“1984” Super Bowl XVIII commercial introducing the first Apple Macintosh personal computer on January 22, 1984. The one-minute clip was conceived by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas, and Lee Clow at Chiat/Day, directed by Ridley Scott, and is considered a watershed commercial event and a masterpiece in advertising. It went on to win an impressive handful of advertising awards, including an induction into the Clio Hall of Fame in 1995. The estate of George Orwell considered the commercial a flagrant copyright infringement of Mr. Orwell’s book 1984, so the commercial was never televised again.
Sam Altman’s small, small Worldcoin
To pat ourselves on the back, we predicted the fizzling out of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project when it launched just a month ago. We didn’t feel quite right about Worldcoin’s, ‘Orwellian vibe, over-ambitiousness, touchy-feely altruism, and iris scanning hardware dependency.’
Worldcoin’s original white paper describes a global currency requiring an eyeball-scanning-based World ID authentication that, in turn, gives money to the moneyless and banks the unbanked. Worldcoin raised $115 million in May, led by Blockchain Capital, which adds up to $505 million in total funding from all backers since inception, including the venerable Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital, and Khosla Ventures.
The company claimed it received more than 2 million sign-ups for World ID by July 13, who were granted 25 WLD (then worth $60) for being early adopters. Mr. Altman bragged about the ‘crazy lines around the world’ for people to get their eyes scanned by one of the 1,500 company eye-scanning ‘Orbs’ available in 35 cities.
So far, the only folks crazy about the WLD token are the short sellers who bet early on a Worldcoin market misfire.
Silicon Valley titans play Game of Thrones with local ranchers and farmers in pursuit of their utopian fantasies—It may not turn out well
‘George Orwell shows imagination and taste; his wit is both edged and human. Few writers use the English language so simply and accurately to say what they mean,’ NY Times Book Review 1945.
“The pigs did not actually work but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge, it was natural that they should assume the leadership. All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
The news is abuzz about an outed group of ‘Silicon Valley Titans’ in year 5 of executing a $1 billion, 55,000-acre land grab in Solano County, 60 miles northeast of San Francisco. The goal of the Titan’s California Forever project, which has been on the down-low until a recent onslaught of conspiracy-laden coverage, is to convert rolling farmland near the Travis Air Force Base into a futuristic city.
The Titan’s list includes LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, the late Steve Jobs’s wife, philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon from VC powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital’s Michael Moritz, Stripe cofounders Patrick and John Collison, and entrepreneurs Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.
‘At Sequoia, we like to start wicked infernos with a single match rather than two million gallons of kerosene,’ says Sir Michael Moritz KBE, one of the long-time captains at the most powerful VC fund on the planet.
According to the New York Times, which broke the story on the project, Mr. Moritz was the original pitch-man. In a 2017 email, Mr. Moritz painted a picture of a highly walkable, bustling metropolis with generous open spaces where urban planners can experiment with designs, construction techniques, and new governing associations. Those who know the area are baffled by the Titan’s imagined utopia, as much of the site is dry, barren farmland, riddled with wind turbines and abandoned gas wells, and lacking basic infrastructure, including highway access.
The 50,000 acres owned by the Titans in eastern Solano County—between Fairfield and Rio Vista (pictured above) represent about half of the properties in the area.
On the upside, many locals have become millionaires by selling their properties to the Titans over the last five years, who have already paid over $800M to buy the land. On the other hand, Flannery Associates, representing the Titans, has been targeting holdout landowners with a $510M federal price-fixing lawsuit, claiming the families conspired to inflate their property values to get more money. One local rancher described the Titans’ buying spree as a ‘Shakespearian hostile takeover—a Game of Thrones kind of move.’
“No living creature is naturally greedy, except from fear of want—or in the case of human beings—from vanity, the notion that you're better than people if you can display more superfluous property than they can.” ― Sir Thomas More, Utopia
Flannery also manages a costly and complicated political campaign to secure project approvals from a complex web of state and county agencies, including rezoning land for residential use. ‘The strong-arm mobster techniques that they have used to acquire the land raise very serious questions about their integrity,’ said Congressman John Garamendi, who represents the district. ‘Flannery Associates is using secrecy and bullying to force generational farm families to sell,’ the Congressman claims. Catherine Moy, mayor of Fairfield, says, ‘95% of the hundreds of people who have contacted me oppose this.’
