#331 – Balaji Srinivasan: How to Fix Government, Twitter, Science, and the FDA

Lex Fridman Podcast

Balaji Srinivasan is an angel investor, tech founder, philosopher, and author of The Network State: How to Start a New Country. He was formerly the CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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EPISODE LINKS:
Balaji’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/balajis
Balaji’s Website: https://balajis.com
Books:
1. The Network State: https://thenetworkstate.com
2. Reputation and Power: https://amzn.to/3eyQiF6
3. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: https://amzn.to/3TpuLNP
4. Seeing Like a State: https://amzn.to/3MJfvcD
Articles:
1. Bitcoin Is Civilization: https://www.commonsense.news/p/is-bitcoin-anarchy-or-civilization
2. Great Protocol Politics: https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/12/11/bitcoin-ethereum-cryptocurrency-web3-great-protocol-politics
3. Regulation, Disruption, and the Future: https://bit.ly/3CKY9Ys
4. The Measured Man: https://theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/the-measured-man/309018
5. Secret Document That Transformed China: https://npr.org/sections/money/2012/01/20/145360447/the-secret-document-that-transformed-china
6. Hollywood’s Missing Movies: https://reason.com/2000/06/01/hollywoods-missing-movies
7. New York Times Truth Campaign: https://adweek.com/agencyspy/droga5s-first-big-campaign-for-the-new-york-times-is-all-about-the-truth/126274

PODCAST INFO:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(07:23) – Prime number maze
(33:35) – Government
(49:51) – The Network State
(59:55) – Pseudonymous economy
(1:23:41) – Exit
(1:38:23) – Building a network state
(2:26:09) – Wikipedia
(3:03:40) – Fixing science
(3:30:08) – Fixing the FDA
(5:01:16) – Longevity
(5:20:14) – Donald Trump’s ban from social media
(5:49:32) – War
(5:56:41) – Censorship
(6:10:40) – Social media
(6:26:56) – Wokeism and communism
(6:45:44) – Cryptocurrency
(7:03:17) – AI, AR, and VR
(7:15:15) – Advice for young people
(7:48:10) – Regulating logic