Stranded Technologies Podcast

Cush is the founder of Odisea Labs, an accelerator for Latin American frontier tech (crypto, AI). Cush is inspired by effective accelerationism (e/acc) and consequently coined the memes “latam/acc” and “Latin American Dynamism” in reference to their US-based counterpart.In this episode, we learn all about why Latam is awesome for tech. Financial innovation and crypto have a fertile ground here and are widely adopted due the lack of banking access for large populations, regulatory capture and government mismanagement.Odisea Labs has been a major partner to the past March Startup Residency Month, and is now announcing another partnership with Infinita City for the following:Crypto Cities Theme MonthThis is a one-month program for builders to deploy crypto-native projects, not just online, but in a functioning city with enabling legislation, crypto taxes, and a supportive community.

Jack Scannell is a consultant, researcher, and entrepreneur. Jack is one of the world's leading authorities on pharmaceutical R&D productivity. He co-authored the influential 2012 paper in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery that introduced “Eroom's Law,” a concept highlighting how drug discovery has become slower and more expensive over time—essentially the opposite of Moore's Law. Scannell has advised major pharmaceutical firms and is a noted commentator on strategies to improve innovation efficiency in the life sciences. He is currently building Ethereos.Explore Infinita City:* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times* Visit Infinita City* Join the Builders' Hub on Telegram* Follow Infinita City on X This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.infinitacitytimes.com

Jean-Philippe (JP) Vergne is an Associate Professor of Strategy at Western University's Ivey Business School, renowned for his research on organizations operating at the fringes of legality—particularly pirates. Along with Rodolphe Durand, he co-authored The Pirate Organization: Lessons from the Fringes of Capitalism, which explores how historical piracy and other unconventional ventures can shed light on modern forms of competition, regulation, and innovation. JP Vergne's work extends to topics such as crypto governance, the historical development of organizations, and the evolution of capitalism.Book Reference: The Pirate Organization: Lessons from the Fringes of CapitalismExplore Infinita City:* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times* Visit Infinita City* Join the Builders' Hub on Telegram* Follow Infinita City on X This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.infinitacitytimes.com

Ivan Morgunov is an experienced entrepreneur driven by the goal of stopping aging. He founded Longaevus Technologies, a venture studio in the field of longevity, and Unlimited Bio—one of the two companies that administer genetic therapies in Prospera Dr. Anna Vakhrusheva has over a decade of experience in advancing vaccines and gene therapies. She led the development of Russia's first recombinant SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (Betuvax JSC), driving it from R&D to clinical trials within two years. As a co-founder of Unlimited Bio, she spearheads genetic therapy research, translating cutting-edge science into real-world longevity solutions.In this episode, Anna & Ivan describe their journey to start a biotech company in Prospera, their novel thesis on why business model innovation matters to solve aging, the opportunity of “cocktail therapies”, regulatory fast-track options and challenges in a new jurisdiction.Explore Infinita City:* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times* Visit Infinita City* Join the Builders' Hub on Telegram* Follow Infinita City on X This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.infinitacitytimes.com

Nathan Cheng is a community builder, educator, and investor in the longevity biotech field. He has been closely involved with key initiatives such as the Longevity Biotech Fellowship (LBF), Healthspan Capital, and Longevity List, working to solve the problem of aging and death.In this conversation, Nathan Cheng discusses his journey into the longevity biotech field, exploring the quest for an indefinite lifespan and the various strategies to combat aging. He shares insights on community building, the importance of understanding aging, and the potential of biotechnology in extending life. The conversation also delves into the technical roadmap for solving aging, replacement strategies, and the role of cryonics as a last resort. In this conversation, Nathan Chang and Niklas Anzinger discuss the importance of mission-driven research in the field of longevity, emphasizing the need for focused efforts to tackle aging and death. They explore the role of the Longevity Biotech Fellowship in mobilizing talent and fostering collaboration among diverse professionals. The discussion also touches on effective communication strategies for the longevity mission, the catalysts for progress in the field, and the opportunities for newcomers to enter the longevity space. Finally, they introduce the Vitalism Foundation, which aims to unify efforts in the longevity movement under a shared ideology.Get involved & More about Nathan's work:* Longevity Biotech Fellowship (10% off for Infinitians)* Vitalist Bay (10% off for Infinitians)* Vitalism FoundationExplore Infinita City:* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times* Visit Infinita City* Join the Builders' Hub on Telegram* Follow Infinita City on X This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.infinitacitytimes.com

Samo Burja is a researcher, strategist, and founder of Bismarck Analysis and on the editorial board of Palladium Magazine. Samo is known for his work on how institutions shape civilization and his book “The Great Founder Theory.”Explore Infinita City:* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times* Visit Infinita City* Join the Builders' Hub on Telegram* Follow Infinita City on X This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.strandedtechnologies.com

Terence is a British biochemist who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, and the author of numerous books.Terence is well-known for his case against government funding of science, which made him an influence in the decentralized science movement. We'll talk about his views on the economics of science and the myth of scientific objectivity. Importantly, we'll talk about something that Terence has never talked about in public. A new project that aims to do it better.This new project will take place within the next Infinita Forever Pop-Up City—a new school and research center on the island of Roatan, with a neo-medieval form of governance.Explore Infinita City:* Explore the Archive: The Infinita City Times* Visit Infinita City* Join the Builders' Hub on Telegram* Follow Infinita City on X This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.strandedtechnologies.com

Our guest is Anders Sandberg. Anders is a Swedish researcher, futurist and transhumanist. He holds a PhD in computational neuroscience from Stockholm University, and is a former senior research fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford.This conversation is about the governance of innovation, and the innovation of governance. Explore Infinita City:* Website: www.infinita.city* X: @InfinitaCity* The Infinita City Times* Join Events This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.strandedtechnologies.com

Brian is the Co-founder and CEO of Coinbase; he began his journey studying computer science and economics. Back early in his career, after a trip to Argentina and seeing hyperinflation, he was inspired by Bitcoin's potential to update the financial system and increase economic freedom in the world.He started Coinbase in 2012, and by 2021, it had become a public company worth $50B by 2024.Post-IPO, he started thinking about longevity; he started organizing biotech dinners to explore innovative ideas. And this led him to found NewLimit, a company focused on epigenetic reprogramming to combat aging, utilizing machine learning to discover potential treatments.In this Fireside Chat, Brian discusses his vision for crypto and longevity with Niklas Anzinger, Vitalia's CEO, and Erick Brimen, Próspera's CEO. The conversation happened in the special economic zone of Próspera on the island of Roatán in Honduras. With a common law-based, pro-liberty legal system that is probably the most crypto-friendly in the world.In this special zone, Vitalia has started to build a community of longevity enthusiasts, crypto natives and biotech founders - taking advantage of expedited clinical trials and medical reciprocity laws that allow access to treatments approved in 30+ countries.Crypto Cities In The Real WorldBrian and the team of Coinbase Ventures visited Próspera and Vitalia to explore the possibilities for real-world crypto adoption, and how it can solve humanities' biggest challenges. There are several existing uses and enormous opportunities for crypto to build real cities.That is why, we're excited to introduce –Crypto Cities Builders' Program (Oct 19 - Nov 19)We're inviting crypto/web3 builders & founders to join us in Vitalia's Roatán Hub, to build real solutions or accelerate your existing startups & projects.→ https://vitalia.city/cryptocitybuildersMore about Brian's work:* https://www.brianarmstrong.org/* https://www.coinbase.com/* https://www.newlimit.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.strandedtechnologies.com

In this conversation, we're discussing with Joe Lonsdale the potential for building new cities and network states to improve governance in countries with broken institutions.Joe Lonsdale is a technology entrepreneur and investor. He is the managing partner at 8VC, a multi-billion dollar firm in the US. Previously he co-founded Palantir.Agencies and institutions are broken. The SEC on the fight with crypto, the FDA on the battle to bring needed drugs to market, and the FTC on not allowing companies to be acquired and merged to grow into something bigger. Joe encourages entrepreneurs to identify the biggest gaps in areas hindered by regulatory constraints, such as transportation, infrastructure, immigration, or biotech, and aggressively pursue solutions.Successful examples abroad can inspire change in the US. Like what's happening in Vitalia City within the Próspera special economic zone in Honduras, this approach can demonstrate effective solutions, encouraging the U.S. to adopt these innovations and improve its systems."Building a great city-state would help the US, just as Singapore helps China a lot. We can have another Hong Kong or Singapore of the Americas."More about Joe's work:* joelonsdale.com* Cicero Institute* 8VCIf you liked this episode, please consider supporting the “Stranded Technologies” publication (podcast + blog) to make it possible for us to make high-quality material. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.strandedtechnologies.com

