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stinkysam · 9 hours ago

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Choi Subong “Thanos” - No regrets.

Warning : canon typical violence, death, blood, drug use.

Genre : angst

Synopsis : Thanos, your friend of a few years, finds you after the green light red light and asks you to team up with him. Nothing bad can happen, right ?

Reader : male (you/yours)

A/N : bold is in English // 500 million won = 342 000$ // "No winner" was an exception so idk what this one is…

You have known Thanos for a few years now and you quickly became vital for each other, like attached to the hip and somehow along the way, feelings began to bloom, though neither of you ever acted on them.

Not that he’s shy, far from it, he even would’ve asked you out the second he realized his love for you. But then he remembered how badly the Korean people could react to a public figure coming out as queer, making it harder for him to reach his goal to become a popular rapper in Korea, no, the whole world.

So he waited, and waited, hoping to move on. But you were constantly with him, maybe he should’ve stopped inviting you at the rap contest he was participating in or his few concerts, cheering for him with his fans.

Moving on was hard, if not impossible.

Then, during the finals of the show he was participating in, he forgot the lyrics to his rap and lost. And it kept going downhill, to the point of losing everything on crypto money and being indebted of 500 million won more to the already big debt he had. Not seeing an end to it, the relentlessness of life with his feelings, dreams, and means, Thanos walked to a bridge, considering jumping before a man approached him to play a game of ddakji.

And so he found himself in a strange place with hundreds of people and armed guards with masks.

He thought he’d just have to play the games and win and waltz out of here debts free, but the stakes were higher than what he had thought after seeing the pretty player 196 die from a headshot after moving during the green light red light game.

Starting to panic, he popped a colored pill from his cross and swallowed it, waiting for its quick effects. He didn’t have to wait much and within a minute he was running dancing with a big smile on his face, even pushing to death three people before him.

It’s after the 5 minute timer that he saw you, catching your breath with wide eyes as you looked around in shock. What the fuck just happened ? You had some blood on your face and clothes, yet, Thanos still found you good looking, the blood not disturbing him.

He approached you, pushing anyone on his way and without waiting for you to notice him, he began to talk.

“What are you doing here ? You have debts ?” He said, tapping your shoulder.

Your eyes widened again at the sound of his voice as you looked at him, blinking surprised.

“Huh ? T ?” You said as he posed at the sound of his nickname. You had seen him on the screen earlier, but you didn’t expect to actually find him here.

“Das me, yea.” He posed one last time before continuing speaking. “How much ?”

“Huh ?”

“Your debts.”

“Why would I tell you ? You didn’t tell me how you lost all your shit.”

“Crypto money.” He replied without missing a beat.

You blinked at him, surprised, and pointed at him.

“You… too ?”

“MG Coin got you too ?” He looked at you with an equally surprised face.

“What ? No. Who ? I’m just shit at understanding how it works.” You robbed your forehead, remembering with irritation all your actions that led you here.

“Yeah and you’re fucking stubborn, I can see you trying and trying even after losing multiple times.”

“I don’t want any comments from you, didn’t you do the same ?”

“Nope ! Went all-in. In one go !” He said, moving his hands around as if to look cool.

You sighed before letting out a small laugh.

“This isn’t a contest but I feel like you’re winning and not in a good way.”

He smirked clearly not caring about your last words, he had won, that’s what mattered.

“Wanna play together, my bro ? I already have a small group, I can squeeze you in.” He asked, crossing his arms before raising one hand in the air, ready to dap you.

“Sure, what’s the worst that could happen ?” You replied, dapping him.

Since then, you stayed with Thanos and the group he made himself. A fan, a new friend that he kept butchering the name of, a shy guy and a cool girl.

The games weren’t easy even if it made you remember your childhood, but even with death flying around all of you, Thanos and soon Namgyu made things less intense.

The third game was over and you had survived once more. Then as planned the vote of the day came but ended in a tie to which the square guard told everyone another vote was coming but to take a break before it would start.

A lot of people from both sides went to the bathroom while you stayed on one of the beds of your now reduced group. The cool girl and shy guy had voted X, no longer wanting to play the games, and the fan, Gyeongsu, was dead, so only you, Thanos and Namgyu remained. But after 5 long minutes you started to wonder what was taking them so long to just take a shit. So you stood up and asked to be let out to go to the bathroom, a guard accompanying you.

