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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;00;00 - 00;00;18;27
Aaron
Chris, how we feeling about the fact that, the US lost to Canada?
00;00;19;00 - 00;00;38;10
Chris
I mean, we're now feeling great. It was a tough one. It was a really good game. And, I mean, the US did everything they could at the start of the to close that out. And so sometimes, the puck breaks the wrong way. Sometimes you leave the best player in the world alone in the slot with a clean look.
00;00;38;10 - 00;00;53;13
Chris
But man, yeah, that was a tough one. It was, a great tournament for hockey. You know, hockey really stepped out and took center stage, but America came up short against our Canadian overlords and masters of the sport.
00;00;53;15 - 00;00;59;24
Aaron
They are the masters. How how was it in Canada? Were they like on the streets Cheering there was just another day for them.
00;01;00;03 - 00;01;14;06
Fnkl
Well you know up here in canada it's sort of expected but is I was breathing a big sigh of relief last night after the game. I, I was I think I over time took years off my life as, as Chris mentioned it, it could have gone either way. Luckily, the.
00;01;14;06 - 00;01;19;12
Fnkl
Canadian goalie still runs had and, gave us the chance to win. And, yeah, but.
00;01;19;12 - 00;01;24;28
Fnkl
McDavid, the best player in the world, took the took the torch from Crosby. The new golden goal torch.
00;01;25;01 - 00;01;35;23
Aaron
I love it. Do you think if, if the U.S. won with, with the U.S. Army, just some marched up and made it the 51st state at that point, or if it would have been complete, utter defeat.
00;01;35;25 - 00;01;42;16
Fnkl
I think I saw a clip of, like, Vance or something, and they're joking about the game. And like all of Canada loses this game.
00;01;42;16 - 00;01;49;02
Fnkl
We're going to increase the tariffs too. And I was like, why is this so political? That became such a circus.
00;01;49;04 - 00;01;57;26
Chris
I will give Boston credit for behaving. There are a few boos during the anthem there, but on the whole we kept it classy.
00;01;57;26 - 00;02;02;10
Pri
So whatsoever. Yeah. What soil was this game? Early.
00;02;02;13 - 00;02;25;28
Chris
So yeah, the tournament was split in two. The round robin and the opening of it was up in Montreal. Is it the bell or the Rogers Center? I think I'll what the Canadians. Calder. Belt. Bell center, Bell center. There we go. And then the second half of it came down to the Boston Garden, which, is quite a hockey Mecca in and of itself.
00;02;25;28 - 00;02;29;14
Chris
So we had some cross-border cooperation on this tournament.
00;02;29;14 - 00;02;33;00
Pri
Very nice. Okay. Okay. I was just wondering.
00;02;33;03 - 00;02;57;22
Derek
As a, as a non hockey player, or as a non hockey fan, I'm just trying to wrap my head around kind of like the the stakes here and maybe like the background context. So hockey is obviously like a of Canadian origin. But what would you say, Chris? The U.S. has kind of been increasingly performing better or rising to the kind of like the the global stage in terms of performance.
00;02;57;22 - 00;03;25;12
Derek
I ask because, you know, this has been happening across other sports that I am a fan of, like, there's this great Netflix documentary which came out called Quart of Gold, and I'm only a couple episodes in, but it's really the story of, of, of international basketball as how good like the international talent has become over the last 15, 20 years and is no longer a given that this the sport which has, you know, is deeply American and, you know, the best players are are often heralded as, as being American.
00;03;25;12 - 00;03;45;27
Derek
And, you know, the NBA is, you know, one of the most performant, sports leagues internationally. And it's all you know, virtually all American teams. They're now kind of like losing their lead both narratively. But then also, from a talent perspective, like the last 4 or 5 MVP's have been of international origin in the NBA, and these teams are now getting better.
00;03;45;27 - 00;03;50;18
Derek
And so I'm curious if there's like a similar dynamic happening in Canada with the US hockey.
00;03;50;20 - 00;04;37;25
Chris
Hockey in general is a sport on the rise. It's, you know, retooled its game, it's become more exciting. And, you know, that happened, I don't know, maybe ten, 15 years ago. And as I think a byproduct of that hockey, hockey culture in the U.S. is very strong, right now. We are producing a ton of talent. I do think a lot of it kind of is second generation Canadian to some degree, because a lot of the NHL players, you know, from Canada, you know, after their careers, settle in the state, raise kids, hockey tends to be, I don't want to say like a dynastic sport, but there's a fair amount of like, nepotism.
00;04;37;28 - 00;05;00;10
Chris
And just in terms of, like who, at least in American development, you know, a lot of like, former pro players, their kids go on to, play at a high level, you know, I mean, the we saw this in this tournament with the kid, Chuck, brothers Matt and Brady, there are, both sons of Keith, kid Chuck and Keith Gottschalk.
00;05;00;12 - 00;05;24;06
Chris
You know, he played at Bu way, way back in the day. He had, a fairly impressive U.S. career. Then his kids, you know, went on to I mean, Brady was at BYU for a year. And so you've got that going on. And then at the college level, the game is growing as well. I want to say we've had maybe 5 or 6 D1 programs launch in the last five years.
00;05;24;09 - 00;05;50;04
Chris
And so yeah, like USA is, a hockey hotbed is certainly on the rise. You know, I would I would actually say and maybe you think a little pushback here, but U.S. collegiate hockey is now considered a better development pipeline than, major junior leagues. We pull a lot of talent that, you know, in the old days would play in the Canadian developmental leagues.
00;05;50;07 - 00;06;08;22
Chris
Karmakar, for instance, defenseman who had a huge impact on tournament. He's a Canadian player. He went to UMass, for college. Yeah. I know, like a big, not big into, like, the development part. Like, I don't I usually just watch NHL. But what Chris is saying is true. Like the.
00;06;08;22 - 00;06;09;23
Fnkl
About, a.
00;06;09;23 - 00;06;14;21
Fnkl
Lot of players are choosing to go to college. And I think it's partly because, like, the rules the way they were.
00;06;14;23 - 00;06;15;07
Fnkl
Because you.
00;06;15;07 - 00;06;31;10
Fnkl
Could go and play college and then you could play like professional after still, whereas if you went the other way around, you weren't allowed to play college. And I think those rules are kind of changing right now, or they're in the midst of changing. So that could change. But yeah, some of the best young hockey players definitely go on to play college.
00;06;31;10 - 00;06;31;17
Fnkl
Like you.
00;06;31;18 - 00;06;31;29
Fnkl
Hear about.
00;06;31;29 - 00;06;37;09
Fnkl
BYU and teams like in in mass all the time. So it makes a lot of sense.
00;06;37;11 - 00;06;41;05
Derek
Very cool. Thanks for the, the hockey knowledge, folks.
00;06;41;07 - 00;06;43;03
Pri
Oh, this is nice, I like it.
00;06;43;05 - 00;06;53;09
Chris
Welcome to Hockey Net Society. The Hockey Society podcast the intersection of frontier technology and winter sports.
00;06;53;09 - 00;06;55;14
Aaron
Talking about winter sports. Where should we go for it?