Don’t mess with Mayor Moy. ‘They [the Titans] are in for a fight here,’ says Ms. Moy. ‘You don’t start shoving things at us five years after you start making plans—that’s not how we roll here.’
We got a little more glimpse of the Titan’s intentions when they sent out a survey this week asking residents what they thought about ‘A new city with tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with over a million new trees, and over ten thousand acres of new parks and open space.’ The survey also said the Titans would replace the county’s existing aqueduct—calling it ‘one of the most polluted in California'—that would be entirely funded by private sector money and generate school tax revenue.
Despite the Titans’ lofty plans, they are ‘in for a fight,’ according to Mayor Moy. ‘We will knock on every door,’ she says. ‘We are good at talking to our neighbors; they have not made friends out here.’
Determining the boundaries of disruption
News Alert (Yo Dave!): In an obvious (and smart) PR move, the Titan’s utopian project just now launched a dreamy new site for California Forever to help calm the local terror.
This story represents a challenge for us all to address the boundaries for this kind of bold disruption. Societies are best organized under the principle of subsidiarity, which postures that the autonomy and human dignity of the individual are paramount. All social bodies, therefore, exist for the sake of the individual, not for the benefit of the institutions or the people running them. Today, there is rising resistance to public agencies, school boards, teacher’s unions, corporations, and other centrally controlled powers overstepping these boundaries and violating individual and family rights. The Titans are perceived as just one more barbarian at the gate, threatening these rights.
On the other hand, Cryptonite is a green brand that champions entrepreneurs developing solutions for a cleaner and healthier planet. We see much merit in the initiatives and experimental urban planning California Forever is shooting for and offering to make happen.
The story of the conflicts between California Forever and the locals is complicated, but arm-twisting and lawsuits are never a good sign. California Forever’s new website calls for a ‘new conversation,’ which makes sense, but it will take much more than surveys and a flashy website to make right the current situation.
When push comes to shove, we always favor the rights and dignity of the individual and are wary of authorities. So our advice to the Titans is don’t fuck with California farmers and ranchers. It’s their world, not yours. Show respect, ensure everyone wins, or risk getting your rear ends branded and handed back to you.
Did you know?
(Overheard on the streets of the global Silicon Valley. Got any hot insider tips? Email us @ theeditor@cryptoniteventures.com)
The Billionaire Boys Club
A provocative Vanity Fair excerpt from Jonathan Taplin’s new book, The End of Reality, highlights his fears about AI and transhumanism. While the author’s fears about ‘superintelligence’ are a bit sensationalized, his pitch that Elon, Peter Thiel, Zuck, and Marc Andreessen are busy ‘creating an alternate, autocratic reality’ is worth the read.
Thousands of people will head to the Burning Man festival this week, Nevada's Black Rock Desert, where revelers enjoy the Orgy Dome, 'happy ending' massages, and go to naked Tiki parties. Founded on Baker Beach in San Francisco in 1986, the festival attracts A-list revelers like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Eric Schmidt.
Chris Rock leveraged his celebrity to get a hitch out of Dodge before all shit broke loose. Seen in a clip bouncing up and down in the back of a pick-up saying, ‘Boy, what I would do for a nice cold brew right now.’
Just in: Burning Man was canceled after heavy rain overnight Friday and into Saturday has stranded thousands of mud-slathered burners who could be trapped for several days. Thankfully, there are plenty of medical supplies and warm clothes, and burners are helping each stay dry and safe.
A futuristic pickup or another Elon gimmick?
Elon posted a series of Cybertruck glamor shots on his X account over the past week, revealing that he took a production model for a test drive at Tesla’s Texas factory—fueling speculation that a formal announcement is nearing.
The largest investor in Web3, Coinbase Ventures, ‘invests in exceptional founders who share Coinbase’s mission of creating more economic freedom for the world,’ and they are Calling all builders!to apply for the inaugural Coinbase Ventures Summit in Malibu later this year. It should be cool—get your application in!
‘Students find existing online learning boring—AI can make learning interactive, personalized, and engaging,’ says Sizzle AI CEO Jerome Presenti, ‘We are starting on that journey by helping students solve step-by-step problems in all STEM subjects.’
