Smart contracts aren’t actually new. Computer scientist, legal scholar, and cryptographer Nick Szabo coined the term in 1994 (possibly earlier, depending on who you ask).
Old problems seem to keep coming back. Bret Victor gave a talk in 2013 called “The Future of Programming,” where he talked about problems from 1973 that were still relevant.
To learn more about the Agoric blockchain, check out their homepage.
Jessica Johns' thriller, Bad Cree, opens with a startling image: a severed crow's head in someone's hand. In today's episode, Johns tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe she hoped that image would set the tone for the winding mystery within her new novel. It follows a young Cree woman who returns to a home and culture she left behind in hopes of helping her cope with grief. Much of Mackenzie's story involves her dreams, and Johns explains why she felt it was so important to honor that world – especially after a professor told her otherwise.
Amanda Holmes reads Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “The Flower-School.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
Robert sits down with Noah Giansiracusa, math professor at Bentley University, to talk about the reasonable and unreasonable fears people have over AI.
We give ourselves a concussion by talking about yet another opinion essay about AI written by three “experts” and published by a major newspaper. How is AI doing neuro-linguistic programming? What happens when your analysis is all idealism, no materialism, all superstructure, no base? Will AI soon use its godlike powers to hack civilization and create militant groups at its command just by telling us the right story? Wait, you’re telling me we have to take this shit seriously because the authors have direct lines of influence to people who have actual political power and control capital? Goddamnit.
Article we discuss
••• You Can Have the Blue Pill or the Red Pill, and We’re Out of Blue Pills | Yuval Harari, Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/24/opinion/yuval-harari-ai-chatgpt.html
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Hosted by Jathan Sadowski (www.twitter.com/jathansadowski) and Edward Ongweso Jr. (www.twitter.com/bigblackjacobin). Production / Music by Jereme Brown (www.twitter.com/braunestahl)
NYC prepares for Former President Trump arraignment. Students rally for gun control. NASA prepares for space exploration. CBS News Correspondent Jennifer Keiper has tonight's World News Roundup.
The most valuable crypto stories for Monday, April 3, 2023.
"The Hash" tackles today's hot topics: A major Ethereum bot gets attacked by one of the blockchain's validators. Japanese regulators flag four crypto exchanges for operating in the country without proper registrations. Another version of Ordinals emerges, stoking renewed debate over Bitcoin NFTs. Plus, Peter McCormack writes about the return of bitcoin's inflation hedge thesis.
This episode has been edited by Ryan Huntington. The senior producer is Michele Musso and the executive producer is Jared Schwartz. Our theme song is “Neon Beach.”
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Join the most important conversation in crypto and Web3 at Consensus 2023, happening April 26-28 in Austin, Texas. Come and immerse yourself in all that Web3, crypto, blockchain and the metaverse have to offer. Use code THEHASH to get 15% off your pass. Visit coindesk.com/consensus.
Whenever an odious speaker is heard, in the background you also hear the cries to "deplatform" the speaker. Mike thinks that in this, the "attention age," it doesn't work, it can't work, and our energies are better spent on non-wishful thinking. Plus, stand-up comic Myq Kaplan is here before he leaves for an Edinburgh Fringe Festival sting. And while we technically don't know what's in the Trump indictment, we can predict it's nothing good for the former President.
On Sunday night, OPEC+ members announced the cuts ahead of this week's meeting.
A reduction in oil output of 1.65 million barrels per day was announced by OPEC+ members on Sunday night. In the face of a global economic slowdown, analysts are debating whether the cartel is acting politically or merely anticipating softer demand.
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“The Breakdown” is written, produced and narrated by Nathaniel Whittemore aka NLW, with editing by Michele Musso and research by Scott Hill. Jared Schwartz is our executive producer and our theme music is “Countdown” by Neon Beach. Music behind our sponsor today is “Foothill Blvd” by Sam Barsh. Image credit: by CoinDesk.
Join the most important conversation in crypto and Web3 at Consensus 2023, happening April 26-28 in Austin, Texas. Come and immerse yourself in all that Web3, crypto, blockchain and the metaverse have to offer. Use code BREAKDOWN to get 15% off your pass. Visit consensus.coindesk.com.
After a spike of shootings in 2016, Chicago stepped up its violence prevention efforts. Reset sat down with some of the leaders of this endeavor to learn what’s changed in the eight years since the movement began. We talked to Dominique McCord from Metropolitan Peace Initiatives, Teny Gross from the Institute for Nonviolence, Chris Patterson from Illinois’ Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, and Kanoya Ali from Chicago CRED.