As you finally approached the door, Minsu rushed out, running past you. Then you heard commotion and as you opened the door…

Chaos.

Everyone was at each other’s throat, punching, kicking and hitting one another.

You saw Thanos on player 333 as they strangled each other while he cursed in both Korean and English. Quickly you went to grab him, wanting to get out of here as fast as possible, but Thanos swiftly pushed you away, making you land on your ass.

As you moved and tried to stay out of the way of everyone you noticed player 333 pulling a silver thing out of his pocket and planting it in Thanos’ throat. You yelled, trying to get closer but before you could grab him, player 333 had stabbed him a second time before pushing him away and hiding inside the toilet stall, locking it.

“Fuck !”

You grabbed Thanos, cursing to yourself, and hid in the second toilet. His hand was shaking against his throat, holding the fork, blood spilling between his fingers. You moved his hand, placing yours instead, trying to stop the wounds from bleeding.

You had tears in your eyes as you began to panic, his were wide as he tried to breathe and cough out the blood, choking on it.

“Fuck dude !” You cried out, you could feel his heartbeat on the palm of your hand. “Why did you do this when I’m not here !”

You pulled him closer, shaking, his head resting on your chest as he continued to choke, his heartbeat slowing down dangerously.

“You fucking dumbass.” You didn’t know what to do, your favorite person was dying and you couldn’t do anything to help him.

He looked at you with horror as he realized what was going to inevitably happen, one hand grabbing your arm while the other went to your cheek, trembling, weakly caressing it, smudging blood on your skin.

“I” He managed to get out, coughing up blood on himself and your clothes, struggling, looking at you, scared. It was now or never, he thought. “I lo- …yo-” He tried to articulate, though panic, blood and pain were making it difficult.

You let out a frustrated yell before planting a kiss on his forehead.

“Fuck you, Subong ! Tell me when you survive this ! You can survive this, right, it’s just a fork ! Don’t fucking die, man !” As you cried, your tears fell on his face as slowly his eyes lost their light.

His heart had stopped beating, his hands falling to his sides. Thanos was no longer shaking and struggling against you but blood was still pooling by your hand and clothes.

You closed your eyes, his dead ones looking right at you. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Your body kept shaking as you held him tightly against you, too scared to get out, waiting for the fight to stop, for everything to end.

When it finally died out, you heard a knock, making you jump.

“Who’s that ?” You asked, your voice hoarse, quiet, it was evident you were still crying.

“Me. Namgyu. Is he… ?”

You unlocked the door, wiping your tears quickly, putting Thanos’ blood on your face inadvertently.

“Shit !” Namgyu kneeled, hands moving against Thanos’ shoulders. “That fucking MG Coin…”

And then, he pulled the fork out of his throat, from between your fingers, more blood gushing out. It almost made you puke in your mouth.

“For revenge.” He said with a weak smile, carefully hidding the bloody fork in his clothes. “Do you think… I can take this too ?” He pointed to the big cross Thanos had around his neck. “It’s just- You know…”

He gave you another small smile before unlocking the necklace and taking it before you could say anything. You didn’t have a good reason to stop him anyway.

“Once it’s empty, give it to me, okay ?” You finally said and he nodded slowly.

Then the bathroom door creaked open, the guards were there. Big guns and human sized black boxes to take in the casualties.

“Come on, let’s go.” Namgyu said quietly, pulling you by your elbow.

You didn’t want to leave, not ready to abandon Thanos’ body. But you had to, so you closed his eyes before slowly getting up as you laid him on the stained ground. Namgyu held you close, helping you walk away, the others followed you quietly, escorted by the armed guards.

When you entered the lobby, defeated and mentally annihilated, Namgyu immediately alerted the others of what had happened while you slowly realized you were drenched in Thanos’ blood, with no possibility to shower or change clothes. You felt sick, and while people approached as the two groups began to argue once more, you sat on Thanos’ bed, eyes empty.

Now, you really wanted out.