00;06;55;18 - 00;07;17;28
Pri
I mean, the obvious one, which I don't think is still right now, it's kind of an ongoing story to me. It's one of the biggest stories to probably emerge in crypto for the last six months year. Is this like Malay Libra token? I don't know if you want to call it a scandal. I don't know if what we want to actually, it's like it's it's taking a step back.
00;07;17;29 - 00;07;19;09
Aaron
We can call it a scandal.
00;07;19;12 - 00;08;07;03
Pri
Yeah. Like, use a bag of thinking about, world leader who is, like, purportedly, you know, attempting to turn, turn around a nation in need of putting meme coins, tweeting out a contract address for a meme coin. Just that fact alone is, like, was not something that I ever thought would. Well, I guess I guess Trump did that too, but like doing it for the untying, like the the sovereign sovereignty of the nation to some extent, or, you know, talking about how, you know, this is encouraging the growth of the Argentine Indian economy while, you know, basically echoing and then having this orchestrated rug pull and now getting investigated both by, you know, U.S
00;08;07;03 - 00;08;28;26
Pri
and Argentinian authorities, it's a dramatic. I mean, that's pretty crazy. I don't know if like, you guys have, like, dug into the timeline or where things are going, as you guys probably saw, the SEC just said that they're going to start kind of coming after some of the insider trading. Coinbase came out saying that, like, there are risks here because of the obvious risks here.
00;08;29;01 - 00;08;48;06
Pri
And so there's a little bit more like there's just a little bit more conversation around the risks of Bitcoin trading. I think just as in light of this, I think people are pretty startled by by this. I don't know if you guys have like thoughts or where this could go, but I mean, they're talking about impeachment over this like it's insane.
00;08;48;09 - 00;09;07;03
Aaron
My $0.02. I mean, it made it hard to read the timeline. I just feel like the level of grift, in the meme coincide is just outrageous. And I know some folks have tried to be apologetic about it and a but, saying that this is just the way crypto has always been, but it does definitely does not feel that way to me.
00;09;07;07 - 00;09;27;26
Aaron
Like these are no utility assets. People seem to be going in and not just like on the edges, but like in the center, like trying to rip people off. And it's deeply concerning from my, my vantage point. And I think it's it's not something that the industry should be cheering at all. I think it's, it's something that the industry should really be self-policing itself.
00;09;27;26 - 00;09;36;10
Aaron
I was heartened by like comments from like, Brian Armstrong and others that calling calling out a lot of the bad behavior. But Derek, I'm kind of curious what your read of it is.
00;09;36;12 - 00;10;11;13
Derek
I think the the first thing I'll say is I don't want to say like this. Like these events were set in motion by the Trump and Melania token. But but I do think that I mean, this is so much that to say here. But but I will say when, when the president of or the, you know, the emerging president of the United States launches a meme token, and then his wife does, you know, 48 hours later, or whatever it was, it definitely signals like a more permissive environment for, for launching these types of assets, which I think there's a couple of ways to look at it.
00;10;11;13 - 00;10;32;00
Derek
Like the first way is just like, that's a great signal. It's like, you know, we're we're seeing kind of this direst engagement with the asset class. And, and folks will see that. And, and we'll start to kind of ask questions and, and come into this technology stack and start to, you know, figure out where they can maybe build their next product or the next protocol or the next service.
00;10;32;02 - 00;11;04;08
Derek
I think the the downsides is, is that it's maybe difficult for people who don't have a law degree or who haven't engaged with the financial laws to understand what where the lines are in terms of compliance and like what what is allowed and what is not allowed. And I, I tweeted this out over the weekend. But, you know, I think it's one other thing I'll say is just the administration and like the team that's thinking deeply about crypto right now, you know, they've come out and they've they've started to articulate at least their vision for how to categorize crypto.
00;11;04;08 - 00;11;30;25
Derek
And one of the comments that I've seen a number of times is that meme coins and NFTs should be treated as collectibles. Now, that can be true, and I think we could probably talk through the pros and cons of of that approach. But even if that were the correct classification for these assets, it doesn't negate like a 100 yard, 100, sorry, 100 years of case law or, the Securities Act of 1933 and 34.
00;11;30;25 - 00;11;54;11
Derek
And like the rules that have been in place around how these assets can be transacted. And so I put this tweet together. I was basically just like, listen. And an underlying transaction can still be an unregistered investment contract, security or, you know, scheme to defraud can still be tripped under federal, you know, wire fraud statutes, even if, you know, the actual object in question is defined as a collectible.
00;11;54;13 - 00;12;26;13
Derek
And I don't know if people realize that. And so what, or have really kind of like grappled with the fact that, like, there's, there's actually, you know, there are best practices around how to engage with financial assets, even if they are collectibles that are financial assets. You know, what we're seeing is just like broadly as people really, you know, starting to kind of the cross really, really kind of clear boundaries and lines around these assets that I think has possibly done some unwanted narrative damage to our space writ large.
00;12;26;16 - 00;12;48;06
Derek
I think clearly there's been fraud around, the meme token stuff. And clearly there has been, you know, things that I would consider to be a sale of unregistered investment contract securities around these meme tokens where they're pre-selling a batch before, you know, launching it. And so I guess the I guess my, my, my thinking is just like, you know, some of these folks are in for a rude awakening.
00;12;48;06 - 00;13;09;28
Derek
Unfortunately, even if we're we're dealing with things that are classed as collectibles, like some people are going to go to jail around this stuff. And I think it could act or serve as a chilling effect towards this technology, which which is, you know, it's it's not great. I think I'm optimistic that and I saw the SEC come out yesterday or the day before saying we're putting together a task force around crypto fraud on the internet.
00;13;09;28 - 00;13;30;00
Derek
I think that's great. That's exactly what they should be doing. And I also saw today they came out and they said that at least Binance came out and said that the actions against, Coinbase, and the exchange were being dropped by the SEC, which is also great. It's like, okay, focus on fraud. Don't focus on trying to kind of like kill an industry, or like the good actors that are in the street.
00;13;30;01 - 00;13;51;26
Derek
Everything I'm seeing coming out of the SEC is great. My view is though, that like, unfortunately, there is now this backlog that continues to get larger and larger and larger with every celebrity meme coin that gets dropped of potential fraud and abuse that's happening in our space, that could serve as kind of a derailment of all the good stuff that's happening here, which could, you know, ripple up to the highest levels of, you know, politics.
00;13;51;28 - 00;14;09;10
Derek
I don't know what happens. I don't know what where you know, exactly this goes. But I do suspect there are going to be folks that end up in jail because some of these offenses are like very bright line in terms of just like, of like wrongdoing. And I hope that it doesn't do too much to kind of distract from, like the great work that's been done here.
00;14;09;13 - 00;14;33;11
Aaron
Yeah. I mean, I feel like the, the train on the great work is kind of already moving. Derek, I hope you're right. I do think that Coinbase dropping the lawsuits, I found a little bit surprising. Like my I don't think that that's normal for the agency to just drop them completely. Like I would have thought that they would have like either quietly settled them or, or somehow just kind of plowed through just for the sake of inertia.
