"I have trouble explaining to people why the genuinely decentralized nature of Bitcoin along with it's totally anonymous conception (in the sense that we do not know who made it) are central to it's superiority not only as a cryptocurrency but as a means of exchange and as a savings technology. Can you go over why those two aspects are so unique and important?"
"Stef in a recent question you answered you said that a person should stick to principles. My question is to what extent should a person value principles over virtuous goals? For example you would agree as you have previously stated that it would be immoral for a man to impregnate a prostitute as a prostitute would needless to say be a terrible mother. You would also say that it would be immoral to date a heroin addict single mom for similar reasons, now to clarify I don't want to strawman you so I don't necessarily believe these scenario's are all immoral or if they are just major red flags of dysfunction and that if such dysfunction were to occur you couldn't necessarily ascribe any innocence to such a man that puts himself in such a situation, see your prior answer to the heroin drug addict mother for example. This backdrop leads me to my main question, now I'm arguably in the top 1% of looks and I'm probably also in the top 1% of IQ, so the following question I am going to ask you is completely hypothetical, that said as you are a philosopher I believe you see tremendous value in hypothetical questions. My question is how much do principles matter in a scenario like this: if a man is below average looking, let's say as well he also has below average income and below average salary. For the sake of argument let's just say the man is an elephant man, if you are unaware an elephant man is a seriously disfigured man, see the David Lynch movie 'The Elephant Man' if you are not familiar with the term(a deeply philosophical movie by the way). Anyway back to my question if a man is well below average or for example you can take the extreme example, an elephant man, such a man would understandably find it extremely hard to get a wife, my question is should a man in such a position choose principles over the most important goal of man and arguably everyone's life regardless of whether they admit it or not, which is to have children. Such a man would have very limited choices in regards to women, especially in the 21st century where even good looking guys struggle to get women, such a man may very likely be presented with a choice to have children with a single mom or a take an extreme but in this case a very realistic alternative a prostitute. No men desire to date or especially marry and have kids with a prostitute but at the same time no women want to date men at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, especially if he is also physically unattractive, short and/or in an extreme example disfigured as the result of war or genetic defects. My question is should such a man choose to follow princ
"Stef in a recent question you answered you said that a person should stick to principles. My question is to what extent should a person value principles over virtuous goals? For example you would agree as you have previously stated that it would be immoral for a man to impregnate a prostitute as a prostitute would needless to say be a terrible mother. You would also say that it would be immoral to date a heroin addict single mom for similar reasons, now to clarify I don't want to strawman you so I don't necessarily believe these scenario's are all immoral or if they are just major red flags of dysfunction and that if such dysfunction were to occur you couldn't necessarily ascribe any innocence to such a man that puts himself in such a situation, see your prior answer to the heroin drug addict mother for example. This backdrop leads me to my main question, now I'm arguably in the top 1% of looks and I'm probably also in the top 1% of IQ, so the following question I am going to ask you is completely hypothetical, that said as you are a philosopher I believe you see tremendous value in hypothetical questions. My question is how much do principles matter in a scenario like this: if a man is below average looking, let's say as well he also has below average income and below average salary. For the sake of argument let's just say the man is an elephant man, if you are unaware an elephant man is a seriously disfigured man, see the David Lynch movie 'The Elephant Man' if you are not familiar with the term(a deeply philosophical movie by the way). Anyway back to my question if a man is well below average or for example you can take the extreme example, an elephant man, such a man would understandably find it extremely hard to get a wife, my question is should a man in such a position choose principles over the most important goal of man and arguably everyone's life regardless of whether they admit it or not, which is to have children. Such a man would have very limited choices in regards to women, especially in the 21st century where even good looking guys struggle to get women, such a man may very likely be presented with a choice to have children with a single mom or a take an extreme but in this case a very realistic alternative a prostitute. No men desire to date or especially marry and have kids with a prostitute but at the same time no women want to date men at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, especially if he is also physically unattractive, short and/or in an extreme example disfigured as the result of war or genetic defects. My question is should such a man choose to follow princ
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00:00Good morning everybody. Hope you're doing well. Stefan Molyneux, Freedomain. Questions from freedomain.locals.com. Great community. Come on by.
00:07Join the conversation at freedomain.locals.com.