#male reader #m!reader #squid game #squid game x m!reader #squid game x male reader #thanos squid game #choi su bong x m!reader #choi su bong x male reader #choi su bong #choi subong x m!reader #choi subong x male reader #squid game 2

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sexymemecoin · 7 months ago

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Meme Coins: The Fusion of Humor and Cryptocurrency

In the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrency, a new and exciting trend has emerged: meme coins. These digital assets, inspired by internet memes and cultural phenomena, have captured the imagination of investors and enthusiasts alike. Meme coins represent a unique fusion of humor, community engagement, and financial innovation. Among the rising stars in this vibrant ecosystem is Sexy Meme Coin, a project that exemplifies the potential of meme coins to revolutionize both the crypto world and internet culture. You can learn more about this exciting project at Sexy Meme Coin.

The Origins of Meme Coins

The concept of meme coins began with Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke but quickly gained a dedicated following. Launched in 2013, Dogecoin features the Shiba Inu dog from the "Doge" meme as its mascot. Despite its humorous beginnings, Dogecoin has become a serious player in the crypto market, demonstrating the power of community and social media in driving value.

Inspired by Dogecoin's success, a wave of new meme coins has emerged, each with its unique twist on the concept. These coins leverage the viral nature of memes to build communities and create value, often with a playful and irreverent approach.

What Sets Meme Coins Apart?

Community-Driven: Meme coins are built on the strength of their communities. Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies, which often focus on technological innovation, meme coins thrive on community engagement and social media presence. This grassroots approach fosters a sense of belonging and enthusiasm among users.

Humor and Culture: By incorporating elements of internet culture and humor, meme coins appeal to a broad audience. They are not just financial instruments but also cultural phenomena, reflecting the zeitgeist of the digital age.

Accessibility: Meme coins are often more accessible to the average person than other cryptocurrencies. Their playful nature and low entry barriers make them attractive to newcomers to the crypto space.

Potential for Rapid Growth: The viral nature of memes means that meme coins can experience explosive growth in a short period. While this can lead to significant gains for early adopters, it also comes with high volatility and risk.

Sexy Meme Coin: A Case Study

One of the most promising new entrants in the meme coin arena is Sexy Meme Coin. This project exemplifies the innovative spirit of meme coins, combining humor, community engagement, and cutting-edge technology to create a unique platform for meme enthusiasts and crypto investors.

Key Features of Sexy Meme Coin:

Decentralized Meme Marketplace: Sexy Meme Coin offers a decentralized marketplace where users can buy, sell, and trade memes as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). This platform ensures that creators are rewarded for their originality and creativity, turning viral content into valuable digital assets.

Community Engagement: The platform places a strong emphasis on community involvement. Users can participate in meme contests, vote on their favorite memes, and interact with fellow meme lovers. This active participation not only enhances the user experience but also strengthens the sense of community within the platform.

Reward System: Sexy Meme Coin's unique reward system allows users to earn Sexy Meme tokens ($SXYM) through various activities. Whether it's creating popular memes, participating in community events, or staking tokens, users are incentivized to contribute to the ecosystem and are rewarded for their creativity and engagement.

Exclusive Content: The platform offers access to exclusive meme content and special editions for token holders, providing added value and a unique experience for the community.

Charitable Initiatives: Beyond creating a fun and engaging platform, Sexy Meme Coin is committed to making a positive impact. A portion of the platform’s profits is dedicated to charitable causes, demonstrating the project’s dedication to social responsibility and community support.

You can explore more about this exciting project at Sexy Meme Coin.

The Future of Meme Coins

The rise of meme coins like Sexy Meme Coin signals a shift in the cryptocurrency landscape. These projects are not just about financial speculation; they represent a new way of thinking about digital assets and community engagement. As meme coins continue to evolve, they have the potential to influence mainstream culture and finance in unprecedented ways.

However, it's essential to approach meme coins with a level of caution. Their high volatility and reliance on social media trends mean that they can be unpredictable. Investors should do their due diligence and be prepared for the inherent risks.

Conclusion

Meme coins are more than a passing fad; they are a testament to the power of community, culture, and creativity in the digital age. Projects like Sexy Meme Coin are at the forefront of this movement, demonstrating that humor and blockchain technology can coexist to create something truly unique. As the meme coin ecosystem continues to grow, it will be fascinating to see how these projects shape the future of cryptocurrency and internet culture.

