In this episode, I review the state of Urbit and my history with this ambitious project to rebuild the internet. I explain why I stepped back, detailing what's happened with the network in the past few years, including the challenges faced by startups attempting to build on the platform and the surprising return of founder Curtis Yarvin. I take an honest look at how my initial timeline expectations were off, and other mistakes I made.

This period taught me a lot about technology, market sentiment, and cognition. I share how the experience has shaped my current thinking, as well as my current work with Zorp, a startup from the Urbit ecosystem now building Nockchain. I discuss the attraction of zero-knowledge proofs and why I've adopted a more patient attitude in my relationship with radical technology projects, now preferring to work behind the scenes if I really believe in something.

This is my first update on what I've been doing with Nockchain over the past year, helping to build their audience.

01:21 Discovering Urbit
02:44 Involvement with Urbit
04:44 Challenges and Reflections
05:38 The Independent Scholar
06:57 Urbit's Market Dynamics
15:31 Urbit Startups and Setbacks
22:49 The Rise and Fall of Urbit
23:38 Orbit's Struggles and My Realizations
24:54 Current State and Future Potential of Urbit
31:42 The Promise of Zero Knowledge Proofs
35:18 Introducing Nock Chain
38:31 Reflections and Lessons Learned
45:05 The Launch of Nock Chain

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This episode unpacks the seventh and eighth sentences of Nick Land's "Meltdown," where "soft engineering slithers out of its box into yours" and "human security is lurching into crisis." We consider how Land's vision of programming the body manifests in surprising ways, from COVID-19 as a biological agent turned symbolic force, to the AI of Ex Machina. The idea of the human body as a programmable interface, with roots in William Burroughs, is central to understanding these unfolding crises.

This episode also touches on the rapid, horizontal replication that bypasses old hierarchies – seen in actual cloning, the way internet personalities jump expertise ("transversal replication" via Deleuze & Guattari), and even how IVF restructures reproduction. Cyberotics, like AI girlfriends, and the merging of biological and memetic viruses further illustrate this acceleration where boundaries dissolve and new forms of replication flood in.

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This episode unpacks the third sentence from Nick Land's "Meltdown."

"As markets learn to manufacture intelligence, politics modernizes, upgrades paranoia, and tries to get a grip."

What does it mean for markets to "manufacture intelligence"? Drawing on Hayek and Mises, we discuss how this phrase is not merely a figure of speech. The earliest stock markets around the year 1600 illustrate the concept.

We then consider the reaction of politics to this ascendant market intelligence. Much of political modernism, along with its heightened paranoia, is an attempt to cope with or "get a grip" on forces it cannot control. We discuss examples from Soviet collectivization to the "paranoid style" in American politics.

The idea finds surprising applicability in the contemporary debate around Artificial Intelligence. As AI accelerates, familiar calls for control and "safety" emerge. Referencing Land's "Machinic Desire," we discuss "Politically Organized Defensive Systems" (PODS) and their core rule: "the outside must pass by way of the inside." This is what's going on when it comes to AI governance and the push to centralize oversight of a rapidly escalating new form of intelligence.

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Socrates shows up late, looks like hell, and still somehow rules the room. What's really going in the Symposium? Plato uses a dinner party to show how authentic love is more intoxicating than alcohol. We explore the relationship between erotic desire and philosophy, and how philosophy is often a cold shower on our lesser temptations.

We examine why talented poets like Aristophanes might be the fiercest skeptics of love, Alcalbiades’ dramatic interruption, and how Socrates’ uncompromising pursuit of truth brings admiration as well as danger. Perhaps the only desire strong enough to guide us well is the love of the good, no matter the cost.

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Alex Priou

Alex Priou is a philosopher who works on Plato and Pre-Socratic thought. Alex is the author of three books on Plato: *Becoming Socrates: Political Philosophy in Plato’s Parmenides* (2018), *Defending Socrates: Political Philosophy Before the Tribunal of Science* (2023), and—the pretext for this converstaion—[*Musings on Plato’s Symposium*](https://amzn.to/43BtkEv) (2023). He also co-hosts [*The New Thinkery*](http://www.thenewthinkery.com), a political philosophy podcast. Learn more about Alex's work at [alexpriou.com](http://www.alexpriou.com).

Johnathan Bi shares his journey from successful tech founder to independent philosophy lecturer, explaining why he walked away from founder equity to pursue his passion for bringing philosophical works to a broader audience. Through a unique modern patronage model backed by tech leaders, he's creating high-production lecture videos while maintaining his own independence.

The conversation explores how modern education systems, particularly in places like Beijing, systematically push students away from humanities toward technical subjects. Bi offers fascinating insights into the parallels between Renaissance patronage and modern content creation, revealing how he's built sustainable funding relationships while staying true to his scholarly mission. His approach challenges conventional wisdom about career paths and content monetization, suggesting a new model for independent intellectual work in the digital age.

I'm joined by Nina Power and DC Miller to discuss Plato's Republic. Topics include physical training and physical pleasure, philosophy under political repression, the training of philosophy, wealth, social class, and the role of irony in philosophy.

Starting with the opening scene of The Republic, we explore how philosophy operates under political pressure and the relationship between justice, truth, and madness. We discuss the role of wealth in philosophical pursuit, Christianity's synthesis of Greek philosophical ideas, and whether philosophy should be universally accessible or the province of a select few.

03:02 Plato’s Republic and Justice
07:09 Should Philosophy Be Popular?
14:35 Wealth
34:29 Thinking
35:17 Christianity and Free Speech
36:43 Beauty
38:11 Philosophy and Social Class
43:26 Madness and Philosophy
53:28 The Role of Physical Training in Philosophy
59:51 Irony

I explore Nietzsche's critique of Christianity in The Genealogy of Morals, and specifically how it stands against what we find in the New Testament, especially the Gospel of John. Nietzsche’s understanding of Christian belief as naive and slavish is inconsistent with the sophisticated epistemology presented by John. I discuss the pursuit of truth, the function of miracles, and the essence of sin according to John. Christ seems to be advocating for the pursuit of truth, not some kind of naive, blind faith. Nietzsche’s accusations against Christianity just don't hold up, and probably reflect his own personal struggles with resentment.

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• (00:00) - Nietzsche vs. John
• (02:28) - Introduction
• (05:27) - Nietzsche's Critique of Christianity
• (09:42) - Christ on Truth and Belief in John
• (20:06) - The Rationality of Christianity
• (26:36) - Knowledge and Ethics
• (31:41) - Nietzsche's Critique of Truth
• (36:02) - Truth and Freedom

For references, see Nietzsche on the Pride of the Philosopher in Contrast to the Slave

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