Gene-editing using the groundbreaking CRISPR technology is about to be put to the test in the first-ever clinical trial of the treatment in humans. CRISPR is a protein in bacteria that can be used to manipulate genetic material to, according to Jennifer Doudna, who...
technology
The One-Size-Fits-All Blockchain
by Ryan Burgett | Feb 17, 2021 | Blog
Recently, I tuned into the LBRY Community Podcast and near the end, they brought up a question that someone had asked about LBRY. This person wanted to know why it was not built on a privacy coin like Monero. They implied that LBRY should move to a private chain like...
The Memory Hole
by Ryan Burgett | Jan 18, 2021 | Blog
Censorship has been in the news a lot lately. You have probably heard it mentioned in relation to Donald Trump. Twitter, Facebook, and many other online platforms permanently suspended his accounts last week. That's pretty wild, but there is a lot more worth talking...
Crypto Is Money
by Ryan Burgett | Jan 6, 2021 | Blog
People who think of cryptocurrencies as something to hold, something to invest in miss the point. Crypto is designed to do things that only crypto can do and its value is in its utility, in its use as money.
Techno-Agorist: Do NPCs Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Ryan Burgett | Nov 9, 2020 | Blog
I am a huge fan of Philip K. Dick. His short stories have always been my favorite science fiction of all time. In high school, I read through my big volume of his short stories so many times that the binding literally fell apart. Recently, I decided to read through...
Techno-Agorist: Broken Security Is No Security
by Ryan Burgett | Nov 9, 2020 | Blog
Every few years, we once again hear about the federal government discussing ways to get around encryption. Usually, thankfully, it doesn't head anywhere. The most spectacular failure was in the nineties when the federal government tried to get tech companies to use...
Techno-Agorist: Whoever Wins… We Live
by Ryan Burgett | Nov 4, 2020 | Blog
I don't know if you have heard, but we just experienced the most important election of our lifetime. At least, that's what I have been told by friends and family from all political persuasions. The funny thing is that I have heard the same about every election that...
$60 Keycaps
by Ryan Burgett | Oct 26, 2020 | Blog
My name is Ryan and I am an agorist. Today we are talking about free markets and $60 keycaps. I am kind've a keyboard snob. Ever since I began working full time at a computer, I have been extremely particular about what keyboard I use. My favorite brand is called Das...
19 Years After 9/11 Americans Still Live in Fear
by Kyle Anzalone | Sep 11, 2020 | Conflicts of Interest
On Conflicts of Interest #6, Kyle and Will outline the legacy of the September 11 attacks on their 19th anniversary, including years of war, torture, and mass surveillance carried out in their wake. The Pentagon has awarded a $13.3 billion contract to Northrop Grumman...
Episode 463: The Commons, the Panopticon and Your ‘Society of Control’ w/ Bird from Friends Against Government
by Peter R. Quiñones | Aug 27, 2020 | Free Man Beyond the Wall
107 Minutes PG-13 Bird is one-third of the hosts of the Friends Against Government podcast Bird joins Pete to discuss various concepts but especially those of the Panopticon and Societies of Sovereignty, Discipline and Control while concentrating on the technology and...
Episode 460: An Overview Of Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thought w/ Daniel Coffeen
by Peter R. Quiñones | Aug 21, 2020 | Free Man Beyond the Wall
62 Minutes Some Strong Language Daniel got his PhD in Rhetoric from UC Berkeley in 1998. He taught adjunct in the department for many years but after becoming displeased with academia, he started writing independently and doing a series of podcasts. He wrote a little...
Open Source Money – New Documentary Features Ross Ulbricht
by Steven Woskow | Jul 31, 2020 | Blog
The Silk road served as the first proof of concept for Bitcoin and consequently cryptocurrency and one author (Brian Iha) in his book said, "that was why Ross was the second most important figure in Bitcoin history after Satoshi." See the documentary for free here...
‘The Computer Got It Wrong’: How Facial Recognition Led To False Arrest Of Black Man
by Scott Horton | Jun 24, 2020 | Blog
Check out this story from NPR about the false imprisonment of a man based on facial recognition technology. What's interesting to me is the first part of the headline: Ain't nobody's fault! The box did it! This is a theme heavily explored by the great Neil Postman in...
Microchipped Children, Forced Testing, House Arrests; Welcome To The New World
by Steven Woskow | May 13, 2020 | Blog
Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point...
Blog
Empower the Workers: Decriminalize Economic Activity Between Consenting Adults
The most reliable and effective protection for most workers is provided by the existence of many employers. As we have seen, a person who has only one possible employer has little or no protection. The employers who protect a worker are those who would like to hire...
Chris Rock’s New Special Exposes His Political Ignorance
A common claim among Democrats is that, "It's not that people don't want to be educated, they just haven't been given the opportunity, thus government spending on education needs to increase." If there were ever a group of people capable of "educating" themselves it...
War and Delusion: A Critical Examination
In this episode of the Protestant Libertarian Podcast, Alex Bernardo sits down once again with Laurie Calhoun. Laurie is a philosopher, a cultural critic and an author. She is a senior fellow at the Libertarian Institute, where she regularly writes articles analyzing...
Crime and Poverty
“The theory that crime is caused by poverty is not supported by the known facts. The very poor, in fact, tend to be just as law-abiding as the rich, and perhaps more so. To argue otherwise is to libel multitudes of people who keep to decency under severe difficulties,...
Don’t Be Silent
We should reject the fashionable idea that one should never write or post anything that possibly could be used by bad people for bad purposes. That admonition brings two things to mind. First, it fails its own test. If good people avoid a topic because even...
Can There Be Only One Race?
I'm old enough to remember this 1960s Lay's Potato Chips commercial. (Hell, I'm almost old enough to remember when plays were in black and white!) In the commercial a man (Bert Lahr, the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz) faces a challenge from the devil, who has a...