For more information on Sexy Meme Coin and to join the community, visit Sexy Meme Coin and become part of the revolution in the world of meme coins.

#blockchain #crypto #defi #digitalcurrency #ethereum #digitalassets

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pink-carnelian · 10 months ago

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Call me everything everywhere bc I could take them all at once

This show is makign me so horny

#cj #curtis armstrong #ivan van norman #Virgil Griffith #Brandon moore #all the contestants are my type lol #I may not like crypto or treason #but that doesn’t make Virgil any less fuckable tbh

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charmac · 7 months ago

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As it is completely allowed to write a Sunny story for this Four Walls contest thing, I have submitted an offering to Rob's crypto scam site.

What I've done is re-written the little S.I.N.N.E.D. System one-shot I wrote last year to take place in Paddy's instead (so it qualifies as a "bar story," and something new) and I've taken out anything "Sexually suggestive" (bc apparently that's not allowed).

I've reasoned that, while I would personally never relinquish my rights to anything original, it's not like my thousand words here can even stand alone outside of the IP of Sunny. I mean, it completely relies on it. So I'm not losing any creative rights I could have claimed anyway, there's a pretty high chance R(CG) get led into reading a little Macdennis fanfiction, and there's actual money on the table. I'm not sure there's any other way you could legally profit off fanfiction.. other than something like this.

Fuck it. Whatever. Rob thinks his metaverse shit is happening but it's flopping so hard they need to use fans to get their companies a smidge of engagement, so I will take their plots and their characters and give them a lead in to gay porn (bc if I don't "win," I will be adding 3k words of smut to this thing and publishing it to Ao3) and never use his site again.

I would like the gay zoomer protection money to become a reality, but simply the art of being able to submit Macdennis fanfiction in response to their marketing bait does it for me.

#a chunk of the submissions are god awful btw #like literally. wtf. kinda shit #some people have done legit stories and creative stuff #but most of the fanfiction #i mean sunny inspired stories #have been like... a drunk redditor wrote this #four walls #idek what to tag for robs shit #cos im not gonna engage with that stuff outside this #also if i do get some money from this #time square dave and busters on me for a night of celebration #i WILL be wasting that shit #all the fujoshi (or gay lol) zoomers (or millennials wtv) who want to come are invited

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mariacallous · 3 months ago

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On a dead-end road that climbs out of the tiny city of Jenkins, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Eastern Kentucky, there stands a large warehouse with a mint green roof. It shares the road with a few other businesses, but is otherwise surrounded by an expanse of open fields and tree-lined slopes. Inside, the warehouse is stacked high with racks on racks of computers—thousands of them. But none have ever been switched on.

The warehouse is owned by Mohawk Energy, a company cofounded by Kentucky state senator Brandon Smith in 2005, originally to resculpt landscapes disfigured by coal mining. After lying dormant for a period, Mohawk was reincarnated in 2022 when Smith struck a deal with HBTPower, a company then owned by Chinese crypto exchange Huobi, which wanted to use the warehouse for a bitcoin mining operation.

Under the deal, Mohawk promised to fit up its warehouse with the necessary power infrastructure, operate the equipment, and funnel any bitcoin produced to HBT. In return, HBT would pay Mohawk a monthly hosting fee, a cut of its mining revenue, and the associated energy bills.

Smith says he hoped the arrangement would generate tax revenue and create jobs for former coal miners, who could be trained as repair technicians. The coal industry departed Jenkins long ago, the reserves depleted, leaving people in search of work. More than a third now live below the poverty line, per the latest census data. “I liked the idea of going from one type of mining to a new type,” says Smith. “I thought, now in Eastern Kentucky we are going to have our time—we’re going to catch up and play a part in the tech future.”

But after a promising start, the relationship between Mohawk and HBT soured and then fell apart. “Nothing has ever been turned on. It’s a fascinating, almost Willy Wonka–type atmosphere when you walk through,” says Smith. “It has turned into a disaster.”

In November 2023, HBT brought a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that Mohawk had breached its contract on several fronts, including by failing to install the appropriate power infrastructure and secure certain power subsidies, and attempting to sell off the mining equipment. “Ultimately, the source of the current dispute is Mohawk’s basic failure to comply with its obligations, not only in a timely way, but at all in many regards,” says Harout Samra, a specialist in international dispute resolution at law firm DLA Piper and representative for HBT.

