William Paulsen introduces a fascinating maze based solely on the distribution of the prime numbers. Balaji extrapolates this to all of human knowledge. We live in a materialistic universe and we expand our knowledge just as we advance our exploration of the proposed maze. Because the universe is fundamentally mathematically organised. This theory does not take a stance on the simulation theory or the Hoffman's interface theory. Those are just some potential explanations of knowledge items we are still ignorant of.

The Prime Number Maze

Science has not answered fundamental questions:<ul><li>How did life appear? Is there a formula for bio-genesis?</li><li>What is consciousness? What makes you... you?</li><li>What is the definition of life? Why are viruses more alive than rocks? Is suffering where we draw the line?</li></ul>

Unanswered Scientific Questions

Also known as the politician's logic is a logical fallacy of the form:<ul><li>We must do something.</li><li>This is something.</li><li>Therefore, we must do this.</li></ul>The argument useless an undefined middle section, thus allowing a politician to focus strictly on the gravity of the problem.

Politician's syllogism

Is a new kind of online community that crowdfunds land around the world, networks it together, and eventually attains diplomatic recognition.<ul><li>The community element is key, because the citizens need strong alignment. A social network like Facebook is can not be a state because there is nothing uniting the users.</li><li>There needs a capacity for collective action. </li></ul>

A Network State

Starting new states is a core issue of our current status-quo. Starting new "digital nations" should be similar to starting a community. America used to thrive on the competition between states. The same spirit can be replicated in the digital realm because we tech like crypto are enabling innovation in state forming, because the constitution can be written down into code.

Governments are resistant to innovation

In an online community you can be:<ul><li>anonymous (like on 4chan where there is no relationship to a person)</li><li>use a pseudonym (like a Reddit username that collects karma)</li><li>use your real name aka the state name</li></ul>Crypto allows to maintain a pseudonymous identity you can trade with, without being survived or canceled. Using pseudonyms will help combat discrimination, or using AI you could scale your presence (say participating virtually in a metaverse). And the state name is not made for the internet (impossible to secure & prone to error).

The pseudonym economy

A community can needs a cave (a private space for users to interact) & a commons are (for community interaction). <ul><li>Twitter is common with some caves in the private messages</li><li>Facebook is semi-private, meaning is public</li><li>Reddit has lots of commons with different rules, the sub-reddits</li><li>Discord is a collection of distributed communities.</li></ul>

Cave & Commons in Online Communities

I am familiar with Balaji's ideas but he is a fascinating dude so I am always finding new stuff. These are some of the new items I discovered.

Balaji Srinivasan is an angel investor, tech founder, philosopher, and author of The Network State: How to Start a New Country. He was formerly the CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Policygenius: https://www.policygenius.com/ - Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex to get 25% off premium - Notion: https://notion.com - Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off EPISODE LINKS: Balaji's Twitter: https://twitter.com/balajis Balaji's Website: https://balajis.com Books: 1. The Network State: https://thenetworkstate.com 2. Reputation and Power: https://amzn.to/3eyQiF6 3. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: https://amzn.to/3TpuLNP 4. Seeing Like a State: https://amzn.to/3MJfvcD Articles: 1. Bitcoin Is Civilization: https://www.commonsense.news/p/is-bitcoin-anarchy-or-civilization 2. Great Protocol Politics: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/11/bitcoin-ethereum-cryptocurrency-web3-great-protocol-politics PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ YouTube Full Episodes: https://youtube.com/lexfridman YouTube Clips: https://youtube.com/lexclips SUPPORT & CONNECT: - Check out the sponsors above, it's the best way to support this podcast - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman OUTLINE: Here's the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time. (00:00) - Introduction (01:24) - Prime number maze (27:37) - Government (43:53) - The Network State (53:57) - Pseudonymous economy (1:17:43) - Exit (1:32:24) - Building a network state (2:20:11) - Wikipedia (2:57:41) - Fixing science (3:24:09) - Fixing the FDA (4:55:18) - Longevity (5:14:15) - Donald Trump's ban from social media (5:43:34) - War (5:50:43) - Censorship (6:04:42) - Social media (6:20:58) - Wokeism and communism (6:39:46) - Cryptocurrency (6:57:18) - AI, AR, and VR (7:09:17) - Advice for young people (7:42:12) - Regulating logic

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Conversations about science, technology, history, philosophy and the nature of intelligence, consciousness, love, and power. Lex is an AI researcher at MIT and beyond.