Don't call it a wealth tax. Call it private property as a service - PPaaS. After all, one of the primary functions of government is to implement property rights. The more property you have, the more your subscription should cost. Most wealth is in the form of government issued currency, shares of government chartered collectives, government allocated land and government enforced debt contracts. It's all about government services. If the government stopped policing theft and fraud that left one with more than five or ten million dollars worth of assets, people with more than five or ten million dollars worth of assets would be glad to pay for the service., if they aren't, it opens up a whole new industry sector.
The Altman beg is a confession that they have no plan other than to throw enough processors at their LLMs and hope a miracle happens. I guess Bitcoin miners can use them after Skynet fails to achieve self awareness.
"Bluesky's business model is 'TBD, but definitely not ads.'": That's one of two reasons why I'm not interested in Bluesky. Tell me what your business model is, and I'll have a good idea whether I'd be willing to use your service. Be coy about it, and I'm out of here. For now, you may be running on investor money, but eventually, you'll have to shut down or make money, and if you have investors, you'll have to make more than enough to cover your expenses. And particularly if, like Bluesky, your company has a Silicon Valley pedigree, it's reasonable to anticipate you won't be scrupulous about how you do that.
The other reason is perhaps more idiosyncratic, but not wildly so: I'm just not interested in "social media". What I want, and what research (e.g., from Pew*) indicates many other people want, is a comfortable online environment for extended conversations with friends, maybe family, and maybe colleagues, not another form of media dominated by public figures, celebrities, brands, "influencers", etc. For people like me, "social media" has been an increasingly frustrating detour, with services becoming ever less useful for the purposes that matter to us.
To be clear, I do understand the value Twitter had, before King-in-his-own-mind Elon trashed it, for journalists and people trying (for better or worse) to reach big audiences without big spending on conventional advertising. (And I did have a Twitter account starting in 2007, because at that time, it was the darling of Silicon Valley, and I felt a professional obligation to keep up with such things.) If journalists find Bluesky useful, good for them. I'm just not looking for what they're looking for in an online communication service.
I appreciate the concept of BlueSky. X got creepy and due to a hack, I won't be with Meta anymore either. Had a few thousand followers on Meta, and sure wish I could let them know that I'm here now.
Don't call it a wealth tax. Call it private property as a service - PPaaS. After all, one of the primary functions of government is to implement property rights. The more property you have, the more your subscription should cost. Most wealth is in the form of government issued currency, shares of government chartered collectives, government allocated land and government enforced debt contracts. It's all about government services. If the government stopped policing theft and fraud that left one with more than five or ten million dollars worth of assets, people with more than five or ten million dollars worth of assets would be glad to pay for the service., if they aren't, it opens up a whole new industry sector.
The Altman beg is a confession that they have no plan other than to throw enough processors at their LLMs and hope a miracle happens. I guess Bitcoin miners can use them after Skynet fails to achieve self awareness.
"Bluesky's business model is 'TBD, but definitely not ads.'": That's one of two reasons why I'm not interested in Bluesky. Tell me what your business model is, and I'll have a good idea whether I'd be willing to use your service. Be coy about it, and I'm out of here. For now, you may be running on investor money, but eventually, you'll have to shut down or make money, and if you have investors, you'll have to make more than enough to cover your expenses. And particularly if, like Bluesky, your company has a Silicon Valley pedigree, it's reasonable to anticipate you won't be scrupulous about how you do that.
The other reason is perhaps more idiosyncratic, but not wildly so: I'm just not interested in "social media". What I want, and what research (e.g., from Pew*) indicates many other people want, is a comfortable online environment for extended conversations with friends, maybe family, and maybe colleagues, not another form of media dominated by public figures, celebrities, brands, "influencers", etc. For people like me, "social media" has been an increasingly frustrating detour, with services becoming ever less useful for the purposes that matter to us.
To be clear, I do understand the value Twitter had, before King-in-his-own-mind Elon trashed it, for journalists and people trying (for better or worse) to reach big audiences without big spending on conventional advertising. (And I did have a Twitter account starting in 2007, because at that time, it was the darling of Silicon Valley, and I felt a professional obligation to keep up with such things.) If journalists find Bluesky useful, good for them. I'm just not looking for what they're looking for in an online communication service.
*https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2011/11/15/why-americans-use-social-media/
Great piece as usual.
Dave I was wondering as a political scientist if you can expand a bit more on things between now and the election.
You might have seen on BlueSky but I’ve been very concerned about extra events this year that the US would not expect in an election year.
Particularly the impact of the Abbott standoff and the implications of having a true believer insurrectionist in the Speaker’s chair.
What do you think about the chances that something catastrophic happens to our government before Election Day?
Just going to say that I love the call for a wealth tax. Excellent stuff as always, more generally
Re. Bluesky: I hope the Don’t Engage; Just Block ethos survives the new user onslaught.
I remember laughing at the Canadian elections of 2022 where everyone was whining about the grueling ten-week campaign.
The Dutch national actual election campaign period is about three weeks.
I appreciate the concept of BlueSky. X got creepy and due to a hack, I won't be with Meta anymore either. Had a few thousand followers on Meta, and sure wish I could let them know that I'm here now.
Dave, I posted a screenshot your vision pro comment and tweeted about it and within five minutes I have like 20 likes from porn bots.
Porn bots, huge fans of Dave Karpf.