Bradley Tusk is a cofounder of Tusk Venture Partners, which invests in early-stage technology companies operating in highly regulated industries.Bradley was also Uber's first political advisor and instrumental in developing their strategy to disrupt the incumbent taxi monopolies.This is one of the most fascinating stories in the recent history of regulatory hacking.In this episode, we're demystifying political misconceptions and looking into practical advice for entrepreneurs on navigating regulatory roadblocks and changing them for their benefit.Key Takeaways:* Every policy output is the result of political input. Every politician makes every decision solely based on reelection and nothing else.* The vast majority of companies are regulated in some way. Rather than avoid dealing with regulations, run with the mindset that you'll figure it out. * To hack the regulatory system, you need to take into consideration that:* 1) The level of government really matters—focus on doing things on a local or state level rather than a federal level;* 2) Get your customers to advocate for you More about Bradley's work:* bradleytusk.com* Tusk Venture Partners* Podcast – Firewall* Book – The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups from Death by Politics This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.strandedtechnologies.com

What if you could choose the set of laws under which your company is regulated?Honduran reformers have developed a model to facilitate collaboration between foreign capital and local institutions in Honduras, leveraging external resources and expertise to develop an alternative to the levels of instability, crime, and corruption that prevailing institutions have been unable to address sufficiently.But how do you encourage foreign investment in a country with this high-risk level?That's where Próspera's framework comes into play. It protects property rights effectively and gives entrepreneurs flexibility over how they're regulated.No "one size fits all" law exists for all industries and businesses, so this flexibility is crucial, especially in industries like medicine, where regulatory approvals and licensing requirements vary widely between countries and pose significant barriers to entry.This system allows products approved in one country, practitioners licensed in another, and innovative procedures from yet another to have an easier path to acceptance within Próspera's framework, fostering rapid business and technology development.Moreover, Próspera aims to redefine standards of constitutional governance. It integrates best practices of common law from centuries past with novel elements like regulatory elections, medical reciprocity, 3D property rights, and air rights resolution mechanisms. This comprehensive approach is a step toward advancing governance for the 21st century and beyond. If you're an entrepreneur interested in taking advantage of this regulatory framework for your business, please fill out this form!Further links:* Infinita VC* Vitalia City Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

In this conversation, we're discussing with Vitalik the connection between longevity and Ethereum, what he's looking to build, frontier technologies, and how pop-up or startup cities can supercharge the longevity movement.In the early days, when crypto started as a new frontier technology and experienced a Cambrian Explosion—rapid and transformative development and growth—How can the longevity movement experience something similar as it emerges?This discussion highlights potential similar obstacles, key distinctions, and pivotal moments for longevity to experience a burst of innovation compared to crypto potentially.The lessons from the crypto space offer valuable guidance for longevity researchers and enthusiasts alike. By fostering a culture of innovation, patience, and practical application, the journey towards unlocking the full potential of longevity technologies can be accelerated, bringing us closer to a future where age may no longer limit human potential.If you liked this episode or article, please consider supporting the “Stranded Technologies” publication (podcast + blog) to help us continue producing high-quality material.Further links:* Infinita VC * Vitalia City Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

“What's more important than living forever?” At Vitalia, Naval Ravikant outed himself as a longevity maximalist. This is a compilation article with 7 key takeaways from the Fireside Chat with Niklas Anzinger at the AI & Technological Progress Conference, a summit in Roatán, Honduras.#1 | The Future Is *Actually* Brighter.“It just takes one person to make a breakthrough for humanity.One person who invents the steam engine, one person who discovers relativity, one person who discovers an anti-aging solution.”Technology is the scaling mechanism for individuals to benefit the world at large.People are smart on their own and even smarter together.We collaborate across cultures by sharing stories and traditions and joining organizations to achieve big things.#2 | Why Would Someone Want To Live Longer?“Longevity is not for everyone.” – Naval.The idea of "making death optional" shows a push to extend life, challenging the established paradigm that death is inevitable.This seems like common sense. Life is good.So why do people fear the idea? Naval thinks it could be negative feelings about ourselves. #3 | What Comes First: Scientific Theory or Entrepreneurial Tinkering?Both! They build on each other. Theoretical thinkers give us important concepts, but most progress happens when people try things out and solve problems.AI can help put together information we already have, but real creativity means coming up with new ideas and tinkering in the real world. People are really good at connecting different things creatively, in ways in which AI is still very limited (so, no, AI is nowhere near to replacing humans)!#4 | Be Optimistic On The General Things And Be Skeptical About Specific Things.David Deutsch talks about the "fun criterion," saying that exploring what excites us leads to better understanding. The general things we care about we can hold with optimism.But it's also important to be careful and question things, ensuring we're focused on the truth. If you're not skeptical about the specific details, you won't execute or pick with precision.Broadly: remain open-minded.Narrowly: question everything.#5 | Regulation and Innovation in Healthcare.In sectors like healthcare, regulations meant to reduce risks can slow down new ideas and progress.The problem is that these rules ignore the potential benefits that new ideas can bring, such as life-saving treatments.As the founder of Angellist, Naval once succeeded with the “voice” strategy to lobby the government to change investment laws. However, now he believes it's too hard, and it's better to do an “exit” to make progress on longevity and new medical treatments.#6 | How Do You Find What's True In A World Full Of Wrong Ideas?Through trying things and getting real feedback!Nature and free markets are great examples of systems that give honest feedback.Even though society sometimes spreads wrong ideas, people must stay open-minded and change their beliefs when they get new information.Being sure of something but willing to change your mind helps us learn and grow.Biotech is an especially hard field because we don't know the first-principle engineering that went into creating the human body. That's why only a system of continuous feedback and rapid innovation can lead to the key breakthroughs in longevity biotech.#7 | Rethinking Traditional Ways To Do Things.Philosophy and science is about “ideas having sex”. (Matt Ridley)Maybe you don't need a Ph.D. to be a scientist; being curious and careful matters more.There can be more decentralized ways to fund and organize science, like using the internet to get patron support directly instead of large bureaucracies. There are better ways to do things than we're used to always doing.If you liked this episode or article, please consider supporting the “Stranded Technologies” publication (podcast + blog) to make it possible for us to make high-quality material.Further links:* Infinita VC* Vitalia City Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

How compatible are two very different giants in the longevity movement? Aubrey de Grey, the iconic and highly academically decorated bioscientist, paved the way for the early stages of scientific development, and Bryan Johnson, the software mogul turned one-man experiment and chief meme officer of longevity, focuses on the intersection of lifestyle and research.Do their very different approaches go together?They do! Let's explore how they overlap with each other and how they are giving shape to the longevity movement. They navigate the intricate landscape of scientific advancement, with Aubrey opening the area of possibility through scientific progress and Bryan developing broader accessibility of solutions.Advancing From Early Stage DiscoveryIn society, when someone demonstrates what's possible, it inspires others to follow suit. “My goal is to shift the current trend from being offensive, weird, and eccentric to being amazing through Blueprint.” – Bryan JohnsonChange is inevitable because humans tend to doubt new technologies initially, but once they're available and add value to people's lives, adoption grows, and it becomes the new normal. This is a recurring pattern in history; therefore, we should question our initial skepticism.Collaborations With The Traditional Clinical SidesWorking together with clinicians is crucial. PhDs and MDs have different approaches, but they both understand the end goal: reducing human suffering. The process from lab to clinic is rocky and time-consuming, but there are pathways to streamline and accelerate. Although people like Bryan Johnson play a significant role in advancing the mainstream medical profession, they intelligently contribute by collecting relevant data to expedite the process of ensuring the safety and effectiveness of medical innovations, making them accessible to a wider audience beyond just the early adopters.Why Hasn't There Been A Moonshot For Longevity Yet?Traditionally, the Far East has been slower to embrace longevity research despite factors like respect for the elderly, demographic challenges, and technological prowess. Recently, this mindset might be changing, and if so, it could pave the way for a significant initiative akin to the Apollo project. One hurdle in the West is the centralization of science funding.  Public officials act based on a desire for re-election and public opinion, but the public has a presumption against new technology. The solution could be more independent science funding, such as VitaDAO, and more “direct democracy,” such as citizen science.  Aubrey's innovation and Bryan's practical focus signify the diverse strategies required for advancement, emphasizing the integration of discovery, clinical application, and societal acceptance of mainstream longevity technologies. Despite cultural and political challenges, this fireside chat underscores the potential for transformative initiatives and the necessity of collective action in propelling the longevity movement forward. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