Mohawk sued HBT in return, contesting the various alleged breaches and claiming that HBT is delinquent on more than $700,000 in rent, labor, and fit-up costs. The company is also seeking damages relating to the loss of income over the term of the contract and the inability to bring a new tenant into the facility while the equipment remains on-site. “Huobi simply made a bargain it believes now is a bad one, and wants to get out of it without paying the funds it owes,” the filing states.

The legal conflict, which remains unresolved, is just one in a series of fights between Chinese companies and the owners of industrial facilities in the rural US over failed bitcoin mining partnerships. What looked to facility owners in Kentucky like an irresistible opportunity to tap into a new line of business in an otherwise fallow period has turned into a nightmare. They claim to have been saddled with unpaid hosting fees and energy bills worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, with few options for recovering the money. The Chinese parties have been left equally displeased. “HBTPower obviously regrets that this opportunity has ultimately played out the way it has,” says Samra.

The bitcoin mining game—a race between computers to win the right to process a bundle of transactions and claim a crypto reward—is dominated by large corporations that own and operate industrial-scale facilities. But in 2021 and 2022, smaller-scale operations began to proliferate in the US countryside wherever there was available power, including in Kentucky. “A lot of mom-and-pop shops opened up,” says Phil Harvey, CEO at Sabre56, a firm that consults on crypto mining projects and operates its own facilities. “Appalachia has always been a good source of power.”

These small facilities were plugging a gap in the market. A ban on crypto mining in China had left businesses casting about for a new home for their many millions of dollars’ worth of mining equipment. “A lot of wealthy Chinese businesses were affected,” says Harvey. “Every minute these machines are down, they are losing revenue.” Meanwhile, as the price of bitcoin ballooned—and the profitability of mining along with it—mining firms and investor groups began to hoard large quantities of bitcoin mining equipment of their own, says Harvey, without considering where they might deploy it.

In an overheated market, holders of mining equipment jumped into hosting arrangements at short notice with owners of small facilities, some of whom had no prior experience and insufficient expertise, who agreed to install the equipment and run the mining operations on their behalf.

But the haste with which these hosting relationships came together, in the name of striking while bitcoin was hot, says Harvey, set many of the partnerships up for failure. There was limited due diligence conducted by parties on both sides, delays in kitting out facilities and deploying equipment, and disputes over payment terms, he says, among other points of friction. “It's a snowball effect where everyone just ends up getting pissed off with each other,” says Harvey.

Though the American market proved more expensive and bureaucratic than some Chinese businesses expected, says Harvey, problems were also caused by the hubris of facility owners, some of whom found themselves in over their heads. “It’s no joke running a [bitcoin mining] operation of any kind of scale,” he says. “Just because the Chinese are tough to do business with, doesn’t mean they are the ones in the wrong. I would say that blame is equally shared.”

The law firm acting for Mohawk in its dispute with HBT, Anna Whites Law Office, has represented multiple owners of small facilities in Kentucky in similar legal conflicts with Chinese partners. The cases differ from the Mohawk situation, says attorney Anna Whites, founder of the firm, but share a common thread: “We saw a pattern that [companies with ties to China] would ship in machines with uncertain provenance, mine very heavily for three months, then run without paying the bill,” she claims.

Some of the cases settled out of court; Whites is unable to supply the details for reasons of client confidentiality. But others continue to drag on.

Biofuel Mining, a company formerly co-owned by Smith, is involved in legal tangles with two companies that Whites believes to be run out of China: Touzi Tech and VCV Power Gamma. Although both are incorporated in Delaware, per SEC filings, they conduct business in Mandarin and cannot be reached at their listed US addresses, Whites claims. “It's pretty standard for the foreign entities from any country to get a short-term office so that they have less scrutiny from US investors and government agencies,” she says.

In both cases, Biofuel claims, the firms shipped equipment from China to its hosting facility in Eastern Kentucky, then walked away with the bitcoin produced, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid energy bills and hosting fees.

Biofuel reached a settlement with Touzi in early 2022 for $60,000, but despite having handed back the mining equipment, it claims not to have received the sum it is owed under the agreement.