00;14;33;11 - 00;14;47;06
Aaron
It's it was a little bit surprising to me, at least, to see them drop it in mass, but definitely encouraging, not claiming in any way that there was merit to the, cases that, you brought there. But it's definitely it's kind of like.
00;14;47;06 - 00;14;49;12
Derek
Different procedurally than what we've seen. Yeah.
00;14;49;12 - 00;15;09;00
Aaron
It was like procedurally interesting and a little bit surprising to me. Yeah. I mean, I think Caitlin Long kind of nailed it. I think it was her tweet where she was just like, let's put all the enforcement action into making sure that the good actors in the space, those that are doing their best to kind of build useful, interesting, novel things can succeed.
00;15;09;00 - 00;15;12;23
Aaron
And they don't get drowned out by, frankly, the, capital. Right.
00;15;12;25 - 00;15;35;24
Derek
Yeah, I, I think that's right. And I think, I totally agree with you procedurally that this was a bit surprising. It almost feels like, you know, the SEC wants to signal where they're going or how they think about things. And I think having both like this, this task force against internet crypto fraud come out yesterday and then today, you know, signaling that these are not actions that they want to pursue in the future.
00;15;35;27 - 00;15;45;08
Derek
In the future, it I think they're you know, there was a probably a narrative signal that they're trying to create around, like where they want to focus their attention to Caitlin's point. And I think that's probably right.
00;15;45;10 - 00;15;55;06
Chris
What do you guys think? Solana's role is in all of this? And a couple of the key platforms on Solana that are facilitating, you know, all of this grift?
00;15;55;08 - 00;16;16;09
Aaron
I mean, I think that they should should be investigated, Chris. And I think we should see if there's some relationship between it and there's been certain allegations. You don't want to give too much weight to that, but I think it's fair to kind of understand what their role is. If there was some sort of complicity kind of related to that, and whether or not some of this stuff could have been prevented.
00;16;16;12 - 00;16;38;00
Aaron
I do think that that's one of the difference between the early bitcoin and ether communities, where I do feel like the social contracts around those ecosystems were a bit more like, hey, let's build something like interesting, let's expand the technology. It was much more tech focused in many ways, like the events of the past week felt like an echo.
00;16;38;03 - 00;17;08;14
Aaron
SBF right. It was kind of like his, his like hand, like reaching out from the underworld and kind of doing a redux of what we saw before. So I do think the culture, of these ecosystems does matter. I think they can be influenced. And I do think the leaders, whether it's at the core protocols and projects or the the key, you know, watering holes, marketplaces, etc., you know, they should stand up and, and try to build something that's productive and socially beneficial, not anti-social.
00;17;08;16 - 00;17;29;17
Pri
As like fun making like 5 to $6 million a day, though. What incentive outside of maybe like some sort of liability that they have to like stop this kind of flywheel of just not saying all of its grift? I think some of it is just like fun. But I, you know, there is also just a lot of bad actors, obviously.
00;17;29;19 - 00;17;52;00
Pri
So like, I'm just trying to understand they they're they're just simply hosting it. They don't really understand what's happening on the backend. So it may be interesting to see that. I mean, maybe it's more just like it needs to be dug into a little bit more, but that they're like just parties to, to other bad actors. I don't know, I mean, it'd be difficult to hold them liable in any way.
00;17;52;00 - 00;17;54;21
Pri
I don't know, I don't know enough about it, I guess.
00;17;54;21 - 00;18;12;26
Aaron
But yeah, I don't think any of us do. And I don't think it's like a great idea to like, speculate related to it. But I do think that, you know, has the prominence of whatever platform we build grows. And I think it's great to see new platforms kind of emerge. I do think it's important to act and operate with some degree of ethics.
00;18;12;26 - 00;18;35;14
Aaron
I mean, that's the incentive for. Yeah, basic ethics. And there's lots of different ways to build a business. But I do think in the long run that stuff kind of, matters. And yeah, I think if your goal is to really build, you know, something that transforms the world, then it needs to it needs to be useful. It needs to operate with a high degree of ethics.
00;18;35;14 - 00;18;42;29
Aaron
So hopefully the folks at Savannah Land can kind of do that. And we can get beyond kind of the ghost of SBF.
00;18;43;01 - 00;19;03;03
Pri
Agreed. It's just such a bad look publicly like it's it's it's a little it's definitely a bit of a shame that like when crypto hits the headlines, it's always for something that is like slightly, you know, ridiculous and puts, you know, like, or some sort of fraud or something as opposed to the interesting work that many, many, many people do.
00;19;03;06 - 00;19;21;04
Pri
And some of the most interesting people I've met are through, like people building in this space, including you guys. And so it's it's a bit a bit of a bummer, but, hopefully we move past it, it gets cleaned up, we can evolve, we get some regulations in place and can grow as an industry.
00;19;21;06 - 00;19;41;25
Chris
Yeah. I don't want to pile on with the moralizing. I would just say from like a communications strategy perspective, if I'm Solana, now's the time to start putting distance between myself and what's taking place here. And, you know, I think the last time we all heard from totally out in the timeline there was, you know, his back and forth with Stani.
00;19;41;25 - 00;20;05;16
Chris
That's not really the the right tone in the right comms. You, you need to be putting out there right now, pumped out. Fun is living for today. This is their moment. They have no incentive to think for tomorrow. Solana has futures, you know, potentially has a very long future. And this is the time for them to, you know, really start thinking about what comes next.
00;20;05;16 - 00;20;14;23
Chris
And are we going to have a place in it. And so, you know, to me that that's where any sort of like setting a tone for actions on the chain need to originate from.
00;20;14;25 - 00;20;34;19
Pri
Welcome to Nerd Society, where we explore the world of digital art, crypto, AI, tech, and more. We're bringing you deep insights, fresh perspectives, and hitting on some themes that are explored in many of the dials and beyond. We tend to have fun and wild conversations here on a weekly basis, so love to bring that energy here. Just as a reminder, these views are our own and not of our employer.
00;20;34;19 - 00;20;44;12
Pri
So I guess just to kind of loop back to the conversation before I feel like there's a lot of growth, hopefully that emerges from this and so on to greener pastures.
00;20;44;17 - 00;21;05;08
Aaron
Yeah. On that last point, do you think that that will happen because, you know, just looking back to like earlier areas, right. Like in the Bitcoin community, like when people started playing around with new digital assets, they famously brand them like shift coins. Right. So, there was like a visceral reaction to it. And same thing during the ICO era, there was lots of folks criticizing, criticizing it in like a self-reflective way.
00;21;05;08 - 00;21;19;14
Aaron
And I always thought that that was pretty healthy. Do you think that the same, the same thing will happen in that ecosystem? Because I agree. Like, it could have like, a long term future, but I guess I'd worried about that future if that exercise doesn't happen.
