Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
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Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
Philosophy Mondays: Human-AI Collaboration
Today's Philosophy Monday is an important interlude. I want to reveal that I have not been writing the posts in this series entirely by myself. Instead I have been working with Claude, not just for the graphic illustrations, but also for the text. My method has been to write a rough draft and then ask Claude for improvement suggestions. I will expand this collaboration to other intelligences going forward, including open source models such as Llama and DeepSeek. I will also explore other moda...
Intent-based Collaboration Environments
AI Native IDEs for Code, Engineering, Science
Web3/Crypto: Why Bother?
One thing that keeps surprising me is how quite a few people see absolutely nothing redeeming in web3 (née crypto). Maybe this is their genuine belief. Maybe it is a reaction to the extreme boosterism of some proponents who present web3 as bringing about a libertarian nirvana. From early on I have tried to provide a more rounded perspective, pointing to both the good and the bad that can come from it as in my talks at the Blockstack Summits. Today, however, I want to attempt to provide a coge...
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I believe an important factor in the Fed’s decision to help JP Morgan shore up Bear Stearns is the size of Bear’s prime brokerage business. A lot of hedge funds depend on Bear to support parts or all of their trading through clearing and custodial services and lending. While I am sure that some of them have already made contingency plans or migrated away, there would still have been a huge and unpredictable ripple effect as hedge funds might have been forced to unwind positions or been cut off from liquidity in their portfolios. Next week will be a scary one in the markets as folks are unlikely to trust that Bear can survive and will be worried about other large institutions.
Addendum: Gretchen Morgenson argues in the NYT that the Fed bailout of Bear goes too far. I would agree if this were designed to keep Bear around as an independent business, but I believe this is only to provide an orderly transition. When a business is a platform for other businesses (even if they are hedge funds) the consequences of a panic shutdown would be a lot more dramatic than for a single bank even if it is a large bank.
I believe an important factor in the Fed’s decision to help JP Morgan shore up Bear Stearns is the size of Bear’s prime brokerage business. A lot of hedge funds depend on Bear to support parts or all of their trading through clearing and custodial services and lending. While I am sure that some of them have already made contingency plans or migrated away, there would still have been a huge and unpredictable ripple effect as hedge funds might have been forced to unwind positions or been cut off from liquidity in their portfolios. Next week will be a scary one in the markets as folks are unlikely to trust that Bear can survive and will be worried about other large institutions.
Addendum: Gretchen Morgenson argues in the NYT that the Fed bailout of Bear goes too far. I would agree if this were designed to keep Bear around as an independent business, but I believe this is only to provide an orderly transition. When a business is a platform for other businesses (even if they are hedge funds) the consequences of a panic shutdown would be a lot more dramatic than for a single bank even if it is a large bank.
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