#11 - Applied History with WhatIfAltHist

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 00:00 - Intro to WhatifAltHist and counterfactual history 03:52 - The idea in alchemy: everyone is competing on vibes 07:12 - Nature/nurture = hardware/software 09:37 - Why the left often wins: equality builds scalable militaries 11:30 - The idea from Balaji that most influenced Rudyard: God, State, or Network? 13:25 - What is the most powerful force in the world: 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 https://youtube.com/@ns https://ns.com