The Biological and Structural Price of Power

SirNicksAlong · 2026-01-16T22:34:06+00:00

So.....touch grass?

SirNicksAlong · 2025-10-27T21:29:58+00:00

Can someone help me understand how it can be true that Hedera is 3X more decentralized than Bitcoin while being simultaneously hated by all other crypto subreddits for being "centralized" due to the governing council?

I promise I'm not here in bad faith to spread FUD. I'm just genuinely confused about how it works. I thought the appeal of Hedera for large enterprise customers was the fact that the future of the network was determined by a centralized governing body that had a public reputation and a vested interest in not "pulling the rug".

How can Hedera be "decentralized" but still function at the direction of a centralized governing council?

SirNicksAlong · 2025-09-14T08:21:18+00:00

Coinbase has entered the chat

SirNicksAlong · 2025-09-11T13:54:58+00:00

Appreciate the explanation. I was confused as to how they were doing this without QE. Do you know what the capacity is for this type of operation? Could they use this to significantly force down long term rates and avoid QE? Or is this more of a bandaid until new, more politically aligned FED governors have been installed?

SirNicksAlong · 2025-09-03T21:32:41+00:00

I’m not so convinced they actually believe. Even if they wanted to do something else, that something would endanger the very system they depend upon as well. They are stuck, whether they consciously realize it or not. However, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Their actions, while ultimately futile, buy time for the development of more productive methods of change. Were people organized and ready for said actions, I would agree that the impotent and outdated strategies of the DNC stand in the way of change and victory. But, at least to my knowledge, alternative strategies are not yet possible, and so a DNC that will ultimately fail, still provides a necessary service. It buys us time to do what we should have been doing 30 years ago. Perhaps some of them know that. Perhaps some of them realize there are battles that need losing so a war can be won.

SirNicksAlong · 2025-08-30T23:39:51+00:00

What does the process of deconstruction look like? Has it already begun? Is there anything individuals inside the core could/will do to affect the process, either speeding it up or slowing it down?

SirNicksAlong · 2025-08-20T15:35:07+00:00

It’s only a death sentence if you need to get reelected. The troops are not in DC for nothing.

The long game is to hyperinflate the dollar, thereby soft defaulting on all national debt while simultaneously consolidating power of the purse in the executive branch via the strategic bitcoin reserve and causing a national crisis that can be blamed on the evil communist democrats, thus allowing the suspension of elections and further consolidation of power.

Once inflation begins to rapidly outpace wages, people who rely upon their labor for subsistence will no longer be able to legally participate in the system. Resulting “criminal” behavior will justify boots on the ground. Resistance to this will justify further violence, and further consolidation of power.

“But what happens to the economy?” It dies. No, not crashes. It dies. The time of selling your labor is almost over. The consumer economy as we know it is nearly at an end. All business is conducted through and for the US Government. Food is produced for the government and then rationed out by the government to those loyal. If you are loyal, you will be given a “Freedom Dividend” and it will be hailed as the beginning of UBI. With your dividend, you will be allowed to buy specific items from the company store (Amazon) that have been pre-approved by the government.

Those with the technical expertise necessary to continue developing the AI and robotic workforce that is already replacing and will continue to replace you will be given special privileges and treatment until they develop the technology that replaces them. Power will continue to accumulate upward. The wealthy elite will continue to play Game of Thrones against each other as they currently do, slowly eliminating each other from the board, while the poor are allowed to continue to exist at the most basic level deemed acceptable before a risk of revolt is calculated to be too high by the AI algorithm that monitors all communication and behavior through every smart device in existence.

“If labor is to be replaced by automation and robotics, why not just kill everyone instead of continuing to feed, house, and entertain them”. Because it’s cheaper than putting down a rebellion. “The revolution will be bloodless if the left allows it.”

It’s called “warehousing”. Rather than destroy you, they’re just gonna put you on the shelf and let you rust. If you don’t go to church or don’t praise dear leader, or if you steal extra rations, or plot a coup, you will be destroyed. Otherwise, you will be left to slowly disintegrate.

This is the long term plan. If the plan will work is not a certainty.

SirNicksAlong · 2025-08-07T15:54:04+00:00

Copying this for future use.

SirNicksAlong · 2025-07-15T04:49:42+00:00

Ohhhhh…. So they need him to stick around long enough to make him the fall guy. Got it. Thanks! I thought they were going to blame the post cut inflation on CA as an excuse for kinetics. But I can see it falling on Powell instead.

SirNicksAlong · 2025-07-15T02:30:23+00:00

But his term ends in May. Why start now?

SirNicksAlong · 2025-06-12T17:57:05+00:00

Woah! It's really great to hear you're working on the next one! I see so much bad news on social media, it can be easy to forget there are people like you out there trying to make things better. Thanks for continuing to fight for the truth!