00;21;19;17 - 00;21;45;11
Chris
Yeah, I'm not close enough to really be able to say, you know, I get a lot of my information around what happens over that from the timeline or second hand, or only when things flare up. And, you know, the timeline seems to be a very persnickety place right now. You know, it really doesn't have its own driving direction or moral compass and really just seems to want to whipsaw from drama and drama to drama.
00;21;45;11 - 00;22;07;22
Chris
And so, you know, I don't feel like I'm in a good position, you know, as someone who understands this law in the community to to say that I can only speak from a position of like someone who has been a brand manager and you, as you know, led communications for a company. And look, if I'm Solana, I, I, I have a serious amount of unlocks.
00;22;07;22 - 00;22;42;16
Chris
I've got market pressure coming up. I'm seeing what's potentially the, tipping point in public opinion around the primary driver of volume and reading the tea leaves and saying, look, what's gotten us through this year is not sustainable. And, you know, if we do want to be moving forward and pass this, or if we do want to be developing more diversity in terms of our categories and use cases, like I got to start putting some space from from this, it's fine.
00;22;42;18 - 00;22;43;19
Aaron
Yeah. Great win.
00;22;43;22 - 00;22;44;21
Pri
Damn.
00;22;44;23 - 00;22;50;17
Chris
So what's next on our list of like disasters to armchair quarterback.
00;22;50;19 - 00;22;52;06
Pri
Also yeah I mean.
00;22;52;09 - 00;22;54;07
Aaron
Yeah. Get comfy in your armchair.
00;22;54;09 - 00;23;14;20
Pri
Yeah yeah get comfy. Let's talk about another I don't want to say scandal, but why not? Let's go. The augmented intelligence Christie's auction. We talked a little bit about this last week. Created a bit of a stir. You know, as far as mainstream attention was concerned, no one in in our world really cared because it was like arguments that we heard like two years ago.
00;23;14;25 - 00;23;36;15
Pri
But we could discuss a little bit of that auction. I stopped by Christie's yesterday, actually. I heard part of the panel had to go, but the work looked great. It was presented really well. You know, I actually thought a lot looked really good. I'm curious to see how it goes, but like even the Kiki terminal, the work from that, you know, starting off with the bang, it's like a one, whatever.
00;23;36;15 - 00;23;43;05
Pri
One week online auction. But yeah, I don't I don't know if we really want to touch on that again as it, as it just went live.
00;23;43;08 - 00;23;46;10
Chris
Were there any standout pieces in person?
00;23;46;12 - 00;24;11;20
Pri
Yeah. I mean, I liked I will say rafiqs work like the way that it's presented looked really nice. I like obviously I'm a huge fan of nice aunties and I like the video piece that they had. There was this sculpture that I really enjoyed. This is like a part of, like the in video artist that they had as, as in this auction do as artist Scott Eaton had like a sculpture that he trained on.
00;24;11;25 - 00;24;34;20
Pri
It was like an eye, like a bronze sculpture, trained on some of his drawings and, you know, then produced a sculpture that was then 3D printed. And I actually thought that was really interesting. And it looked really I thought, I thought it looked really nice. And of course, I mean, the huge fan of of the machine, I got another unique kind of print of that.
00;24;34;22 - 00;24;49;26
Pri
There's I mean, it looked really good together. I mean, Holly and Matt's work that was in the Whitney Biennial was there for sale. So it's interesting. I mean, we're seeing like the auction kick off and I was just looking at the bids that were kind of hitting. And so there's a lot of bids on, on, on work right now.
00;24;49;26 - 00;25;04;00
Pri
And it was interesting. I got there a little early. So I was like, yeah, I'm gonna, you know, tour it. No one was there. And then like Larry Gagosian was walking around, it was so weird. It was like, oh, well, like me and just him were like looking at the show. And I was like, surprised to see him.
00;25;04;02 - 00;25;22;26
Pri
But it makes sense. Like, I guess they're just scouting for the next big thing. And I remember we talked about this in Flamingo a while ago, but like the Gaussian had that AI photography or like post photography as we call it, show like whatever year and a half ago. So maybe there's some interest on their end there. But yeah, I mean overall I thought it was good stuff.
00;25;22;26 - 00;25;38;15
Pri
Did a great job with this panel. But we'll see where the outcome of this auction is. I think there was some speculation that if this auction did really well, then maybe that would kind of give AI artwork a little bit of tension in our space. So we'll see if that actually materializes.
00;25;38;18 - 00;25;42;27
Chris
You chat up Larry, you pick up any, contemporary masters?
00;25;43;00 - 00;25;52;11
Pri
No, I did not chat them up, but this was like trying to be cool, actually, don't I don't really care about them. I just I didn't want to be, like, annoying. So I just did my thing and looked at the work.
00;25;52;13 - 00;25;58;08
Chris
You hear that, guys? When we swing out to frieze Hamptons place this summer is going to be, you know, you are up.
00;25;58;10 - 00;26;01;22
Pri
I'm going to sell you stuff on the wall like he does when people come over.
00;26;01;25 - 00;26;10;17
Derek
I'm looking through the LA arena. The lot's right now. Is there anything in here that really stuck out to the the Holly Herndon? And that one looks looks great.
00;26;10;24 - 00;26;25;23
Pri
You know, I really enjoyed that. The Sofia Crespo like, for, like, they had these Polaroids and it was a and a Riddler. Sofia crossbow like Polaroids. I thought they looked quite nice, actually. I enjoyed that as well in person.
00;26;25;26 - 00;26;51;02
Derek
This is cool. I'm root. I'm rooting. I'm rooting for this to do. Well, I mean, some of these some of these incoming bids already look great, like a does. You know, Claire's lot has hit the low estimate at 40 K already. It looks like that the Holly one is up to 65 K, which is which is almost at that, that that low, that low bound Kiki is one that I've, I haven't spent a ton of time with, but I, I know a lot of folks are really into that system right now.
00;26;51;04 - 00;27;11;20
Derek
Very similar to, to borrow from what I understand. And, they just, that system just had their, their first drop in. It looks like this. The bid on this, golden breath, is up to 17 K already, which is cool. So. Yeah, there's I mean, I'm looking through this and there's, there's a lot of fun experiments and a lot of great artists that submitted work here.
00;27;11;20 - 00;27;21;06
Derek
So I'm hoping this, this, but, gets gets the, the industry on the, the radar, of trad art a little bit more after.
00;27;21;08 - 00;27;34;22
Aaron
Yeah. It feels like this. This, we're seeing some more energy related to it. So what happened with, the Sam Spratt masquerade? I mean, that's the other big names, right? From the past week. Kind of surprised me a little bit. Was that surprising? Two guys.
00;27;34;24 - 00;27;54;04
Derek
I think. Well, I'll say one thing, which is just like, I. I think Sam has done a wonderful job. Kind of like continuing to build out the concentric circles around his work. And we talked a little bit about this in Flamingo. We own, we own, some of the players, in there and now, as a result, a number of the masks.
00;27;54;04 - 00;28;16;14
Derek
But, you know, Sam started off as a one of one artist and then brought together a really great crew through the, skulls and then through the monument game. And the player additions brought in another circle around his work and now with the the masks is, is doing the same with a larger pool of folks. And, you know, he's playing two sides to the work.
