Bitcoin Monasteries: Putting Technology to Good Use - with James Poulos

This is my discussion with James Poulos about technology and spirituality, how technology has reshaped our world and America, the hope of taking control over new technologies and putting them in the right hands, the role of global institutions, laws, and authority.
James Poulos is the co-founder and executive editor of The American Mind at the Claremont Institute and the cofounder and publisher of Return at New Founding.
He is the author of the books The Art of Being Free: How Alexis de Tocqueville Can Save Us from Ourselves, and Human Forever: The Digital Politics of Spiritual War: humanforever.us/
He holds a PhD in government from Georgetown University and a BA in political science from Duke University. A fellow at the Center for the Study of Digital Life, he was previously the communications director at the Heraion Foundation, a veterans-run rescue and recovery nonprofit operating in failed and fragile states.
Follow James:
Twitter (X): / jamespoulos
Substack, The Build: poulos.substack.com
Timestamps:
0:00 - Coming up
1:17 - Intro music
1:41 - Start
2:18 - By what authority do you control technology?
6:22 - AI in the West
9:08 - The Revolutionary mode
17:02 - The role of global institutions
19:54 - French theorists on this topic
21:28 - Go live in the woods
24:05 - The law is not enough
30:11 - The big challenge
41:41 - Finding a spiritual authority
51:20 - Bitcoin monasteries
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My intro was arranged and recorded by Matthew Wilkinson.

[@PhilosopherSeekingWisdom]

When people think they're made of nothing but stuff, it's logical that they want to be "fixed" by the technological advancements. When people think scientific reasoning is the only way to get to the truth, it's logical that they want nothing more than an "all-knowing" AI benevelolently thinking in their stead. We need to seriously revisit what it means to be human. Thank you Jonathan for being a beneficial part of this primordial conversation.

[@WendingWayfarer]

Yes more of this please. This guy understands what concerned me so deeply when I asked about Christianity and technology. At the very least he is able to put my concerns into words. I think this conversation is so very important. Deadly important, even.

[@filipbook5605]

I am a university student in Sweden and it is scary how quickly students want to give up their own agency of thought just to make sure they pass their classes through use of AI technology. I am baffled that they cannot see the long-term damage this will have not only on their careers but on their ability to think for themselves.

[@climbingmt.sophia]

“Just become a Saint” is the best AI response I’ve heard yet

[@DoctorBendOver]

what does that mean

[@climbingmt.sophia]

@@DoctorBendOver spend your life trying to find out

[@eastudio-K]

Nice work, Jonathan is also a good listener, great guest

[@carefulcarpenter]

*"LOVE is listening."* cc AI has an inherent flaw. G and W have whitewashed 24 years of my research. This surely supports AI and its flawed origin. Am I an authority?

[@SirWolcott]

So true.

[@carefulcarpenter]

​@@SirWolcott My comment was censored. Rather ironic on a channel discussing truth? 😊

[@carefulcarpenter]

@@SirWolcott This is the feature part of my censored post:(I got used to screenshotting again) *"LOVE is listening."* ♥ cc I began writing online in 2000. Trolls despised truths that did not fit their agenda. I learned to love trolls. Darkness is the background for a bright light of truth.

[@lilrosebush]

40:54 reminds me of when I went for a run today after I took 3-4 days off. I felt intense pain in my heel and I just looked up to the sky and asked god for his strength and healing since I hold myself to not stopping while I’m jogging. Can’t really describe the relief I felt, the pain just fell away and after 2-4 minutes, I felt even stronger. God is good, truly he is

[@ebonytowers5070]

You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention!

[@baggetta]

This is awesome, I’m a recovering English PhD drop out and work in crypto doing content. James has articulated in the final section, what I’ve felt I am doing with my life and career. I started a decade ago with Buddhist practice and have recently started drifting back to my birth-religion of Catholicism - and have been very interested in what the Eastern Orthodox groups are talking about, if only because thy are, like Buddhism primarily concerned with the practice and experience of leading a spiritually grounded life. Would love to connect with others in a similar place…

[@roughhands305]

The descriptor we get stuck with called Judeo-Christian is so annoying

[@JonCrs10]

I'd say the biggest issue is that we don't really have a better alternative to what its supposed to mean by its usage. Like, the point is to specifically refer to the claims of continuity to a mutual source that involved the Kingdom of Israel which worshipped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and followed the Divine Law code given to the prophet Moses and focuses on a prophesied Messiah. Its trying to refer to how both do this without getting mired in the theological differences specifically over said Messiah, incredibly fundamental as they are. Think of it like calling Israel and Edom the Isaacites. It's not supposed to mean that you need to say Qws was ever considered literally equal to the God of Israel by either nation or should be now, you're only intending to highlight a connection to a mutual source point. Idk, I'm a stickler for efficient categorization

[@bottomtext7700]

We do have a better name... The name which built our culture... it's called Christianity. No prefix needed.

