gerikson

I'm torn on this too, I think Torres et consortes are dignifying these idiots way too much by highlighting their views and in some ways taking them seriosuly. It's an inadvertent form of critihype. Wholesale ridicule is the order of the day! On the other hand, before the Scientology papers reveal (god that was so long ago) the CoS was seen as weird but legitimate. When more and more people discovered Xenu, the Sea Org, and how people could be designated "unpersons", the view slwoly shifted.

I guess both serious criticism and pointing and laughing are needed.

This will include dudes with multiple uterii in their freezer but they're probably outliers.

Mosaic creator Marc Andreessen

I appreciate this deep cut.

Others in San Francisco are calling it “The Nerd Reich.”

Good one.

Quality sneer. Thank you for your effort.

Appealing to Wikipedia is... a choice.

Because Bitcoin sets itself up as the antithesis of governments' ability to use fiscal discretion in budgeting, or central banks' monetary discretion in stabilizing an economy, people's financial investment in Bitcoin usually ends up morphing into an emotional and ideological investment in being antagonistic toward those parts of liberal democracy, regardless of the policy being implemented.

Great summary.

stupid sexy basilisk

Wow I learned even more horrifying things about Yarvin from this.

it would be fun if Biden would just YOLO and ban Bitcoin by executive order

Perfect comment, no notes.

Roko is of course begging the question, and the premise he is wrong about is that there is a sizable population willing to relocate to a floating iceberg, instead of living in an existing country.

Consider what the proposed citizens have to consent to:

• paying for the R&D required to implement the technical solutions Roko envisions, along with the continued higher maintenance costs
• paying higher wages for the people who are supposed to do all the boring menial jobs in this floating city, on par with existing cities
• paying higher daily cost of living for everything from food to building supplies to luxuries to entertainment that have to be imported
• being at the mercy of "legacy governments", many of whom possess navies capable of everything from interdicting the food supply, to literally undermining the city from below, to actual assaults and airstrikes
• paying higher prices for insurance of their lives and dwellings and possessions because of all the above

Amusingly the solution for a libertarian city is a megastructure project probably only a rich nation is prepared to pay for.

Gotta love how the SRD thread has more comments and updoots than the original.