The WhatifAltHist / Balaji Crossover Episode

Rudyard Lynch runs the popular YouTube channel WhatIfAltHist. We're both into applied history — namely, studying the past to forecast the future — and everything we spoke about fell under that rubric. We cover alchemy vs technology, left vs right, nature vs nurture, China vs America, communism vs wokeness, and (of course) networks vs states.

Our overarching goal with the pod is to learn about the world to build new startup societies. If these ideas interest you, we're putting theory into practice at Network School, so do apply at https://ns.com.

OUTLINE
0:00 - Intro to WhatifAltHist and counterfactual history
3:52 - The idea in alchemy: everyone is competing on vibes
7:12 - Nature/nurture = hardware/software
9:37 - Why the left often wins: equality builds scalable militaries
11:30 - The idea from Balaji that most influenced Rudyard: God, State, or Network?
20:28 - Only 4% of Democrats marry Republicans
22:24 - The purpose of alchemy: how early alchemy lead to modern tech
33:25 - We have entered the age of the phrase
42:33 - The reading list: genetics books you should read
43:07 - Communism was based on economics denial, wokeness is genetics denial
50:49 - The Vitruvian Man: our moral responsibility to accelerate technology
57:42 - We are on the verge of global instability
1:20:43 - Internet community becomes physical community: The Network School (ns.com)
1:23:08 - Both Soviet and American empires were built on false premises
1:28:16 - Bitcoin is the strongest new identity
1:32:55 - The total military dominance of the Chinese drone armada

LINKS

I. Books
The Managerial Revolution: https://www.amazon.com/Managerial-Rev...
The Network State: https://www.amazon.com/Network-State-...
The Grace of Kings: https://www.amazon.com/Grace-Kings-Da...
A Farewell to Alms: https://www.amazon.com/Farewell-Alms-...
Who We Are and How We Got Here: https://www.amazon.com/Who-Are-How-Go...
Genome: https://www.amazon.com/Genome-Autobio...
The Selfish Gene: https://www.amazon.com/Selfish-Gene-A...
Debt: https://www.amazon.com/Debt-Updated-E...
Fitzpatricks War: https://www.amazon.com/Fitzpatricks-W...

II. Videos
Who Will Win America’s Next Civil War:    • Who Will Win America's Next Civil War?  
Why the 2024 Election will start a Civil War:    • Why the 2024 Election will start a Ci...  
America is the New Rome:    • America is the New Rome  
Pete Hegseth: "China is Building An Army to Defeat America”:    • Pete Hegseth: "China is Building An A...  
Chinese shipbuilding capacity: https://x.com/balajis/status/16782992...
US Military is made is China: https://x.com/balajis/status/18118825...

III. Studies
Marriages between democrats and republicans: https://ifstudies.org/blog/marriages-...
Correlation of lactase persistence phenotype and genotypes: https://bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com...
Patterns of genetic adaptation to high-altitude hypoxia: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Meta analysis of the heritability of human traits: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
Jim Twins: https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/09/ar...
Biology of extreme radiation resistance: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles...
Digital 2024: Global overview report: https://datareportal.com/reports/digi...

SOCIAL
   / @whatifalthist  
https://ns.com