Interesting read, I struggled with the arguments made during the WBD chat. Especially when he was pushed on how bitcoin’s PoW is to be used for universally “securing” data. When in face for the most part it was based on DDoS sustained attack prevention. Or exhibit costs for certain functions/interactions (zaps etc.).

Wasn’t able to put my finger in why I wasn’t 100% onboard with the thesis. Appreciate you articulating this.

On a side note I think the evolution prey/hunter arguments are potentially over simplification of biological adaptation history. Not all successful evolutionary traits are a result of being able to exert power and dominate other animals that share an ecosystem. It is all about genes getting proliferated and sometimes that means that adopting social traits, that are not about “power”, increases the likelihood of genes getting proliferated.

Also I reject the idea that we have finite resources to the extent that it is argued in the WBD interview. The work by David Deutsch, for example, proposes that almost anything can be converted into a “resource” just by the act of us humans conceiving and developing ways in which that thing is used. Therefore our resources are truly only limited by our ability to construct ideas in which those thing become useful. Anyway that is more a philosophical point but need to be considered when we use the framing “this is a constant battle for resources that are scares”.