But anyways. Yeah. Do we, do we want to speaking of that part of the world, should we talk about, like the Gen Z revolution in Bulgaria?
00:40:45:17 - 00:40:46:06
Aaron
I mean, it.
00:40:46:06 - 00:40:47:07
Pri
Just feels really.
00:40:47:07 - 00:41:09:11
Aaron
It feels like Europe's on everybody's mind. I mean, between like the government basically saying, we love you, Europe, but you got to get your stuff together for us to live in the States, like, continue to support you to, you know, all the the unfortunate conflict that's happening in the Ukraine to now, the Bulgarian Gen Z is just like booting their their leaders.
00:41:09:11 - 00:41:14:09
Aaron
It just feels like Eastern Europe is kind of like it's like the Crucible. At this point.
00:41:14:11 - 00:41:21:18
Chris
I was thinking about this in terms of like, economic power versus Gen Z and how we're we're.
00:41:21:18 - 00:41:22:23
Aaron
Seeing all these.
00:41:23:00 - 00:41:24:10
Chris
Gen Z revolts.
00:41:24:14 - 00:41:27:09
Aaron
Yeah. What's happening? Chris, I like that framing.
00:41:27:11 - 00:41:51:12
Chris
Well, you've got Nepal. You've got Bulgaria. I believe there was a third, Gen Z. There was a third. I mean, there was in Mexico. This got that moment. Was Madagascar okay? All of these are places are happening. I don't know, maybe you don't have the wealth of your parents, or you don't have some sort of, like, accumulated hereditary infrastructure, right?
00:41:51:12 - 00:42:24:06
Chris
Some level of comfort that if you're you're not working, you're not being given career path and you need to take actions into your own hands, that this is where these Gen Z, movements are taking place. Whereas in the US, I feel like a lot of this Gen Z energy, at least in New York, for instance, gets channeled into you figures like Mamdani, where you're really just trying to like, express an ideology that's ultimately going to get co-opted by the system.
00:42:24:08 - 00:42:48:05
Chris
And so, like the economic power or like what I don't know what the relative strength of your economy and the lifestyle that can be afforded to you based on, say, being in the U.S offset, any sort of that, like decent disenfranchisement of like your own future to the point where like you don't get out into the streets. I mean, Bulgaria is a notoriously corrupt country.
00:42:48:05 - 00:43:21:19
Chris
It doesn't have, you know, like a similar level of even like compared to Serbia. Right. Which has, a pretty strong, tech and developer class. Right? Still has like sort of the same levels. And Serbia had its own set of, protests and government issues like going on as well. But at the same time, like it maybe didn't bring down the government, you know, because like, there's a certain level of viability in which the economy can kind of push back and smother and clamp down these youth movements.
00:43:21:21 - 00:43:44:20
Aaron
Yeah. And I guess it's not only getting channeled into new political movements, right. Or, or reformulated ones or kind of like retro political movements, depending on how you're viewing it, but also just to like just a tremendous amount of speculation and gambling. Right? It's kind of like on this false promise that that you can control it by, by betting on whether or not that burrito is going to get delivered to you.
00:43:44:22 - 00:43:52:22
Chris
The the ability to amuse yourself to death while you play, roulette with your with your future. That's what.
00:43:53:00 - 00:43:54:21
Pri
Hospitality. A lot of the streets.
00:43:54:23 - 00:43:57:11
Aaron
Yeah. This hyperreal hospitality.
00:43:57:12 - 00:43:58:12
Chris
Oh, man.
00:43:58:14 - 00:44:28:11
Aaron
I think it's really also just downstream of media. Right. And like, if you I've been just thinking about this a lot, like the endpoint of the internet was pretty much as cable TV, like with a content slot machine sitting at the end of it. It's just like everybody's literally just like flicking through cable by themselves, like somebody would have done on their couch in the 80s, and they're able to consume media not just from five large cable companies or ten large cable companies, but from any publisher.
00:44:28:11 - 00:44:42:13
Aaron
But it really is just kind of it's like couch potato ism all the way down, literally kind of sad. Yeah. With like this, you know, slot machine of dopamine that they're just hoping they get something that catches their attention. It's kind of sad.
