President Trump and Congress have the opportunity to turn the 1500 acre Presidio into a Freedom City and compete with mismanaged San Francisco. This can accelerate innovation in critical technology, and demonstrate the American capacity for good governance
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Fuck it, I'll turn this into a thread. GMU econ is the best intellectual environment on the planet. Here's why
With Tabarrok and covid, Cowen with Emergent Ventures and Fast Grants, Caplan on education, Jones on democracy, and GMU masters grads being the best policy folks in DC. Who is writing a longform piece on how GMU is most interesting intellectual environment today?
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Anyone want to build a city? One of our partners needs a 'CEO' for their city development. They have government buy in, land, a master plan, but need someone to drive the day to day. DM me for details
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One great thing about SF is that you can go to an intellectually engaging discussion, meet a bunch of interesting people, and walk away having no idea what they do
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This upcoming decade is going to be half "burning '20s" with institutions going to hell and a handbasket and half "weird '20s" with different forms of social organizations, communes, charter cities, religion, etc trying to fill the void
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With Tabarrok and covid, Cowen with Emergent Ventures and Fast Grants, Caplan on education, Jones on democracy, and GMU masters grads being the best policy folks in DC. Who is writing a longform piece on how GMU is most interesting intellectual environment today?
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Some thoughts on Effective Altruism (EA) and Progress Studies (PS) as both are influential and generally related to Silicon Valley's increased influence on the discourse 1/n
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Why are our institutions so bad? There's a pandemic and the WHO is tweeting about policing language
DO - talk about people “acquiring” or “contracting” #COVID19
DON'T - talk about people “transmitting COVID-19” “infecting others” or “spreading the virus” as it implies intentional transmission & assigns blame bit.ly/32HZe0q
#coronavirus
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I'm having @balajis on the Charter Cities Podcast next week. What questions should I ask him
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Books I want someone to write
1) A History of Public, Private, and their Interaction
2) A History of Friendship and how it's Changed over Time
3) The Rise and Decline of Organizations
4) Financing Cities: From Rome to Shenzhen, How Rapidly Growing Cities Financed Infrastructure
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Has anyone tried to train AI on old text to see if it can rediscover new technologies or scientific theories?
E.g. Train it on all physics before 19th century, can it independently discover relativity?
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There's a case to be made that US should open doors to Chinese entrepreneurs.
Do you want to be a billionaire without a 20% chance of being murdered by your government, come to America!
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Peter Thiel is too contrarian
- FB seed, didn't follow up series B
- Trump 2016, didn't follow up 2024
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Hong Kong group wants to build a new city in Ireland to escape Chinese oppression. Maybe the US should be courting them too?
bit.ly/2zih2VG
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We'd love to help you draft charter cities legislation to compliment your bitcoin law.
cc @balajis
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My response to the @pmarca essay. Build institutions, not apps
marklutter.com/post/build-in…
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Does anyone want to start a weekly 'building institutions/governance futurism' chat on Clubhouse?
It would focus on how to revitalize American institutions, contributing to the development of a strategic vision on specific steps to create a stable, effective governing coalition
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There still seems to be an assumption that things will return to normal. Cases in the US have plateaued and there's talk of re-opening. The light at the end of the tunnel is more likely a train. Social disorder is coming
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The riots and protests are being interpreted as rage against the ruling class. I think it's more of a self own
A series of bad governance decisions made police in the US unaccountable
Take away qualified immunity and police unions and 90% of misconduct disappears
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The @nytimes has destroyed one of the best places on the internet. I stand with Scott Alexander
slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/2…
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I'm pleased to announce that the Center for Innovative Governance Research is becoming the Charter Cities Institute. We have a new website too! I'm proud of what we've accomplished the last two years and looking forward to what we'll do over the next two!
chartercitiesinstitute.com/
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Very proud of the CCI team. We're publishing the Governance Handbook, a step by step guide to creating a legal and administrative framework for charter cities.
Charter cities are new cities with new rules. The Governance Handbook is the first comprehensive guide that lays out what these rules should be, and how they should be administered.
Download the CCI Governance Handbook here: bit.ly/CCIGovernanceHandbook
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Golden ages often begin with mass translation of foreign works or rediscovery of old works. What traditions are untranslated that could spark a new golden age?
cc @Scholars_Stage
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What are key design elements to include for a new city of one million residents in a high income country?
