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![#20 Takeaways - A Series on Bitcoin from First-Principles [1] , by Two Intellectual Powerhouses (Breedlove & Saylor) - Craig Van Cast](https://www.buzzsprout.com/rails/active_storage/representations/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaHBCRFE1S3dJPSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoiYmxvYl9pZCJ9fQ==--29ebdeb97f03f213c4395211fe54892bca6dfcea/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsibWVzc2FnZSI6IkJBaDdCam9VWTI5dFltbHVaVjl2Y0hScGIyNXpld282QzNKbGMybDZaVWtpRFRJMU1IZ3lOVEJlQmpvR1JWUTZER2R5WVhacGRIbEpJZ3RqWlc1MFpYSUdPd2RVT2d0bGVIUmxiblJKSWd3eU5UQjRNalV3QmpzSFZEb01jWFZoYkdsMGVXbFZPZzlqYjJ4dmNuTndZV05sU1NJSmMxSkhRZ1k3QjFRPSIsImV4cCI6bnVsbCwicHVyIjoidmFyaWF0aW9uIn19--62c0dc9ae0106a9121f982eb952976ff55ebdee3/CVcast%20(2).jpg)
I have made an effort to get up to speed with Bitcoin over the past few weeks. I quickly discovered that Robert Breedlove and Michael Saylor should be listened to when it comes to money dynamics and Bitcoin.
Robert Breedlove hosts a podcast called 'The "What is Money?" Show', and it started with a series featuring Michael Saylor - double-barrel brains. They aimed to deconstruct the question 'What is Money?' and build up to describing Bitcoin and its implications. Building up from first-principles, and they mean it. We spend the first episode in the ancient worlds and a good chunk of the second episode trying to make it through the dark ages. This goes way back. I have decided it is quite an essential conversation for me to understand, so I'm making notes, and I'm sharing them with you if you dont get around to the 11 hours of conversation. š
We start hundreds of thousands of years ago, where our ancestors likely first discovered to channel energy and their intellect through the world around them.
In summary, in the first episode, Saylor describes the three most primal technological innovations: our harnessing fire, missiles, and hydropower.
He likens fire to the prime energy network of the human race. When we discovered how to tap into the sunlight that was stored in matter, this single technology gave us uncountable abilities; light at night, warmth, as a hunting weapon, clearing ground for building, and most notably, cooking. Cooking alone, which is a form of pre-digestion, unlocked a vast amount of energy in our environment for us to eat.
Mastering missiles was central to hunting and warfare throughout our past. History is full of men learning to master a sling from very young to bows and arrows, catapults and canons. Just watch a wild animal, Saylor says;Ā the fight is never fair. Either you have a pack of predators on one prey, or a predator picks on the weakest and youngest of the herd, or an eagle trips a baby goat off a cliff. Humans were the same. If any single meal were too risky, then we would never have made it through life. And this applied to combat too - armies with mastery of missile warfare dominated.
Lastly, hydropower describes the many different ways we learnt to harness the power of water. Incredibly important for agricultural irrigation and hygienic purposes. But just as important as a means of transport. Not only to take humans distant places but to move large objects around too. Most people can move a large boat on the water with one hand. Mastering water's buoyancy opened up the world to us.
This conversational journey has begun with man's primordial mastery of the elements, of his learning to channel his intellect through energy and into the world. And what I notice is how we gained our first forms of leverage through these primal breakthroughs. We figured out how to do more than we were capable of with our body's and minds only - we increased our current abilities, and added new ones.
Lastly, Robert shares a critical concept at the end. An important value that we have as humans, or strive to have, is freedom without impinging another's freedom. And that's where the true sense of the concept of property came from. Property is the relationship that an individual has with an asset that he has spent time and energy investing in; writing a book, building a boat, farming food or making clothes. Then, she has the right to trade her ownership of that property with another's property - this is how we can specialise in our craft but then still go into the market and get other things that we need. This is trade, and it is based on a healthy concept of property which Robert explicitly defines as the relationship with the asset, not the asset.
What an episode! This series is going to be quite something. I hope you enjoyed that, and if you need more, then please go listen to the episode itself on Robert's Podcast, 'The "What is Money?" Show' overĀ here. I will be covering my takeaways for the rest of the series if you don't feel up to the whole conversation, though.