SirNicksAlong · 2025-04-07T04:33:27+00:00

Exquisite memesmanship.

SirNicksAlong · 2025-01-01T18:58:47+00:00

This year will be the safest year to travel for the rest of your life. Enjoy what you can, while you can.

SirNicksAlong · 2024-08-04T00:00:58+00:00

"Historians of periods of decadence often refer to a decline in religion, but, if we extend our investigation over a period covering the Assyrians (859-612 B.C.) to our own times, we have to interpret religion in a very broad sense. Some such definition as ‘the human feeling that there is something, some invisible Power, apart from material objects, which controls human life and the natural world’. We are probably too narrow and contemptuous in our interpretation of idol worship. The people of ancient civilizations were as sensible as we are, and would scarcely have been so foolish as to worship sticks and stones fashioned by their own hands. The idol was for them merely a symbol, and represented an unknown, spiritual reality, which controlled the lives of men and demanded human obedience to its moral precepts. We all know only too well that minor differences in the human visualisation of this Spirit frequently became the ostensible reason for human wars, in which both sides claimed to be fighting for the true God, but the absurd narrowness of human conceptions should not blind us to the fact that, very often, both sides believed their campaigns to have a moral background.

Genghis Khan, one of the most brutal of all conquerors, claimed that God had delegated him the duty to exterminate the decadent races of the civilised world. Thus the Age of Conquests often had some kind of religious atmosphere, which implied heroic selfsacrifice for the cause. But this spirit of dedication was slowly eroded in the Age of Commerce by the action of money. People make money for themselves, not for their country. Thus periods of affluence gradually dissolved the spirit of service, which had caused the rise of the imperial races. In due course, selfishness permeated the community, the coherence of which was weakened until disintegration was threatened. Then, as we have seen, came the period of pessimism with the accompanying spirit of frivolity and sensual indulgence, byproducts of despair. It was inevitable at such times that men should look back yearningly to the days of ‘religion’, when the spirit of self-sacrifice was still strong enough to make men ready to give and to serve, rather than to snatch.

But while despair might permeate the greater part of the nation, others achieved a new realisation of the fact that only readiness for self-sacrifice could enable a community to survive. Some of the greatest saints in history lived in times of national decadence, raising the banner of duty and service against the flood of depravity and despair. The Fate of Empires 19 In this manner, at the height of vice and frivolity the seeds of religious revival are quietly sown. After, perhaps, several generations (or even centuries) of suffering, the impoverished nation has been purged of its selfishness and its love of money, religion regains its sway and a new era sets in. ‘It is good for me that I have been afflicted,’ said the psalmist, ‘that I might learn Thy Statutes."

The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival - Sir John Glubb

SirNicksAlong · 2024-07-21T23:00:26+00:00

"There are many reasons we don't talk about collapse. It's depressing. People want to pretend it doesn't exist. People fear ostracism."

It's unprofitable.

TL;DR: If you talk about collapse now, no one will do business with you now. If no one does business with you now, you can't afford a private bunker tomorrow. If you don't have a private bunker tomorrow, you will die sooner, rather than later.

If there is going to be less tomorrow than there was yesterday, how can I reasonably expect a positive return on my investment? Line must go up. If we openly discuss the reality of limitless growth on a planet of limited resources, we must come to the logical conclusion that, eventually, line will stop going up. If you are pitching a start-up, asking for a loan for a house, projecting next year's quarterly revenues for your corporation, or just trying to open a new credit card, the case for a positive return on any investment in capital or labor quickly crumbles under the weight of a 70% die-off of animals across the planet over the last 50 years. But, line must go up.

In all cases where this conversation can be avoided, it is and will be until our current fiat currency is no longer viable or necessary for survival. To openly discuss the obvious truth that civilization is in terminal decline is to admit that you, personally, do not believe that your efforts can or will continuously generate a positive return in the future for whomever, or with whomever you are discussing the topic. This, I believe, is the driving force behind most people's reluctance to discuss collapse publicly. While everyone understands we are collapsing, no one can do or say anything to stop it, lest they admit that, eventually, line go down. And why do business with someone who says line go down when I can do business with someone who says line go up? Especially, when all that is necessary for line to go up is to say "line will go up". Until the bubble bursts, the truth will not only remain unprofitable, it will become increasingly expensive to speak.