-Walkability
-Public transport
-Family friendly
-Low emissions
-Narrow streets
What am I missing?
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Last year we promised 'charter cities in a box'. Now we begin to deliver.
Our resource guides break down what it means to create a new city and new legal system from scratch.
We're excited to announce the release of our first four Reference Guides for charter city developers. The guides will help developers establish their cities and create effective governance frameworks. Enjoy the teasers, we'll be publishing the guides in full on Monday!
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FDA should declare immediate reciprocity for any drug or medical device for COVID approved by a tier 1 nation
@ScottGottliebMD @balajis
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Freedom Cities can help revitalize America by removing red tape and building a new frontier
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European libertarians are launching a 'free state project', targeting Montenegro.
montelibero.org/en/2021/03/1…
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Hi Senator. Thanks for your leadership. I'm working with a group from Hong Kong that is searching for sites to build a new city to continue their lifestyle. Are you or your staff available to chat. Thanks
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For the past few years I've been half-jokingly telling people that my side project/life ambition is to reinvent liberalism. I thought I'd take some time to define what that means
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Speech that got Jack Ma disappeared and Ali Baba nationalized.
It's a very good speech, and China's reaction is a reason to be bearish on Chinese innovation
interconnected.blog/jack-ma-…
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The question of the decade. Can Silicon Valley conquer America before San Francisco conquers Silicon Valley?
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The best @cowenconvos in a while. @tylercowen and @patrickc are interviewed by Zuckerberg. Great overview of the importance of Progress Studies
medium.com/conversations-wit…
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With the end of the Great Stagnation and the beginning of the Great Acceleration/roaring 20's, it's useful to consider relative status changes.
Increase
-Events
-Brexit
-Community
Decrease
-Universities
-Government
-Consulting
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Hong Kong, Singapore, and South Korea famously plundered their weaker neighbors to fund their industrialization
Development economists believe that the success of high-income nations has to do with "good governance" and strong institutions and stable markets... it's all a fairy tale. In most cases the development of high-income nations was enabled, in large part, by plunder.
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Interviewing @FrancisSuarez for the Charter Cities Podcast. What should I ask him?
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Imagine if cities competed for residents
#Dubai's ruler unveils a plan to boost the city's population by roughly 80% to 5.8 million by 2040. One way it'll do that is by increasing the length of beaches and area of nature reserves -- all to attract more foreigners. bloomberg.com/news/articles/… @ZainabFattah
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I'm interviewing geopolitical expert @PeterZeihan on Monday. He's predicting the consequences of the end of American hegemony, though is quite pessimistic about China. What should I ask him?
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We're seeing a rise in ideology, EA, e/acc, pro-natalism, progress studies, state capacity libertarianism. Social coordination is increasingly more important
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This is a huge effect of successful H1-Bs on immigration
marginalrevolution.com/margi…
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When I visited Istanbul flying the Turkish flag viewed as protesting Erdogan. Wouldn't be unprecedented for symbols of Americana to become symbols of resistance
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The US has struggled to adjust to the new era. We are no longer the sole hyperpower, capable of imposing our vision through force of will and military might.
We're re-running old scripts despite the set having been changed several times.
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The recent @ezraklein article about @ATabarrok showcases GMU's importance. Alex was consistently ahead of the curve on pretty much every major issue that mattered. nytimes.com/2021/04/01/opini…
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Prospera Honduras just launched. They're a ZEDE, the legacy of Paul Romer's time in Honduras. They have an innovative approach to governance, full reciprocity with OECD countries with liability to serve as an enforcement mechanism
prospera.hn/
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Belt and Road: could reshape the global order
Cost: $1t to $4t
Afghanistan: Thousands dead, irreparable damage to American prestige
Cost: $2t
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Every time I look for good summary statistics on poverty or economic growth I end up on Our World in Data. Thanks @MaxCRoser
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In the Matrix Agent Smith described 1999 as the peak of human civilization. I think he might have been right
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Utah regulatory sandbox. Better than the more hyped Nevada proposal. Something comparable at the national level would be a game changer
reason.com/2021/03/16/utah-e…
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The impact of COVID-19 on status
Increase:
-Chinese Communist Party
-Singapore/Hong Kong/Taiwan
-South Korea
-Startup ecosystem
Decrease:
-World Health Organization
-Center for Disease Control
-American media
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Lots of folks making fun of Europe for pausing Astra Zeneca. We are right to make fun of them.
