Okay, I'll take up the conspiracy theory challenge. Here we go.
If you draw a straight line between Auroville and Epcot, it goes *right through* the Sahara desert. If you were an alien species trying to set up a worldwide communications grid, wouldn't you start with two giant multi-faceted metallic balls that are far enough apart for proof-of-concept, but don't have a lot of humans in the way? ALSO, wouldn't you just use long-distance mind control to convince already tripped-out artist-y/mystic-y people to build the prototype grid so you wouldn't have to actually drop these golf ball things on the planet yourself (embarrassing!) Yes, you would.
I vaguely hope that Disney tries to make Storyliving be something other than "a planned community." Like, they have been doing some innovative things with immersive experiences in the Star Wars portion of the park and the hotel.
Living in a community that Disney tried to weave some kind of entertainment experience through the basic experience of just living there would probably not be for me, and I expect it would end up being not really for anyone, but it would be interesting, and it's not like anyone is getting hurt.
Maybe this has been discussed before, but legally could someone form a charter county or other sub-national entity, within the United States? Like, pick out a plot of rural land and get the feds to exempt it from state laws- allowing a sort of special economic zone here in the US (yes, federal laws are burdensome, but in practice federal regulators can't be everywhere, and at least you're not covered by the state bureaucracy too).
If it's not workable within the lower 48, maybe picking an island territory that the US controls could be a viable option- Samoa, say, or the Virgin Islands (or even Puerto Rico!) A free trade economic zone with lower taxes and less burdensome regulations, that openly attracts foreign capital
> Step four is “a[n] extensive system of charter cities akin to Singapore or Hong Kong”.
Singapore and Hong Kong are both cities full of people of well above average intellect, founded by people/governments who were capable of creating and running successful nation states. Without these things, there's absolutely no reason to imagine this will work.
Africa has a much smaller pool of high intellect people to draw upon than China/East Asia, so even if you manage to cobble together enough of them for a potentially functional city state like this, you will have deprived the rest of Africa of people it desperately needs. Just as in regular immigration advocacy, the people who ostensibly care most about helping Africa are the ones most vigorously advocating for brain drain that it cannot afford.
"Muchos resentidos sociales en las redes." means "A lot of social resentment online." He's basically saying, "It's all going well but people are complaining online anyway."
https://youtu.be/tKYEXjMlKKQ is about the history of Epcot as a whole but includes very detailed research about the Reedy Creek Improvement district. Also, I hate Twitter search so I'm not going to find the link, but the video's creator had a lot of entertainingly harsh words about all of the journalists that became overnight experts on the subject that he spend months researching.
I officially love Afropolitan on Terra Ignota vibes alone. I don't think they'll succeed, but I really hope they do, in part because I want people to see more genuinely innovative and good stuff come out of Africa.
I took a gander at the Minicircle genetic testing NFT. I am not entirely clear where you are supposed to buy one, or for how much, but at current rates it is redeemable for 1ETH=$1176 and requires the owner (test subject) to go out of pocket for 8 DEXA body image skins which seems to be, conservatively, $1600?
Comparing Disney to what’s happening in Honduras is nuts. Because 1) Disney didn’t actually build the EPCOT city it’s just a very large corporate campus with hotels. 2) They decided to pick a very aggressive fight with the host territory on a policy that had nothing to do with their district’s status.
I am still kind of confused how one can make long-term plans for building some large project in a country where a Marxist government can come in and confiscate everything at any moment. I mean yes, theoretically US government could do it to anybody too, but the chances US votes in a (fully) Marxist government for now are very low. Not all countries have such traditions. Whatever the old laws said, the Marxists can always proclaim these laws were passed by corrupt bourgeoisie dogs, and The People can not be bound by such tricks. So I'd imagine the question is less of what some or other law says and more of whether a particular project has some powerful friends which could put pressure on the Marxists to not just confiscate everything and put the founders against the wall (if they don't have common sense to flee in time). If there are no such powerful friends, I don't see how any letter of the law would protect anybody.
In the end the only thing that matters for *true* sovereignty is how many guns you have. ZEDE isn't much different from Ukraine in that regard. Those with big heavy guns will subjugate those without them. This was the case 10 thousand years ago and it will continue to be the case for as long as humanity exists. All who doubt this basic principle will eventually lose their money and/or their life.
