Balaji Srinivasan

State over network applies in the East.

Now,

The thing you're talking about, yes, there are tensions between network and state, but first we have to – it's like capitalist and communist, right?

Like it's something where there's a tension between the group and the individual, and you can frame it in a few ways.

I mentioned cloud and land, so you can put the network up here and the state down here.

You could also say the state is top-down and the network is bottom-up, so you could put them like this.

You could say the network is internationalist and the state is nationalist, so you could make them left and right like this.

But you could also say the network is capitalist and the state is communist or socialist, and so you could flip them like this, okay?

So these are like two forces that...

you know, kind of juxtapose.

And, you know, Thiel, I think, had, in my view, obviously, I think is a precursor or forerunner.

He talked about technology and politics.

But I actually think network and state are more precise ways of talking about the same thing, because they're actually structures, right?

So it's not just technology in the abstract sense.

The fundamental technology of our age is the internet.

Uh, even the electric car revolution is in part driven by battery technology, which has improved due to smartphones, which of course driven by the internet.

So anyway, net net is, it's not simply that the state can just, right.

Uh, this is something, you know, Steven, I'll give you the ball back and I'll maybe get some more slides into, um,

it's like a state is not all powerful.

Like when an order is given, all kinds of people need to actually do it.