In this fireside chat with Balaji Srinivasan and Niklas Anzinger at the Startup Societies & Crypto Cities Conference in Vitalia, they discussed the importance of longevity and its impact on technologies, as well as a strategy to breakthrough existing systems to develop your project.This brief article summarizes key points of the conversation, giving you an advisory perspective on how to approach your journey in innovation.Having More Time To Do More ThingsLongevity is the ultimate technology for the core reason that it gives you more time to do everything else. “Look around. All that clutter used to be money. All that money used to be time.” – Unknown.The impact of longevity in technology falls into the premise that time is money.* If it's cheaper, you spend less time buying it, meaning less of your life is devoted to the purchase.* If it's faster, it takes less time to reach a destination, saving more time in your life.* If it's better, it requires less mental effort to understand how it works.Almost every technology saves you time, whether seconds, minutes, hours, or days of life. On the other side, inflation diminishes your wealth over time, as what you worked for loses value.That's why longevity serves as our true wealth reserve. With more time in life, you can do more.Approaching The Challenges To Innovate in Longevity“If you're serious about technology, you need your own sovereignty.”Innovating in longevity comes with a series of obstacles, just as innovating in any other technology does.Take a look at some current tech conflicts, such as SpaceX vs the FAA, AI being attacked by the NYT, crypto being attacked by the SEC, or biotech being held back by the FDA.You must be prepared to do whatever it takes to make a change and leave a lasting impact. This doesn't mean compromising integrity but rather being ready to challenge established systems and barriers. Fundamentally, petitioning an existing government for permission is ineffective. Just as Netflix didn't ask Blockbuster for permission, Apple didn't seek Blackberry's approval, and Amazon didn't request consent from Barnes & Noble, the new disruptor aims to replace the old system entirely.When facing obstacles from established institutions, it's not about seeking their permission but rather acknowledging their presence and negotiating with them if necessary. However, the focus remains on progressing without their permission.It's easier to start Bitcoin than to reform the US Federal Reserve, it's easier to start a new country than to reform the FDA, it's easier to start a new city than to reform San Francisco. Engage with these entities solely to demonstrate their shortcomings and gather support for positive change.“Cloud first, land last; but not land never.” – Parallel Establishment* Parallel Societies: These are physical communities like Prospera, Culdesac, and Cabin. They represent vertical structures from physical presence.* Parallel Institutions: These are digital entities replacing traditional systems like education and transportation. For instance, cryptocurrency serves as a parallel to traditional finance. These represent horizontal structures from digital presence.Both the parallel societies and institutions combine in a grid to construct an alternative system that can stand in contrast to existing structures.While it's possible to establish a billion-dollar business online, you still need a billion permits to build something in your backyard. This is the tension between “the network” and “the state” that our world goes through day by day. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Tyler Cowen is a professor at George Mason University, creator of the Marginal Revolution blog, founder of the Emergent Ventures grant program, podcast host of "Conversations with Tyler," and author of numerous books, including "The Great Stagnation."Evaluating Economists and Their ContributionsIn Tyler's latest book, "GOAT: Greatest Economist Of All Time," he explores the contributions of renowned economists like Milton Friedman, John Maynard Keynes, Friedrich Hayek, John Stuart Mill, Malthus, and Adam Smith.The Post-Great Stagnation Era Has BegunIn his 2011 book, "The Great Stagnation," Tyler Cowen argued that technological progress had slowed significantly since 1973. While initially met with skepticism, this idea gained acceptance over time. Cowen's central thesis was that low-hanging technological fruit had been picked, but optimism emerged from the potential of the internet to drive a new wave of innovations.However, already in his 2011 book, Cowen believed that society has moved beyond the Great Stagnation due to a new wave of innovation enabled by the internet.. In the past few years, we have seen breakthroughs like mRNA vaccines and AI. That is good news. However, regulatory challenges persist, particularly in biotech and pharmaceuticals. There is still lots more that can be done through deregulation or innovation in governance.Small Jurisdictions & SEZs as Governance Experiments.There's potential for smaller countries to enact significant reforms and catalyze positive change. Tyler witnessed New Zealand's successful reforms in the early 1990s. He views charter cities and special economic zones as great drivers for innovation in governance. A key challenge is the reluctance of governments to permit these experiments, often driven by concerns about their reputation or sovereignty, particularly in less stable regions.But there are many successes with these zones; the overall record is quite robust, and we now have a clear understanding of how to execute these actions effectively. It's not merely a formula but rather a proven approach, looking at examples from China, Ireland, or the Dominican Republic.Soon, Tyler is visiting the Próspera ZEDE, a special economic zone in Honduras, for Vitalia – a two-month longevity biotech acceleration camp. If you want to visit us there, apply here →More about Tyler's work:* LinkedIn* Twitter* Conversations with Tyler Podcast Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

* Iyinoluwa (“E”) Aboyeji had an outsized influence on the startup landscape in Africa with Andela and Flutterwave (both top-10 unicorns in Africa)* Surprisingly, to become a successful startup entrepreneur he had to become a policy entrepreneur and remove regulatory bottlenecks* With Itana, a charter city in a free zone in Lagos, Nigeria, E is doubling down on creating an enabling policy environment for African's tech talentE's entrepreneurial journey began with a spark of inspiration - watching the movie “The Social Network” and a fortuitous introduction to the world of startups by a friend and finding an early mentor in Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.E went on to build one of the first successful tech startups in Africa and cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2019.Andela: One Of The First Successful Tech Startups In AfricaIn its early days, Andela had to establish a new culture in Nigeria. This cultural shift, emphasizing principles such as punctuality and performance, profoundly impacted Nigeria's entrepreneurship and tech landscape. Andela pioneered remote work and empowered technical talent, inspiring other companies to follow suit.Regulation often presents significant hurdles to innovation, a challenge particularly pronounced during Andela's early days in Africa's startup landscape.A key lesson from Iyinoluwa's experiences is the paramount importance of aligning with others' objectives and the value of proactive engagement with regulators, e.g. to shape favorable regulations before the business launch proved invaluable.Itana: Africa's First Digital Free Zone – Crafting Digital Economy And Financial ServicesItana aims to become a hub for the digital economy and financial services sectors. Unlike traditional free zones primarily designed for manufacturing and trade, Itana focuses on the unique needs of service-oriented and digital businesses.Itana's innovation operates on two fronts. It creates an inviting policy environment through business incorporation and access to financial services. It also addresses infrastructure gaps, offering workspaces and well-run electricity and internet.Initiatives like Itana's free zone status are needed to transform Africa. Its entrepreneurs lack stable legal, financial and even physical infrastructure to thrive.E's work perfectly aligns with Infinita's mission to support founders in overcoming regulatory bottlenecks to unleash a new wave of technological progress.More about Iyinoluwa's work:* LinkedIn* Twitter* Itana – Build a global business in Nigeria Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, we debate with two major thinkers with different philosophies but also commonalities about governance and social evolution. Max Borders, author of “The Decentralist,” "The Social Singularity," and “After Collapse,” (a previous guest on the show) and Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation and author of “The Political Economy of Peer Production”.The definition of “commons” is already a challenge, but we typically refer to inherited and collectively created goods, like air, oceans, and wildlife and shared institutions such as libraries, public spaces or scientific research. In Michel Bauwens definition, what is peculiar about commons is that they are governed by a community - not by market-only or state-only mechanisms.Michel is critical of both the market and state-led suppressions of local governance solutions to commons problems, where Max Border has a more proprietarian approach. These differences evolve into a deep discussion.To Michel, proprietarian solutions aren't necessarily bad - they can be enabling solutions for commons governance, especially empowered by the internet and blockchain technologies. Max Borders replies that this is a feature, not a bug - proprietarian / libertarian solutions are meant to enable pluralism.Michel's vision is one of "cosmo-local" dynamics, depicting a globally connected yet locally optimized system. As an open value network, co-production became pivotal in reallocating value from old systems to new ones through peer-to-peer capacities.We discuss the role of cryptocurrency for community-focused economic networks, the paradox of "trustless" systems and the importance of peer-to-peer exchange. We also talk about the right "exit strategies", the concept of network states and the importance of building societies that benefit local communities. All of us want to encourage more governance experimentation. Experimentation allows us to try out different ideas, and technology empowers us to scale those solutions that work from the local to the global level.More about Michel's work:* P2P Foundation* LinkedInMore about Max's work:* Underthrow Newsletter* LinkedIn Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Ever wondered where SEZs in Latam are already a backbone of the economy? It's in Uruguay, a country with stable governance, clear legal frameworks and many other advantages for export-focused businesses. Uruguay did many things right to create a business-friendly environment. It's touted as the safest spot in Latam, and enjoys a high degree of civil and economic freedom. Now meet David Luftglass, the founder of the “Zenith” (TBD) Special Economic Zone. One of many zones, each with its unique flavor, from industrial science parks to towering structures tagged with the World Trade Center brand.David illuminates how the SEZ program works. They're in the works of getting an approved 10-year renewable tax exemption, a great starting advantage for new industrial businesses that already struggle with high capital costs. It's like a sandbox for entrepreneurs, and the best part? The process is not a black box like it is for many other SEZs (Honduras had a great advantage there too, but the new government in power is damaging this). There are clear processes, templates, and even law firms to guide you through.But here's the beauty of it—these benefits aren't exclusive to big players. David is an experienced founder, but it's still a new business not backed by $100+ millions like a big corporation. Tax exemptions for income, corporate gains, VAT, and export taxes for a startup. Imagine that!So, what's the plan? David is building more than just a city; he's building a community that builds many things from ag-tech to health and wellness, from true algae marvels to longevity labs, and even a nod to the cannabis and mushroom enthusiasts—these SEZs can become melting pots.Think co-working on steroids, with incubators and spaces where dreamers meet doers. And the perks? They're not reserved for the elite. Anyone stepping into the SEZ world gets a taste of the benefits.So, if you're reading this and your entrepreneurial spirit is tingling, Uruguay is calling. Uruguay's SEZs aren't just zones; they're an invitation to be part of a movement.Connect with David:* LinkedInLearn more about how Infinita supports founders overcoming regulatory bottlenecks through startup cities, network states, and crypto rails, to unleash a new wave of technological progress. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