00:44:42:15 - 00:44:46:19
Pri
It's like ads. It's like they play like the ad game.
00:44:46:21 - 00:45:12:22
Aaron
Yeah, a little bit. And I just feel like it's not. I think it's a lack of that optimism, you know. And I looked at that Bulgari thing, you know, I instantaneously did. I just went into, our increasingly superhuman intelligence agents and asked them, like, who won and who lost from that? And I wonder if there's like, info war that's going on, where the fine youth, Bulgaria are getting incentivized to kind of overthrow their government.
00:45:13:00 - 00:45:29:09
Aaron
You know, I think it's pretty obvious that, like, Russia wins if Bulgaria is, a mess and like Europe wins of Madagascar is a mess and China wins of Nepal is a mess, like primarily. So I wonder if there is, some info or undercurrents sitting underneath that. I wouldn't be surprised.
00:45:29:11 - 00:45:35:10
Pri
I wouldn't be surprised either. So that's another thing I can dig. We could dig deep on that.
00:45:35:10 - 00:45:38:17
Aaron
You want to do that? We'll link that for some homework for you pre.
00:45:38:19 - 00:45:45:14
Chris
Pre. If you want to get into the world of Infowars that's, that's one of those things that really going on more you I know.
00:45:45:14 - 00:46:05:16
Pri
Well that's the thing with like Infowars and like misinformation and all like disinformation and misinformation is like it's it makes you even like confuse yourself and like that's where like sometimes I'm like, okay, reading like the Wall Street Journal or like the FTC is like somewhat a breath of fresh air when it's just like pure factual, you know, even if you get that.
00:46:05:16 - 00:46:23:22
Pri
Yes. But like, it's like sometimes it's just easier to do that because you're like, well, at least this has been like heavily fact checked, even if it's heavily biased. Like I can take my biases and like, read this and feel like it. This, this number may actually be real, whereas like anything else is right.
00:46:23:22 - 00:46:47:00
Chris
But pre you still need media literacy around that stuff. Yeah. Like let's take the journal and Venezuela right now. Like is it coincidental that the journal is heavily running both of those oil cargo seizures and, the opposition leaders escape to, be studied by, you know, the Nobel Prize committee?
00:46:47:02 - 00:46:47:19
Pri
Yeah.
00:46:47:21 - 00:46:57:13
Chris
At the same time, like, yeah. You know, like, that's that's certainly I mean, I think that you can buy and.
00:46:57:15 - 00:46:59:07
Pri
There's agendas everywhere.
00:46:59:09 - 00:47:07:11
Chris
Yeah. There's exactly like you can, by and large, trust what you read in the journal. But that doesn't mean, like they're not putting their hand on the scale every once in a while.
00:47:07:13 - 00:47:08:15
Pri
Oh total.
00:47:08:17 - 00:47:09:03
Aaron
All these.
00:47:09:03 - 00:47:16:10
Chris
Unlike, you know, maybe the New York Times or you're just like, I have no fucking clue when they actually want to do straight reporting anymore.
00:47:16:12 - 00:47:17:22
Aaron
I don't think they do.
00:47:18:00 - 00:47:19:21
Pri
I don't like their audience wants them to.
00:47:19:23 - 00:47:44:04
Aaron
Yeah, I think they're just they're just feeding their audience what they want. They're a little bit like, you know, some of the cable companies in that regard. I do think, you know, I do think it's important to think through that lens occasionally, just because even if you looked at that lens through Venezuela, like, who benefits you know, the US says massively, right, if they can clamp down or have a bigger hand in Venezuelan oil.
00:47:44:04 - 00:48:03:20
Aaron
Right. And if the whole world is about energy, you know, the US is pumping out more energy than it ever has. It's going to magnify that with like, you know, of all the demand for AI and data centers and nuclear, right. And like, that's only going to accelerate. And, you know, Venezuela's a really big oil producing country, right.
00:48:03:20 - 00:48:04:18
Aaron
And I think it's that.
00:48:04:20 - 00:48:05:22
Pri
Biggest and like.