This part "gotten in touch with the governing body of the Central American-US free trade agreement" is mistaken: what happened (and what the linked article said) is that they engaged in consultations with the Honduran government itself, as a preliminary step to initiate arbitral proceedings under the CAFTA-DR agreement (a free trade agreement of which the US and Honduras are party).
This is very typical of these kind of investment treaties, and usually lasts up to six months, and then their counsel (White & Case is indeed one of the top firms in this field) should be able to start the arbitral proceedings. And then give it a good five years before an award comes out - by which time the government might have changed already.
(For context, I am a specialised journalist/academic in the field, happy to answer further questions about all this. We are monitoring this case closely, it's an unusual one.).
I took a look at Minicircle's therapies. Most of them seem plausible (long-term delivery of antibodies/growth factors) but the "GENE THERAPY FOR LOW TESTOSTERONE" could go horribly wrong if they don't pay close attention to hormonal feedback loops. Also depending on how they do the hTERT therapy it may have a risk of cancer.
Unfortunately they don't provide any details on the actual design of their gene therapies.
OOH, I understand that making working and living spaces pretty is mostly a matter of will and vision. OTOH, I have a hard time taking seriously a "factory" whose main feature is a terrace with what looks like a bar.
Have the people making those designs ever been in a factory of any kind? Those places are loud, dirty and smelly. The best way to make a good resting/eating area is to put it far away from all of that, not fancy sloped roofs.
You know, all of these model cities kind of seem like harebrained attempts to give ultramodern street cred to Moldbug, except he wouldn't want them anyway, because for him the throwback aesthetic is kind of the point.
With that, I propose The City of Old, to be founded somewhere in the western US:
1) Make a multi billion dollar software company in a nice city, but hold most of it under a single owner
2) Buy a huge tract near that city, not unlike Disney World
3) Found a new city called Old on the tract
4) Move the company offices to Old
5) The charter for Old:
5a) Old will be ruled by a solo autocrat vested with all the authority legally allowed by the surrounding territory (so, the United States, or any successor state)
5b) The autocrat will serve a fifteen year elected term
5c) Is it legal to call the autocrat a King or Queen? If so, the autocrat will be called King or Queen of Old
6) The requirements to reside in Old:
6a) A degree or equivalent qualifications in liberal arts or classics AND
6b) A degree or equivalent qualifications in a STEM field
6c) Pass a test of erudition and comportment
6d) Residence is conditional on support from the existing residents of Old, who may remove a citizen (other than the autocrat) by supermajority vote on the grounds that the citizen is not virtuous or fails to uphold the classical aesthetic of the town
6e) While this power is implicitly granted by 5a, the autocrat is also explicitly granted the power to remove citizens
I imagine funding and distribution of wealth in Old to be similar to Switzerland, with the multibillion dollar company playing the wealth engine role that Swiss Banks play.
"But also, some people are taking them seriously. VCs including Balaji Srinivasan has invested $2 million. "
I wonder if he actually did it(crypto grifters getting high on their own supply) or if it was just virtue-signaling.
"You get socialists in power, they dissolve charter cities. You get conservatives in power, they also dissolve charter cities. All I want is one government that doesn’t dissolve charter cities! Is that too much to ask?"
Yeah, pretty much. Perhaps corporations shouldn't have decided to alienate the group previously most favorable to them.
Considering the crime rate in Honduras, I wonder if Honduran charter cities will end up primarily as unproductive residential areas for wealthy Hondurans.
Do the charter city founders have some goal other than return on investment? Or are they content if aspiring industrialists can't buy land because wealthy Hondurans will pay more to simply live on that land?
Tangentially related: do you have a specific exobrain component for tracking predictions, reminding you to grade them when they're due, etc.? This is one of the bigger issues which has kept me from doing more comprehensive calibration tracking.
My understanding that the new law dissolving Reedy Creek takes effect in 2023, so there's a possibility that after the 2022 elections, the next legislature could change its mind. I don't know enough about Florida politics to know if anything is likely to change next year, though.
The most interesting thing I've read about the StoryLiving community is probably the 24 acre lagoon / pool, which is controversial because California is rather short on water.
They are using "crystal lagoons technology" and it's not clear what that is if anything, but they claim that it doesn't use that much water:
"The construction costs for a lagoon with Crystal Lagoons technology are very low, even lower than those of a park of the same size. In addition, operating costs are very low, due to the efficient use of safe additives and energy. This revolutionary technology also stands out for its low water consumption, as it operates in a closed circuit, needing only to replace the water that is lost through evaporation. In comparison, a 1 hectare lagoon consumes only 50% of the water required for the maintenance of a park of the same size, and a lagoon of average size consumes around 30 times less than a golf course."
