All Models Are Wrong

Latest Episodes:

The Promise of People Powered Money with CirclesUBI Apr 11, 2021

Show notes

For this interview I spoke to Julio Linares (@Julio_Linares_) an Economic Anthropologist studied under David Graeber at the LSE, Social Outreach at the Basic Income Org, and Research & Community for CirclesUBI (@CirclesUBI). CirclesUBI is a project seeking to provide people a universal basic income using the xDAI ethereum sidechain based on mutual credit. You may have heard about CirclesUBI a while back when they first came out and everyone in cryptocurrency social media spaces was spamming their CirclesUBI profile to be trusted by three people in order to get access to their UBI.
During the interview we talk about Julio's ideas around how we can implement democratic money, how it relates to other anti-capitalist and anti-state movements like the Kurdish movement in Syria, and how a lot of influential European thinkers were inspired by Indigenous cultures suffering under colonialism. We also talk about his experience working at CirclesUBI, what it was like to see the project go viral with most people misunderstanding how it was supposed to work, and the lessons he suggests future "left-wing" blockchain projects.
Sources
Julio's work on Ecology of Care
Julio's work on Degrowth Money
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

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ERP Technology Companies are Centralized Planners of the Economy Apr 04, 2021

Show notes

For this episode I spoke to Chris D'Costa (@cjdcosta), the founder of Totem Live Accounting (@totem_live_). Totem is building a real-time global accounting ledger built on the Polkadot blockchain to compete against traditional accounting and ERP software. I thought it was interesting to hear how blockchain could potentially be used to develop alternatives to the bureaucratic free market world of ERP systems that run global flows of information and consequently commodities.
During the episode, I first talk about how ERP technology companies are centralized planners abusing their position, how I think ERP systems are related to the infamous socialist calculation debate, and why the idea that our economy is not planned today is false. Afterwards I speak to Chris on how Totem works, why they chose Polkadot for the blockchain, and how it could be used to build cooperatives.

If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

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Teaser - The best leftist hot take on NFTs you'll ever listen to Mar 28, 2021

Show notes

***This is just a teaser. Check out the full episode on Patreon***
The patreon democratic economic planning council has spoken. With a choice between discussing NFTs and the left’s reaction against centralization vs decentralizataion, the former has won. Some have speculated that the topic of centralization was too spicy for the council as they didn’t want to butt heads with the anarchists. It seems they’d rather suffer through another my hot take on NFTs. What could I possibly say that hasn’t already been said in the deluge of hot takes that have polluted our social media feeds? Well frankly I don’t know but I’m gonna try.

In this episode I go through some of the hot takes from the left I've seen and heard, explain what I think they're getting wrong on the issue, and provide a couple alternative potential uses of NFTs. The work of previous guests on the show, Jon Beller of ECSA and Ruth Catlow of Furtherfield make appearances as well to support my arguments.

More on NFTs

Jon Beller Article - "Fascism on the Blockchain? The Work of Art in the Age of NFTs"

Interdependence episode: NFTs for n00bs

My interview with Ruth Catlow

Some of the Tweets

Chelsea Manning tweet

Lee Carter tweet

Yanis Varoufakis tweet

Everest Pipkin Article
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

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Crypto influencers, The Fakefluencer, and the dirty underwear of capitalism Mar 21, 2021

Show notes

This week's episode is dedicated to the crypto influencers. For the first half I give a crash course on the history and some of the more well known influencers and for the second half I have an interview with Tom Gillespie (@TomPeterGill), former currency trader on the Perth stock exchange turned TV investigator and filmmaker for the upcoming documentary "The Fakefluencer" coming out in April 2021. The movie investigates a crypto influencer by the name of BitMan360 and creator of the ScooterCoin cryptocurrency which rewards people for doing scooter tricks. Sound ridiculous and unbelievable? Well than I highly recommend getting in on the conspiracy.
During the interview I give a Marxist take on Bitconnect and one of the brief crypto influencers of the project during the two years it existed, Carlos Matos (yes, the BIITTCONNNNEEEEEEEEEECTT guy), I mention some of the currently existing crypto influencers out there and the classes they fit in, and I talk to Tom about his new documentary, "The Fakefluencer," and question whether this is something unique to crypto, but instead a symptom of capitalism.
More about the Fakefluencer movie
Free ticket: https://www.thefakefluencer.com/freeticket
Website: https://www.thefakefluencer.com/
Discord: https://discord.gg/xPuXV3
Bitjoin Studios: https://www.bitjoinstudios.com/
Follow the crew on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefakefluencerfilm/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thefakefluencerfilm/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thefakefluencer
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