00;28;16;14 - 00;28;39;27
Derek
He's, he's playing the these like very hyper scarce one on ones, that are increasingly selling for higher and higher marks and are increasingly more and more complex and, and difficult to create and, or take, you know, take years to, to, to kind of like put together and then simultaneously stoking the network, around his work with these kind of like, interactive experiences.
00;28;39;27 - 00;29;13;23
Derek
And I think he's putting on a master class right now. He's clearly finding fit with with both of those strategies and people are more and more wanting to be part of, you know, the economy and the experiences that he's putting together around the totality of his work and his systems. And, yeah, I think, just to echo what Aaron said, I mean, the one of one, on his most recent work sold for, roughly 3 million to to con boss and then, he's also enjoyed another few million, I think 2 million or a little over 2 million in sales around the masks, over the last week.
00;29;13;25 - 00;29;26;22
Derek
And so, yeah, I mean, the he's heard about, he said a $5 million mark here in the aggregate, around this current work that, that is standing, standing out, I think, in, in, in the crypto art space right now.
00;29;26;24 - 00;29;40;27
Chris
But we also had a sell, like a $2 million sale of the number one masquerade. It hit the timeline today like I just walked in the door prior to this call. And so I don't know what that represents, but I did see that come through.
00;29;41;01 - 00;29;59;21
Derek
I think that may have just been the aggregate of all of the sales that. Oh, okay. That happened. I think that's what it was. I haven't had a chance to see that, but that to say that like 2.1 million, whatever that amount was, I think represents the the total dollar value that was transferred around those, those, that those entities over the last few days.
00;29;59;23 - 00;30;05;12
Aaron
That was my understanding. But there was a massive one of one sale, though, right? If I'm not mistaken.
00;30;05;14 - 00;30;15;25
Chris
There was a $3 million one, canvas, but. Yeah. Hey, let's, let's swing the arm chair disaster response unit over to this particular topic.
00;30;15;27 - 00;30;19;18
Aaron
Where are we going? Chris, are you taking us? Where's the ambulance going? I feel like.
00;30;19;18 - 00;30;21;01
Pri
Everything. But go for it.
00;30;21;08 - 00;30;46;19
Chris
Yeah. So I think Sam Spratt is an interesting contrast to to Barreto and K.K. and, you know, the other set of, like, hand-wringing that did pop up on the timeline this week was out of the gender of our community. And I think we saw a lot of gender of artists who did not respond fondly to the Botto sale of their, you know, P5, JJ's output, diverse.
00;30;46;22 - 00;31;13;05
Chris
And I think a lot of the criticism, you know, from the artist community was around the quality of the work. You know, second semester or second week, student work, you know, I think is how Zach Lieberman described it. And so I guess where I'm I'm not really interested in, you know, the downward commodification of, gen art and, you know, Bartos community staring into absurdity.
00;31;13;06 - 00;31;57;01
Chris
I'm more interested in are we seeing a point where what the world is now asking for is, is these branded or like, I don't know, like how to describe it. Right. But placing art behind systems, placing art almost behind like logo side products, sweets. What we I think the complaint out of the contemporary art world, you know, for the prior 15 years or so really was making art was no longer enough that you had to live your practice in your feeds and your timeline to that becoming an artist was more like, performance out of your life, in which, you know, these objects were rendered and produced kind of like, an end point, right?
00;31;57;01 - 00;32;26;04
Chris
But the whole destination required documentation and sharing. I I've looked at the, the Kiki work, and it's decent. I mean, it's good, right? But it's not beyond, like, my grasp. You know, I could say, hey, I want to develop an art style that looks like 20% Dutch masters, 60% Francis Bacon, and, you know, 20% AI surrealism and crank out 500 pieces myself.
00;32;26;07 - 00;32;44;12
Chris
But, you know, I don't think anyone will give a shit, right? But when you package it up into these systems, there seems to be like that seems to be capturing people's, interest nowadays. And I'm just kind of curious is what's going on in that dynamic there?
00;32;44;14 - 00;33;09;18
Pri
I, I actually know that it's actually interesting to think about the packaging here, because that's what's interesting about Kiki is like like the outputs. Okay, fine. Interesting. But I really feel like people like this branding and packaging and the a genetic aspect of it, which I feel like is actually capturing people's attention, like this idea of like an autonomous artist, which Aaron, I know you've played around with really early on is like more compelling, I think, than anything else.
00;33;09;21 - 00;33;32;15
Pri
But I guess just also to the point of the, you know, PS5 bottle sale, what does it mean for Gen art? I mean, that was it was sort of like an inevitable outcome. But I understand why the gen artists are like a little bit distraught over that. Like, does that decimate the craft? Like, do you think that the end collector is going to care about the output or process?
00;33;32;17 - 00;33;54;18
Pri
When it comes to gen art and I'm not I'm not convinced that collectors will care as much about process, which also leaves, you know, where where do a lot of these gen artists or this historic generative art go from here? I just don't know. I feel like it's getting played out. Just like AI is hitting many other industries in real time, it's interesting to think about in the context of like generation.
00;33;54;18 - 00;33;55;21
Pri
And yeah, I.
00;33;55;23 - 00;34;23;05
Derek
If I was going to I'm I think these are really cool points that I think I'm tracking. But if I was going to reduce down kind of like the questions Chris are asking that you're touching on is it really is the question really will collectors in the future. So future folks that come into our space and interact with crypto art, will they assign a premium to the process or to the visual or the interactive output that they're able to kind of see?
00;34;23;07 - 00;34;31;00
Derek
And, and, and kind of like the first blush with whatever the, the object is, is that, is that the is that the question?
00;34;31;03 - 00;34;57;17
Chris
I would argue, Derek, that the process doesn't matter either. I think what I'm saying is perhaps there's this third emergent thing that's starting to form right now, and maybe it has its roots in endurance and ability to appreciate and value, you know, especially as it relates to our space where generative artists we really like to be fair, right?
00;34;57;18 - 00;35;28;24
Chris
We haven't seen anything interesting come out of the generative our community in a while now, right? By and large, the category has gotten a little stale. And, you know, other than, you know, what we're seeing, you know, out of Kim ass and dwarf Andre's guys and you know that that sort of like digital runtime school of gen art, a lot of a lot of what we're seeing hasn't moved past, you know, 21, 22 Botto, I don't think is really pushing the needle either.
00;35;28;24 - 00;35;58;03
Chris
In fact, I would say what it's doing right now is it's quite reactionary, but Botto because it is a product project, you know, like it is a viewed as this larger entity than an individual artist. Perhaps people are seeing that and seeing, you know, the limitations of, of the last class. And saying, maybe this is a better way forward if I'm just viewing it through the lens of speculation.
00;35;58;10 - 00;36;19;14
Chris
I guess maybe that's what I'm implying is a lot of like the collective community today. Maybe is just looking for something new and they're not getting it in art, and therefore they're turning around to this middle layer that sits between process and art. And it's really like the persona of an entity.
