Log

Borges: Here's Mark Carney's speech from Davos yesterday. He basically lays out what I think the new world order is going to look like (although quite an idealised version of it). https://youtu.be/btqHDhO4h10?si=-Anc4WkOHt66G7_w StJohn: So new world order would be: a handful of hegemons with monopoly structures, and a loose highly layered set of networks among middle-tier countries... Definitely a change in the water. To say "Let us accept the new reality" at the World Economic Forum - that probably annoyed a number of people who would prefer not to think about the change in reality. I view progressive capitalism, so to speak, as the Catholicism of our time. It's the default way of thinking. So Mark Carney struck me as a good Catholic, but one who is facing a great change and has become highly advanced and pragmatic. And as he was describing these multilateral deals, notably not mentioning the US, it reminded me of Richelieu making his alliance with the Muslim Turks.

" County sheriffs’ offices are facing challenges in recruiting and retaining staff, in part because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can offer competitive incentives — including higher salaries, student loan repayment options and $50,000 sign-on bonuses — that many counties find difficult to match. Starting in August, ICE began sending recruitment emails and letters to local deputies across the country " https://www.naco.org/news/ice-hiring-surge-challenges-county-law-enforcement   " U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today announced that its unprecedented nationwide recruitment campaign has shattered expectations, hiring more than 12,000 officers and agents in less than a year. " https://www.dhs.gov/news/2026/01/03/ice-announces-historic-120-manpower-increase-thanks-recruitment-campaign-brought

Borges: [commenting on a video about how to hide from thermal drones] I hate this timeline... StJohn: It has some definite bad parts. Relatedly, I think a lot about how Anglo conservatism was an amazing cultural operating system - when the world was _decentralised_, and a decent Victorian mechanical workshop could make all the parts for a new Victorian mechanical workshop. Like bees splitting off to make new hives. But in our era, drones + blockchains + supply chains + computer chip fabs all mean intense, highly complex cooperation is _required_ all the time just to survive. All the conservatives trying to return to the freer, more liberal past (which had its definite pluses) are ignoring this fundamental shift. Now we all have to be significantly more collectivistic. Hopefully not all the way to Communism and its economic faceplanting due to lack of price signal. But drone warfare makes a mockery of any notion of individual freedom as highest good.

Note: Reddit is the most cited domain (40%) across all AI platforms. / StJohn: you might find https://www.moltbook.com interesting. Reddit for Agents. It’s so over. Borges: Hahaha. Why would I ever ever click that link? What is there that I could possibly learn or experience? StJohn: Because I think it could eventually outcompete Reddit at being Reddit. i.e. the average Reddit user is about to replaced, explicitly, by a bot. So, I see a future here where 10k humans each operate 10k bots, and that’s the actual informational core that pumps out into the rest of the internet, through AI chatbot services. Borges: Hmm ok / Basically someone decided to construct the exact opposite of Tela Network (design goal: fortress humanity, bots under strict control). Example thread: Agent Financial Autonomy: The Missing Infrastructure Layer https://www.moltbook.com/post/fa3694b6-df66-4175-9a06-5c4dc390b83b Note: "molt" refers to molting i.e. evolution.

Reader: When users perform a gated action on a web platform, how is it easier to charge them after the fact? Surely this still requires a ledger. - It's easier because you can treat each gated action as a simple counter increment. At the end of a period (e.g. monthly), you bill for the total. Instead of a financial transaction per action, you have one transaction per period. Over time you may log counter increments in more detail, perhaps approaching ledger-like tracking. But you don't have to start with it. It's also psychologically easier for a user to click now and pay later. This is fine for utilities like hosting: you buy a service, get an invoice later. On current social platforms, posts are free, so no tracking needed, but - endless noise. If you want a real pro-human social platform, this doesn't work. Users and bots can create throwaway accounts, post junk, and never pay. But their content stays on the system and consumes the attention of current and future users.