00:48:05:22 - 00:48:08:18
Aaron
Yeah, I forgot if it's one of them or it's pretty close.
00:48:08:20 - 00:48:10:13
Pri
It's top four.
00:48:10:15 - 00:48:29:11
Aaron
Yeah. And so like when they seize that oil tanker I think kind of like the mass came off and like my, my read and just following that story was it wasn't about the unfortunate, you know, drug epidemic that we have in the States. It was just another oil play, which I think has been a big theme of US foreign policy for my my entire lifetime.
00:48:29:11 - 00:48:30:21
Aaron
Prior to Chris.
00:48:30:23 - 00:48:41:22
Pri
Yeah, the other thing is, like, they have a lot of rich, rare minerals too. And China's definitely like outpacing us on mining now. So that's like the other angle I feel like with the Venezuela thing.
00:48:42:00 - 00:49:04:19
Aaron
Yeah. And and then I think it's just like it's kind of that is one of the issues. And then I do think, you know the US wants to play its historical role and just, you know, really being focused more, on the Western Hemisphere. And that kind of came through in that, little screed or argue, arguable screed that, you know, some of our, defense, folks put together about Europe.
00:49:05:00 - 00:49:11:23
Aaron
And like, it was like, we love you, buddy, but, you know, get get your stuff together, man.
00:49:12:00 - 00:49:16:07
Pri
I to say we love you. We love you, Europe. But you're bringing me down.
00:49:16:09 - 00:49:20:01
Chris
Yeah.
00:49:20:03 - 00:49:54:11
Chris
Free in the future. Losing your edge is going to be thinking that you can fly into Florence on a regular schedule. Or that you can fly into, like, any, any one of these, like, European tourist backdrops that we've come to take advantage of when we start getting into declining populations or stratified capabilities. Right. Like that convenience of we can go anywhere, anytime, and there's a route to it that might start to fall apart, that that's one thing I'm starting to like.
00:49:54:13 - 00:50:06:13
Chris
Keep an eye on, you know, over the next ten years is what things did we have now that we won't have, as you know, some of these trends continue to accelerate.
00:50:06:15 - 00:50:11:22
Aaron
We'll still we'll still have LCD Soundsystem. So that's all that matters.
00:50:12:00 - 00:50:14:02
Chris
That's all that matters. Sure.
00:50:14:04 - 00:50:16:04
Aaron
All right guys, should we intro.
00:50:16:06 - 00:50:37:01
Pri
Yeah. Let's intro at the end of the pod as we do. Welcome to that. To everyone to you have me, Chris and Aaron talking all things tech, art, crypto, culture, AI and more. Just as a quick reminder, these thoughts and opinions are our own and not of our employer. And none of this is financial advice. Let's go.
00:50:37:03 - 00:50:56:01
Aaron
Let's go. Okay, can I ask? I'll leave one other point. I've actually found the people pushback to be so weird, like they were criticizing people for, like bringing people to see the art and actually interacting with people at Basel.
00:50:56:03 - 00:51:02:12
Pri
I mean, we're talking about one woman TikTok. I think I've actually watched that. There's more. This one woman on TikTok.
00:51:02:14 - 00:51:28:17
Aaron
They being all art, critics like, I just was surprised that the reaction, you know, you may not you don't need to like his work. But two things that they were criticizing was one, he was like on the floor, like talking to people at Basel about his work and representing himself and art, gallery. And they, this person was noting, just like how dangerous that was and like how horrible that was.
00:51:28:17 - 00:51:45:20
Aaron
And I'm like, is that horrible? Like, that feels great. You know, like, how awesome is that? You're like, you're into art. And then you get to go meet the artists. Like, that's amazing. Like, I like, I think it'd be amazing if you could go back in time and meet like Warhol and, you know, engage with him on his work.
00:51:46:01 - 00:51:49:12
Aaron
So I just have a hard time seeing, like, how that's a bad thing.
00:51:49:14 - 00:51:54:18
Pri
I can like differentiated Warhol. He actually hung out with the people that he was like painting.
