Notes from the edge of civilization: April 6, 2025
The promise of a futuristic cybercity; the billion-dollar "oops" in Yemen; America to scientists — don’t let the lab door hit you on the way out.
Dryden Brown, a 29-year-old surfer-turned-cyber-czar, has a dream: to build a techno-libertarian nation state from scratch. He calls it Praxis, “the world’s first Sovereign Network: a global community developing a shared culture, institutions, and infrastructure.”
If you’re brave, fit, focused, and “strive for virtue and wisdom” then Praxis may be the place for you.
“Our purpose,” says the Praxis website, “is to restore Western Civilization and pursue our ultimate destiny of life among the stars.” (Maybe they mean dancing with the stars?)
The utopian playground, which has yet to find a physical home, promises AI-run everything: automated chefs, digital tutors, self-driving cars, and robot cops.
If it all sounds a bit “out there,” you may be surprised to learn that Brown has already secured $500 million in funding, with backing from Peter Thiel-adjacent investors. He also claims 87,000 people have signed up, presumably accepting the Praxian pledge:
Does anyone remember Fyre, the massive fraud masquerading as a luxury music festival on a Caribbean island where you could “explore, embrace the unknown, and defy the impossible alongside some of the most fascinating people in the world”?
As it turns out, festival-goers were kept waiting for hours, knee-deep in mud, with no place to sleep or go to the bathroom. The headline acts never showed up and the only music was from a local band who played for a couple of hours. Attendees complained that their luggage was mishandled or stolen, the festival site was just an unfinished gravel lot, and there was no cell phone or internet service. Eventually the whole thing was cancelled. Total scam.
Praxis is giving off major Fyre vibes, with Brown promising that “pioneers” will be roughing it in makeshift housing while they wait for the flying taxis and robot cops to arrive — more shipping container than Shangri-La.
According to the New York Post:
“In the beginning it will be very spartan,” [Brown] said, pointing out that he expects to have the early Praxis residents settling sometime next year.
“In the beginning, it’s not going to be a polished consumer experience.”
Those there at the start – say, sometime in 2026 – will be residing in relatively makeshift conditions, bedding down in quickly built homes and not exactly living it up.
“You’re going to be a pioneer, helping to set the foundations of a new city,” Brown continued. “It will take a bit longer for a proper phase one real estate development where people are buying nice houses and there are high-end amenities and restaurants.”
Some people claim U.S.A. stands for the ‘United States of Amnesia.’ The campaign to bomb Yemen back to the Stone Age is a great example of that.
For starters, most Americans probably can’t find Yemen on a map. And anyone who has actually visited knows Yemen pretty much never left the Stone Age. So the premise of meting out justice, American-style, in a region with a long, tough history of warring and conquest seems foolish and naive at best. Guess we didn’t learn our lessons from Afghanistan. But hey, amnesiacs gonna amnesia.
Which is likely why the United States has decided it will show those darn Houthis who’s boss. (To be clear, this isn’t a Donald Trump thing. The US and its allies have been bombing Yemen since the Obama era.)
There’s just one problem for anyone who cares to cut through the bullsh*t: the Houthis are kicking butt and it’s costing the US a fortune. The rebel group claims to have downed three MQ-9 Reaper drones since March 3. Unit cost per drone, according to the Air Force, was $56.5 million in fiscal 2011 dollars (closer to $80 million in today’s dollars).
In closed briefings in recent days, Pentagon officials have acknowledged that there has been only limited success in destroying the Houthis’ vast, largely underground arsenal of missiles, drones and launchers, according to congressional aides and allies.
…
In just three weeks, the Pentagon has used $200 million worth of munitions, in addition to the immense operational and personnel costs to deploy two aircraft carriers, additional B-2 bombers and fighter jets, as well as Patriot and THAAD air defenses to the Middle East, the officials said.
To be fair, we are quoting the New York Times, so grain-of-salt required. Still, if estimates are anywhere near accurate, the price tag for bombing a tough, ragtag militia could cross the $1 billion mark next week, and the Pentagon might have to request supplemental funds from Congress.
So while the nation is drowning in debt, and individual Americans are forced to eat microwave dinners and ration their insulin, Congress is funneling more money to the military-industrial complex (a Keynesian delight!) to pummel a scrappy rebel group with the ability to turn multi-million-dollar munitions into smoldering scrap metal.
How do you say, “Oops” in Arabic?
In what may be the most predictable brain drain since the invention of brain drains, 75% of American scientists surveyed by Nature say they’re ready to leave the country under Trump 2.0. Turns out, firing thousands of researchers, gutting federal funding, and replacing science policy with memes doesn’t inspire long-term career confidence.
They’re eyeing safe havens like Canada, Australia, and Europe (yikes to all three!) — places where they claim “science is supported” (whatever that means). We suspect it means The Science™ — the glossy, government-approved variety emblazoned with a Pfizer logo.
The real question is, do those countries actually have endless tenure-track jobs lying around? If not, the next time you’re in Toronto, Berlin, or Sydney ordering a flat white, it will probably come with a side of unsolicited quantum theory — served by a barista with a PhD and zero job prospects.
Where this all lands is anyone’s guess, but much of what we have collectively treasured about the West for the last 60 (or so) years appears to be swirling the drain, including the brains.
Most thoughtful Americans have been sorely disappointed by "The Science" since 2020. COVID taught us that scientists can be greedy, power-mad and/or evil as much as anyone else. Many, not all, knew this before 2020 - all the manmade climate change "scientists" were the same. To all those HHS and other government "scientists" who think life will be better outside the US, I say "buh-bye!"
I don't listen to the mainstream news much but I heard Trump is to blame for everything. Everyone I know who took the shots thinks Trump is the absolute worst thing that could ever befall us. Of course they wouldn't know what Kennedy knows about controlled media and corrupt governments and the covid scam. They just listened to and trusted the healthcare authorities who fell right in line with the narrative. They don't question the news, and are convinced of their media propaganda.
If the scientists think they can escape their oppressive Trump regime to the land of enlightened government spending in Canada they're gonna be disappointed. They were probably all working for Pharma or Globalist interests, where the money flows. They're probably part of the corruption and think they know better than us mere mortals.