Sizzle AI, a startup founded by Jerome Pesenti, former head of AI at Facebook, just raised $7.5M in seed funding led by Owl Ventures to create direct-to-learner AI products. Students stuck on their homework can chat back and forth with Sizzle to help them approach and solve problems.
AI Coopetition. OpenAI takes on Microsoft by launching ChatGPT for the enterprise, which runs faster and offers more security and privacy assurances than its consumer version. Microsoft has invested $11B in OpenAI and uses its technology in products that OpenAI will now compete with.
OpenAI is on pace to break the $1B sales mark, posted 35x sales growth over the previous year, and is reportedly earning $80M monthly. OpenAI makes money from selling AI software and server capacity to power its software, so its growth rate is a positive indicator for corporate AI spending.
As the Kings might look today. AI version of Elvis at 88 and MJ at 65.
God Save the Kings from post-mortem AI. The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis Presley, met an untimely drug and health-related death at 42. Similarly, the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, died at age 50 from a propofol overdose— later ruled a homicide, which sent his long-time doctor to jail for two years.
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On Hollywood
Just in case you were wondering why Hollywood audiences are shrinking. Privately-owned OnlyFans showered $5.6B on their entertainers in the year-ending November 30, 2022, up from $4.8B a year prior. The number of entertainers also soared 47% to 3.2M, and fans rose 27% to 238.8M.
'“There are a few studios and very powerful agents who control the business,” says Roman Coppola, “We wish to bring filmmaking tools, contacts, and support to people who need their voices to be heard.” Pictured with his sibling and fellow director Sofia Coppola.
After his directorial debut, A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper became the director to watch. His follow-up, Maestro, which co-stars Carey Mulligan, promises a similarly ambitious, deeply emotional film that revolves around music.
VC-backed Greentech startups raised $5.4B in VC money in Q2, indicating the industry’s resilience. It also reflects significant investment into solar and hydrogen technologies, a boost from the US Inflation Reduction Act and the Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Shot initiative. Check out a new Clean Energy Report.
Redwood Materials, a battery and e-waste recycling startup founded by Tesla cofounder JB Straubel, raised $1B co-led by Goldman Sachsto complement a $2 billion loan from the US Department. of Energy. It plans to expand its operations, including building a Battery Materials Campus in South Carolina.
Global wildfire danger zones. AI-empowered drones can reduce response time and risk to firefighters.
Danish drone company Robotto can help firefighters map vegetation, identify high-risk areas, track wildfires, collect data, and deliver last-mile water deposits. Larger drones, some amphibious, can spray water and chemicals over longer distances and larger areas, saving firefighters’ lives.
The Science of Life
Vast oil wealth has enabled Saudi Arabia to establish dominant roles in global sports, electric cars, and tech startups and are now pouring billions into gerontology and life extension. The kingdom fears its aging population and diabetes epidemic and hopes new drugs will reverse these trends.
The SEC is dragging NFTs into the enforcement mix by suing LA-based podcaster Impact Theory for allegedly offering unregistered ‘securities’ by selling $30M worth of NFTs that unlocked ‘higher levels of access’ to their service before the NFT crash in November 2021.
Bitcoin has now experienced the most extended negative year-over-year returns in its history, lasting 15 months (2/8/22–6/12/23). The most extended period prior was just under a year (11/14/14–10/31/15). Pantera Capital’s view is, ‘We’ve seen enough—There’s just so long markets can be down.’
In June, Mythical Games, a Web3 gaming startup, closed $37M in new VC funds, led by crypto investor Scytale Digital, and their mobile game, NFL Rivals, hit 1M downloads. But behind the curtains, it was a 20% down-valued- round at $965M with the handshake to conduct its third round of layoffs.
VC investment in Web3 gaming has been down in both capital invested and the number of deals since its height in 2022.
“Early approaches to Web3 gaming had mixed success. The single metaverse vision was always dystopian and play-to-earn, which had questionable economic foundations, foundered after a few early successes. While in-game item economies transacted via the blockchain presented a reasonable approach, it required the game designers to sacrifice control over their in-game economy. Despite these false starts, I believe Web3 still has much to offer the gaming world. I will focus on two areas where I think Web3 would be straightforwardly beneficial to games right now: Digital Property Rights for Memorabilia and Market Information for ‘Shapley Valued Game Design.”
