I don't typically listen to Joe Rogan, but I wanted to hear what Marc Andreessen had to say because he is so plugged in to Silicon Valley, is super well read, and I find his Techno-Optimist and AI writing to be thought provoking.

As someone that monitors news events (via X) and considers myself culturally observant, I found Marc's comments on internet censorship, unchecked government power, the de-banking of Crypto entrepreneurs, and attempts by top Gov't administrators to control AI companies (through regulatory capture) to be eye-opening.

Listen to the whole thing here (or on Spotify).

Biggest crazy items:

• There are 450+ government, of which some of them are shadow independent government agencies that wield a ton of power, with no oversight. Kind of assumed this, but the real examples were mind expanding.
• The Gov't can "de-bank" people by essentially labeling you a politically exposed person and pressuring the large banks to kick you out without any recourse, paper trail or transparency. He followed up on X with tons of real world examples.
• Andreessen recounts alarming meetings with government officials in which they explicitly outlined plans to restrict AI development to a small number of large companies under strict government control. Having recently learned about the negative consequences of "regulatory capture" this pretty much seems like the opposite of what we want.

I loved their references to Marcus Aurelias Meditations, and especially the quote everybody loves:

I don't agree with some of his views, but this convo definitely had me rethinking a few things.