[@harmonicproportions6588]

​@@bottomtext7700exactly, the implication is that we as Christians have the same basic value system as Pharisaical/Talmudic Judaism which is not only demonstrably false but is also a rejection of the Gospel

[@marincusman9303]

@@bottomtext7700the problem is the term “Christianity” has been co-opted by the progressives and cultural believers

[@muchamad613]

Have you ever read Bible you would not have this question

[@HrvojeSL]

Fantastic conversation. Absolutely great. Thank you gentlemen!

[@jordanmmck]

Bitcoin is not a world computer! It does not have smart contracts ie. turing-complete code execution. Ethereum and other smart contract platforms have turing-complete programs. Those are world computers.

[@zita-lein]

Excellent!

[@bouboumonkey]

Great content 👍

[@ethanb2554]

Man cannot exist without hierarchy: a carnal hierarchy. Consider the purtatain experament proof of that fact: despite the best intention you can imagin, you cannot substitute hierarchy. Humans need a human hierarchy.

[@Cr4y7-AegisInquisitor]

Love the Bitcoin topic

[@ibelieve3111]

Thanks

[@grubbmeister1666]

I immediately thought A Canticle for Leibowitz and Warhammer 40k when I read that title

[@DoubleOhSilver]

Most of this talk has little to do with Bitcoin, including the final segment. Title not doing the talk justice. I'd like to see a separate follow up discussion too

[@joe42m13]

The example of Bitcoin Monks kinda strikes me as a human compliment to John Vervaeke's Silicon Sages. As technology hurtles ahead, the average person struggles to interface with it in an optimally beneficial way. Perhaps some kind of intermediaries are necessary to better develop the philosophy behind technology's use.

[@AtTheLetterM]

Oooo interesante

[@yeomantrader9505]

what would it take to have a list of the French Philosophers you trill off your tongues included in these comments. Thankyou

[@coren4739]

The hardest part about "Just become a saint" is to accept that to be a saint is to be a sacifice. So because few a willing to mortify themselves few will wish sainthood. So the majority will run from burden an so become a burden.

[@MrOlipoly]

Salut Jonathan, merci pour toutes tes vidéos. Mes amis et moi adorerions si tu faisais une vidéo le symbolisme de skibidi toilet, pour le poisson d'avril? Anyway, cheers!

[@razvan_anton]

This episode reminded me of that scene in Double Team with Van Damme and Dennis Rodman where they go to the Franciscan Monks who were also Hackers, u guys seen it ?

[@brentaaron8981]

No but now I’m definitely watching it

[@marklefebvre5758]

Interesting, lots of good points, but some really strange framing. The idea that we have to participate in things seems baked in. Bitcoin is immune to authority, so the proposed solution won't work. You cannot 'run' the world computer, it's just a bunch of agents with big levers either cooperating or not (like all technologies). Taking control or getting their first hypothesis are all based on progress narrative, which I find to be unhelpful and false.

[@David-lb3tp]

This interview does indeed capture the orthodox way of tackling these issues: identify a problem and have no way to handle it.

[@cowboy_k3147]

Yooo Dave

[@David-lb3tp]

@@cowboy_k3147 me?

[@MatthewKleinsmith]

James Poulos seems to be saying, "Ask Gandalf to wear the ring." 57:00

[@Daniel-zj5ze]

Does this mean Christ would turn down the ring too? That there is no good in technology? Or maybe that only God can wield the ring and control technology?

[@goharm.8092]

The problem is that the actual people with the kind of “spiritual authority” he talks about are actually wise enough to know that they shouldn’t feed the beast and participate in it’s growth even when it takes over the whole world. Once the real spiritual authorities also try to “channel the energy of technology” they cease being true spiritually wise guides but just become other victims of the technology

[@Daniel-zj5ze]

By this, do you suggest there is no good in technology? That we should lay down our smartphones? I struggle to see the good in technology but something in me still want to believe there is.

[@goharm.8092]

@@Daniel-zj5ze It’s not that all technology is “bad” but that it’s not really compatible with the sort of wisdom we should be ultimately aiming for. All technology can really do is offer us more information, but If we are to take the aim of attaining the Kingdom of Heaven seriously ( which any true spiritual guide should do) then it is clear that attaining more information isn’t going to be helpful in that pursuit but quite the opposite. The aim of prayer and meditation should be to empty ourselves of all the information so that the true light can reveal itself. The false light of technology really serves to muddy our vision and if the spiritual authorities begin to muddy the waters too it will be the blind leading the blind. Once the true light is seen by the spiritual authorities then it becomes clear to them that all technology offers is really cheap tricks to keep people still enslaved to the world and blind to the ultimate truth of Christ. Perhaps they can use the technology to warn its users of its cheap tricks but then seems hypocritical to continue using the technology after this warning.

