# 4/2 & 4/9/23 - The Itinerant Weekly - #39 & 40

By [The Itinerant](https://paragraph.com/@theitinerant) · 2023-04-23

ai, ethereum, side-hustle, truth, coding, china, y-combinator

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**TL; DR** -   

I forgot to publish last week’s edition, so this week is 2x the normal length. In it, I touch on: how the future of social engagement is depth, not breadth; Nearly half of Americans have a side-hustle; Co-founder of Ethereum spells out the five trends that will shape life in the 21st century; why the banking crisis is just beginning; the future of tokenization of assets; Y Combinator’s latest class of startups; in the future our houses will be computers; privacy of thought will be a topic of importance in the near future; US/China fighting a commercial war over internet cables; Brainstorming ChatGPT businesses with a billionaire; Is AI the next great computing platform?; What is science’s claim to “Truth”?; we can now make embryos, how far should we go?; a Chernobyl-level event for AI may be imminent; to supercharge learning, look to play; and a free tool from MIT to teach coding to children.

_The Itinerant Weekly_ is available on [Diamond](https://diamondapp.com/u/TheItinerant?feedTab=Hot&tab=posts), [Mirror.xyz](http://Mirror.xyz), [Medium](https://medium.com/@theitinerant) and now [Paragraph.xyz](http://Paragraph.xyz), and at [www.theitinerant.io](http://www.theitinerant.io).

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/3b09bf06f7d0f46e9f2311cbda7f477c.jpg)

**GaryVee \[Video\] –** [The future of work](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WT5qmnQYbvo)

*   The last market cycle, competition was won based on scale and automation. Now that is becoming a commodity, so people will look to compete on something else: depth and the human side. Things that don’t scale. AI is just going to expedite this. 
    

**Bloomberg \[Article\] –** [Half of US Employees Earn Extra Cash on the Side, Survey Finds](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-27/half-of-us-employees-earn-extra-cash-on-the-side-survey-finds)

*   Almost half of employed consumers hold a side job or have some other form of supplemental income, data released Monday 
    

**Charles Hoskinson \[Video, 45:22\] –** [The Five Pillars of the 21st Century](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uragYmFhNIk)

*   Co-founder of Ethereum and founder of Cardano blockchains, Charles provides a quasi-philosophical perspective on what to expect over the next 100 years. The five areas that will define humanity are: AI, Quantum Computing, Synthetic Biology, Nanotechnology, Blockchain.
    

**EPB Research \[Video, 13:56\] –** [Why the 2023 Banking Crisis is Just Getting Started](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpLkt48YrAs)

*   Even without a targeted bank run, there will be a slow and steady decline in bank deposits as people move their cash into higher-yield and safer treasury bills.
    

**Motley Fool \[Article\] –** [With This 1 Move, Avalanche Is Making It Possible for Everyone to Invest Like Billionaires](https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/09/20/avalanche-making-it-possible-invest-billionaires/)

*   “Tokenization” of real world assets is the future. KKR’s latest ‘tokenized’ private equity fund is a first example of that being tested.
    

**Y Combinator \[Article\] –** [Meet the YC Winter 2023 Batch](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/meet-the-yc-winter-2023-batch?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email)

*   Latest batch of startups is out. Here’s some of the numbers on the 36th Demo Day; 54% in B2B/Enterprise SaaS; 17% in DevTools; 12% in Fintech; 7% in Healthcare; 5% in Consumer; 3% in Proptech; 2% in Climate, Energy, or Sustainability; 1% in Aerospace
    

**WSJ \[Article\] –** [Why the Future of the Computer Is Everywhere, All the Time](https://www.wsj.com/articles/computer-technology-ambient-computing-11666992784)

*   Imagine a connected network of devices in your home that does things like take inventory of your [fridge](https://venturebeat.com/business/drop-raises-13-3-million-to-make-connected-kitchens-smarter/) and order items you’re running low on; provide suggestions (including a visual mockup) of what to wear; project your calendar on your bathroom mirror as you brush your teeth each morning; and much more. Whether or not this sounds appealing to you personally, experts believe the ambient computing revolution is just five to 10 years away.
    