00;36;19;16 - 00;36;37;17
Derek
I think that's interesting. I think I see it, I think I see it differently. And that's not to say that I don't appreciate what you're saying, because I haven't thought about it like that and that that could be what's happening. I think everything that you described about, like, just like, let's just call it the larger consuming market as it exists today for crypto art.
00;36;37;19 - 00;37;04;22
Derek
I do think that they prioritize innovation. I do think that they put a premium on artists and artworks that are maybe taking an orthogonal approach or unique approach, or a differentiate, differentiated approach to the practice of making crypto art. I think this is why there is an appreciation for Kim's work. I think that's why there's been appreciation for, artists who are maybe thinking outside the box.
00;37;04;25 - 00;37;24;16
Derek
You know, I, I to speak your guys's language is, I think, one of the reasons why you guys like the clown vamp thing so much, it was just very, very much adopting some of, like, the, the new tools of, of creative work and incorporating it in a form factor that felt very fresh and different. And, and I think the larger market will always appreciate that.
00;37;24;18 - 00;37;56;01
Derek
I don't know if I, if there's this middle layer that I think people are just gravitate gravitating towards to kind of just like scratch their economic itch, or if they just believe that there's a system here that's doing something different. In this case, you know, Botto being trained to to, to basically make P5, JS works and they want to they in the, in the lineage of how AI systems and generative art and and blockchains as a recording format are intersecting.
00;37;56;01 - 00;38;17;10
Derek
They want to own an object that kind of charts the modern build out of these. Thus this conversion convergence and and own like, you know, the work that, was made in February of 2025 around that intersection is as a kind of a milestone reached or a milestone hit. And that's that to to them is the most important part of this.
00;38;17;10 - 00;38;37;05
Derek
It's it's, you know, a supporting this journey and and owning, you know, one of the core objects that shows at this timestamp and even if like the visual outputs aren't interesting or charting new ground, it's it's kind of like this, these, these trends that have come together in a way that are compelling and they want to kind of support and be a part of that.
00;38;37;07 - 00;38;59;08
Derek
But I also appreciate what you're saying, Chris. Like, I think there's something I think there's something about my lens where I kind of view things in, in, in like more traditional ways that maybe aren't taking into account some of what, some of the points you're making that maybe getting activated around some of these new behaviors. So I'm, I'm going to sit with that for a bit and see if see if it resonates.
00;38;59;10 - 00;39;25;16
Chris
Yeah. Let me try one more angle of attack here because a I'm just developing this idea is like we're we're talking. Right. It came to me like mid-conversation, but maybe it's the, the relationship that is also like because I do see your point around wanting to be on the cutting edge and wanting to be part of, like, collecting the here and now and the very bleeding edge of what systems can do.
00;39;25;18 - 00;39;51;19
Chris
But to go back to my other point about like contemporary artists, right. Like the ask was to be let into the process and to be let into the life of creation, you know, via all this having to to share your work and, you know, be out in socials. Maybe that wasn't enough now, and maybe it's actually a the demands are changing in and that they want more influence over the production as well.
00;39;51;21 - 00;40;15;17
Chris
I mean, you know, this botto gender of art embrace, you know, especially if you you read the thread on, you know, how the giraffe came to be. That was that community driving that thing into existence. And so, you know, maybe that's another part of the appeal here is that these autonomous systems have more room for collector input at the creation of the creation process.
00;40;15;20 - 00;40;19;01
Derek
Yeah, that's that's an interesting point. And,
00;40;19;03 - 00;40;29;10
Aaron
I think you're on to something, though, Chris. Yeah. I mean, I do think you're on to something here. I mean, it would make sense that people also want some degree of control. When you think back over that process.
00;40;29;12 - 00;40;52;02
Chris
It's a dividing line. I don't think everyone wants that. I think some people do want that. And I think that's where you start getting into, you know, debate about is this art or is this product art my capital I art I want to say I'm sprat to to go disappear into a studio and be very painterly and come out with extra work in product.
00;40;52;02 - 00;41;01;15
Chris
I have a totally different set of expectations, and some of that does start bringing in concept of customer journey and relationship to product.
00;41;01;17 - 00;41;27;16
Aaron
But I think there's always been process has always been part of art to it. So part of what makes certain things novel or interesting is that process, right? Like even thinking of generative art, like, why did I personally like love when my puns work so much? It was in part because of his process, right? And like what he was able to do in terms of generating things that looked more lifelike and and painting like in ways that other people didn't weren't able to do that before.
00;41;27;19 - 00;41;47;27
Aaron
So at least for me, I do think that's part of the the part of what makes certain NFTs or digital creators interesting. I definitely agree it's not everybody's something everybody cares about, but I do think a lot of artists and creators do care about that process. Bits. Maybe if it's just thematically aligns with with what we've seen in more traditional art and with more traditional creators.
00;41;47;27 - 00;41;51;10
Aaron
And maybe it's a sign of the space even maturing a bit.
00;41;51;13 - 00;42;17;13
Pri
So this is what I'm hearing this and I'm thinking two things. One is this because of just the, you know, agent type of meta or this like singular influencer agent meta, and adopting that in the context of art is a is a way to kind of ride the coattails of that larger meta and, and, you know, create something different that feeds into a larger narrative that we're seeing, which, you know, that's that's fine.
00;42;17;13 - 00;42;51;16
Pri
And then I think the number two kind of thing is like, is is just a way to control the distribution more than anything else is it's less about like the creativity and the control over that and more about like, hey, if you can create like a collective around a machine, you can kind of control, not control distribution, but you can just your efforts are less about the work and more about how to gain a following, how to create intrigue and interest around the work, how to cut through the noise a bit because it's like you're just more focused on doing that as opposed to the work itself.
00;42;51;18 - 00;42;59;06
Pri
I don't know if that makes any sense, but those are just like two potential reasons I could see as to why things are directionally moving in that direction.
00;42;59;08 - 00;43;51;18
Chris
Yeah, it allows you to draft force multipliers onto your project because A, you can have much larger organizations operating under the mantle of a, a branded project versus an individual artist. I, I know artists have teams that they rely on, you know, for a variety of tasks, but do they necessarily have the ability to attract people who are genuinely passionate about the work, but also might be really, really good about vocalizing, evangelizing, keeping that word constantly fresh versus, oh, I'm an artist and, you know, I for every hundred thousand dollars I generate, 20,000 of that has to go into my support staff.
00;43;51;18 - 00;44;15;11
Chris
And of that 20,000, you know, I occasionally allocate $5,000 to, you know, someone who manages my social. Like, I don't really know how this works, but I can see I can see like the individual artist being disadvantaged in terms of like the resources they can both attract and throw at. Yeah, amplifying and boosting your, your, your, your output.
00;44;15;13 - 00;44;40;14
Pri
Yeah. And it's like a way to kind of focus your full human attention on that and like have something else worry about the work. I, that's a little bit of a cynical view. But I do think increasingly all about, everything. And, I mean, this isn't like a profound statement, but everything is like distribution. And so if you focus all your efforts on, like that network momentum and building and like, the actual item could be fairly mediocre.
