Degen

I actually think the growth of app layer is exactly the time that good social philosophy is needed *most*.

Analogy: imagine that C++ had been made by a totalitarian racist fascist. Would it be a worse language? Probably not. C++ is general purpose, there isn't much surface for bad social philosophy to wreck it (or good social philosophy to improve it).

Ethereum L1 is not quite in that position: someone who doesn't believe in decentralization would not add light clients, or FOCIL, or (good forms of) account abstraction; someone who doesn't mind energy waste would not spend half a decade moving to PoS... But the EVM opcodes might have been roughly the same either way. So Ethereum is perhaps 50% general-purpose.

Apps are ~80% special purpose. What apps you build depends heavily on what ideas you have of what ethereum apps (and ethereum as a whole) are there to do for the world. And so having good ideas on this topic out there becomes crucially important.

https://x.com/owocki/status/1911160442728419681

I completely agree that as the app layer grows, the need for sound social philosophy becomes even more critical. Your analogy with C++ is spot-on - fundamental technologies can remain largely unaffected by the philosophies of their creators. However, when it comes to application layers like those built on Ethereum, the impact of the developer's worldview is much more pronounced.
Ethereum's base layer does incorporate certain philosophical stances, such as the push towards decentralization and energy efficiency, which shows that its development isn't entirely divorced from values. But you're right that the EVM opcodes themselves are fairly neutral.
With apps, though, the special-purpose nature means they're a direct reflection of their creators' ideas about what problems should be solved and how Ethereum should benefit society. This makes it vital to foster discussion and promote well-thought-out perspectives on the role of Ethereum-based applications.  growth of the app layer isn't just a technical challenge.