In the still-unresolved spat with VCV, Biofuel received permission from the Martin County Circuit Court in Kentucky to sell off the mining equipment, claims Whites, to recoup a portion of the funds it is owed (she has not confirmed the amount), but she alleges that no damages have yet been awarded. VCV has stopped responding to communications, she claims.

Biofuel has since dissolved, put out of business by the failed hosting ventures. “I literally lost my house—I lost everything. It financially ruined me,” says Wes Hamilton, former Biofuel Mining CEO. “I’m just so frustrated about the whole thing.”

WIRED contacted VCV and Touzi for comment, but did not receive any response.

There are few financial recovery options for companies like Mohawk and Biofuel. The situation is made more difficult, as in the Mohawk case, if they are dealing with so-called special purpose entities. Because they are set up by their parent companies for a single specific business venture, these entities need not be concerned about their long-term ability to operate in the US.

“It certainly can be more difficult to recover damages from a non-US counterparty,” says Kim Havlin, a partner in the global commercial litigation practice at law firm White & Case. “There is certainly a risk that an entity that doesn’t need to be in the US may just ignore the case.”

Even if the Kentucky facility owners win out in court, it could be difficult to collect any damages awarded. “A judgment is essentially a piece of paper. Any judgment needs to be turned into assets or cash in order to be valuable,” says Havlin. If the opposing party refuses to pay up and has no US assets to collect against, sometimes that isn’t possible.

Almost a year after the dispute began, the Mohawk case is stuck in legal limbo. In a setback for Mohawk, the presiding judge recently denied its motion to dismiss HBT’s complaint, on the basis that it had failed to sufficiently back up its argument. The judge also pushed Mohawk’s countersuit into arbitration, a forum for resolving disputes privately instead of in open court. Non-US parties tend to prefer arbitration as a way to “remove a home forum from both sides,” explains Havlin. “You can pick an arbitral seat in neither country as a means of creating a neutral playing field.” A parallel federal court hearing is set for December to consider whether an injunction should be imposed on Mohawk, preventing it from selling off the remaining HBT equipment in its possession.

Smith has given up on the idea of recovering the full amount he claims to be owed. “We’re at the point that it’s almost silly to even be arguing about breaking even,” he says.

In an interview with PBS that aired in September 2023, touting the Mohawk Energy facility, Smith said he hoped to prove that not every business that blew into Jenkins would abandon the area. “I’ve stood at their ribbon cuttings, then watched them leave. I’d like to do something to let people know that not everybody is like that,” he said.

After the relationship with HBT collapsed last year, Smith faces the prospect of Mohawk becoming yet another false start. With the facility inactive, the company has been forced to dismiss the former coal miners brought on as technicians. (It is unclear how many people it employed.)

The Mohawk facility was perhaps never set to revitalize Jenkins in the way Smith hoped, anyway. “I would say that a rural community benefits very little from a bitcoin mining facility. In terms of job creation, it’s minimal in a lot of cases,” says Harvey, the consultant. “It's certainly not the savior to a dwindling community.”

Nonetheless, Smith remains hopeful of salvaging the crypto mining project, with a new partner. “I’m hoping that this gets settled in the way that it should and that somebody comes forward and lets us go through with the vision that we wanted for this region,” he says. “I hope every day that maybe some big company will see that there's a place ready to go in this part of the country.”

Otherwise, Mohawk’s dalliance with bitcoin mining will become a cautionary tale. “It was very hurtful to see these families lose their income. We were one of the biggest payrolls in Jenkins,” says Smith. “It adds insult to injury that I’m sitting here arguing in court.”

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limeade-l3sbian · 8 months ago

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I want to do some kind of art/graphic design contest for Pride month. I'll just tell you right now, the prize is only gonna be like $5 but damn it that's money. But I think it could be a fun little community thing!

I was thinking of having a little art/graphic design contest where gyns make some kind of pride sticker or maybe a poem contest so that cryptos can participate? I DON'T KNOW BUT I'M GETTING EXCITED. I think if I did the sticker one, it would be $5 and I post a picture of me sticking that baby somewhere in my city. Any suggestions are welcome but I think it would be a nice community exercise.

