The only way the US can win is by moving past the culture wars and returning to an accelerating society. Other Western countries have already given up (Germany, Italy, and Portugal have sided with China by signing up for the Belt and Road and using Huawei equipment. Probably more countries to come)
I really hope the chaos we're going through is a cathartic release from the period of economic stagnation that we've been in for the past 40 - 50 years. I disagree with AOC on almost everything but her Green New Deal had one aspect worth praising. There was a bit harking for a return to American Greatness (Apollo program, etc.) Not too far from Trump's "Make America Great Again". The US is still united in its underlying goals but people are divided on how we get there.
"Americans will always do the right thing." - Winston Churchill.
The US is returning to space again, this time built on the ambitions of two of the world's most successful living entrepreneurs (Bezos and Musk). Perhaps this will be the inspiring force driving Americans back to a focus on technological innovation. Anything is possible, but this is my bet.
Isn't the "millions of miles of free data" the edge cases? Yes, they're not literally streaming back everything but they have millions of miles with people driving auto-pilot and sending back a significant amount of edge case scenarios, which is the truly valuable information. Sending back data of "successful auto-pilot" can be sending back 10 hours of driving on a straight two-lane road; which seems quite useless.
They also have cars all over the planet while Waymo seems to only be tested in a few cities. I can't find the podcast, but Elon mentioned how one of the main difficulties is the varying types of intersections. There are only so many intersections in Mountain View. But Tesla is getting data for all kinds of intersections.
The Bitcoin community ironically supports MMT in order to accelerate the decline of traditional financial institutions. I can't believe people take MMT seriously.
It's this type of state intervention into internet companies that I worry about. We'll have lost something special when we give the US or the EU to dictate what we can or can not see on the internet.
In parts of the developing world, Facebook is used sort of like Craigslist to connect buyers and sellers, with the prospective client's friends list acting as a reputation system. Instead of this person to person bartering system, the developed world relies on advertisements and influencers for commerce. There's a Bloomberg article that goes deeper into this but I can't find it right now.
The best movies I saw this year were Bohemian Rhapsody (Critics: 61%, Audience: 87%) and Alita: Battle Angel (Critics: 60%, Audience: 94%). Maybe Rotten Tomatoes should be looking into how their critics are reviewing movies instead of banning "trolls"? If you read some of the critic reviews for the movies I mentioned, they are equally tinged with cultural and ideological opinions.
I think this is why conservatives are so up in arms about this movie. The majority of critics lean left and give high ratings to movies that align with their values. But when conservatives attempt to promote their own opinions about a movie, it's censored because "trolls". At this point, I give more weight to an army of fans, or haters, than a small group of critics.
It's also interesting how the NY Times, New Yorker and The Atlantic will write an essay afterwards that give "nuance" to the details of these types of events. Typically with a liberal bias.
It's easy to blame tech. I'm someone who is borderline Millenial/Gen Z and I'm actually finding myself, both internally and externally, through the use of Twitter. Still very alone at times, think Mr. Robot, but I've actually found hope through the internet. Strangely enough, I had actually wasted time and developed maladaptive traits by trying to find myself in the "real" world, as in the people I was forced to bond with through school and sports.
My take on this is different and many people will disagree. Here it goes. The "intermediate layers and hacks in social interaction" you speak of isn't technology but actually our myths of diversity and multi-culturalism. Real multi-culturalism is really REALLY hard, might be impossible given human nature. The only diverse thing we can all agree on is ethnic food. The other is probably college, careers, etc. Everything else is gone. Our culture is absent of anything internal or metaphysic. Religion and local communities are gone. Political correctness destroyed art.
I'm happy that some people can thrive in this world and good for them. There's the other half who pretend to be part of the trend; the ones that feel isolated. Then there are those like me who are lost in this world. Don't need pity, I've decided to make my own.
There's also a "Plot Against Steve Bannon" but that won't be written on BuzzFeed because he supports the other side. Both are political strategists and one should expect "plots against" them.
Ripple is not decentralized. I don't know enough about Stellar to answer.
Bitcoin is software and can easily implement these features but the community is divided and can't reach consensus on anything. Lightning Network as layer two solution is pretty good from what I know.
Ethereum improvements are coming along very slowly and that's good. They're the only blockchain with active engagement by thousands of multiple parties.
Aragaon and Vault's papers might sound good, but who knows how they'll turn out in production.
I'm only a quarter of the way through but it's already giving me vast amounts of insight into the roots of western civilization. It's also equipping me with mental models to analyze modernity and determine where we are in the history of civilization. It looks like we're in the decadent period.
My Struggle series by Karl Ove Knasgaard
An auto-biographical novel that's over 3600 pages for the entire series. It's really just the most accurate literary experience of modern man. I'm finding it quite useful to analyze my own conscious experience through life.