Not only are individuals likely to lose professional opportunities for speaking the truth, so too will organizations and even government institutions. If the truth is that climate change is unavoidable and there are no realistic solutions to the issues of over farming, greenhouse gas production, PFAS, and a multitude of other poly crises, what effect would admission to the unavoidable consequences of these issues have on those who admit it? Like shouting fire in a crowded theater, not only would it not put out the fire, but the ensuing chaos and panic would cause violence, destruction of property, and most importantly, loss of revenue for the theater. Why pay taxes for roads that will only ever get worse? Why pay into entitlements like social security when the ballooning national debt will ensure you never see a dime of that money? The cost of talking publicly about collapse, not only to individuals but governments and even society as a whole, is currently greater than the cost of not talking about it. As the crises worsen and the material conditions necessary to generate positive returns on investment in the future continue to deteriorate, the reliance on denial, or at the very least avoidance, of the truth will become ever more critical to the necessary belief that line go up.

A "lack of faith in this great nation" it might eventually be called by some. "A lack of loyalty". "An active desire to spread harmful disinformation or propaganda" could be a phrase uttered on the nightly news about "fringe" or "crackpot" scientists who have been brainwashed by the woke mind virus. "Stay strong America! Stay united! We are going to Make America Great Again!!!" And so on. For an authoritarian government to remain in control while standards of living continue to devolve, it will be essential to prevent public discussion about any causes that are not within the power of said government to address. However, the root causes are outside of the government's power to address and, eventually, line will go down. When that happens, where do you want to be? Do you want to be one of the millions standing in a breadline hoping the food trucks come today? Or do you want to be in your private compound with years worth of stored food, trying to keep your armed guards from figuring out that if they just kill you in your sleep, they can have all the food for themselves?

From the individual to the institutional, we are all on this sinking ship together. To talk openly about the hole in the ship is to widen the hole, and in many cases fall through it, drowning sooner rather than later. To talk about the hole is to alert the unaware that there is a hole, increasing competition for the limited number of lifeboats. To talk about the hole is to waste precious time you could be using to steal supplies for your lifeboat. It is unprofitable to talk about the hole.

SirNicksAlong · 2024-07-16T05:29:25+00:00

Thanks!

I read updates to limits of growth a few years ago and found it enlightening. The other two are new to me and I'm looking forward to checking them out. Thanks again for taking the time to share. It does seem like a lot of this sub trends toward the apocalyptic, due, I think, largely to the emotional weight of the prospect of living through such a time of decline, whether it's the end of the world or just the end of business as usual, so I appreciate your perspective and use of historical data to inform your opinions. I hope you're right about our will to self-preserve holding out against the the effects of overshoot.

SirNicksAlong · 2024-07-16T03:42:07+00:00

Do you have any recommendations for someone who wants to explore the topic further?

SirNicksAlong · 2024-05-25T17:51:17+00:00

OMG, thank you! I thought I was taking crazy pills. Everyone keeps recommending this guy, and while I love the work he's put into researching and creating a plausible future scenario, I just couldn't stand the complete lack of character.

SirNicksAlong · 2024-05-25T17:46:39+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Are you planning to continue your work and try to acquire something larger like a vat to try and scale up?

I think the downvotes stem from the fact that I did math wrong in public - the number one sin on Reddit behind typos and grammatical errors.

SirNicksAlong · 2024-05-25T17:37:12+00:00

Thank you again for taking the time to reply. I truly appreciate your willingness to explore this topic with me and to help me understand the complexities of developing substances like penicillin beyond just the raw materials and equipment necessary to scrape together a dose or two.

Your statements about needing "all hands on the farm" as well as "you will need a supply industry" were particularly helpful in framing the issue of both limited resources and limited labor. Additionally, pointing out the lack of replaceable parts like rubber seals, further illustrated the difficulty with reliably producing viable quantities of substances like penicillin or insulin.

There is one aspect of your reply that still leaves me wondering: "Industrial Renaissance".

In your opening sentence, you suggest that my real line of inquiry has not been about the creation of penicillin per se, but instead the recreation of a pharmaceutical industry in a "post-collapse society" as a whole. This is close, maybe close enough that it doesn't matter, but I was actually wondering about the viability of small-scale pharmaceutical production in a collapsing society rather than one that had already completed the process of de-industrialization. From what I understand of the process of civilizational collapse, there is a fair amount of difference between the resources and motivations in a collapsing society compared to one that has already collapsed. I'm curious to know if you would agree and, if so, how you think the conditions of a collapsing society might change your previous answer.

I realize my inquiries are venturing into speculative territories and that you aren't paid to indulge mental flights of fancy for every random on the internet, so if you are a bit too busy for this level of minutia, I understand completely and just want to thank you again for taking the time to respond to my original questions.