00;44;40;14 - 00;44;59;29
Pri
Not saying it is, but if you're able to actually get people to look at it and talk about it and, it's, I mean, I guess that's how everything is become something. But I think it's even more it's even more so now. I mean, like if you think about some of the biggest influencers on the planet, I mean, they're creating multi-billion dollar businesses.
00;44;59;29 - 00;45;25;10
Pri
I think similarly, you can kind of probably run that playbook around an art via an agent. And if it's just person, you know, focus on the art that you've prompted it, you could just focus on distribution. But again, that's a little bit cynical, but I could see that as like a benefit. And it's a collective too. It's not like a singular person that has like a team behind them, which actually makes it even easier.
00;45;25;12 - 00;45;46;14
Pri
I just read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about private equity funds and how things are becoming kind of small at the top and aggregated in the mega funds. I kind of feel that way with VC funds with like Lightspeed at this point is probably like a $4 billion fund. You saw you're seeing like general Catalyst or whatever, you know, go into wealth management services.
00;45;46;17 - 00;46;03;00
Pri
It feels like VCs are taking on the mega you know, VCs are taking on a a different role to some extent that they were like even a decade ago, five years ago. So I don't know if there's something to to talk about there, but, yeah, there's there's a couple things floating around.
00;46;03;02 - 00;46;28;03
Aaron
Yeah. I mean, it was a huge week for technology, right? Between Microsoft announced that they've made huge advancements in quantum computing to some of the interesting advancements we have with AI and being able to use it for, I think, genetics and some other more bio slash pharmaceutical use cases, or at least the beginning innings of that to some advancements in robotics.
00;46;28;03 - 00;46;44;12
Aaron
And seeing that that is continuing to to kind of accelerate. I think the one notable thing that jumped out to me was just seeing a company basically trying to bring to life Westworld with more, I guess, like fleshy humans, which I don't know, makes me feel many different things.
00;46;44;14 - 00;46;48;10
Pri
I watched the last Megan Fox movie that basically is about this.
00;46;48;13 - 00;47;12;11
Aaron
Rat's biology Hollywood coming to life again. So yeah, it's pretty amazing to just see this kind of increased acceleration and then all this intimation that we're going to be getting new and more advanced kind of models coming from all the major players, which means even more powerful open source models. So it's been a really big, big week when it comes to tech, which I think is super fascinating.
00;47;12;11 - 00;47;32;01
Aaron
It feels like the acceleration is is beginning. And to your point, I can't imagine that that's not going to change the way, capital is allocated. You know, I think you're seeing even like bigger and bigger projects that may need more capital on the one hand. And maybe these larger venture capital funds are really going to service that segment of the industry.
00;47;32;01 - 00;47;52;02
Aaron
And then at the same time, I think you're going to just see more and more, you know, solo, small team, more atomized work that really breaks through and changes the world. So I honestly don't think there's been a better time to be in and around technology. And it really does feel like America's tech supremacy is just solidifying by the day.
00;47;52;05 - 00;48;10;02
Pri
Oh, yeah. Totally. Although it is, and it is a curious to see China embracing their tech sector a little bit more to I think the deep tech thing like re-energized them. You got Jack Ma and I think there's like a summit with the CCP that they're going to hold with some of the tech leaders in China. You know, I think there's an effort.
00;48;10;02 - 00;48;36;12
Pri
It seems like there's going to be an effort there as well to focus on it. But I agree with you. I feel like American tech right now is is in a good spot. And just like it's kind of amazing just to see the innovation. Like every week I'm reading just like incredible news coming out of like biotech and health as a result of a lot of the AI stuff, like, I mean, there's so much there's going to be so much discovery and access to health care.
00;48;36;14 - 00;48;58;02
Pri
And, you know, I just I was reading a story this this morning. It was in nature, about like a rare genetic disorder was that was treated in the womb of of a child, which is just like crazy, even just like how we think about ourselves as people is, is going to change dramatically. Yeah. It's it's wild to think about.
00;48;58;05 - 00;49;16;13
Aaron
I think it's all net net. You know, we may not have hockey supremacy, Chris, but I think we are seeing some tech supremacy. And it's cool to see tech also like solving some big problems. Right. Like you were just describing like rare, you know, long tail diseases that wouldn't get the attention just because the cost of doing so was so difficult.
00;49;16;15 - 00;49;45;22
Aaron
I think I saw even like a BBC article where some it really well established researcher who at Imperial College London, spent two years working on a therapeutic of some sort, used some of the new code scientists tooling that Google put out and was able to basically get a similar answer to his research in a prompt. Right. So it was compressing down work that would have taken two years in the university setting down to, you know, a couple minutes in that child.
00;49;45;24 - 00;50;05;15
Aaron
And if that like, pattern continues, like it really does, it does kind of push tech progress forward and hopefully in ways that really enhance and improve people's lives. It's also kind of interesting just because we we've kind of muse on this for a while, but like to see Brian Johnson kind of moving into into the Silicon Valley thoughts here.
00;50;05;18 - 00;50;09;01
Aaron
Over the past couple weeks. Two I wonder if the two are related in some sort of way.
00;50;09;04 - 00;50;35;02
Chris
We are reaching a point where benchmarks aren't enough, right? Like we are hitting that point where, hey, it's great that someone can make up a test and then you can, you know, push a model to perform on that test. But real world impact is what matters, right? And it does take technology a while to diffuse, but we do need to start seeing that diffusion happen.
00;50;35;02 - 00;51;05;16
Chris
Right. And you know, Microsoft I think I saw something floating around with them where, you know, they were kind of distancing themselves or souring a bit on their commitment to open AI. You know, related to this point. And so, I mean, I can also understand, you know, if you're you're out there developing new forms of matter and, you know, making real advancements in quantum chips, you know, to, to kind of be casting aside AI at people playing, you know, tech benchmark games.
00;51;05;16 - 00;51;34;28
Chris
But what actually matters, right, is how this stuff impacts the world. And until we start getting to this data point, it's really you don't know, right? Okay. Great. Generative AI can do all sorts of great party tricks that, you know, can distract us and entertain us, but like, what what happens when the rubber hits the road and we are starting to get to that point, you know, just based on, like, all the things you you've pointed out.
00;51;35;01 - 00;51;57;04
Aaron
Yeah. And I feel like, you know, if you think about even like the 20 tens and the big criticism of tech, it was just it was not focused on things that matter. And I know it gets like lost in the sauce even with digital assets. But you know, those systems matter fundamentally. Like, you know, how we pay for things like what our shared currencies are like, how we register and deal with property ownership and rights in the digital world.
00;51;57;04 - 00;52;17;13
Aaron
Like, those are really deep, important topics. I think that gets glossed over by some of the, you know, ambulance response that we needed to do at the top of the at the top of the podcast. But it's good to kind of see people focused on, you know, big problems. Again. And it feels like we're at the precipice of being able to begin to tackle even bigger problems now.
00;52;17;13 - 00;52;37;20
Aaron
Right? Like health, health care, and, you know, our well-being and, you know, hopefully better ways to to solve all the issues that we have across the board. So I'm super pumped that, you know, for the next couple quarters, I just I feel the acceleration like it's it's moving like fast, faster and faster. I'm ready for it.