Get full access to All Models Are Wrong at allmodelsarewrong.online/subscribe

Moral Panic! about the Internet? Try data sovereignty Mar 14, 2021

Show notes

For this week's episode I spoke to Dr. Emaline Friedman (@emalinus4). She is a network activist for the Commons Engine, part of Holochain, a social critic and theorist, has a PhD in psychology, a writer for Mad In America, a researcher at GCAS, and author of the recent book Internet Addiction: A Critical Psychology of Users.
During the interview we talk about her research for her new book around moral panic about the internet, how that is closely linked to data sovereignty, and how it all brought her to working with Holochain and the Commons Engine. Emaline believes that we can remedy issues in mental health through participatory, p2p, and commons-oriented technologies and end up addressing a lot of the left/progressive agenda at the same time.
Sources
Emaline's Site
Solidarity Club
Commons Engine
Holochain
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

Get full access to All Models Are Wrong at allmodelsarewrong.online/subscribe

Haha meme printer go brrrrr feat. Mike Watson of The Acid Left Mar 06, 2021

Show notes

For this week's interview I spoke with Mike Watson (@_leftaesthetics), co-host of The Acid Left and author of “Towards a Conceptual Militancy” and “Can the Left Learn to Meme: Lessons for the cultural left, from cat memes to gaming, to Stranger Things, and more.” with an upcoming book “The Memeing of Mark Fisher: How the Frankfurt School Foresaw Capitalist Realism and What to do About It” coming out this September.
During the episode we discuss Mike's research on the history of memes in art, his thoughts on how the Left can improve their memeing over the internet, and the memetic strategies used in crypto that essentially function to hide what is actually happening with crypto investments. At the end we discuss a couple of specific memes which you can find on the page for this episode on the TBS site.
Sources
Mike Watson's site
Article on commodity fetishism: "Commodity Fetishism, Feet Pics, and Ideology"
Towards a Conceptual Militancy
Can the Left Learn to Meme: Lessons for the cultural left, from cat memes to gaming, to Stranger Things, and more.

If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

Get full access to All Models Are Wrong at allmodelsarewrong.online/subscribe

Teaser - Q&A: What is the relationship of blockchain and the evolution of capitalism? Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

This is a teaser of a patreon exclusive episode. As a patron you have the ability to vote on the topic / question of a monthly patreon exclusive podcast. For this month the question most voted on was "What is the relationship of blockchain and the evolution of capitalism?".
Get the full version on Patreon.
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

Support the show

ICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix Itand is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking.
The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

Teaser - Q&A: What is the relationship of blockchain and the evolution of capitalism? Feb 24, 2021

Show notes

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

Get full access to All Models Are Wrong at allmodelsarewrong.online/subscribe

Using blockchain to make the artworlds we want with Furtherfield Feb 13, 2021

Show notes

For this week's interview I spoke with Ruth Catlow, Artistic Director at Furtherfield (@furtherfield), a not-for-profit international community hub for arts, technology and social change founded with Marc Garrett in London, in 1996. Co-editor of Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain ,Director of DECAL (Decentralised Arts Lab), a Furtherfield initiative which exists to mobilise research and development by leading artists, using blockchain and web 3.0 technologies for fairer, more dynamic and connected cultural ecologies and economies.
During the interview we spoke about how art has evolved with technology over the previous decades especially with the rise of the internet, Furtherfield's history with digital art in the early internet, their recent artistic experiments with blockchain, and Ruth's thoughts on the rise of NFTs.
Sources
Furtherfield Site
DAOWO (Decentralised Autonomous Organisation With Others)- The blockchain laboratory and debate series for reinventing the arts
DECAL - The Decentralised Arts Lab
Culture Stake

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

Get full access to All Models Are Wrong at allmodelsarewrong.online/subscribe

Early bitcoin politics: Digital metallism vs Infrastructural mutualism Feb 07, 2021

Show notes

For this week's interview I spoke with Matt Cropp (@MattCropp), a Co-Director of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center, where he works on public education, outreach, and the conversion of businesses to employee ownership for ownership succession. Matt has a really interesting profile in that he was involved in bitcoin during the early years and actually used it during the Occupy Wall Street protests for mutual aid.
During the interview we spoke about his involvement with earning and using bitcoin during Occupy Wall Street, his explanation of the political makeup of the bitcoin community during those days, and how he imagines coops could benefit from the use of blockchain / crypto in the future.
Sources
Social.coop Mastodon Instance
Matt Cropp's Mastodon
The Blockchain Socialist Mastodon
Matt Cropp's Credit Union History Blog with some musings on early bitcoin
Grassroots Economic Organizing Coop
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I’ve spent more on this project than I’ve ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

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