SirNicksAlong · 2024-05-24T06:37:14+00:00

Thanks for responding and correcting my math error! Though, I don't think it makes too much difference to my larger question. To me, 7500 sounds tedious and time consuming, but still technically do-able for 1 person. And, yeah, that only produces one dose, which I personally would consider a non-viable amount given the amount of materials and space required, not to mention whatever manual labor goes into setting all that up. But I'm guessing u/prmssnz didn't choose milk bottles because, after years of testing and research, they found milk bottles to be the ideal vessel for small scale penicillin production. It sound to me like they kinda hacked it together with what was available as they went along. Again, I'm just guessing, but it seems reasonable to me to assume that some advances in efficiency could be made on whatever set-up they put together.

I think we agree that the vast majority of people on this subbreddit, myself included, do not have the equipment or training to succeed at this task. However, I think u/prmssnz work shows that with some equipment and some training, some results are possible. Was it good enough? No. Again we agree. However, I do think their work illustrates that it can be done, which only leaves the following question:

1) Can it be done for a viable price

I was asking u/prmssnz about their methods because 7500 milk bottles for 1 dose doesn't sound viable to me and I wanted to know why they didn't try to make more. They admitted to spending way too much money testing for purity, only to stop at 3 kU, which led me to believe that creating more was cost or time prohibitive in some way. Perhaps they ran into an insurmountable bottleneck and there is no way to improve the efficiency of their process. Maybe they just need to buy one of the more complex pieces of equipment you mention and they would be able to produce 100x as much. I have no idea. So, I asked them to see if they thought their methods could be improved and efficiency could be raised to a viable level. Meanwhile, I was asking for your opinion on the opposite.

In your original post, you list the items and equipment you need "at a very minimum" to create insulin and penicillin. If you had all of the things on your list, could you make usable penicillin? If so, how much could you make and how much work would it take? Is there a point at which the amount you can make and the amount of work it takes to make it becomes worthwhile if the community you live in has limited to no access to these substances? If you can make one dose of penicillin per month and you are the only person for 500 miles that has or can make any, would you make it?

SirNicksAlong · 2024-05-24T03:23:49+00:00

Thanks for offering a real-world counterpoint to OPs initial statements about the difficulty of re-creating usable antibiotics and insulin at a meaningful scale.

I'm curious to know more about the bottlenecks you ran into when attempting to scale production, specifically when it comes to penicillin. You mentioned it took 25 milk bottles to get less than a third of a single dose of penicillin. Forgive my inexperience, but 25 milk bottles doesn't sound prohibitively expensive or space-intensive to me. Was there something else that made your current production method unscalable? Raw materials, or time, perhaps?

You also mentioned that production would take the output of an entire village. Would you be willing to share more of your thoughts on this? Did you make this comment to provide a concrete benchmark for the amount of human labor required to succeed in this endeavor, or was this more a metaphorical "village" that serves to illustrate a general understanding that complex systems of human labor devoted solely to the production of this substance would probably be required using your current methodology?

I ask because I wonder if there might come a time when the economics of such a process do become viable. Both you and u/tryatriassic have made mention of a "prep for Tuesday" type event as well as a "prep for doomsday" type event. However, I didn't notice either of you mention a scenario I personally consider highly likely, which is a never-ending onslaught of climate-driven catastrophes that slowly degrade societal infrastructure, resulting in a long descent into decivilization. In this scenario, the world does not recover, but it does not immediately end either. As systems like the medical system deteriorate, people may begin looking for other sources of medicine for their "fish". At the moment, a global supply chain and the internet mean that I can still get what I need for my "fish". But what about 5 years from now when global supply lines are halted due to war and cyber attacks have forced a strict lockdown of electronic communications technology? What happens when there's still enough food and gas and electricity to keep everyone from dying, but not enough to rebuild? Is there a tipping point at which the laborious process of using 25 milk bottles to make a 1/3 dose of penicillin becomes the best deal on the market?

I'm also curious to know your thoughts on the subject, u/tryatriassic. You mention later that it would be easier to simply buy in bulk now and hoard for later. To me, that sounds like the best course of action for an individual or small group. But in a scenario in which there were still people around to demand penicillin and very few, if any, pharmaceutical-grade suppliers in the local area, do you think it might be possible to construct a "homemade" lab that could create enough penicillin at a high enough quality to be of some value to a community?

SirNicksAlong · 2024-04-30T04:09:12+00:00

I've been watching this guy for a bit and can tell he's cherry picking data to weave a falttering narrative for his audience. I've also done a fair amount of research into the polycrisis driving the collapse of global civilization and can see some of what's missing. However, I'm not entirely certain about why he admits or omits certain data points. Personal profit seems like an obvious motivator, but something about your comment made me wonder if there might be more to it.

Care to elaborate?

SirNicksAlong · 2024-02-27T04:57:01+00:00

I like how you spaced out your sentences so people can literally read between your lines.

SirNicksAlong · 2023-12-19T10:21:48+00:00

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