If you're not excited *yet* about insurance regulation, this episode is for you!Matthew Queen and I uncover the often underestimated impact of insurance regulation on the global economy. In this podcast, we learn the importance of the legal structures of societies, and what SEZs like Próspera can do to improve them.Insurance is a peculiar product. It's purely digital. It's math about risks & probabilities.It is an important backbone of the global economy, not only for people to have a fallback when they're experiencing misfortune, but also for businesses to manage risk.Risks abound for businesses, in a changing world. However, no external firm can assess your risk better than yourself - which is where captive insurance comes in: you can insure your risk yourself.Captive insurance is a sophisticated financial risk instrument for companies.Matthew Queen provides insights into the regulatory barriers for captive insurance, and how different jurisdictions are currently enabling the formation of captive insurance companies. The regulatory dynamics offer potential for small, nimble and digital jurisdictions like Próspera to offer efficient alternatives. There is a balance between regulation and innovation in the insurance market - it's a market not naturally attuned to small companies to disrupt easily because of large capital requirements. This episode is a valuable resource not only for insurance entrepreneurs navigating industry complexities, but for any entrepreneurs with the ambition to build multinational companies to whom captive insurance can be a powerful tool.More about Matthew's work:* Book: Modern Captive Insurance* Twitter* LinkedIn Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Magatte Wade is an entrepreneur, author and promoter for African entrepreneurship. Magatte shares her impactful personal journey of migration, education, and entrepreneurship and calls attention to the economic difficulties in African countries. She discusses her book "Heart of a Cheetah", where she explores the misrepresentations of African poverty and how startup cities can help unleash entrepreneurship for Africa's development. She shares anecdotes from her entrepreneurial journey, highlighting bureaucratic hindrances she has encountered in Africa versus the U.S. and advocating for the establishment of startup cities in Africa as a radical, immediate solution to alleviate poverty and drive economic growth. Magatte previously appeared on Lex Fridman and Jordan Peterson. She recently interviewed Vitalik Buterin on her own video series.More about Magatte's work: * MagatteWade.com* SkinIsSkin.com - Magatte's company* Twitter* Instagram* YouTube* Facebook* LinkedIn* TikTok Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Richard Hanania is the founder and president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, and author the books “The Origins of Woke” and “Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy”.This is a far-ranging conversation with an emerging star public intellectual.In this episode we discuss:* Political theory: Nietzschean Liberalism, the worldview that greatness is a higher value than equality coupled with the insight that the liberal institutions of markets & democracy are the best delivery mechanism for greatness* The influence of law on society: it's a recurring topic of this podcast how legal systems influence economic growth. Hanania argues that even culture such as "wokeism" is downstream of key US legal decisions made in the 1960s* Public choice in International Relations (IR): many IR theorists assume states are rational actors. Richard debunks this theory, arguing that collective guilt and responsibility of a "people" is morally not the right lens to view the world Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Andrew Côté is a nuclear fusion engineer at Stellerator Systems and a scout at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). He has a Substack called "Ulysses".Right in time with the release of Marc Andreessen's "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto", this episode has good news: nuclear fusion has a real shot.There are engineering challenges, but the science has paved the way for some promising methods to achieve energy superabundance from nuclear fusion.Is fusion even necessary? Isn't nuclear fission enough? What's great about fusion is that it doesn't start with a regulatory uphill battle. Instead the US Department of Energy (DOE) decided fusion is regulated like particle accelerators, not like nuclear power plants are under the NRC.This is fantastic news. There is no real anti-fusion political movement, so there's a chance a rapidly accelerating near-permissionless industry can develop.In this episode, we relish in the major upside for humanity. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

This is a two-part episode - in the first part Janine Leger, one of the driving forces behind Zuzalu talks about community development and Zuzalu's future.In the second part, Niklas introduces Vitalia - a Zuzalu-inspired network society that aims to radically accelerate the development of life extension technologies.Engage with Zuzalu here: https://zuzalu.city/Engage with Vitalia here: https://vitalia.city/ Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

