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Venkatesh Rao ☀️

@vgr

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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The “old world” up to say 1000 AD was really a machine with 7 interlocking parts of approximately comparable size. But the interesting thing with this polar view is, it becomes clear why the steppe nomads were the connective tissue. They’re the hub region. Able to easily invade the 4 big civ cores nearby easily (China, India, near east, Eastern Europe). India was the best protected due to Himalayas.This really should be the map with which pre-1300 world history should be taught. North Africa looks interestingly marginal here, but due to the prehistoric migration out of East Africa it kinda has cantillon-effect explanatory importance. The rest of the world didn’t really get properly integrated till much later. SE Asia and NE Asia were weakly attached, Siberia was even more weakly attached. Arabia is basically hot Siberia. Funny they both have oil.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The ancient near east in my head anon is a small squeezed area between Western Europe and India but it’s actually about as large as either. 1.16m sq miles. This includes Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia (which has usually included Afghanistan) but not Arabia. As this globe view suggests, we underestimate the size because it’s a long narrow belt with bodies of water messing with intuitions. This view feels more in tune with the Bronze Age empires. This also makes me sadder that much of it is likely out of bounds for safe visiting for my lifetime
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Another mild mindfuck. The Arabian peninsula is approximately as large as Western Europe (1.25 vs 1.33m sq miles). India alone is also about the same (1.27m) while South Asia is larger (1.98m, about the size of all of Europe at 2m) Even if you conceptually appreciate the distortions of the Mercator projection, actually playing with a globe is kind mind-boggling.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
For some reason my mental model of the eastern Mediterranean, to the east of Italy, has always been scrunched up where I thought of it as much smaller than the western Mediterranean. But it’s actually slightly larger if you draw the dividing line through Venice. And the Italian and Greek peninsulas are much larger than I thought. And I just got oriented on where Croatia is. That is the Dalmatian coast across from Italy. I thought it was inland near Serbia for some reason.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Peak battleship must have been quite a sight. And probably literally deafening without ear protection. USS Iowa broadside.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Found on xitter https://x.com/padrirancho/status/1870938875436441965?s=61&t=Z7ogL5oXQlE-zjAQ_mFVBw
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The SoP year in review by @timber https://paragraph.xyz/@protocolized/up-shift-and-fan-out
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Proposal: A new image standard that’s exactly the same as .webp but has a better name and doesn’t mislead you into thinking you’re downloading a “webpage”
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
According to my Thai cooking class instructor, red curry and green curry paste are the same, except for the color of the chilies used. They taste the same too.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
We shouldn’t just have decentralized ids. We should have decentralized egos and superegos too.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
There’s always one guy with the nickname “butcher” in every authoritarian regime. “Hassan, referred to as "the butcher" by many civilians on his street, was one of Assad's most menacing enforcers. He led the Air Force Intelligence and oversaw a network of detention facilities including the notorious Mezzeh Prison, where detainees were routinely tortured.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjdnydl594do
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The 4 necessary and sufficient conditions for a hardened commons: 1. Decentralized ids 2. End-to-end encryption 3. Cryptocurrencies 4. Hypersonic tactical missiles
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
On a large enough scale every road is either a cul de sac or goes around in circles
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
What might get me to adopt AR is ability to highlight paper books digitally
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
if this reporting is accurate, this is extraordinarily confused behavior. An Islamophobic Saudi refugee uses a textbook Islamic terrorist tactic in a Christmas market to protest Islamization? Otoh, if an elaborate false flag by a terrorist, I don’t get what the point is. Guy’s name is Taleb, so an apostate Muslim? “Originally from Saudi Arabia, he arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee. Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters that it was "clear to see" that the suspect holds "Islamophobic" views. The suspect is an outspoken critic of Islam on social media, and has promoted conspiracy theories regarding an alleged plot by German authorities to islamicise Europe.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy09y32rlnxo
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
The problems of the world can be blamed on fantasy overwhelming science fiction in popularity, cf Ted Chiang definition that sf is about special rules while fantasy is about special people “Tech” insofar it’s a Great-Man-Theory narrative, is literally fantasy by this definition, and has lost its way for that reason. It used to be science fiction, “new rules” thinking.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Peak Annual Roundup Airalo, the eSIM vendor is sending me an annual roundup.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
To be clear I have zero knowledge of how either project works (🤣) so I don’t know what the two stories here are or if there are even two distinct stories vs subplots. But jeez the worldcoin Orb has terrible branding and design. The thing may be zk-ified and be made by a “tools for humanity” gang, but it *looks* like an Eye of Sauron with Sam Altman as Sauron. It’s the Segway of DID and attestation projects. The Roc camera at least *looks* like it’s for the people/of the people/by the people even if @july turns evil and goes full Sauron on us.
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
A tale of 2 cameras
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Venkatesh Rao ☀️ pfp
Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Sometimes I’m just glad my life has not been caught up in any of the truly stupid currents of world history. So far. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6238exzjpxo
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