Jason Crawford

@jasoncrawford.eth

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@jasoncrawford.eth

My tentative bottom line is: solar + batteries can be great for specific applications that don’t need very high availability; and they can work as part of an overall system of supplying power to the grid; but they won’t supply all power to the grid in the foreseeable future. My current, partial understanding of a tricky question: https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/how-much-does-it-cost-to-back-up

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@jasoncrawford.eth

The 150-year history of d/acc, a $120M progress fund, fertility on demand, 19th-century kids' sci-fi, the real lesson of Cassandra’s curse, giving the Devil the benefit of law, and more: https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-short-notes-2025-03-18

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@jasoncrawford.eth

Here's the punchline from my talk for @vitalik.eth's d/acc Day: How each ~generation of the 20th century scored on the three core principles of d/acc. The talk was a whirlwind tour of how society has thought about progress, decentralization & risk over the last 150 years. Starts here, runs about 7 minutes: https://youtube.com/live/b45hakfN1cM?t=2939s

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@jasoncrawford.eth

d/acc Day livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/b45hakfN1cM @vitalik.eth starts us off at 10am Pacific; I'm slated for 10:40

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@jasoncrawford.eth

I'll be speaking at @vitalik.eth's “d/acc Day” at Berkeley on Thursday My talk: “d/acc: The first 150 years.” A whirlwind tour of how society has thought about progress, decentralization and defense over the last century and a half Should be livestreamed and recorded https://lu.ma/o99rcou9

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@jasoncrawford.eth

A visible sonic boom, AI in SaaS, progress on permitting reform, fewer tornado deaths, the closing of the frontier, Rousseau and Kant vs. the Age of Reason, and more https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-short-notes-2025-03-10

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@jasoncrawford.eth

The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, Chapter 5: Solutionism (part 2) There is no tradeoff between health/safety and progress, because health and safety are a part of progress. But the technical work of health and safety has gone mostly unsung https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/solutionism-part-2

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@jasoncrawford.eth

Progress studies in university and high school, a positive supply shock for truth, the hinge of history, Elon in perpetual wartime, Dean Ball on AI liability, Kevin Kelly on the handoff to bots, and more: https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-short-notes-2025-03-03

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@jasoncrawford.eth

Save the date: Progress Conference 2025 will be October 16–19 in Berkeley, CA Hosted by the Roots of Progress Institute together with the Abundance Institute, the Foresight Institute, the Foundation for American Innovation, HumanProgress, the Institute for Humane Studies, and Works in Progress magazine. Speakers and more details to be announced this spring. https://rootsofprogress.org/conference

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@jasoncrawford.eth

3yo this morning: “There are two ways you can die. One is if your heart stops beating and stops pumping blood to your body. The other is if you turn sixteen.” 😳

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@jasoncrawford.eth

A crypto investor reached out to me and is interested in “funding a research paper about tokenization as a new mechanism for funding science moonshots.” He has some notes/ideas, but thinks it should be written up as an econ paper He has $40k to devote to this. DC me if interested or if you have a referral

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@jasoncrawford.eth

I gave a talk to high schoolers: The Future of Humanity—And How You Can Help We hear a lot about disaster scenarios, from pandemic diseases to catastrophic climate change. Is humanity doomed? Or can we solve these challenges, and even create a future that is better than the world has ever seen? I make the case for problem-solving, based on both history and theory, and conclude by pointing towards some of the most important problems and opportunities to work on, to create the best possible future for humanity. https://youtu.be/3Sm7qHd_Qy0

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@jasoncrawford.eth

On the “hinge of history”

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@jasoncrawford.eth

I go away for three weeks and everyone announces everything: Boom first supersonic flight OpenAI Deep Research and GPT-5 roadmap Derek Thompson & Ezra Klein's *Abundance* Charles Mann's “How the System Works” Jason Carman's Story Company Jack Despain Zhou's Center for Educational Progress And much more in my latest links digest: https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-short-notes-2025-02-17

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@jasoncrawford.eth

One model for Elon is that he is perpetually operating in wartime mode Move as fast as possible, bring overwhelming force, extract superhuman effort, accept collateral damage Fits a range of things from SpaceX to DOGE. Anyway, I find it easier to understand him using this lens

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The final videos from Progress Conference 2024 are now on the RPI YouTube channel. The last few added were Chandler Tuttle, Jason Carman, Kanjun Qiu, and Niko McCarty. Enjoy! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHL7KfMBqcoB16bU0pp1_8uVPoc6BUREo

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@jasoncrawford.eth

The Techno-Humanist Manifesto, Chapter 5: Solutionism (part 1) Optimism vs. pessimism can be a false dichotomy. We need to fully acknowledge problems, while vigorously pursuing solutions. Call it “solutionism” https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/solutionism-part-1

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@jasoncrawford.eth

On the incremental path to the future, a major trend will be that humans step up a level, into management. Here I start to lay out a vision for human agency in the AI future: https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/the-future-of-humanity-is-in-management

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@jasoncrawford.eth

Was in Mojave today for the first Boom supersonic flight test! Amazing accomplishment, after over a decade of work. Congrats to the entire team!

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@jasoncrawford.eth

Atlas Shrugged and the irreplaceable founder, pumping stations and civic pride, thoughts on the eve of AGI, skyways for the suburbs, and more: https://newsletter.rootsofprogress.org/p/links-and-short-notes-2025-01-26

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