This is a two-part episode - in the first part Janine Leger, one of the driving forces behind Zuzalu talks about community development and Zuzalu's future.In the second part, Niklas introduces Vitalia - a Zuzalu-inspired network society that aims to radically accelerate the development of life extension technologies.Engage with Zuzalu here: https://zuzalu.city/Engage with Vitalia here: https://vitalia.city/ Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Jim Pethokoukis is a policy analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, and writes the Faster, Please! newsletter on Substack.The subject of this conversation is Jim's new book "The Conservative Futurist - How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised."Ray Kurtzweil said in 1999:“The twenty-first century will be different. The human species, along with the computational technology it created, will be able to solve age-old problems of need, if not desire, and will be in a position to change the nature of mortality in a post-biological future.…The result will be far greater transformations in the first two decades of the twenty-first century than we saw in the entire twentieth century.” However, this future seems distant and progress towards it too slow. The covid-19 pandemic that took place against a backdrop of scarcity: "too little housing, too few immigrants, too few entrepreneurs, not enough clean energy, not enough slots at top colleges, and not enough high-quality infrastructure."This conversation is about how to counter The Great Stagnation, an "Upwing" vs. a "Downwing" culture and the "Three Tailwinds" that could accelerate Upwing such as a revival nuclear power or productivity boost due to artificial intelligence (AI).One idea to nurture that culture is the "Genesis Clock" as opposed to the famous "Doomsday Clock" from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Jim suggests the Genesis Clock to tell humanity how close or distant it might be to a period so different from modern life that it would qualify as a new beginning for our civilisation. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Bob is the world's greatest expert on special economic zones or "opportunity zones" as he likes to call them, having worked in setting them up in 174 countries.Max Borders said about Bob: “I would argue no living human being is responsible for helping lift more people out of poverty than Bob Haywood:”Bob is notoriously low-key about his work.This podcast episode together with Max' written 2-part series (part 1, part 2) is a rare look behind the scenes of a trend little understood or noticed in the developed world, but enormously important in the developing world to lift billions out of poverty.In this episode you'll learn that ...- Zone developers and governments need to start by defining the problem - why are we not getting the investment we want right now?- You need a young, energetic local lawyer who knows existing regulations in a country and deeply understands the "code base" to find elegant solutions- You need to build a coalition of local "second-tier" elites, i.e. not the ones that already are on top who benefit from the existing order- The keys to a successful zone are predictability, productivity and profitability (3 P's)- International multilaterals are a problem more than a solution Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Sam Peltzman is professor emeritus at the University of Chicago.Sam is was a graduate student to Milton Friedman and a contemporary to George Stigler, the famous economist who coined the term "regulatory capture".Regulatory capture is an important concept. AI and crypto is under fire by regulators.The legendary venture capitalist Bill Gurley gave a talk at the All-In Summit 2023 that went viral. He quoted Stigler's adage that "as a rule regulation is acquired by the industry and is designed and operated primarily for its benefit."The problem is that it's not true.Stigler asked the right question, but didn't give the correct answer.Sam Peltzman has thought and written extensively about this question for 50+ years since Stigler's famous article. The truth is simpler, but more sinister.In fact, we learn in this episode that it's not industry that seeks to be regulated. Even the pharma industry did not proactively lobby for more regulations - they resisted the landmark Kefeuver-Harris amendments (1963) that shaped the modern FDA.It's regulators who seek to regulate for their benefit.Bill Gurley might be on the right track commenting on Elizabeth Warren's behaviour towards tech: "You attack 'em they have to come to you.” This is a very nuanced episode on what might be the most important but least understood problem for greater progress in technology.Sam Peltzman's legacy helps us to understand what's coming at us.Yet his message is deeply optimistic: technology is still unstoppable. It can only be temporarily slowed down, not eliminated. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Two of the most popular previous guests are back: Sebastian Brunemeier, the General Partner of Healthspan Capital and CEO of ImmuneAGE Pharma, and Robin Hanson, Professor of Economics at George Mason University and iconic thinker.Sebastian previously talked about longevity biotech and decentralized science. Robin spoke about prediction markets and governance innovation.In this episode, we talk about the surprising science of health outcomes. Equipped with vast amounts of money and talent (18% of GDP), the healthcare market disappoints egregiously when it comes to making us living longer and healthy.Robin explains why that is: it's hidden motives in human behavior. We defer rational decision-making to authorities with the incentive to overmedicate us.Increased spending and more drugs make us worse.Sebastian can confirm as a practicing scientist how the pharma-industrial complex and regulatory monopoly are drivers of a massive misallocation of capital.However, we have now learned much about the potential of special jurisdictions, medical tourism, and regulatory flexibility.Niklas and Sebastian have worked together over the past year to implement some groundbreaking ideas in practice: life insurance coupled with healthcare, for example, is an idea that is waiting for the right jurisdiction to make it possible.At the following events, we'll gather renegade life scientists, biotechnology engineers, and crypto hackers to build the healthcare system of the future:Nov 3-5: Crypto Futures & Legal Engineering 2023 - A Próspera Builders' Summit https://lu.ma/crypto_legal2023Nov 17-19: DeSci & Longevity Biotech 2023 - A Próspera Builders' Summit https://lu.ma/longevity2023There is a unique event that we're currently collecting a waitlist for:Jan 6 - Mar 1: Vitalia - Starting the Frontier City of Life https://lu.ma/vitalia Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Olivier is an entrepreneur, investor, and independent author. He wrote “The Way of the Intelligent Rebel” and blogs at Disruptive Horizons.The blog is about the disruption of the nation states by the internet and globalization and how to transform from a mono country to a netizen without borders.Olivier's journey started with Tim Ferriss' book "The 4-Hour Work Week", as a way to unbundle his life through entrepreneurship and digital nomadism.As a digital nomad, Olivier recommends the "Six Flag Theory" to become a mobile and sovereign individual protected from the overreach of extractive states.Olivier is also a history buff and started a 2-part series with ten principles from history about the disruption of large institutions by new technology. We also talk about AML-KYC financial regulations: they started with a noble goal, but have become an inefficient bureaucratic nightmare. It is estimated that the global compliance cost is $304bn per year but only managed to seize $3bn criminal funds.This episode is full of practical insights into how to start unbundling your life and join the movement towards the decentralization of governance. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

David Friedman is an economist, physicist, legal scholar, and author.His father is the legendary economist Milton Friedman, and his son is the founder of the Seasteading Institute and Pronomos Capital, Patri Friedman (appeared on episode 32).His most popular book is The Machinery of Freedom, and he's written books on microeconomics and the economics of law, such as Law's Order, Hidden Order, and Legal Systems Very Different from Ours.In this interview, we talk about the legacy of the Friedman family: a commitment to the search for truth, and a little trick to express uncomfortable things with numbers.We talk about economic rationality, efficient law and the problem of public goods or why so-called "market failures" aren't an argument for government intervention.These are important terms to understand what the "competitive governance" space is about: civilizations all throughout history have come up with different ways to solve coordination problems. Legal systems are much more different than you'd think. We can learn a lot from Islamic law, Romany law or Saga period Icelandic law.These differing legal norms and mechanisms have an impact on the economic development of a civilization. They explain why some societies flourish or stagnate.Yet there has been little innovation in probably the most important industry in the world. Governments and nation-states are monopoly providers of their products. It is very costly and hard to switch your provider, which is why they are slow to change.David Friedman's work provides frameworks for thinking about how to change it, and to develop better ways to live together, to prosper, and to advance human progress. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

This is a double-feature episode about the past, present and future of living.In the first episode, Thibault Serlet gives a historical view of migration patterns and labor mobility. In the second episode, Jackson Stegers gives an overview of modern-day co-living business models and practical learnings - we use both to think about a future where people have more choices, a more mobile and unbundled territory.Jackson Steger is the host of the Campfire by Cabin podcast. Besides podcasting, Jackson is writing about coliving networks, startup cities, new neighborhood development, network states, and other new models for living on his blog.In this episode, Jackson gives an overview of different ways of co-living from smaller scale and self-organized to becoming large businesses like Selina. What's new about co-living is technology such as the Internet to enable highly aligned groups to find each other. Balaji Srinivasan's "The Network State" is built around that idea, and projects such as Cabin are at the forefront of this trend.In his role at Cabin, and at various stages in his life, has collected experience in organizing a community to live together. He summarized his practical insights in a post called "The Pyramid of Co-Living Needs", a valuable guide for self-starters.Towards the end, we talk about the origin of passports, how to unbundle our lives, improve governance services and make it possible to live together in harmony. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