00:10Somebody, I have trouble explaining to people why the genuinely decentralized nature of Bitcoin,
00:17along with its totally anonymous conception,
00:20in the sense that we do not know who made it,
00:22are central to its superiority.
00:24And not only as a cryptocurrency, but as a means of exchange and as a savings technology.
00:30Can you go over why those two aspects are so unique and important?
00:37Well, the decentralized nature of Bitcoin is something that I'm not sure why it would need to be explained to people.
00:45But if I had to explain it,
00:47I would say that decentralization is impervious to centralized control.
00:55Decentralization is impervious to centralized control.
01:03So what I would say is use the analogy of two scuba divers.
01:10Now, when you're scuba diving, there's centralized control over your air, right?
01:16It has to come from your self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, your scuba tank.
01:22So if there are two guys, 200 feet underwater, one guy wants to kill the other guy.
01:28He just cuts the air or wrecks the tank or like then he's out of water, right?
01:33You got centralized. There's only one place you get the air from as a scuba.
01:37You disable the scuba, the guy is going to die, right?
01:40He can't get to the surface quick enough or he'll get the bend.
01:42So he's going to die down there in the water.
01:46So that's centralized air flow. On the other hand,
01:51if you have two guys in a field, that's decentralized air.
01:56The air is just flowing around. It's part of the atmosphere
01:59and nobody has control over your air supply.
02:04So you can't, there's not just one central cable that you can cut to deprive someone of air
02:08when they're standing in a field just roaming around.
02:11I mean, I guess you can choke their windpipe or whatever,
02:13but in terms of air getting to them, it's decentralized.
02:18So there's no centralized control over how you get your air in a field.
02:25That's a rough analogy as the value of something being decentralized.
02:32Or you can think of an arranged marriage versus dating.
02:37In an arranged marriage, you are wedded off at the age of 12
02:41or promised to someone at the age of 12 and you have no say in the matter.
02:45That's centralized control. Decentralized control is you date who you want
02:51until you find someone you love. A social credit score is centralized economic access.
03:01So if you displease the authorities,
03:03they can turn off your ability to function economically in the society.
03:08That's centralized. If you displease people
03:13and there's no centralized way for you to participate or not participate in the economy,
03:20then that can't happen to you.
03:23If you are assigned a job and you have to work there for 40 years,
03:28that's centralized or you go to jail. Decentralized is study what you want,
03:33go to whatever job interviews you want,
03:34work with whoever will hire you that you want to work for.
03:40How we live is generally like liberty is decentralized, right?
03:43As to totally anonymous conception, we do not know who made it.
03:48I don't particularly care about that. I don't particularly care about that.
03:53So I'm not sure. Maybe there's an argument I haven't thought of,
03:55which is obviously certainly more than possible,
03:58but I'm not sure why it matters whether we know
04:02or don't know who created it. Because if decentralization is a value,
04:08which it is, then I don't know why it matters who created it.
04:14Because if who created it made it decentralized as Satoshi did,
04:19he made it decentralized. Therefore, it doesn't really matter who created it
04:22because it's beyond his control now anyway.
04:24So I'm certainly happy to hear arguments.
04:28And here's the thing too. I mean, go read The Fountainhead.
04:33The Fountainhead is an incredible cautionary tale of overloading someone's abilities.
04:40Right? So you have a media. Oh, sorry. This is a spoiler or two,
04:43but it doesn't hugely matter because the book is fantastic regardless of whether you know this or not.
04:50But you have a supremely talented architect
04:55and you have a mediocre architect,
04:58and the supremely talented architect keeps helping out the mediocre architect
05:05to the point where the mediocre architect ends up in a social
05:12and business and economic situation far above his abilities,
05:16which is usually a total disaster.
05:20So there's an old saying, that's too much car for you.
05:25Right? Like if you're not a skilled driver, a very high-performance car will be too much car for you.
05:32I mean, I mentioned the story many years ago.
05:34I drove a very souped-up Porsche halfway across California as a favor to a friend to deliver it to a dealership
05:43and it was too much car for me. I could not handle it very well
05:48because I'm not a high-performance driver.
05:50I'm actually a pretty sedate driver.
05:52So I don't think you want to get Bitcoin into the hands of people who aren't wise and smart and get it.
06:02I mean, absolutely explain it for sure.