Insightful coverage here. Those interested in learning more about Próspera, including purchasing residences or investing can contact me or visit us at Prospera [dot] HN!
The lawsuit re: "some debts" involves legal precedent from SCOTUS and separately the Florida State Constitution.
> Both the U.S. and Florida constitutions place strict limitations on the government’s ability to impair its own contracts. Under the U.S. Constitution, a state can only impair an existing contract if the impairment is reasonable and necessary to serve an important government purpose. As early as 1866, the U.S. Supreme Court held that once a local government issues a bond based on an authorized taxing power, the state is contract-bound and cannot eliminate the taxing power supporting the bond. The Florida Constitution provides even greater protection from impairment of contracts.
The thrust is that Florida would have to pay off all the outstanding bonds if they want a legally straightforward way of "sticking it to Disney". Can DeSantis convince everyone that it's worth 1 Billion Dollars?
Okay, I'll take up the conspiracy theory challenge. Here we go.
If you draw a straight line between Auroville and Epcot, it goes *right through* the Sahara desert. If you were an alien species trying to set up a worldwide communications grid, wouldn't you start with two giant multi-faceted metallic balls that are far enough apart for proof-of-concept, but don't have a lot of humans in the way? ALSO, wouldn't you just use long-distance mind control to convince already tripped-out artist-y/mystic-y people to build the prototype grid so you wouldn't have to actually drop these golf ball things on the planet yourself (embarrassing!) Yes, you would.
What to do I need to do to start a corporate autocracy in, say, upstate NY?
I vaguely hope that Disney tries to make Storyliving be something other than "a planned community." Like, they have been doing some innovative things with immersive experiences in the Star Wars portion of the park and the hotel.
Living in a community that Disney tried to weave some kind of entertainment experience through the basic experience of just living there would probably not be for me, and I expect it would end up being not really for anyone, but it would be interesting, and it's not like anyone is getting hurt.
Maybe this has been discussed before, but legally could someone form a charter county or other sub-national entity, within the United States? Like, pick out a plot of rural land and get the feds to exempt it from state laws- allowing a sort of special economic zone here in the US (yes, federal laws are burdensome, but in practice federal regulators can't be everywhere, and at least you're not covered by the state bureaucracy too).
If it's not workable within the lower 48, maybe picking an island territory that the US controls could be a viable option- Samoa, say, or the Virgin Islands (or even Puerto Rico!) A free trade economic zone with lower taxes and less burdensome regulations, that openly attracts foreign capital
> Step four is “a[n] extensive system of charter cities akin to Singapore or Hong Kong”.
Singapore and Hong Kong are both cities full of people of well above average intellect, founded by people/governments who were capable of creating and running successful nation states. Without these things, there's absolutely no reason to imagine this will work.
Africa has a much smaller pool of high intellect people to draw upon than China/East Asia, so even if you manage to cobble together enough of them for a potentially functional city state like this, you will have deprived the rest of Africa of people it desperately needs. Just as in regular immigration advocacy, the people who ostensibly care most about helping Africa are the ones most vigorously advocating for brain drain that it cannot afford.
"Muchos resentidos sociales en las redes." means "A lot of social resentment online." He's basically saying, "It's all going well but people are complaining online anyway."
https://youtu.be/tKYEXjMlKKQ is about the history of Epcot as a whole but includes very detailed research about the Reedy Creek Improvement district. Also, I hate Twitter search so I'm not going to find the link, but the video's creator had a lot of entertainingly harsh words about all of the journalists that became overnight experts on the subject that he spend months researching.
Half the people in the Afropolitan photo are also wearing clothing that wouldn't look out of place in 2454.
I officially love Afropolitan on Terra Ignota vibes alone. I don't think they'll succeed, but I really hope they do, in part because I want people to see more genuinely innovative and good stuff come out of Africa.
Black Hammer is doing alright for themselves. They’re fighting American imperialism, one pro Putin demonstration at a time.
https://blackhammer.org/2022/04/25/vladimir-putin-shouts-out-black-hammer/
I took a gander at the Minicircle genetic testing NFT. I am not entirely clear where you are supposed to buy one, or for how much, but at current rates it is redeemable for 1ETH=$1176 and requires the owner (test subject) to go out of pocket for 8 DEXA body image skins which seems to be, conservatively, $1600?