This is a double-feature episode about the past, present and future of living.In the first episode, Thibault Serlet gives a historical view of migration patterns and labor mobility. In the second episode, Jackson Stegers gives an overview of modern-day co-living business models and practical learnings - we use both to think about a future where people have more choices, a more mobile and unbundled territory.Thibault Serlet is the Director of Research at the Adrianopole Group, a special economic zone intelligence firm. In this episode, Thibault starts with a surprising insight: many people probably traveled more in the past than now. That is, if you compare traveling as a share of time and not miles traveled (this is higher today with airplanes). Traveling for work and leisure was common for commercial, religious, and military reasons. Borders were much more open because it was much harder to enforce them, and it was in some ways easier to move to another place for opportunity.After World War I, nation-states have become more powerful. They increasingly kept stricter border controls and required passports for passage. Passports have a long history, but the way we know them now is mostly a result of the past 100 years.While Thibault can foresee a dystopian future where governments use technology to enforce even stricter within-country border controls, he reminds us of the struggle of many people against massive oppression such as the Sephardic Jews.There is always hope. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Dwarkesh Patel is a podcaster.The Dwarkesh Podcast (YouTube | Spotify | Apple) interviews intellectuals, scientists, historians, economists, and founders about their big idea. The themes of Dwarkesh are similar to this podcast: frontier technologies, how to accelerate progress and the implications for humanity.Recently, Dwarkesh has had prominent guests talking AI such as Marc Andreessen, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Carl Shulman, Ilya Sutskever and Dario Amodei.In this episode, Niklas and Dwarkesh debate whether AI poses a high or low risk to human existence (neither of us denies that the risk is 0).Niklas stands more on the low to negligible-risk side and Dwarkesh sees a greater risk. This ends up in a friendly, rational and learning debate.Dwarkesh is a rising star in the podcasting world, and his channel is highly recommended content for listeners who enjoy this podcast. Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Adam is one of the most experienced technology policy analysts in the world - he was writing about the internet on day 1 in the 1990s. Now, Adam is an innovation policy analyst at the R Street Institute, and the author of several books, including Permissionless Innovation (2016) & Evasive Entrepreneurs (2020).Isn't it striking - almost all popular sci-fi movies about technology are dystopian? Not only does that warp the public perception of technology as something dangerous, but it also influences policy. Supposedly serious policymakers make arguments for increased regulation like "we don't want the Terminator, don't we?" all the time.Adam takes us through the quagmire of Washington D.C. policy through the lens of one message: permissionless innovation is key to unlock a better future.He introduces the term "evasive entrepreneurs" through case studies of Uber, Lyft and biohackers that used 3D printing for making prosthetics. These cases of "technology liberation have a few things in common: a) they operate at the borderline of legality, and b) they succeed by making consumers advocates for them.Evasive entrepreneurship describes the premise of this podcast and of Infinita VC. Special jurisdictions like Prospera in Honduras, the Catawba DEZ in North Carolina or other free zones in Africa or Latin America can be regulatory sandboxes.However, evasive entrepreneurs have moral obligations. It is also a tactic used by bad actors, such as Sam Bankman-Fried, who used an offshore jurisdiction (Bahamas) as a launchpad for a move to do regulatory capture in the United States.We concede that evasive entrepreneurship can be done for good and bad.Recently, Adam has been writing about the regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. He brings bad news: Washington D.C. policymakers want to use it as an excuse to control the internet. Adam has been in the business for three decades and he's never seen more extreme proposals in a short amount of time.This should be alarming to entrepreneurs. Technology is a force for good in the world, and we need permissionless environments to thrive. The good news is that we don't need to advocate for policy in Washington, we can criticize by creating.Adam's book on Evasive Entrepreneurship contains several chapters to navigate ethical questions, and it's available for free (here). Let's build!Adam blogs at techliberation.com Get full access to Stranded Technologies at niklasanzinger.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Simon Whitney is a family physician and ethicist. He taught at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas for twenty-two years. He is retired from medical practice but continues to publish and teach about medical ethics.He wrote the book From Oversight to Overkill: Inside the Broken System That Blocks Medical Breakthroughs—And How We Can Fix It (Rivertowns Books, 2023).What Simon is talking about is not the behemoth U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), one of the largest public agencies in the world.The subject of his book is the Institutional Review Board (IRB) system, an institution responsible for preventing abuse of research subjects. It is run by the Office for Human Research Protection (OHRP), a small office within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).It is an obscure and little-known bureaucracy.Simon uncovers how a fear-driven bureaucracy frustrates scientists by delaying research from anything between months to years and sometimes preventing important research with no harm to patients, but failing to benefit untold millions.The medical history behind IRBs is fascinating and parallels many other stranded technologies stories.It starts with a flexible system and lots of innovation. Medical self-experimentation was more common. It can be gut-wrenching, but it led to heroic feats of progress.It was public health disasters that led to its demise.Most of all the Tuskegee Syphilis Study became a widely know scandal where the United States Public Health Service (PHS) withheld life-saving treatment from 400 poor African Americans with syphilis to study its effect over 40 years.A gross incidence of ethical misconduct.Yet what followed was an overcorrection. The National Research Act of 1974 led to federal oversight of IRBs, leading to frivolous lawsuits and a bureaucracy stifled in fear of not doing the wrong thing, even at the cost of doing the right thing.The incentives are again stacked against progress.The anatomy of the IRB system going awry is instructive.It teaches us again the need for regulatory innovation and for bold action to correct the excesses of bureaucratic overreach - ideas for inside reform seem feasible, and external inspiration by special jurisdictions can help accelerate this movement.

Malcolm Collins is a parent, polymath serial entrepreneur, education nerd, pronatalist and a 5x bestselling author, including the Pragmatists' Guide series.He has a podcast and YouTube channel called Based Camp.In this episode, we talk about a wide range of topics including:Demographic Collapse: At current fertility rates in developed countries, there will be 5 grandchildren per 100 people. This demographic trend is not economically sustainable and will lead to fundamental transformations of society.Pronatalism: Pronatalism is a movement that Malcolm and his wife Susan are well, known for as the founders of Pronatalists.org. The analogy is with climate change: it's not about freezing the planet, it's about countering an unsustainable trend - population decline - by having more children.Charter Cities: Malcolm views charter cities as key for the pronatalist movements as incubators for a different culture that is not influenced by "urban monoculture".Some of Malcolm's surprising theses are:The collapse is coming when markets price in lack of population growth and divest from assets that losing money to places that grow. These shifts in market sentiments typically happen gradually, and then suddenly.The winning cultures need more than high birth rates. The Amish people have high birth rates, but little clout. The winning cultures need to have high birth rates and be technophilic and be at the forefront of technologyThe key for charter cities or special jurisdictions to attract Malcolm are: a) a guaranteed right to use reproductive technologies, and b) a harsh environment, like a space colony, that nurture a culture of hard work to surviveThis is a kaleidoscopic episode with insights into the frontiers of humanity.

Primavera De Filippi is a researcher at several institutes, including the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.Her research focuses on the legal challenges and opportunities of blockchain technology and artificial intelligence, with a specific focus on governance and trust. Primavera is the author of the book “Blockchain and the Law,” published in 2018 by Harvard University Press (co-authored with Aaron Wright).Primavera led a collective effort during Zuzalu (Vitalik Buterin's pop-up village in Montenegro) to offer an alternative to Balaji Srinivasan's "The Network State".Her main critiques are its overreliance on market- and exit-based approaches.This conversation highlights the differences, but Primavera cautions that there are more commonalities between these different approaches than differences. Most importantly, they share the goal to experiment with governance and approaches to sovereignty to improve on failures of the private and public sectors.We start by defining the problem of the tragedy of the commons: individually rational behavior can lead to collectively worse outcomes. There are three approaches to overcome the problem: a) the Leviathan approach where a public authority manages the commonsb) the market-based approach with defined property rights and tradec) the polycentric governance approachThe last one was developed by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom (the latter receiving a Nobel Price for her work) and is the starting point of Primavera's approach.Niklas has more confidence in market-based solutions than Primavera, so a fruitful discussion ensues discussion the potential pros and cons of these approaches.Both discussants agree that pluralism is the right way forward, trying out different approaches to solve issues such as climate change, immigration, or poverty.The Coordi-Nations approach is encapsulated in a recent blog article, but it's just at the beginning of being formulated and will be discussed in future iterations of Zuzalu and within Ethereum/web3 and governance innovation circles.

Walter Patterson is the co-founder and chief science officer of Minicircle, a biotech startup that produces reversible gene therapies.Minicircle is known for some of their bold moves that include medical self-experimentation, and conducting clinical trials on Roatan, Honduras within a special economic zone led by Próspera that offers an innovative legal framework.In this episode, we learn about Minicircle, gene therapy and regulatory challenges from one of the two iconic founders behind it (the other is Mac Davis).The highlights of this episode are:Walter talks about his early fascination for science, and how it allows us to mold the environment around us to live longer, healthier and more fulfilling livesThe potential of various gene therapies (incl. CRISPR, mRNA) to edit the code of human biology, to overcome life-threatening defects and improve life qualityMinicircle key innovation of plasmid gene therapy, used to produce follistatin to reduce muscle degeneration and increase bone strength for long durationsThe advantage of Prospera as a common law legal jurisdiction: Minicircle is following the same safety protocols and research ethics oversight that are done in the United States under the FDA, the main advantage is to cut bureaucracyHow, counterintuitively, Minicircle is more regulated under common law and has stronger liability for bad outcomes than in FDA jurisdictions where companies are exempted from liability if the played the political game wellTowards the end of the episode, Walter highlights the beauty of Roatan: the perfect weather, natural beauty and overwhelming friendliness of the community.You can experience it yourself visiting Roatan during H2-2023 for various conferences and events taking place: https://lu.ma/infinita

Bryan Caplan is a professor of economics at George Mason University and the author of several books, including Open Borders - The Science and Ethics of Immigration, The Case Against Education and the Myth of the Rational Voter.Bryan is one of the most iconoclastic contemporary thinkers, and had a major influence on the themes of this podcast. His books explain much of the emergent incentives created by the political process that stymie economic growth.In this episode, we talk about his new book "Voters as Mad Scientists - Essays on Political Rationality" and use it as a starter to talk about a variety of topics:Bryan on how the alignment of "Chaotic Good" in the world of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fits his non-conformist style of thinking and practice of breaking bad or unethical laws, as long as you can get away with itWhy voters love to hate business and how the Stockholm Syndrome can help explain it: people like to ally with the powerful, even if they're rich, against rich people or business with less or no political power to hurt themThe politics of what sounds good vs. what is good - explained by social desirability bias, exposed by revealed preferences ("actions speak louder than words") and cemented into practice by status quo biasBryan admits that he's been wrong about cryptocurrency and Bitcoin: F. A. Hayek's idea of de-nationalizing banking has won the day against all oddsIf you're a regular listener to this podcast, you'll chuckle when Bryan compares how someone telling him about Bitcoin for the first time with someone telling him about starting a new country on an island (Prospera is not literally a country though).If starting a new jurisdiction with better laws sounds like a crazy but great idea to you, and your D&D alignment is Lawful-Neutral, Neutral-Good or Chaotic-Good, then come check it out and help us build it - the schedule for coming events is here.