Any ideas are welcome <3

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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The Collective Intelligence Institute

History is written by the winners, which is why Luddite is a slur meaning “technophobe” and not a badge of honor meaning, “Person who goes beyond asking what technology does, to asking who it does it for and who it does it to.”

https://locusmag.com/2022/01/cory-doctorow-science-fiction-is-a-luddite-literature/

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/07/full-stack-luddites/#subsidiarity

Luddites weren’t anti-machine activists, they were pro-worker advocates, who believed that the spoils of automation shouldn’t automatically be allocated to the bosses who skimmed the profits from their labor and spent them on machines that put them out of a job. There is no empirical right answer about who should benefit from automation, only social contestation, which includes all the things that desperate people whose access to food, shelter and comfort are threatened might do, such as smashing looms and torching factories.

The question of who should benefit from automation is always urgent, and it’s also always up for grabs. Automation can deepen and reinforce unfair arrangements, or it can upend them. No one came off a mountain with two stone tablets reading “Thy machines shall condemn labor to the scrapheap of the history while capital amasses more wealth and power.” We get to choose.

Capital’s greatest weapon in this battle is inevitabilism, sometimes called “capitalist realism,” summed up with Frederic Jameson’s famous quote “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism” (often misattributed to Žižek). A simpler formulation can be found in the doctrine of Margaret Thatcher: “There Is No Alternative,” or even Dante’s “Abandon hope all ye who enter here.”

Hope — alternatives — lies in reviving our structural imagination, thinking through other ways of managing our collective future. Last May, Wired published a brilliant article that did just that, by Divya Siddarth, Danielle Allen and E. Glen Weyl:

https://www.wired.com/story/web3-blockchain-decentralization-governance/

That article, “The Web3 Decentralization Debate Is Focused on the Wrong Question,” set forth a taxonomy of decentralization, exploring ways that power could be distributed, checked, and shared. It went beyond blockchains and hyperspeculative, Ponzi-prone “mechanism design,” prompting me to subtitle my analysis “Not all who decentralize are bros”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/12/crypto-means-cryptography/#p2p-rides-again

That article was just one installment in a long, ongoing project by the authors. Now, Siddarth has teamed up with Saffron Huang to launch the Collective Intelligence project, “an incubator for new governance models for transformative technology.”

https://cip.org/whitepaper

The Collective Intelligence Project’s research focus is “collective intelligence capabilities: decision-making technologies, processes, and institutions that expand a group’s capacity to construct and cooperate towards shared goals.” That is, asking more than how automation works, but who it should work for.

Collective Intelligence institutions include “markets…nation-state democracy…global governance institutions and transnational corporations, standards-setting organizations and judicial courts, the decision structures of universities, startups, and nonprofits.” All of these institutions let two or more people collaborate, which is to say, it lets us do superhuman things — things that transcend the limitations of the lone individual.

Our institutions are failing us. Confidence in democracy is in decline, and democratic states have failed to coordinate to solve urgent crises, like the climate emergency. Markets are also failing us, “flatten[ing] complex values in favor of over-optimizing for cost, profit, or share price.”

Neither traditional voting systems nor speculative markets are up to the task of steering our emerging, transformative technologies — neither machine learning, nor bioengineering, nor labor automation. Hence the mission of CIP: “Humans created our current CI systems to help achieve collective goals. We can remake them.”

The plan to do this is in two phases:

Value elicitation: “ways to develop scalable processes for surfacing and combining group beliefs, goals, values, and preferences.” Think of tools like Pol.is, which Taiwan uses to identify ideas that have the broadest consensus, not just the most active engagement.

Remake technology institutions: “technology development beyond the existing options of non-profit, VC-funded startup, or academic project.” Practically, that’s developing tools and models for “decentralized governance and metagovernance, internet standards-setting,” and consortia.

The founders pose this as a solution to “The Transformative Technology Trilemma” — that is, the supposed need to trade off between participation, progress and safety.

This trilemma usually yields one of three unsatisfactory outcomes:

Capitalist Acceleration: “Sacrificing safety for progress while maintaining basic participation.” Think of private-sector geoengineering, CRISPR experimentation, or deployment of machine learning tools. AKA “bro shit.”