Not enough people making fun of US for still not approving Astra Zeneca
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My podcast with @eriktorenberg is out. We chat about charter cities and building institutions
open.spotify.com/episode/08s…
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There's truth to both sides. Silicon Valley is the most innovative sector of the country. However, they haven't fully grokked what institution building means.
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With Paris density, Presidio can house 120,000 residents. By cutting regulations in key areas including biotech, drones, and energy, the Bay Area could keep its rightful place as the innovation capital of hte world palladiummag.com/2025/01/17/…
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How does Milei seemingly have effective control of the Argentine government? Was there a deep talent of libertarians familiar with the levers of power?
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Someone take this money and organize a Progress Studies conference. Keynotes are @Tylercowen @patrickc and Peter Thiel. Follow up with a Progress Studies think tank @elidourado @ZacharyGraves @bkavoussi @hamandcheese
marginalrevolution.com/margi…
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Jeff and I on building a Freedom City in Presidio. Could increase the population of SF by 20%, create a better regulatory environment for biotech, and demonstrate that it's possible to not have human feces on the streets
New from @MarkLutter and I in @palladiummag:
Urban mismanagement and burdensome regulation are twin killers for American innovation. New cities built on federal land can spark an economic renaissance.
It's time to build the Presidio Freedom City.
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"And so, I hope a new generation of city founders will try to create new and much better places for people to live. I for one would love to fund them."
Glad @pmarca is getting into the startup cities game.
/s (I think)
niccolo.substack.com/p/the-d…
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I’ve been back running the Charter Cities Institute for just under four months. It's time for reflections on the past and the future of charter cities.
Several years ago at a dinner I told the story of Ghengis Khan. It took him several decades to unite the Mongolian tribes under a single banner before he built the largest land empire in human history. I analogized the Charter Cities Institute to the uniting of tribes, we were building an illegible set of knowledge that, given certain external conditions, would have a fast and scalable (positive) impact on the world.
I believed the story when I told it. However, I can’t deny there were some doubts lurking in the back of my mind. Things were progressing more slowly than I had hoped, and we didn’t have the project level engagement we initially aspired to.
Today, I am confident the analogy is correct. The last six months have seen numerous projects come out of the woodwork and validate our strategy. Our job for next year is to consolidate our gains and accelerate the development of charter cities.
The Charter Cities Institute is building the ecosystem for charter cities. We have spent much of the past 7 years focusing on Africa. We are beginning to see the fruits of the ecosystem building – a machine that builds cities.
The machine has two key parts, 1) Catapult, a new cities accelerator, and 2) the New Cities Summit, our annual conference, being held in Nairobi on June 12th and 13th. Catapult identifies and empowers early stage new city projects. We facilitate introductions to service providers, investors, and experts to give projects the best chance of success. The New Cities Summit brings together these stakeholders in person, allowing them to share best practices, form partnerships, and find supporters of new city projects. As projects hit milestones, the flywheel will accelerate, attracting more talent, investment, and government interest.
We launched the African Urban Lab in Zanzibar. In partnership with the African School of Economics, we have opened the African Urban Lab, a research and educational institution. We had our first professional certificate program in November, with nearly 40 students coming throughout Africa to learn about urban planning and design. The program continues in April with a focus on urban governance and finance.
In addition to our success in Africa, we’ve begun to explore global possibilities, including India, Central Asia, South America, and the United States.
In the United States, we’ve partnered with the Frontier Foundation to work on Freedom Cities. President Trump gave a short speech around 18 months ago on Freedom Cities, new cities with regulatory autonomy built on federal government land. We believe Freedom Cities can be an important tool to increase innovation and experimentation, especially with emerging technologies including biotech, drones, and nuclear. Over the next few months we’ll build a coalition of companies, investors, and nonprofits interested in Freedom Cities and work with the incoming administration and legislators to make Freedom Cities a reality.