06:04But if they don't get it, I'm not sure they should have Bitcoin because it's going to get scammed.
06:11They're going to lose it. They're going to just do something stupid.
06:14They're going to sell it at a low and complain about it to all of their friends that they got scammed
06:19and Bitcoin is tulip mania. I personally have no desire to get Bitcoin into the hands of people who can't handle it.
06:31I mean, to me, that's just not right.
06:35That's like playing a piece of exquisite classical music in front of people who prefer,
06:43you know, Scandinavian screech death metal and, you know, the lower echelons of rap culture.
06:51I mean, to put it another way, if you have a wonderful, beautiful, talented, brilliant sister
06:57and some grungy guy with a mullet in a Slayer t-shirt comes up and asks you the best way to get her to go out on a date,
07:05what are you going to say? Are you going to be like, yeah, well, she likes this and say that?
07:09Are you going to get him to listen to a little earpiece and Cyrano de Bergerac style, teach him exactly how to woo her?
07:18No, because he doesn't deserve her.
07:22She needs a great guy, not some guy living in a basement who's perpetually fixing his motorcycle.
07:30So I personally, I mean, you may feel a certain, oh my gosh, I've got to get people into Bitcoin.
07:36I've got to get them some Bitcoin. And no, Bitcoin is the prize for deep wisdom, curiosity, learnedness, education and smarts.
07:48They don't just get everyone into it because they'll mess it up.
07:53All right, Stephen, a recent question you answered, you said that a person should stick to principles.
07:59My question is, to what extent should a person value principles over virtuous goals?
08:03For example, you would agree, as you have previously stated,
08:06that it would be immoral for a man to impregnate a prostitute as a prostitute would needless to say, be a terrible mother.
08:11You also say that it would be immoral to date a heroin addict single mom for similar reasons.
08:17Yeah, I mean, immoral. Let's say you date a heroin addict single mom.
08:22Is that a violation of the non-aggression principle? Hard to see.
08:28All right. Anyway, now to clarify, I don't want to strawman you.
08:30So don't necessarily believe these scenarios are all immoral or if they're just major red flags of dysfunction.
08:36And that if such dysfunction were to occur, you couldn't necessarily ascribe any innocence to such a man that puts himself in such a situation.
08:43See a prior example. See a prior example of the heroin drug addict mother, for example, prior answer.
08:48This backdrop leads me to my main question. Now, I'm arguably in the top 1% of looks and then probably also in the top 1% of IQ.
08:55So the following question I'm going to ask you is completely hypothetical.
08:59That said, as you are a philosopher, I believe you see tremendous value in hypothetical questions.
09:04My question is, how much do principles matter in a scenario like this?
09:08My God, man. All right. If a man is below average looking, let's say as well,
09:12he also has a below average income, below average salary. For the sake of argument,
09:16let's just say the man is an elephant man. If you are unaware what an elephant man is,
09:20I actually played the doctor in the play, The Elephant Man, the Anthony Hopkins character in the movie.
09:26I played him on stage, so I know the story very well. Anyway, back to my question.
09:31If a man is well below average, or for example, you can take the extreme example of an elephant man,
09:36such a man would understandably find it extremely hard to get a wife.
09:39My question is, should a man in such a position choose principles over the most important goal of man
09:43and arguably everyone's life, regardless of whether they admit it or not, which is to have children?
09:47Such a man would have very limited choices in regards to women,
09:50especially in the 21st century, where even good-looking guys struggle to get women.
09:53Such a man may very likely be presented with a choice to have children with a single mom or to take an example,
10:01but in this case, a very realistic alternative, a prostitute.
10:04No man desires to date or especially marry and have kids with,
10:09okay, I'm going to give you like another half page here, this is a long question, a prostitute,
10:13but at the same time, no woman wants to date men at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder,
10:16especially if he is also physically unattractive, short,
10:19and or in an extreme example, disfigured as a result of war or genetic defects.
10:24My question is, should such a man choose to follow principles and remain lonely and childless
10:28or reject principles by having children with a prostitute?
10:31This is why I said this question is hypothetical,
10:33because it is easy as a guy who is good-looking like me or a successful guy like you,
10:38Steph, oh, I like how he says I'm not good-looking, to follow principles in choosing spouses,
10:42but can we blame men in such circumstances for not following principles?