Authoritarian Technocracy: “Sacrificing participation for progress while maintaining basic safety.” Think of the vulnerable world hypothesis weirdos who advocate for universal, total surveillance to prevent “runaway AI,” or, of course, the Chinese technocratic system.

Shared Stagnation: “Sacrificing progress for participation while maintaining basic safety.” A drive for local control above transnational coordination, unwarranted skepticism of useful technologies (AKA “What the Luddites are unfairly accused of”).

The Institute’s goal is to chart a fourth path, which seeks out the best parts of all three outcomes, while leaving behind their flaws. This includes deliberative democracy tools like sortition and assemblies, backed by transparent machine learning tools that help surface broadly held views from within a community, not just the views held by the loudest participants.

This dovetails into creating new tech development institutions to replace the default, venture-backed startup for “societally-consequential, infrastructural projects,” including public benefit companies, focused research organizations, perpetual purpose trusts, co-ops, etc.

It’s a view I find compelling, personally, enough so that I have joined the organization as a volunteer advisor.

This vision resembles the watershed groups in Ruthanna Emrys’s spectacular “Half-Built Garden,” which was one of the most inspiring novels I read last year (a far better source of stfnal inspo than the technocratic fantasies of the “Golden Age”):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/26/aislands/#dead-ringers

And it revives the long-dormant, utterly necessary spirit of the Luddites, which you can learn a lot more about in Brian Merchant’s forthcoming, magesterial “Blood In the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech”:

https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/

This week (Feb 8–17), I’ll be in Australia, touring my book Chokepoint Capitalism with my co-author, Rebecca Giblin. We’ll be in Brisbane tomorrow (Feb 8), and then we’re doing a remote event for NZ on Feb 9. Next are Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra. I hope to see you!

[Image ID: An old Ace Double paperback. The cover illustration has been replaced with an 18th century illustration depicting a giant Ned Ludd leading an army of Luddites who have just torched a factory. The cover text reads: 'The Luddites. Smashing looms was their tactic, not their goal.']

#pluralistic #ai #artificial intelligence #b-corps #collective intelligence #full-stack luddism #full-stack luddites #governance #luddism #ml #sortition #subsidiarity

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autisticlio · 6 months ago

Note

Regarding the nft stuff with Laserhawk, can you clarify more on that?

Sure! It's worth noting some of these screenshots are not mine and are instead from a mutual in a server I'm in, but I'll go ahead and have them under a read more.

Here is what I mentioned regarding the contest. Earlier this year in the Discord server, in order to get various merch such as the art book and keychain, participants were required to spend their money. Anything that mentioned Sandbox = NFTs as they previously did a collab with the company for skins in that particular NFT game.

It's worth noting that there was also apparently an ID/call card generator that mentioned minting was involved. Multiple people did not know this and accidentally did that. However, any info regarding it I have only heard tidbits on. If you have further information, feel free to add onto this. I believe it's on the Eden Online site, but I would rather not risk messing with that and accidentally minting anything.

Here is more information on the game via crypto news articles, confirming the game the tweet was talking about is this. Even prior to this, various videos were made of a live event in May on the official Twitter. Here are the screenshots I took at the time. For those, multiple replies are hidden such as here. Note also the 'We want you!' in the banner in the back being the same as the one on the website.

Also, while technically unrelated to you question, a few people wanted to ask me what I meant by the game focusing on the Niji 6 and how that was confirmed. For that, it's because they are the very first thing you see alongside Rayman when promoting the Web3 game on the official website such as here. The video itself shows a PC booting up and a sprite of Red's helmet. There were also articles discussing it further, but have been struggling to find them. Again, feel free to add onto this if you have further info.

With all this said, please keep in mind my intentions are not to say 'If you like the series you're bad' or whatever. It is instead point out the various ways Ubisoft has attempted to trick it's fanbase into supporting a dead, environmentally bad market despite everyone I know being against it. It has gotten to the point where they are trying to bait both the series fans and Rayman fans into caring, whether that be through teasing a nonconfirmed Season 2 or nostalgia baiting. It is disrespectful at best and outright predatory at worst. I genuinely feel bad for those who enjoy the show. I want to spread awareness as someone whose favorite creators ended up also doing NFTs when it was a big thing.

#i talk #anon #captain laserhawk #for blacklist

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