#11 - Applied History with WhatIfAltHist

Rudyard Lynch runs the popular YouTube channel WhatIfAltHist. We're both into applied history — namely, studying the past to forecast the future — and everything we spoke about fell under that rubric. We cover alchemy vs technology, left vs right, nature vs nurture, China vs America, communism vs wokeness, and (of course) networks vs states.Our overarching goal with the pod is to learn about the world to build new startup societies. If these ideas interest you, we're putting theory into practice at Network School, so do apply at https://ns.com.OUTLINE00:00 - Intro to WhatifAltHist and counterfactual history03:52 - The idea in alchemy: everyone is competing on vibes07:12 - Nature/nurture = hardware/software09:37 - Why the left often wins: equality builds scalable militaries11:30 - The idea from Balaji that most influenced Rudyard: God, State, or Network?13:25 - What is the most powerful force in the world: God, State, or Network20:28 - Only 4% of Democrats marry Republicans22:24 - The purpose of alchemy: how early alchemy lead to modern tech33:25 - We have entered the age of the phrase42:33 - The reading list: genetics books you should read43:07 - Communism was based on economics denial, wokeness is genetics denial50:49 - The Vitruvian Man: our moral responsibility to accelerate technology57:42 - We are on the verge of global instability1:20:43 - Internet community becomes physical community: The Network School (ns.com)1:23:08 - Both Soviet and American empires were built on false premises1:28:16 - Bitcoin is the strongest new identity1:32:55 - The total military dominance of the Chinese drone armadaLINKShttps://youtube.com/@nshttps://ns.com