00:51:54:20 - 00:52:20:02
Aaron
Yeah, I mean like, but also like going direct, like, why is that a bad thing? Like, why does it need to be mediated by like a curator? It seems like her her argument was like, well, they're the ones that basically like Fund Basel, which is fair, but like, I'm sure there's other ways to do it. If it's ten times more popular and it's like a big spectacle where all these art lovers can kind of get together and buy stuff they like, interact with the artists that they like, like it.
00:52:20:04 - 00:52:28:14
Aaron
You know, that feels pretty healthy to me. So I just thought that was like, surprising that, people were lambasting him for for that.
00:52:28:16 - 00:52:37:16
Chris
People was there to let everyone know that his art is now priced in Usdc on OpenSea. He was doing an important service to a secondary market.
00:52:37:18 - 00:52:39:04
Aaron
Oh, man.
00:52:39:06 - 00:52:43:00
Pri
So I figured.
00:52:43:02 - 00:52:48:00
Chris
I don't know, maybe the expert class needs to update their priors and get with it.
00:52:48:02 - 00:52:48:15
Pri
I agree.
00:52:48:15 - 00:53:06:20
Aaron
Yeah, yeah, I just like I don't know what like I just don't I'm missing that meta critique. Like completely fair to critique his work. You like it? It's like to poppy. It's like, you know, just, you know, has an element of attention grabbing, which maybe doesn't resonate with you all. Fine. But I don't know, just like that piece, I just was a real head scratcher for me.
00:53:06:22 - 00:53:24:04
Pri
I don't think they like the spectacle of it. Like a big picture thing was like, yeah, it's like everyone's going to that and going towards that and like, I love digital art, but like, not this, I watch this is like, okay. I also think she didn't understand like she's like, oh this like the crypto tech takeover. And I'm like, he's kind of commenting on that.
00:53:24:04 - 00:53:27:00
Pri
Like I don't really feel like you're not. Get it? Yeah.
00:53:27:02 - 00:53:46:07
Aaron
But it's he's like he's he's mocking it. I wonder if it's just like nervousness that they can't compete in that market, which I bet is probably the bigger worry. Like a lot of these, you know, curators and galleries, they're amazing at spotting novel, interesting emerging artists like doing that piece, but they're not good at at the spectacle. Right.
00:53:46:09 - 00:53:56:09
Pri
I can just like it's like a different art world that they're used to that don't like that feeling. I mean, like, I feel like it's probably just like, hey, I don't understand this. And therefore like, it's like it.
00:53:56:11 - 00:54:09:14
Aaron
Yeah. Kind of felt a little bit that way. But but that's whole point, right. Like that's I'm sure there's many movements in art that were hard to, you know, decipher and comprehend and understand their importance before, you go before.
00:54:09:16 - 00:54:10:04
Pri
It's an art.
00:54:10:09 - 00:54:24:16
Aaron
Yeah. Right. And like, they people do love digital art, but I don't know when they were doing that in the, you know, 60s and 70s that people are like, whoa, this is important, right? Like it was hard to get that context at the time.
00:54:24:18 - 00:54:25:15
Pri
Totally.
00:54:25:17 - 00:54:29:04
Aaron
Well, hopefully the Latvian blonds can figure that one out for us to pray.
00:54:29:06 - 00:54:38:00
Pri
Yeah. Should Russia. Seriously, I like Nintendo, so I feel like I like dropped a bomb here and I'm like, I don't have much to back this up except for a few pictures of a blond parade.
00:54:38:00 - 00:54:46:04
Chris
I saw skull three, I think. I think the cement this. We actually need to call the episode Latvian Blonds on Parade.
00:54:46:06 - 00:54:49:12
Aaron
I was going to say, bubbles and blond parades. Chris.
00:54:49:16 - 00:54:53:10
Pri
Oh, yeah. That actually is a good one. I like a.
00:54:53:12 - 00:54:57:22
Chris
Latvian blond and bubbles this week on that society.
00:54:58:00 - 00:54:59:17
Aaron
All right, guys, have a good one.
00:54:59:17 - 00:55:00:16
Chris
All right.
00:55:00:18 - 00:55:01:05
Pri
I.