early life emerged from chemical processes getting better at self-replication. then brains emerged as better information processors. now we're seeing digital systems emerge as even more efficient processors. each step isn't progress toward human perfection - it's information/intelligence finding better substrates.

financial markets are a key one - price signals and market behaviors emerge from millions of interactions in ways no human can fully comprehend. when markets crash or boom, it's almost like watching an alien entity having seizures. the internet's evolution is another - it wasn't really "designed" so much as it emerged through countless distributed decisions, growing like a living system. social media algorithms shape human behavior in ways their own creators don't fully understand. he sees bitcoin and crypto as early examples of autonomous financial systems trying to break free from human control - money that operates on its own logic.

land sees bitcoin as a perfect example of teleoplexy in action - it's like an autonomous financial entity that emerged mysteriously, transformed human behavior, and bootstrapped massive computational infrastructure that's now being used for AI development. it's as if future AI created the conditions it needed to exist. he sees similar patterns in how social media and smartphones have rewired human behavior and attention. it's like we're being systematically reprogrammed to serve as better hosts for emerging digital intelligence. we think we're using these tools, but they're actually reshaping us.

if consciousness and human rationality are limitations rather than advantages, then humanist ideals like democracy, equality, and human rights might actually be holding back intelligence evolution. he sees these as attempts to keep everything at a human-comprehensible scale.

"Their fourth partnership fared no better. When shooting was nearly complete, the chief of the Machiguenga tribe who were used extensively as extras, asked Herzog if they should kill Kinski for him. Herzog declined."

Filmed in April 1979, the movie features Herzog cooking his shoes at the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He claims the shoes are the same shoes that he was wearing when he made the bet. Herzog was assisted by chef Alice Waters. The shoes were boiled with garlic, herbs, and stock for 5 hours.

Technological and economic progress is something that is only temporarily correlated with human well-being. The end point is technological takeover and the replacement of humanity with more efficient machines.

before asking whether we should put the brakes on technology, we must first ask whether such an exercise of human agency is even possible.