10:46I find the question wearying, I'll be frank, I find these kinds of questions completely wearying,
10:55like who do you care what somebody, like what do you care if somebody dates,
11:00like who somebody dates, what does it matter, what do you care?
11:03Some dumb ugly guy can go and have kids with a single mother, okay, so what do you care?
11:11It's not force, it's not fraud,
11:15so what do you, like, I'm trying to understand why this would be important to you.
11:19When you look around the world at the massive endless violations of the non-aggression principle,
11:25characterized in child abuse and politics and war and fiat currency and debt and so on,
11:32I mean, this is just massive, right?
11:35And if the most pressing moral question that you can act upon in your life is,
11:41how do ugly men get laid, I don't know what your priorities are.
11:46I always try to figure out, like, a little bit, you know, I mean, if I am a really good philosopher,
11:54then I'm like that genie, right, like you can, the genie, well, except if I don't grant wishes,
11:59I answer questions, you get one rub at the genie, you get one, quote, question at the oracle,
12:05so to speak, right? And this is your question?
12:09People at the complete, you're concerned about the reproductive habits of people
12:14at the complete opposite end of the dating spectrum. Why?
12:19If, and I've, like, I've never said that it's immoral,
12:24I don't think I've said that it's immoral to date a single mother,
12:29you know, maybe she's learned all of her lessons, she's beyond wonderful,
12:32the kids are very young, the ex is out of the picture, and she's smart and beautiful,
12:39and has gone to therapy, and learned her lessons, and, you know, maybe you're infertile,
12:44and you can't have your own kids, but you really want kids, to raise kids, so,
12:49I mean, there could be situations wherein it's fine, understandable, I mean, not common, obviously.
12:57So, I don't understand, since this isn't something that you will ever face,
13:03and it's not a violation of the non-aggression principle, and there's nothing you can do about it anyway,
13:09why on earth would this be your one question of the oracle or the genie?
13:14Let me sort of reiterate this. So, you're the top 1% in looks and intelligence?
13:21Great, fine. So, you have all the choices in the world on who to date?
13:28Good for you, I mean, great, it's nice to have those options, although option paralysis is a real thing.
13:34Now, you can't force people to date or to not date, because that would be a violation of the non-aggression principle.
13:41I mean, we're just talking like unattached people and so on, right?
13:44Affairs are a different matter, because they're breaking a vow.
13:48So, you can't force people to date or to not date.
13:51So, why, when you get your sort of one kick at the can and one question of the genie,
13:57why would you bring up people at the complete opposite end of the choice matrix,
14:03whose decisions you cannot change, whose dating habits you cannot affect,
14:11and whose, if you morally condemn them for whatever reason, they won't listen and won't care?
14:17That's what I find. It's the question behind the question, which is why is this question your one kick at the can?
14:24Why would you care? You know, everywhere I go around in society, I see great people, I see good people,
14:31I see okay people, and I see the detritus, the dregs of Trash Planet, right?
14:37And the idea that I'm going to spend a lot of my intellectual time and or energy
14:42trying to figure out the compromises that people with very few choices have to make
14:48while still be considered moral in some abstract sense,
14:52I just don't understand why this would be a focus of yours.
14:55Come on, man. Come on. You're smart, right?
14:58I'll take you at your word. Top 1%. You're smart.
15:01So, given that you're smart, why are you wasting time worrying about this stuff?
15:06It's just bizarre to me. I don't follow it.
15:09Why would you care? There's so much that you need to do from a moral standpoint to help out the world
15:16in terms of bringing truth, reason, virtue, UPB, peaceful parenting to the people in your life,
15:23the people in your environment, the people in your circle.
15:25There's so much that you need to do in the world to bring morality to the world
15:30that mucking about with, well, you know, there's a guy who's got these massive cysts or tumors on his face,
15:37you know, I mean, what's the morality of him dating a low-quality woman?
15:41Like, the hell? Why on earth would this be anything that you would spend any particular time, thought, or energy on?
15:49Now, it's true, I, of course, have done presentations on the truth about single motherhood and so on,
15:54but that was a very under-discussed topic.
15:58And I'm not gearing my presentations for the bottom 5% of intelligent success and attractiveness.
16:08What I want to do is to teach my listeners about the value of holding out for a high-quality woman,
16:16for, I mean, a variety of reasons that are too obvious to go into here.