A legal intervention is one that can be carried out with little risk of legal intervention.
Comparing Disney to what’s happening in Honduras is nuts. Because 1) Disney didn’t actually build the EPCOT city it’s just a very large corporate campus with hotels. 2) They decided to pick a very aggressive fight with the host territory on a policy that had nothing to do with their district’s status.
I am still kind of confused how one can make long-term plans for building some large project in a country where a Marxist government can come in and confiscate everything at any moment. I mean yes, theoretically US government could do it to anybody too, but the chances US votes in a (fully) Marxist government for now are very low. Not all countries have such traditions. Whatever the old laws said, the Marxists can always proclaim these laws were passed by corrupt bourgeoisie dogs, and The People can not be bound by such tricks. So I'd imagine the question is less of what some or other law says and more of whether a particular project has some powerful friends which could put pressure on the Marxists to not just confiscate everything and put the founders against the wall (if they don't have common sense to flee in time). If there are no such powerful friends, I don't see how any letter of the law would protect anybody.
In the end the only thing that matters for *true* sovereignty is how many guns you have. ZEDE isn't much different from Ukraine in that regard. Those with big heavy guns will subjugate those without them. This was the case 10 thousand years ago and it will continue to be the case for as long as humanity exists. All who doubt this basic principle will eventually lose their money and/or their life.
This part "gotten in touch with the governing body of the Central American-US free trade agreement" is mistaken: what happened (and what the linked article said) is that they engaged in consultations with the Honduran government itself, as a preliminary step to initiate arbitral proceedings under the CAFTA-DR agreement (a free trade agreement of which the US and Honduras are party).
This is very typical of these kind of investment treaties, and usually lasts up to six months, and then their counsel (White & Case is indeed one of the top firms in this field) should be able to start the arbitral proceedings. And then give it a good five years before an award comes out - by which time the government might have changed already.
(For context, I am a specialised journalist/academic in the field, happy to answer further questions about all this. We are monitoring this case closely, it's an unusual one.).
So, new ZEDEs can't be formed, but are existing ones allowed to expand further? That's pretty important.
Also, it's sure cooler to say "low-cost eco-residences" than "wooden huts".
Reactions to predictions:
- long Reedy Creek to 45%
- short afropolitan to 5%
- shor minicircle to 25%
I took a look at Minicircle's therapies. Most of them seem plausible (long-term delivery of antibodies/growth factors) but the "GENE THERAPY FOR LOW TESTOSTERONE" could go horribly wrong if they don't pay close attention to hormonal feedback loops. Also depending on how they do the hTERT therapy it may have a risk of cancer.
Unfortunately they don't provide any details on the actual design of their gene therapies.
Suggestion: use https://www.deepl.com/translator instead of Google Translate. Much better results for a smaller set of languages.
Does anyone else suddenly have a blue filter over Scott's posts? Not substack in general, just Scott's posts.
OOH, I understand that making working and living spaces pretty is mostly a matter of will and vision. OTOH, I have a hard time taking seriously a "factory" whose main feature is a terrace with what looks like a bar.
Have the people making those designs ever been in a factory of any kind? Those places are loud, dirty and smelly. The best way to make a good resting/eating area is to put it far away from all of that, not fancy sloped roofs.
> EPCOT was to be a utopian autocratic company town completely controlled by Walt Disney himself ... But Walt died the next year
I am now intensely curious about the timeline where Walt Disney survived.
"founding a country based on an especially good essay also sounds like something that would happen in Terra Ignota." <=> happened IRL Der Judenstaat
also you can read the american revolution as the result of several decades of polemics by Franklin, Paine et al
You know, all of these model cities kind of seem like harebrained attempts to give ultramodern street cred to Moldbug, except he wouldn't want them anyway, because for him the throwback aesthetic is kind of the point.