Laurence Ion is a Steward at VitaDAO - a community-owned collective dedicated to funding and advancing longevity science.Longevity is the defining question of the century. Laurence is passionate about health & longevity due to his personal experience struggling with disease.Laurence was one of the key organizers of Zuzalu, Vitalik Buterin's pop-up city in Montenegro, and worked with Niklas to put together new initiatives to break through the regulatory bottlenecks that hold back the science & technology of longevity.This episode encapsulates our thinking on the flawed ethical and regulatory paradigm in medical innovation, resulting from many months of problem analysis and solution-finding through conversations with governments and policymakers in Latin America, Africa and Europe.The future we want to build is one where we use a different regulatory paradigm, as safe or safer than the existing one, while faster to innovate. A safe haven for refugees of age-related diseases that want to try something different, rejuvenate and heal.Most importantly, Laurence and Niklas believe community-building is at the heart of what we do, and having seen the possibility of creating talent density like in Zuzalu inspires us to push the boundaries further, and build a bigger movement.A movement aligned in defeating the Dragon Tyrant of Aging.If you're a biotechnologist, renegade life scientist or relentless entrepreneur who wants to help radically supercharge human health and extend lifespan, join us!The key upcoming initiatives are:Longevity State Congress in Sep 2023Prospera Buildweeks 2023 starting in Oct 2023DeSci & Longevity Biotech 2023 - A Próspera Builders' Summit in Nov 2023Start a Longevity Network State in Latin America in Q1-2024

Neil Chilson is a lawyer and computer scientist, he's the former Chief Technologist at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a current senior research fellow for technology and innovation at the Center for Growth and Opportunity, and the author of “Getting Out of Control: Emergent Leadership in a Complex World”.Neil has decades of first-hand experience in regulatory policy and introduces the distinction between outcome-based, more common law-like legal approaches to regulation vs. the more well-known statutory and preventative approach.This seemingly technical distinction is very relevant. We start by discussing the "Knowledge Problem" that F. A. Hayek raised in one of the most influential economics papers ever written, "The Use of Knowledge in Society" from 1945.Hayek's insight is that central planners cannot know the facts relevant to making their decisions, because knowledge is "tacit" and value is subjective to the individual. The system of free price-setting is necessary to create an "emergent order" that does not come about by conscious design but by adjustment and small improvements through individuals making rational decisions based on their local information. Neil's work is dedicated to applying the insight of emergent order in business, policymaking, and even personal growth - instead of rushing to ask for an authoritative "man in charge", we should instead embrace humility.Rather than making rules for new technology that is rapidly changing, we should focus on liability for bad outcomes after-the-fact. We apply these insights to debates about the existential risk of artificial intelligence (AI) and the regulatory policy of OpenAI's Sam Altman and Microsoft.While we're optimistic that software and AI are "born-free" technologies relatively unencumbered by regulatory overreach, Neil warns that policymakers in Washington and in international governmental organizations have an agenda: they see the internet as a bad thing, and AI risk is a welcome opportunity to further this agenda.Let's not let the internet and AI become stranded technologies. The future is open.Infinita Website: https://infinitavc.com/

Michael Huemer is "the best living philosopher, possibly the best who ever lived." (Bryan Caplan)The podcast host Niklas Anzinger considers Michael Huemer to be the greatest intellectual influence on his life and work with Infinita VC to date.In fact, the name Infinita is a reference to Michael's book "Approaching Infinity".Michael is Professor for Philosophy and the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of more than eighty academic articles in epistemology, ethics, metaethics, metaphysics, and political philosophy - as well as the author of ten books.This conversation is intended to introduce Michael's work to the listener, particularly the books most relevant to unlocking stranded technologies.The first book we discuss is "Knowledge, Reality and Value." The book is an introduction to philosophy and a masterful one. It teaches the reader why it's important to form rational beliefs how to make clear arguments and "wake up" from a state of perpetual intellectual confusion (yes, we all are - and we don't notice it).The second book is "Justice Before the Law", a book about the ethical flaws of the legal system. Michael's key thesis is that actors in the legal system should prioritize what's just over what's the law - that means breaking the law if it's unjust and not unwise to do so. This is an explosive thesis in conflict with existing legal norms.The third book is "The Problem of Political Authority" which argues that existing governments regularly commit what we would consider atrocious violations of individual rights if they were done by any non-governmental actor, and that political philosophy fails to deliver a convincing justification for this special privilege.While all these books have surprising and radical conclusions, what is special about Michael Huemer*s work is his method. Michael clearly states his premises and chooses only those that are based on widely shared beliefs. This results in an extremely clearly written and persuasive style of reasoning.In this episode, we discuss all these books and the implications for entrepreneurs in regulated industries, such as the obligation to follow the law, how to present yourself when you innovate, and how to navigate moral questions that arise in the process.Michael blogs on a Substack called "Fake Nous".

Today's episode is another one in the style of episodes 10 and 25 with Niklas' thoughts, synthesizing 1 year of work with the podcast and a VC fund. First, you'll hear a recording of Niklas's talk at Zuzalu, Vitalik Buterin's pop-up city in Montenegro. The speech can be watched on YouTube as well.The talk shows the progress made by startup cities and network states, and argues that this is a pivotal moment to unleash a wave of new technological progress; the zero-to-ones are already out there - it's no longer a dream.Afterward, Niklas shares impressions of Zuzalu - he believes the key innovation is to prove the impact of in-person civility, bringing together a highly aligned online community in one place to live and build together. In one quote, it was "a university campus on steroids, with people that actually care and actually build."Zuzalu is already resulting in a couple of new initiatives, some led by Infinita VC taking place within the next couple of months.(1) African Regenerative Cities & Futures @ FreeFlow Eden Zanzibar July 20-23, 2023: This is an event to bring together entrepreneurs, artists, and governance innovators with a focus on African cities & technology.Sign-up & more info here: https://lu.ma/zanzibar_regen(2) ETH Latam in Honduras and Prospera BuildweeksOctober 26-28, 2023: This is the core Ethereum conference for the continent.Watch out for sign-up news here: https://mirror.xyz/ethhonduras.ethAfterward, for all of November, we plan to do a 4-week mini-Zuzalu in Prospera called “Prospera Buildweeks”. - during that time we will do two conferences: Crypto & Futurism, Longevity & Decentralised Science, as well as a Prospera General Summit.Updates on sign-ups are here: https://t.me/+xhTw-dudXBc1NmE6(3) Founders' Journey - Start a Longevity Network State in Latin America​This is a 2-month long journey for biotechnologists, renegade life scientists, and relentless entrepreneurs to radically supercharge human health and extend lifespan, by creating of a longevity-focused network state in Latin America.Sign-up & more info here: https://lu.ma/longevity-journey