[@climbingmt.sophia]

Woah this is so rich already 11:22

[@michaelr.stoddard3391]

Technobable 😔

[@user-qk6el3hm7b]

C.S. Lewis predicted this in "That Hideous Strength" (i.e. the head)

[@jimluebke3869]

"In a couple of generations you went from Jonathan Edwards to Ralph Waldo Emerson" Reality is weirder than that. In a couple of generations you went from Jonathan Edwards to Aaron Burr.

[@christianbaxter_yt]

Wisdom famine in silicone valley

[@onionman_]

To this day I think the anime Gargantia best articulated the ultimate problem of using technology to "augment" ourselves. I recommend, beside the video below, to read up more on its larger plot. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJnQeq1td6t4oJIsi=rDQTO3pQIQdX-4iP (Spoiler alert)

[@Jacob011]

Pageau lookalike

[@livin2themusick]

💋👌

[@synaxarium]

I will pray for Jerry's salvation for the Lord hath said: "Pray for thine enemies"

[@paulconn7849]

It wasn't my sword...obedience to God...is the only answer. Saints and we avoid the wrath...trust the computer, it will promise an answer.

[@David-lb3tp]

Do they talk about jews yet I'm about 20 minutes in

[@Ac-ip5hd]

A good and interesting talk. I am skeptical of any faith in bitcoin, or even gold. Though I invest in both as I have financial duties and our money is intentionally destroyed where moth and rust break in. I’m at the point I just use it, set the investment and forget it. A totalizing system can wreck bitcoin as much as seize your gold. Putting money, which Christ Himself spoke of a good deal and isn’t going away where it belongs is important, but prayer alms and then duties first. Bitcoin isn’t our savior.

[@todmann67]

Bitcoin was the work of the Holy Spirit.

[@LKRaider]

Amen.

[@gavrilogligoric280]

@@todmann67 yes, it seems so

[@AlexLGagnon]

That whole "if no good party grabs the technology, bad people will" logic is naive and, I would say, even prideful. It will inevitably fall into the hands of the princes of the earth. Wisdom is in accepting God's plan and enduring through the trial with a pure heart. AI is not like any precedent technologies, even language. It is the intelligence which creates technology, extracted from man. It is a meta tool. Edit: I feel I should add that I do believe man creating AI and robots is part of God's plan and that it will end up working towards his glory, maybe culminating into the Kingdom of God. Only, the problem I have is with this forced enterprise of "good guys" seizing it before or in response to bad guys. As Jonathan would say: I hope this makes sense.

[@FreddyLenzMusic]

Uh um uh open uh ai um uh

[@ivanengel8887]

Strongly disagree. It's both. You need repentance, and you also need better laws. It's not an either/or.

[@todmann67]

If by better laws you mean less laws.

[@hobbsmatt]

“Put not your trust in princes and sons of men.” I can’t help but feel like governments will not play much of a role in leading any of us to more meaningful lives

[@ivanengel8887]

@@hobbsmatt libertarianism is Gnostic.

[@JordanGreenhall]

It’s a technical problem. Law is not strong enough to govern code in the same way that the set of integers cannot cover the set of real numbers.

[@ivanengel8887]

@@JordanGreenhall It's the same case as with nuclear weapons. If States are willing to retaliate to the same degree as with nukes then the chances of misfire fall drastically. By law I don't mean written word, I mean authority and power wielded to protect a nation from existential risk. People may want to develop AI, but they don't have nearly the necessary resources to escape modern States and develop AI in the desert. But this will not happen either way.

[@luka1123]

P r o m o S M

[@alangiaconelli2919]

There is no how to interact with technology as a God believer. We can use whatever we want to fallow Gods way. Hopefully you heard Him tell you. But there will come a time when this world will want to use you and you will have to believe the world for that to happen. At that point is the point of making the stand for God. Can you Will you what do you Believe.

[@el88997]

this push towards bitcoin from famous ortho people feels orchestrated and kinda weird. why obsessing over money?

[@DoctorBendOver]

uhh uhm uhhhh uhm uh and uh you know uhm Good convo otherwise ;)

[@missh1774]

This was weird. Why you doing these weird interviews now?

[@Hitlerbaddaringood]

Bitcoin is the backup savior we built for ourselves. Trusting in Christ alone was a little too sketchy.

[@user-wf9fu3os8o]

jp even has a huge bitcoin behind him!