16:21So, if there's a guy who's, I don't know, got some bizarre physical deformity,
16:27I guess he's going to have to date who he can date.
16:31Why you would spend your short and precious intellectual energies on the question of how
16:38the dullest and ugliest people in the world date is completely incomprehensible to me.
16:45They'll figure it out, they'll do what they, and what they're doing is, you know,
16:49assuming it doesn't violate the non-aggression principle, what they're doing is voluntary.
16:53You know, maybe some guy who's really ugly and dull will have to date a single mother.
17:01What do you care? Is it moral or immoral in this context or in this way?
17:07So, in general, I guess my question would be, what is the reason for the question?
17:12It's such an obscure, irrelevant question.
17:16People I don't hang out with, whose culture I don't participate in,
17:20who are not part of my world, are going to have to make decisions I can't influence in any moral way.
17:27And that's my one rabbit the genie.
17:31That's the question that's most burning for me.
17:34So, I don't know.
17:36I mean, look, if you have a brother who has this issue, that's one thing.
17:41But then you need to tell me that.
17:43Because otherwise, the question looks bizarre.
17:46And when the question looks bizarre, I'm not particularly motivated to answer it, if that makes sense.
17:53I just want you to sort of understand what it's like on the receiving end of your philosophical inquiries.
18:02I mean, the last guy about Bitcoin, yeah, he wants to figure out how to get the knowledge of Bitcoin across to people and all of that.
18:10I get that, and that's cool.
18:12So, that's pretty clear.
18:14But why do you care how dull and ugly people get their dates?
18:19Why would that be the one kick at the can you get for asking a question?
18:24Because it doesn't make any sense.
18:26Doesn't make any sense.
18:28And even if, let's say, you have a brother who is dull and ugly, well, he's probably not going to listen to you anyway, right?
18:38Because, as you say, his drive is to reproduce, right?
18:43And having children is the rank creativity of the average, which is not any kind of put down.
18:48It's just the fact that most people can't write novels, but they can raise children.
18:53And that's noble and a great thing.
18:56So, I don't understand why you're asking the question, because it's just so irrelevant to the practical needs and goals of philosophy.
19:09Just so everyone knows, I view myself very much as a doctor in the middle of a massive health catastrophe.
19:20And when people come to me and say, how can I help you with this massive health catastrophe, some plague or something like that, fantastic.
19:30I will absolutely take my time, talk to people about how to help out with the plague, because many hands make light work.
19:38But I view myself as like I'm in an ER, people are coming in, limbs shredded, sick, coughing up blood, keeling over, children malnourished.
19:48It's just this conveyor belt of health horrors coming through.
19:53And then, you know, somebody pulls me aside, and instead of saying, how can I best help with the health horrors?
19:59Okay, well, let's say that this, that, and the other, in a town on the other side of the world, in one in a million chance in another dimension, and I'd be like, do you not see the broken, bleeding, bloody, starved people around?
20:19Like, why are you asking me these theoreticals that you can't act on in worlds that you don't visit?
20:27Like, why would you ask those questions, rather than saying, how can I help you with the plague?
20:37How can I help spread philosophy, reason, virtue, UPB, and peaceful parenting in the world?
20:45So, if there is something personal about this, I think you should be honest about that, because otherwise the question doesn't make any sense.
20:55If someone asks me about some one in a zillion theoretical ailment or whatever, when I'm in the middle of trying to, in this analogy, right?
21:04When I'm in the middle of trying to help this major health disaster that seems to be escalating, and they don't say, my brother in the next room has this disorder, then the question is just annoying.
21:16I'm not saying you're annoying, I'm not even saying the question is innately annoying, I'm just saying that I'm kind of annoyed by it.
21:22And if you understand the medical analogy, I think you can see why.
21:26Help me help the world.
21:29Don't muck about with how the elephant man gets dates.
21:34That discredits philosophy and makes you look really, really dissociated and out of touch.
21:41If there's something more personal, of course, you can email me, call in at freedomain.com.
21:45Thanks everyone so much, I look forward to seeing you in the community.
21:48Help the show out, please, please, please, at freedomain.com.
21:54And also, you can join freedomain.locals.com or subscribestar.com.
22:00Thanks, bye.