197 - Software Eating the State with Sammuel Hammond

Is software eating the nation state? Technologies like crypto and AI are about to fundamentally restructure society from the bottom up. We brought economist and writer, Sam Hammond on to predict how society will be reorganized under this new paradigm and how those in power will respond.

Sam Hammond is an economist for the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank advising policies in DC whose slogan reads, “Build Tech. Promote Freedom.” Freedom and Tech. We like those two things on Bankless - and we're also concerned with the project of how to protect them in a world where software starts to eat the nation state (and the nation state feels threatened).

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

6:48 Sam’s Take on Crypto

9:50 Nation State’s Hate on Crypto

14:53 Post-Printing Press

20:55 Crypto, AI, & The Internet

25:40 Tech Good, Bad, or Neutral?

32:03 Bracing For Impact & Tech Debt

38:15 Nation State Competition

46:39 Dangerous Tech

50:00 The Network State

1:04:55 AI Executive Order

1:12:28 China’s AI Approach

1:15:20 AI’s Double Edged Sword

1:33:45 AI & The Leviathan

1:48:23 What Technology Winning Means?

1:50:58 Closing & Disclaimers

RESOURCES

• Sam’s Substack, “Second Best”
  https://www.secondbest.ca/
• AI & The Leviathan
  https://www.secondbest.ca/p/ai-and-leviathan-part-iii
• The Dynamist - Podcast
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dynamist/id1528920211
• Eliezer Yudkowski Episode
  https://www.bankless.com/159-were-all-gonna-die-with-eliezer-yudkowsky