Zap to Zero Day 17 | Frontier War

The initial Frontier settlers were IMC veterans, given money and land on the Frontier due to the IMC's so-called "G.I. Bill". Because of a series of wars back in the Core Systems, the IMC pulled their support of the initial colonists due to decreasing favour back home and to refocus their efforts. By the time the IMC returned several decades later, claiming eminent domain over the Frontier and its resources, a thriving civilization had emerged separate from Earth and its oversight, and much of the population had no intention of submitting to corporate control, not when they had done so well for themselves on their own. Ultimately, a clash of ideals was inevitable, and the Frontier's population found themselves in conflict with the IMC.

Despite many setbacks, scientists have discovered a way to fold space and time.

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Space explorers have discovered a dense space of habitable planets and everyone is calling it a new frontier.

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Decade long tensions exploded into all-out war in the frontier today. The group calling themselves The Milita have conducted numerous raids on IMC garrisons.

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A while ago I thought different kinds of hats (tin foil for example) could be cool, depending on the territory you earned it or maybe rules set by the founder for how to earn and keep one, or maybe you earn a new hat type and can swap whenever you want, while maintaining the streak.

But, I've come around, I think keeping it a cowboy hat is better, I really dig the wild west theme since it kinda sums up SN. This really is the frontier, we should keep that energy going.

But maybe as a founder, I could pay extra and have a little alien dude with a cowboy hat unlockable if you spend time in ~UFOs.

I also like the wild west theme but when I think about the "wild west", I don't think we should limit ourselves to think only about the American frontier:

The American frontier, also known as the Old West, popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the admission of the last few contiguous western territories as states in 1912. This era of massive migration and settlement was particularly encouraged by President Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase, giving rise to the expansionist attitude known as "manifest destiny" and historians' "Frontier Thesis". The legends, historical events and folklore of the American frontier have embedded themselves into United States culture so much so that the Old West, and the Western genre of media specifically, has become one of the defining features of American national identity.

— Wikipedia, American Frontier

Frontiers can be everywhere in ~culture. We're at the frontier of AI, frontier of space (exploration), frontier of networks out of the reach of governments and other centralized control, frontier of new mental health treatments and other I might have missed. So there could be cowboys in outer space, cyber space (as we kind of already are) or in a collective experience (as we also already kind of are). Not saying that we should change the theme. But this might be an option for several SN themes at some point?

Why focus on one company?

SpaceX, and only SpaceX, is in a position to rapidly build out an enormous literal internet mesh around the globe, because only SpaceX had the vision to spend a decade struggling to break the government-military monopoly on space launch. That does not mean that we should need not be wary of this fact though. Quite the opposite.

SpaceX and specifically Starlink should be attracting more scrutiny that any other company or product in the world right now. More so than Tesla, OpenAI, Nvidia, Apple, Google, Tencent, Huawei or any other over-valued tech giant. And I do not say this because of Space exploration, which is completely overplayed at this point. Elon is great at managing the narrative and this is a perfect example. SpaceX should be under our scrutiny because with their Starlink product, they will in all likelihood find themselves in a monopolistic position the likes of which we have not witnessed before. If successful, they may put the likes of Kodak, Intel, Google & others before them to great shame. The Starlink team have been ruthless and at times disingenuous to get to where they are today. But they do have an incredible product offering. The company has a formidable future ahead, with the competition struggling for the same levels of traction, and that is without even considering the future likely merger between X (payments, social, AI), SpaceX (communications) and Tesla (automation & energy). It is therefore time to dive a little deeper into assessing what a reimagined future internet may look like.

One of the major interplanetary corporations that exist within the universe of Titanfall, Hammond Robotics is a major manufacturing, aerospace and defense contractor allied with the IMC. Claiming to have been at the forefront of robot design since the 20th century, Hammond produces considerable amounts of war material for the IMC cause, including Titans, Marvins and Spectres. Their logo can be found on all Titan briefing videos. The company is also involved in the Simulacrum and energy fields.

I’ve been a bitcoin maximalist for about four years now, and I can feel myself getting more toxic by the day.

Seriously dude, why are you living your life constrained by labels? Get to a point where you give zero f..ks. You can still be civil and polite but at the same time you don't have to apologise for your opinion. If you treat people with kindness and let them get on with whatever bullshit things they decide to do with their lives, you have nothing to fear and you go to bed every night knowing you have been kind. You live in your truth and are content with that. I do know what you mean, though, about getting a bit toxic. As I start to not give a f.k the abrasiveness can start to creep in, so it's an ongoing work in progress for me.

I used to try to "pill" people to whatever it was I felt passionate about. Now I just state my opinion and if people think I'm talking BS I think okay whatever. Who I am to try to convince them?

Do you have kids? That's actually a great learning curve. You try raise them and best you can an equip them with the tools of life and one day they walk out the door and take no notice of you. Man, it's hard watching and knowing they are making huge mistakes and are they're going to feel max pain from their decisions but there's nothing you can do about it. We all have to make their own mistakes and fail lots to be able to learn.

But back to the labels... I have had involvement in many different movements, communities etc... and I flippin hate labels. They come with a set of rules in terms of what you can and can't, should and shouldn't do etc. People start to behave like they're in a cult or something and come up with catchphrases and motos. Whilst sometimes that can foster a team spirit, it can start become very toxic. It's often a slow creep I was raised in a culty religion, so I have a massive aversion to all that sh!t and recognise it in an instant. And it's everywhere! F..k that! We're free, sovereign individuals to be who we are and do as we please, aren't we?

btw are we allowed uncensored swearing on SN? I have just bleeped out my swearing but don't know if I need to XD

Unless and until you initiate violence to stifle dissent, you're not violating any libertarian principles. Freedom of speech goes both ways. You can get as angry as you want, you can make every effort you possibly can short of violence to stifle dissent, you can be as toxic and unwelcoming as you want towards opinions you disagree with, and as long as you're not trying to get government to intervene or use violence or coercion for this purpose, you're actually embodying and upholding libertarian principles to their fullest extent.

If you see an opinion you disagree with, and you don't use the full extent of your knowledge and intellect to stamp it out as completely as you can, then you're abandoning your libertarian principles. Free speech means that we fight ideas with ideas, the moment you stop doing so you're betraying yourself.

So if you ask me, you're not being nearly toxic enough, you're not doing nearly a good enough job stamping out dissent, you need to up the ante by a lot, and the thoughts you're having are the opposite of what you're looking for.

Not liking something is your god given right, and speaking out against it is your moral duty, and doing so in a non violent way is your libertarian guiding principle.

If you launch your own version of stacker news or something similar, and you moderate the content and vehemently disallow and purge all shitcoinery, you're still not violating any libertarian principles. You can do whatever you want.

If you forcibly prevent someone from launching their own site, decidcated or tolerant of shitcoinery, then you're a communist. They can do whatever they want.

but why do you need to be a libertarian in the first place 🤔 they are just name tags to separate people right? like I never bother with BEING anything but myself.

Fair point, Natalia. I used to be a more formal libertarian (big L, as they say.) I couldn't swallow the hypocrisy of being a freedom party that relied on Robert's Rules Of Order for meetings. Maybe just substitute belief in freedom for libertarian.

When the days are cold and the cards all fold And the saints we see are all made of gold When your dreams all fail and the ones we hail Are the worst of all, and the blood's run stale

I wanna hide the truth, I wanna shelter you But with the beast inside, there's nowhere we can hide No matter what we breed, we still are made of greed This is my kingdom come, this is my kingdom come