With that, I propose The City of Old, to be founded somewhere in the western US:
1) Make a multi billion dollar software company in a nice city, but hold most of it under a single owner
2) Buy a huge tract near that city, not unlike Disney World
3) Found a new city called Old on the tract
4) Move the company offices to Old
5) The charter for Old:
5a) Old will be ruled by a solo autocrat vested with all the authority legally allowed by the surrounding territory (so, the United States, or any successor state)
5b) The autocrat will serve a fifteen year elected term
5c) Is it legal to call the autocrat a King or Queen? If so, the autocrat will be called King or Queen of Old
6) The requirements to reside in Old:
6a) A degree or equivalent qualifications in liberal arts or classics AND
6b) A degree or equivalent qualifications in a STEM field
6c) Pass a test of erudition and comportment
6d) Residence is conditional on support from the existing residents of Old, who may remove a citizen (other than the autocrat) by supermajority vote on the grounds that the citizen is not virtuous or fails to uphold the classical aesthetic of the town
6e) While this power is implicitly granted by 5a, the autocrat is also explicitly granted the power to remove citizens
I imagine funding and distribution of wealth in Old to be similar to Switzerland, with the multibillion dollar company playing the wealth engine role that Swiss Banks play.
Serious question: does Ave Maria, FL count as a model city?
"But also, some people are taking them seriously. VCs including Balaji Srinivasan has invested $2 million. "
I wonder if he actually did it(crypto grifters getting high on their own supply) or if it was just virtue-signaling.
"You get socialists in power, they dissolve charter cities. You get conservatives in power, they also dissolve charter cities. All I want is one government that doesn’t dissolve charter cities! Is that too much to ask?"
Yeah, pretty much. Perhaps corporations shouldn't have decided to alienate the group previously most favorable to them.
Considering the crime rate in Honduras, I wonder if Honduran charter cities will end up primarily as unproductive residential areas for wealthy Hondurans.
Entire families might live there, as in gated communities like Guatemala's Cayalá. (Positive take: https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2021/05/17/cayal%C3%A1-effect-guatemala-city) (Negative take: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/09/guatemalan-capital-wealthy-haven-city)
Or it might be considered a safe place for nonworking family members to reside. For instance, Chinese businessmen who occasionally visit their wives and children in Vancouver are known as 'astronauts' (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/world/canada/vancouver-chinese-immigrants.html).
Do the charter city founders have some goal other than return on investment? Or are they content if aspiring industrialists can't buy land because wealthy Hondurans will pay more to simply live on that land?
Tangentially related: do you have a specific exobrain component for tracking predictions, reminding you to grade them when they're due, etc.? This is one of the bigger issues which has kept me from doing more comprehensive calibration tracking.
My understanding that the new law dissolving Reedy Creek takes effect in 2023, so there's a possibility that after the 2022 elections, the next legislature could change its mind. I don't know enough about Florida politics to know if anything is likely to change next year, though.
The most interesting thing I've read about the StoryLiving community is probably the 24 acre lagoon / pool, which is controversial because California is rather short on water.
They are using "crystal lagoons technology" and it's not clear what that is if anything, but they claim that it doesn't use that much water:
"The construction costs for a lagoon with Crystal Lagoons technology are very low, even lower than those of a park of the same size. In addition, operating costs are very low, due to the efficient use of safe additives and energy. This revolutionary technology also stands out for its low water consumption, as it operates in a closed circuit, needing only to replace the water that is lost through evaporation. In comparison, a 1 hectare lagoon consumes only 50% of the water required for the maintenance of a park of the same size, and a lagoon of average size consumes around 30 times less than a golf course."
https://www.crystal-lagoons.com/concept-technology/
I imagine a lagoon in the California desert would see more evaporation than Florida, though? I wasn't able to find much about how it works.
Insightful coverage here. Those interested in learning more about Próspera, including purchasing residences or investing can contact me or visit us at Prospera [dot] HN!
Investing in Próspera: https://info.prospera.hn/invest
Back in April, I read a piece on bloombergtax that suggested Florida would in fact have a really hard time unwinding Reedy Creek: https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/the-contractual-impossibility-of-unwinding-disneys-reedy-creek
The lawsuit re: "some debts" involves legal precedent from SCOTUS and separately the Florida State Constitution.
> Both the U.S. and Florida constitutions place strict limitations on the government’s ability to impair its own contracts. Under the U.S. Constitution, a state can only impair an existing contract if the impairment is reasonable and necessary to serve an important government purpose. As early as 1866, the U.S. Supreme Court held that once a local government issues a bond based on an authorized taxing power, the state is contract-bound and cannot eliminate the taxing power supporting the bond. The Florida Constitution provides even greater protection from impairment of contracts.
The thrust is that Florida would have to pay off all the outstanding bonds if they want a legally straightforward way of "sticking it to Disney". Can DeSantis convince everyone that it's worth 1 Billion Dollars?