Notes from the HIPEVAN
Went to see Oppenheimer yesterday with our son Justin at the IMAX. BTW. Did Jobs get "i" from IMAX? The movie is a must see.
Anyway, on the way back Justin blew my mind. He turned me on. In his words and his way he showed me that social media, in particular Twitter, is a waste of time and mind. I've known it. But I needed to hear it from him.
Circa 2005 we went to work and made the world's first private network. All because, we just couldn't believe that people would fall for social media. We were sure they'd see they were the product being sold. We thought once they saw it they'd do this:
No one cared about our network. Today, millions don't know what's real or true. Elon is king. We're on a speeding train to a brick wall. I can't stand for it any longer. I owe it to Justin, to the children, to do something.
Frederick Douglass said - “Power and those in control concede nothing…without a demand. Hey never have and never will…Each and every one of us must keep demanding, must keep fighting, must keep thundering, must keep plowing, must keep on keeping things struggling, must speak out and speak up until justice is served because where is no justice there is no peace”.
The GameStop degens and crypto proved that wen people get together disruption can happen. The degens took down Wall Street. Crypto proved we can use something else besides the dollar as currency.
Yesterday I missed out on the AI Weiwei vase. All because of the system. Same thing happened to me with Shephard Fairey's Ali print.
I wrote this to Elizabeth Vissing at the Muhammad Ali Center:
Howdy,
Please see that this gets to Elizabeth Vissing.
As a long time fan of Muhammad, I was excited to purchase the print today on the shop.obeygiant.com site. But unfortunately I wasn't able to. The reason why, was that bots bought up all the prints in 30 seconds or less.
Before I go on I would have copied Mr. Fairey here. But he doesn't publish his email. Nor does his website publish an email I could find.
I believe Mr. Fairey knew in advance that the bots would buy up all the prints, that few if any would land in the hands of true fans like myself. I don't believe he cares. Which brings me to my next point.
The big winner today wasn't your organization, as it should have been. It was the resellers. Please see the attached screenshot of prints listed for as much as 4x list price within 5 minutes after the prints went onsale.
Had this drop been handled properly, true fans would have been able to purchase the prints. Also. Did Mr. Fairey advise you of the blockchain, that your organization could receive a percentage of all print sales in perpetuity?
I'd also like you know that Mr. Fairey makes claims on his website that are at best, misleading. His website says "Max order: 1 per customer/household". This is a misleading. Because a group of bots managed by one person surely bought multiple prints.
I'll close with stating how disappointed I am that your otherwise fine organization was associated with such a poorly executed drop. If I was you I'd demand answers as to why Mr. Fairey allowed these prints to land in the hands of bots, some of whom are surely in direct conflict with Muhammad's message. And I'd question doing any more business with Mr. Fairey.
If you need any help with the technicalities feel free to contact me anytime. I've been a tech entrepreneur for 35+ years now, I'm fluent in programming.
Thanks for your time,
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Yesterday I wrote this to Avante Art:
Howdy,
The drop sold out in 30 seconds. Because the bots got them. You know it and you don’t do anything about it. It’s immoral.
These aren’t just my words. Others say the same about y'all.
Y'all make money. But it’s not gonna last. Because people are fed up.
It may not happen tomorrow or this year. But it’s coming. And wen a disruptive new model hits, it’ll be too late for y'all. Customers will have left you. And they won’t come back.
Their scars are too deep.
###
The system has us by the short hairs. It's hooked us. Free has cost us dearly. Elon is ruining our minds and stealing our willpower.
Now Worldcoin wants to take away our dignity. From their website:
"If successful, we believe Worldcoin could drastically increase economic opportunity, scale a reliable solution for distinguishing humans from AI online while preserving privacy, enable global democratic processes, and eventually show a potential path to AI-funded UBI."
We continue down this path we're on because it's free. We know Twitter sucks but we continue to login, like junkies knockin' on the cellar door. "But every junkie's like a settin' sun"
Or we can walk against the wheel, fight back. I'm figthing back. I hope you'll join me on the bus.
tty next time,