Our work in India, Central Asia, and South America is in an early, but exciting stage. In India, the Foundation for Economic Development has gotten a special economic zone law passed in Uttar Pradesh. We are exploring how to work with them to get concessions from the national government and create the administrative structure for the zone. In Central Asia we are part of a consortium that is working on a charter city to attract foreign investment. In South America we’re reviewing charter cities legislation that a local group is interested in passing.
After years of building the framework for charter cities, we are in the early stages of execution. There is still a tremendous amount of work ahead, and it will take years for the payoffs of the work to become apparent. I’d like to thank our supporters for their continued generosity. I am more excited about charter cities than any time since the founding of the Charter Cities Institute.
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Things I'm excited about for 2024
-Charter Cities Press
-Starting a University campus
-Building a charter city in Zanzibar
-Publishing my book
-ZuZanzibar
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Launched the Charter Cities Podcast this year. Guests have included @balajis @PeterZeihan @iaboyeji @mwiyas @patrissimo and @gyude_moore
chartercitiesinstitute.org/c…
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.@tylercowen is arguably the head of the pack. With Emergent Ventures and Fast Grants he's taking one of the most innovative approaches to philanthropy. Not to mention MarginalRevolution, which he co-authors with Tabarrok, and being Silicon Valley's favorite living economist
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There should be more voices from emerging markets in the charter cities discussion. As such, I'm pleased to announce the Charter Cities Emerging Market Writing Fellowship.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F…
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Can anyone confirm or disconfirm this thread?
Humanity is on the cusp of practically limitless energy via nuclear fusion and basically nobody is talking about it, which is nuts.
I left working in fusion because I was skeptical of the field's ability to progress, but my mind has totally changed (1/n)
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Now that I've publicly committed to writing a book, here are some of the citations I'll be making
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Good Palladium article on Singapore, their success, and their failure to export their model. Important lessons for charter cities
palladiummag.com/2020/08/13/…
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Good news on the aging front. Thoughts @regardthefrost @LauraDeming
Finally had time to carefully read the new preprint that claims to reverse the age of rats by 54%. I spoke to the first author & in this thread ask whether the results are believable and what if it is true? tinyurl.com/yapwdy87 1/n
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Is there a good article on the decline of Google as an institution? They built much of the modern web, Chrome, Gmail, Docs, Android. Now they seem like a legacy org living off ad rents from the search engine. What happened?
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The development of a universal, humanistic, framework for thinking about impact was extremely powerful. As @tylercowen says, "Effective Altruism is and will be more influential than you think" 5/n
marginalrevolution.com/margi…
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.@FrancisSuarez want to come on the Charter Cities Podcast? Would love to learn more about how you're attracting tech talent and positioning Miami as a hub for innovation. Lots of lessons for the future of cities.
Past guests include @balajis @patrissimo and @iaboyeji
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Scott Alexander on charter cities
astralcodexten.substack.com/…
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One of the few bright spots of the last year is watching GMU thought penetrate the mainstream. Lots of focus on FDA, CDC, and other regulatory failures. That the problem is realized makes me somewhat hopeful it might be solved
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Pleased to be interviewed by @tomaspueyo about a project I'm working on in the Caribbean. unchartedterritories.tomaspu…
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The Prime Minister of The Bahamas recently gave a speech about revitalizing economic growth on Grand Bahama, the original charter city.
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After coming up with The Great Filter, @robinhanson wrote THE book on signaling, and is developing a model for grabby aliens that will likely change how we understand our role in the universe.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_…
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It’s not utopia; it’s pragmatic reform. By repurposing Presidio and other underutilized federal land, we create a sandbox for scalable innovation, echoing Disney World’s self-contained success.
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My thoughts on the states of charter cities and their future chartercitiesinstitute.org/p…
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GMU grads also tend to be the best policy wonks in DC. These include @calebwatney, great on immigration, @AlecStapp, great on anti-trust, @hamandcheese, great on poverty, and @elidourado, great on technology and innovation
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Basically yes. Emergent Ventures algorithm is Tyler Cowen's judgement. Most VC funds algorithm is the GP's judgement. Thiel Fellows algorithm is Peter Thiel's judgement.
Huh? The problem with science is that it doesn't have and your good judgement on who to fund to do what when? And so the solution to science is to give you $ so you can pick well?! Who needs mechanisms when we have angels like you we can trust?!!
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