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brettscott.bsky.social
I experiment with altered states of monetary consciousness https://www.asomo.co
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To be human is to suffer from mind viruses, so as you get rid of one, you need to ask yourself what the new one you're taking on is

To celebrate Valentine’s day, I present to you an essay about the (unromantic) reality of attachments in our economy, and the (romanticised) tales of detachment we get told about them www.asomo.co/p/detachment...

A really good piece on disintermediation and the scourge of interfaces and platforms

There’s something fascinating about the way Trump can openly screw his followers by selling them spammy memecoins in exchange for their real dollars. It has a S&M sub-and-dom dynamic, like people getting turned on by being whipped by a big daddy

The kind of person who believes that meritocracy is the best system, and that they represent it, is typically not the outcome of a meritocratic system

We already live in a VR world Mark. Your platforms played a pivotal role in building it

The phrase 'robots take your job' really just means 'bosses pay your salary to the shareholders and workers of tech companies instead of you'

'Free market': large-scale legal & property rights infrastructure created by states over a few hundred years, backed by military force & bank money systems 'Deregulation': All the above, but without states intervening in the ‘natural' 'spontaneous' workings of the ‘organic’ system

The US government plan in summary: scrap environmental regulation and promote Big Oil so that US Big tech oligarchs can get the energy to power data-centres to win an AI war against China, while workers who are set to get replaced by that AI told to fend off precarity by buying Trump Coin

The 'Bitcoin Strategic Reserve' in summary: 1) Crypto industry lobbied & funded Trump + Trump courted crypto community 2) He faces political risk if price goes down 3) So he wants a government fund to manipulate the price up to distribute patronage, especially to big whales

Today's featured #longreads 2/2: Against the Factory Farming of Creativity by @brettscott.bsky.social "... the economic system will reset to a state of higher acceleration in which the new technology – which used to be ‘luxury’ – now becomes the mandatory baseline required for survival."

Using your own body and mind should never be seen as a luxury endeavour. Don't let the prophets of technology tell you it is My first essay of 2025 www.asomo.co/p/against-th...

Berliners be warned: the representatives of automated cashless corporate surveillance capitalism are establishing outposts around the city. They took over London. Don't let them take over here

A Luddite is not anti-progress. They just have a different conception of what progress means

Billionaires produce value in the same way that beekeepers produce honey

I love this metaphor of bitcoin to professional wrestling, where bitcoin is the bold outsider taking on the big boss, Vince McMahon (aka the dollar), but the narratives are all contrived and it's really just a stage fight. www.asomo.co/p/the-art-of... via @brettscott.bsky.social

The ASOMOCO Top 10 summary of my most popular essays this year is out! Thanks for your support this year, and see you in 2025! www.asomo.co/p/the-asomoc...

'So, when the smarmy corporate apologists turn up and say that we ‘choose’ to use Microsoft, or Google Search or Spotify playlists, and that we can just as easily leave, they’re being heavily disingenuous and euphemistic.' open.substack.com/pub/brettsco... by @brettscott.bsky.social

A Christmas present for y'all! www.asomo.co/p/surveillan...

It's now called the Mump regime. Pass it on

I've launched a new podcast! EP 2 goes into karmic reciprocity, class struggle, animism, enshittification and what professional wrestling can teach us about crypto. Take a listen here! www.asomo.co/p/asomoco-un...

#CashLessSociety? @brettscott.bsky.social with some excellent points. As Usual After gold standard and more, he says something interesting about cash and a cashless society at ab 58mins. Cash is like a bicycle besides trains and cars - for people #ProgressiveAgenda www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f3P...

The early phases of how a bubble forms

I stepped out of the crypto debate for about two years, but with the new alliance of TrumpMusk and the crypto industry, it's time to step back in. Feels kinda good actually www.asomo.co/p/the-art-of...

Outstanding! An informative & entertaining read for people like me who wonder what all this crypto nonsense is about.

Y'all know the cage-fight between Bitcoin and the Dollar was staged all along, right? www.asomo.co/p/the-art-of...

Beekeepers pass law to teach young bees about the dangers of swarming

You’re paid too little, and are worried about living costs, so you compensate by buying shares in firms that try boost profits by paying workers less & charging customers more Look at that. One part of you seeks to benefit from the suppression of two other parts of you www.asomo.co/p/the-inner-...

In the 1950s, the term ‘Black Friday’ was used by academics and police as a description of the day after Thanksgiving - in the way ecologists might have a term to describe an annual migration of gazelle - because people would fake illness to get a long weekend and browse the shops... 1/5

In the first episode of ASOMOCO Unplugged, I discuss billionaires, the rise of Bluesky, algorithmic holidays and why I'm going to write about crypto again... and play my new kalimba through a distortion pedal www.asomo.co/p/introducin...

In an hour from now, Jeff Bezos will have earned another $7.9 million, which is about 395,000 times what an Amazon driver will make in the next hour... 1/4

I constantly hear that we are living in a 'rapidly changing world'. When I look around me, though, I just see a capitalist system cycling through the same old 'reinvent everything' routine that it's been stuck in for over 300 years...

I listened to the excellent @graceblakeley.bsky.social speaking last night, and I’d summarise her message like this: people at the top of our economic pyramid collaborate, but those at the bottom are pushed to compete and fight with each other... 1/3

Big Tech isn’t a relaxant. It’s an accelerant. But how do we survive the flood of stories that present this acceleration as unstoppable progress? Start by studying the playbook www.asomo.co/p/the-accele...

The Great Man Theory of Wealth assumes that extreme riches are the result of inspired work that the person undertakes. But that's bullshit. I present to you the Stone Soup Theory of Billionaires www.asomo.co/p/the-stone-...