Layoffs at Mythical and Dapper (which has raised over a half billion in VC money) represent a post-Web3-hype cycle meets tough economic times state. We believe game companies will increasingly offer NFTs and crypto and create new sales growth over time as tactics are refined, and more people go crypto.
Elon slammed LinkedIn as 'cringe' and said X will compete. ‘People send me LinkedIn links sometimes, but the cringe level is so high that I just can’t bring myself to use it, so I ask for the resume or bio to be emailed. We will ensure that the X competitor to LinkedIn is cool,’ he recently Xed.
Zoom’s shares were up after the video provider reported a sharp increase in cash flow (26%) and a modest 3.6% increase in revenue growth. While these ain’t quite like the jet-fueled earnings days during the pandemic, when the company’s stock zoomed to to $511 per share (now $71), investor confidence in Zoom appears to be returning.
Chaos & Complexity
Fake videos of well-known people hawking phony servicesare all over Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube. Elon Musk is the most manipulated star in the Fake video world. He is often found pitching an investment platform he supposedly invented to Gayle King, Tucker Carlson, and Bill Maher.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy warned employees in a ‘fishbowl’ meeting that workers who defy his edict to return to the office for at least three days a week that ‘It will probably not work out for you.’ The not-so-snazzy Jassy declined to share data that motivated his decision.
What the Math Says
US births have decreased while deaths have increased, leading to a decline in population.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Covid dashboard shows 324 Covid deaths were registered in the week ending August 19— making up just 1.7% of the overall fatalities that week. By comparison, the virus was behind one in three deaths from all causes at its peak in 2021.
Know Thy Enemy
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he will soon meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. ‘He (Chinese President Xi) calls me his friend, and I am happy to call him my friend because he is a person who does a lot for the development of Russian-Chinese relations.’
Israel's ground-breaking laser system experiment was carried out by the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Research and Development and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
Israel’s air-defense lasers can shoot down the drones Iran ships to Russia to use against Ukraine. ‘In two years, we will be the first country fully protected from missiles, shells, and rockets,’ predicts Yuval Steinitz of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, a 70-year-old Israeli pioneer in defense technology.
Beijing green-lit six generative AI services, including Ernie Bot by Baidu and Doubao by TikTok owner ByteDance. China has put billions of dollars into this field since the debut of ChatGPT. Yankee reviewers say none of the Chinese ChatGPT wannabes live up to its sophistication.
Revive Thyself (or not)
Intermittent fasting has become a trendy weight loss strategy. Still, new research suggests a time-restricted eating schedule may also promote a stronger memory and lead to less accumulation of amyloid proteins in the brain — a critical factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.
Cruciferous vegetables
A new study found that molecules in certain vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and kale provide a barrier to pollution, viruses, and bacteria and protect you from lung infections. Eating lots of cruciferous vegetables, but even more importantly, when you’re ill, they say.
Flashback interview
William F. Buckley, Jr. and 26-year-old Muhammad Ali exchanged opinions on Mr. Buckley’s Firing Line on December 12, 1968. The Champ was as adept in debate as he was in the ring, where he ‘floats like a butterfly but stings like a bee, and hands can’t hit what the eyes can’t see.’ Times have changed, but Mr. Ali’s thinking and natural grace are still to behold.
Current Wisdom
How Mahatma Gandhi influenced Martin Luther King Jr.
"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon… a weapon unique in history, which cuts without wounding and enobles the man who wields it… It was used in a magnificent way by Mohandas K. Gandhi to challenge the might of the British empire and free his people from the political domination of economic exploitation inflicted upon them for centuries. He struggled only with the weapons of truth soul-force, non-injury and courage.
Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale. He further disarmed the white man by insisting that though we hated his deeds, we did not hate him as a person. He loved the perpetrator even though he hated the evil deed.
Christ furnished the spirit and motivation, while Gandhi furnished the method. Gandhi was the guiding light of our technique of nonviolent social change. His spirit was the guiding spirit of our civil rights movement.’
MLK’s prophetic warnings in 1968 remain prescient today
"It is my deep conviction that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a 'thing-oriented' society to a 'person-oriented' society. When machines and computers, profit motives, and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day, we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring."
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