The Self-Interested Case for Techno-Optimism

Back in 2023, Silicon Valley bigwig Marc Andreessen wrote a manifesto that exhorted us all to embrace technology with unbridled enthusiasm. This, it turns out, means that we must ensure tech remains as unregulated as possible in order to let it do its thing, which is nothing less than save the world! Reed and I go through the particulars and detect a certain, shall we say, alignment between this tech-driven salvation and corporate self-enrichment. Also, the aesthetics of 1920s Italian fascism plays an unexpected role in the whole vision. We end up on an optimistic note of our own. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

In the second of our two episodes on Balaji Srinivasan's The Network State, we go looking for the network state in the wild, from Honduras to Uruguay. We review what a network state actually is, or at least is supposed to be: a solution to a world divided between three ideological poles, namely the New York Times, the Chinese Communist Party and … Bitcoin. Yes, really. Along the way we ask why the tech industry's countercultural utopians drifted rightward, who this vision really appeals to, and the wider reactionary culture absorbing it. Mostly, it seems, disaffected males. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

What does it look like when the crypto-class imagines its ideal future? Reed and I have been finding out, by reading the manifesto of Balaji Srinivasan, CTO of Coinbase and partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. In his 2022 manifesto, The Network State, Srinivasan advocates for replacing the nation-state with crowdfunded, cloud-first communities. In this episode, we look at Balaji Srinivasan's The Network State and its vision of a political future that will take shape in the cloud. Srinivasan rejects the foundations of the nation-state (shared language, inherited culture, historical path dependency, contiguous territory) as hopelessly captured by bad (i.e. woke) ideas. In their place he imagines political identities that coalesce around chosen principles (like the Keto diet!), written onto the blockchain and assembled in the cloud, offering an exit from inherited models of national belonging. In the first of two episodes, we examine his idiosyncratic reading of history, which both explains why he thinks existing political models have failed and supplies his case for the network state as a superior mode of political organization. We also grapple with the bigger question of why people who have done spectacularly well under the existing order are embracing a radical politics of grievance against it. Get in touch with us by email at [email protected], or follow us on Rolf’s substack “Under the Aqueduct” or at Reed’s Bluesky. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

As the 24-hour operation to bring about regime change in Iran enters its second month, we take a look at the case for the war from the right-wing perspective, both in Israel and the United States. We consider what the desire to attack Iran tells us about the ideological standpoints within each country’s conservative thinking, to what degree the domestic priorities of the Trump administration to enact Project 2025 are helped or hurt by a prolonged military campaign, and what the longer-term fallout might be, especially for the continued importance of supporting Israel inside US Republican politics. We also celebrate a subscriber milestone for our podcast and offer shoutouts to Rolf’s sister and Reed’s mom, only one of whom is, in fact, a loyal listener. You can listen via Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc.Get in touch with us by email at [email protected], or follow us on Rolf’s substack “Under the Aqueduct” or at Reed’s Bluesky. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

It’s our latest – and last! – episode on Curtis Yarvin, aka mencius moldbug, a key intellectual presence behind the Trump administration courtesy of his blog-slash-book, Unqualified Reservations. In previous episodes we snarked our way through some of Yarvin’s epistemological concerns around things like history, economics, and race. In this discussion, we turn to his prescriptive vision for the future state and how to get there, touching along the way his interdiction against lynchings, his call-out to Confucius, and why El Salvador may be the first state to align itself with Yarvin’s corporate model. Join us as we bid adieu to the powerhouse thinker who furnishes the rental unit inside J.D. Vance’s head.Get in touch with us by email at [email protected], or follow us on Rolf’s substack “Under the Aqueduct” or at Reed’s Bluesky. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

Rolf and Reed are back with more on their ongoing exploration of the blog-turned-political-manifesto Unqualified Reservations by the self-proclaimed über-reactionary Curtis Yarvin. In this episode we consider Yarvin’s argument regarding climate change (a hoax), Keynesian economics (a form of theft) and “Human Neurological Uniformity” (don’t even ask). As we explore, many of Yarvin’s contrarian and reactionary postures around these core issues appear to be informing current US politics, making their consideration as timely as they are alarming. Get in touch with us by email at [email protected], or follow us on Rolf’s substack “Under the Aqueduct” or at Reed’s Bluesky. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

In this episode of While our Students Are Sleeping, Rolf and Reed continue their exploration of the thought of Curtis Yarvin aka "moldbug," the political thinker for the modern techbrocracy. We look at his interpretation of several major historical events, as outlined in his blog-turned-book Unqualified Reservations: the American Revolution, the US Civil War, and World Wars I & II. If you think you know a thing or two about history, think again! Get in touch with us! Email us ([email protected]) or check out Rolf's substack (https://rolfstromolsen.substack.com/) and Reed's Bluesky (@reedvanschenck.bsky.social) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

Some works are notable for the power of their ideas; others for the power of those attracted to their ideas. Curtis Yarvin (aka “moldbug”) was for many years a contrarian, libertarian-adjacent blogger calling for a new world order, unknown to most, but curiously popular with the techbro and billionaire class – Peter Thiel was an early enthusiast. With the arrival of the second Trump administration and the ascendancy of the billionaire-techbrocrats, Yarvin’s ideas have been politically mainstreamed, providing a political-theoretical lens through which many in the MAGA sphere see the world, and helping to shape the future they wish to bring about. In this episode, the first of four on Yarvin, Rolf and Reed explore the strange intellectual world that he inhabits, diving into the first section of his blog-post collection-turned-book entitled Unqualified Reservations: A Gentle Introduction to Reactionary Enlightenment, in which Yarvin exhorts us to take a red pill and follow him into the world of the darkly enlightened. You can get in touch with us at [email protected] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

This third episode of our new podcast continues our exploration of the thought of Carl Schmitt (1888–1985), the notorious German jurist and political theorist of the Nazi regime.We discuss Carl Schmitt’s 1932 treatise The Concept of the Political and suggest that his definition of politics – as the existential distinction between “Friend and Enemy” – is highly relevant to the volatile polarization of modern Western politics. We examine how Schmitt criticized liberal democracy for trying to replace decisive sovereign power with endless parliamentary debate and economic administration, a process he viewed as “depoliticizing” and ultimately weak because it ignores the reality of conflict. We also apply this lens to current events, including the rise of right-wing populism and the recent “healthcare assassin” case to explore whether liberal democratic societies are reverting to a “Schmittian” state where political groups are once again defining themselves by who they are willing to fight and negate rather than with who they can find political compromise. You can get in touch with us at [email protected]º This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com

This second episode of our new podcast continues our exploration of the thought of Carl Schmitt (1888–1985), the notorious German jurist and political theorist of the Nazi regime. One of his most famous works, Political Theology lays out Schmitt’s argument for a clear expression of executive sovereignty, anchored by its famous opening declaration: “Sovereign is he who decides upon the exception.” We review the background to this work in the ideas of Max Weber, as well as Schmitt’s rejection of the neo-Kantian idea of constitutional authority, and consider why Schmitt saw the need for a clearly defined executive sovereignty as the political imperative of his time. Along the way, we note the similarities between Schmitt’s arguments and the emerging discourse in our current politics surrounding the need for strong executive leadership. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rolfstromolsen.substack.com