Alexander Bard is a Swedish cyber philosopher, futurologist, and the author of several books ("The Netocrats", "The Global Empire", "The Body Machines", "Syntheism - Creating God in The Internet Age", "Digital Libido - Sex, Power and Violence in The Network Society" together with Jan Söderqvist).He's also a former music producer, artist and entrepreneur.We start with Alex' history in the music industry, and how he saw the emerging internet and Napster as a Hegelian "negation" of the status quo, leading up as the "synthesis" that Alex actively shaped as a founding contributor to Spotify.In "The Netocrats", Alex foresaw an age where data would replace capital as the source of power over assets, and a new elite it would shape - which turned out to be true in the form the tech giants of our age and the resulting impotence of politics.This old order of nation-states as the source of power is becoming replaced by an internet economy underpinned by Bitcoin and crypto-currencies, leading to perfected and pure capitalism as the source of rational transactions.However, this pure capitalism is not the be-all-end-all.The result that Alex is working towards is "Attentionalism", where sovereign individuals consciously decide what to give their attention to, with the rational-capitalist marketplace only as a basis for our income, not a source of meaning.The sources of meaning are spiritual and could come in the shape of new interpretations of the religions of the East that embrace decentralization.Alex is interested in the frontiers that the "shamanoids" or outliers of civilization gravitate towards, and he sees the new frontier in the form of city-states and special jurisdictions, like Singapore and Dubai shown to be capable stewards.Alex predicts that today's exiteers that build at the new frontiers are tomorrow's elite at these new places. A good reason to be a pioneer at the frontier right now.Infinita Website: https://infinitavc.com/

Brian J. Robertson is a serial entrepreneur and the creator of Holacracy, a comprehensive practice for governing and running our organizations.Holacracy is an often misunderstood, massively influential social and management system. Yet it is more than that, Brian's goal with Holacracy is to give people a taste of self-governance, personal growth and empowerment to impact society.In this episode, we dive deep into the mind that has nurtured Holacracy and brought it to adoption within 10.000+ organizations worldwide.To start with, Holacracy is a modular, open-source, constitution-based management system with clear rules and management responsibilities. It is not no managers (although it aims to reduce the need for managers), and not no structure.Quite to the contrary, it is more structured. The analogy Brian uses is the emergent order market-based order vs. top-down planning. Markets come up with better, more adapted, and more fit-for-purpose sets of rules, institutions, and regulations.Brian solves for me a tension I thought about for a long time: why is it that firms in a competitive market-based system are run to a large degree by central planners?A key answer of mine we discussed is Ronald Coase's "Theory of the Firm" which talks about the planning horizon versus scale efficiency of greater size.Brian's answer is Holacracy. Organizations can be run more like markets and adapt more to tensions as they arise instead of relying too much on top-down decision-making.We discuss Marc Andreessen's reservations against Holacracy, as well as its place in the order of managerial vs. entrepreneurial capitalism, as well as how it steers organizations towards "Antifragility", a term coined by Nassim Taleb.Holacracy is more than a management system. It can be a guide to personal growth and consciousness.Not coincidentally, Brian is currently working as well on starting a psychedelic church by using some clever legal engineering in a Stranded Technologies-like fashion.This is a rich episode and will give you an appreciation for the concept of Holacracy and how it can supercharge your organization and your personal growth.Join us for upcoming events: https://lu.ma/infinitaInfinita Website: https://infinitavc.com/

Jonathan Hillis is the founder of Cabin.Cabin is building a network city - a collection of remarkable coliving properties tied by a shared culture, community, economy, and governance.We start by talking about how a combination of science-fiction and American Wilderness romanticism inspired Jon to start Cabin in the Texas Hill Country.Neighborhood Zero is a development on 28 acres, with a creek that runs through the property, rolling hills, grasslands and forests, and pet longhorn cattle running around.Cabin is now a thriving community that has land and real estate development in multiple locations in the USA and internationally (e.g. Portugal, Italy),Jon talks about the pluralism of moral and community governance innovations that Cabin is working on, inspired by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Elinor Ostrom.These practical insights from Jon's work lead us to discuss Balaji Srinivasan's "The Network State" more, and our insights from Zuzalu, Vitalik Buterin's pop-up city.The key insights are that network state-building is a practical endeavor, and it's hard to build real-world things and deal with the day-to-day of living together.Jon recommends starting small and iteratively, just like in software and technology development - and you don't need an architecture or mechanical engineering degree for it. You can just go out there and start building.Jon has learned the value of community, and building things in the real world, and found that evolutionary adaptive processes toward governance are what's needed to rediscover the lost art of building durable and lasting structures.Join the Cabin community: https://www.cabin.city/Join us for upcoming events: https://lu.ma/infinitaInfinita Website: https://infinitavc.com/

Erik Voorhees is the founder of Shapeshift, a decentralized crypto exchange, and one of the most important voices in crypto. Erik virtually joined for a fireside chat during Decentralizing Finance 2023 - A Prospera Builders' Summit on the island of Roatan.We start by establishing the ethics and principles of Bitcoin, crypto, and the separation of state and money. Money is one if not the most important good for a peaceful, market-led world. It does not belong in the hands of governments.Erik has withstood more than a decade of navigating the complex legal and regulatory maze put up by governments. Governments were initially overconfident in the quality of their product - fiat money. However, Elizabeth Warren's “crypto army” seems like state actors are realizing the threat of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to their predominance.Crypto has survived many challenges - and Erik believes we've come far enough to withstand an even great amount of anti-crypto activism by governments. Bitcoin has proved resilience over and over, and hundreds of millions of people are using it.Not only are we on the verge of realizing the dream of overcoming the traditional, centralized financial system and building a more inclusive one instead. Also, new cities and special jurisdictions are experimenting in governance.While Erik is generally skeptical of legal wrappers for DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations), he's welcoming the movement towards regulatory pluralism instead of a regulatory monopoly.The transition towards new forms of governance and finance on crypto rails may be perilous, but we have come far in expanding the frontiers.Join us for upcoming events: https://lu.ma/infinitaInfinita Website: https://infinitavc.com/

Today is the 70th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA, and the 20th anniversary of the sequencing of the human genome.A perfect day to talk to John Cumbers.John is a molecular biologist. He is the founder and CEO of SynBioBeta which promotes synthetic biology to build a more sustainable universe.This episode is a primer on "synbio", the scientific breakthroughs and commercial applications of reading, sequencing and editing DNA to engineer the built world around us by manipulating the organic process of biology. In 2012, the discovery of CRISPR technologies led to rapid progress into a field that has now $10bn in annual investment and unicorn startups such as Ginko Bioworks.The applications range from food production to materials made from microbes, space travel and human health - anything biological to organize the built world.We discuss potential regulatory challenges of synbio, the bad public perception of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) - while some regulatory challenges reduce adoption in places such as the European Union, non-human facing applications face few regulatory bottlenecks. Of course, human-facing applications have the same limitations as healthcare or pharmaceutical and face strong bottlenecks.Does synbio need a network state? There are certainly unsolved challenges, such as the application of synbio to food production in places that need it the most - something currently not possible because of unit economics.Synbio is certainly a nascent field with tremendous potential.Join us for upcoming events: https://lu.ma/infinitaInfinita Website: https://infinitavc.com/

Ingemar Patrick Linden is a professor for philosophy and bioethics who taught for 10 years at NYU.In his book "The Case Against Death", Patrick points out that evolutionary biology explains why we age and die, but not that we must age and die, or that we ought to. “My experiences tell me that unless there is a good afterlife, death is a horrific evil and nothing is more important than preventing good people from dying. I am a death abolitionist and a life prolongevist.”As we've learned in past episodes such as Ep. 15 with Sebastian Brunemeier, scientists have achieved breakthroughs that could radically extend human lifespan.However, not only is longevity biotechnology ("LongBio") held back by numerous political and regulatory obstacles - it is up against what could be an intellectual fad or an age-old taboo of humanity: the vilification of the search for immortality.Since the Ancient Greeks, Plato, Epicurus and the Stoics, a prevalent idea is "the wise view", that it's mature and enlightened to accept death and vain to fight against it.Popular culture vilifies the search for immortality, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or Marvel's Doctor Strange, depict immortality-seeking as a bad thing.Patrick's view is simple: "Life is Good. Death is Bad."In this conversation, we address some of the common arguments against the view and talk about the massive potential of life-extending technologies.We concur that society would have to change.Our current political and economic choices are not made for a world with an indefinite lifespan. However, this is not a reason not to do it. This is a reason to do more experiments in human governance, such as Prospera, the modern charter city in Honduras, or Zuzalu - Vitalik Buterin's pop-up city in Montenegro.With improved governance, we can be ready for a world with a prolonged or indefinite human lifespan.Join us for upcoming events: https://lu.ma/infinitaInfinita Website: https://infinitavc.com/