00;52;37;23 - 00;52;59;13
Chris
Yeah. We need new paradigms. We need new frontiers, and we need work that gets us into that space. And I, we kind of have been wrapping up, you know, a decade of B2B, SaaS as as the golden child of the space and, and all that really is, is, is about like optimizing processes, you know, just taking existing things and making them better.
00;52;59;16 - 00;53;12;05
Chris
And so, you know, if we do kind of come to the end of that era and we're now opening, opening brand new doors in which we don't know what we're walking through, that, that that's a good thing.
00;53;12;07 - 00;53;35;11
Aaron
Yeah, completely. And you know, you know, like that era felt like the end of the Boomer and Chris. Like that's when meta theme, at least to me of what really all of society was it was all about like optimization and not building new stuff. And I feel like we're starting to build really, really new stuff. And it's harder and harder for me to look at like a specific industry and not see it read me reimagined in some sort of way.
00;53;35;13 - 00;54;03;16
Aaron
So if it's drug discovery, like work, that would have taken years to this, like cumbersome, slow bureaucratic process, like now it's going to take significantly less time, right? If the cost of doing that has gone down dramatically, like that entire big, important part of how we do things, it's going to have to change. You know, now you can do professional work in a minutes or two in seconds instead of the weeks, hours, months that it takes to do things.
00;54;03;18 - 00;54;22;19
Aaron
I think it's going to it's going to change the way all the professional services operate. And I think we've already kind of saw glimmers of it with media. Right. Like if you can just produce high quality media, you know, every time, every device, at any point in time, it's just going to really change how we consume and and the whole information landscape.
00;54;22;21 - 00;54;44;24
Aaron
It feels like we we've kind of pushed beyond the boomer era. I'm hoping that it feels like what it must have felt like from the 1870s. So like the 1930s, right, or just society really changed rapidly or it was almost completely indistinguishable. In a 50 year period, we moved from farms to, to cities and, really kind of blew out industrialization.
00;54;44;24 - 00;54;47;20
Aaron
It feels like we're we're kind of at a similar moment.
00;54;47;23 - 00;54;49;05
Pri
So I'm, I'm super cool.
00;54;49;08 - 00;54;56;15
Aaron
Yeah. And like by the time we're old and gray or maybe we never get older, older and grayer, right? Like the whole world starts to look different.
00;54;56;17 - 00;54;59;19
Pri
Yeah. The transition period is going to be interesting.
00;54;59;21 - 00;55;15;07
Aaron
Well, I think there's a lot of turning. Worried about that. Yeah. But it's it's good I mean, like you want transitions. You want to see things kind of move ahead. I think it's going to enable people to really think big, and it's going to create a lot of opportunity that, you know, for people that are leaning into it.
00;55;15;09 - 00;55;35;29
Aaron
But it just feels like this phase shift is happening on the on the model side. Like whether it's the on the cogeneration side, on the creative generation side, on their synthesis of, you know, literature and scientific material. Like, it all feels like it's beginning to come together. It's pretty awesome. So yes, pretty visible change because of that. It's really won't be private.
00;55;36;01 - 00;55;38;19
Aaron
There probably won't be private equity companies in the future.
00;55;38;20 - 00;55;50;29
Pri
It's like turning into like one of them hedge funds and private equity. Like I'm like, looks like Series B's are like infusing like $50 million. And like, that's not even something that just like I could said numbers at that point.
00;55;51;02 - 00;56;10;24
Aaron
But like, why are you assuming that there even is going to be private equity in the future? The private equity is a creature of the last, you know, really since the what, the 80s, 90s, 80s and 90s? Yeah. You know, even like venture capital funds have only been around since then. The first ones, I think, rolled off the assembly line in like the 19, late 1950s into the 1960s.
00;56;10;26 - 00;56;17;09
Aaron
So, I mean, these are all like very new contracts. They could definitely evolve or they could get completely co-opted.
00;56;17;11 - 00;56;51;22
Chris
Aaron is looking forward to continuous on demand funding from internet capital markets for super lean, cutting edge, brand new products projects, business lines in which there is no bloated optimization, no offshoring, no downsizing. That is, private equity is bread and butter. You know, saddle up a bunch of debt, do all sorts of financial accounting trickery and just squeeze blood from a stone until you throw it away.
00;56;51;24 - 00;56;53;13
Chris
Aaron wants to get past that shit.
00;56;53;20 - 00;56;56;25
Aaron
Yeah. I mean, but don't we all I mean, like and then of course.
00;56;56;25 - 00;57;00;04
Chris
We know that, right? Like when framed that way.
00;57;00;10 - 00;57;26;10
Aaron
Yeah. And we celebrate, you know, these industries like that's not something to celebrate like to me, like building something new. It's something to celebrate. You know, just because I know you've been kicking around with a lot of the the new fun tools I've been to. I'm hoping to release this in the next couple of weeks. But as somebody that has been a lawyer, a law professor, I thought a lot about the legal industry and just built by kind of the first version of a tool that creates an AI agent, Supreme Court.
00;57;26;11 - 00;57;45;23
Aaron
It's able to, like, ingest the papers from plaintiffs and defendants in real cases, and it looks like it's accurate, even like the most cherished of institutions. I think the change there change is on the table, right? The future could be a world where, you know, you get justice in minutes. You don't get justice in months or years. Right?
00;57;45;28 - 00;58;02;08
Aaron
It's, could be a world where you're getting, at least initially, insight and and reasoning and wisdom from a synthetic system as opposed to a human system. So I just think everything's on the table right now. And that's super exciting. And that can be terrifying. But I think I think that that it's going to be great.
00;58;02;10 - 00;58;24;10
Pri
I think it's going to be great. We to be more experimentation even when it comes to what gets and gets investment, which I think, you know, if if capital becomes easier to deploy and less money going to management fees and more money going in the pockets of people who are experimenting and creating value. So I think not a bad place to end it if that's if that's the.
00;58;24;12 - 00;58;35;05
Chris
All right. Well, from Armchair Disaster Response unit to wild eyed optimists so bullish on the future it hurts. This has been it hurts. Crazy.
00;58;35;08 - 00;58;48;10
Aaron
It hurts. Yeah. And I am optimistic about USA hockey. Although I will note I didn't want to say before that it didn't even make above the fold on ESPN was below the fold. The USA was Canada again.
00;58;48;11 - 00;59;18;11
Chris
Yeah, a little disappointing. You can often chalk that up to ESPN not having broadcast rights over something, but in this case they did. That's okay. Yes. Mainstream media can choose to put it's still business interests first. But the heart of the bleeding sports fan people who crave real competition and they know where it's at and we won the hearts and minds, of February with international hockey.
00;59;18;14 - 00;59;26;23
Aaron
I even watched part of that. I watched the Sweden game. It was it was exciting and more shocking news. So I think you're right. It's on the ascendancy.
00;59;26;25 - 00;59;46;27
Chris
Welcome back to the fold, Aaron.