**Scientific American \[Article\]** – [Wearable Brain Devices Will Challenge Our Mental Privacy](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/wearable-brain-devices-will-challenge-our-mental-privacy/)

*   A new era of neurotechnology means we may need new protections to safeguard our brain and mental experiences. The rush to hack the human brain veers from neuromarketing to the rabbit hole of social media and even to cognitive warfare programs designed to disable or disorient. As brain wearables and artificial intelligences advance, the line between human agency and machine intervention will also blur.
    

**Reuters \[Article\]** – [U.S. and China wage war beneath the waves - over internet cables](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/us-china-tech-cables/)

*   Undersea cables are central to U.S.-China technology competition. A successful U.S. government campaign helped America’s SubCom beat China’s HMN Tech to win a $600-million contract to build the so-called SeaMeWe-6 cable. This included Washington pressuring foreign countries to shun the Chinese firm.
    

**MyFirstMillion \[Video, 1:17:15\] –** [Brainstorming ChatGPT Business Ideas With A Billionaire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbDl28Hx9TA) 

*   “I’ve been in startups pretty much my entire professional career, 30 years now, the only time I’ve felt heart palpitations … its too big to ignore. It’s the largest tech paradigm shift we’ve seen since the internet came out” – Billionaire founder, Dharmesh Shah
    

**All-In \[Video, 1:24:28\] –** [E122: Is AI the next great computing platform? ChatGPT vs. Google](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ544sWC8ZQ)

*   I do think it’s a top 3 advance, potentially larger than the internet. OpenAi has demonstrated with its open platform features that it has a substantial lead.  It’s hard to know exactly how it will play out, but we can all agree that we’re going to see a massive flurry of innovation here. It’s not a foregone conclusion where all the value will be captured. Just like in any major tech title wave, if you make the bet too early, you typically don’t make all the money.
    

**Philosophy Overdose \[Video, 48:59\] –** [Richard Rorty & Dan Dennett on Science (2000)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwITZa-o6Yg)

*   What is science’s claim to big truth and ‘real claims’? Might science be the best we can do? Dan Dennett (Tufts) presents case that science is “small-t” truth, and Richard Rorty (Princeton) provides the alternate. Big “T” truth of transcendental truths that are above all others, is an illusion we chase.
    

**MIT Tech Review \[Article\] -** [We can use stem cells to make embryos. How far should we go?](https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/04/07/1071121/stem-cells-make-embryos-how-far-should-we-go/)

*   Synthetic embryos made without eggs and sperm are looking more realistic. At what stage should testing be disallowed? “Given how rapidly the field has been moving over the last few years … I’ve become more and more concerned about how close we are to generating a complete human embryo model with the potential to develop into a viable human embryo or fetus,” he says. “This is not some far-fetched, remote possibility.”
    

**Popular Mechanics \[Article\]** – [A Chernobyl for AI May Be Imminent, Scientist Says](https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a43540293/chernobyl-for-artificial-intelligence/)

*   Crafting a powerful algorithm is a lot like building a nuclear power plant. "What we're asking for is, to develop reasonable guidelines \[sic\]," he says. "You have to be able to demonstrate convincingly for the system to be safely released, and then show that your system meets those guidelines. If I wanted to build a nuclear power plant, and the government says, well, you need to show that it's safe, that it can survive an earthquake, that it's not going to explode like Chernobyl did."
    

**Nautilus \[Article\]** – [To Supercharge Learning, Look to Play](https://nautil.us/to-supercharge-learning-look-to-play-292946/)

*   “If you’re not having a good time, you’re really not learning,” Art and play are like two sides of the same coin, with play being a part of artistic expression, imagination, creativity, and curiosity. Though it often gets buried in adulthood, the urge to play exists in all of us. It has been a major part of how we’ve evolved as a species. As Plato famously said, “You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”
    

**MIT \[Product\]** – [Scratch - Imagine, Program, Share](https://scratch.mit.edu/)

*   A very cool, free coding resource for children

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*Originally published on [The Itinerant](https://paragraph.com/@theitinerant/42-and-4923-the-itinerant-weekly-39-and-40)*
