NET Society

The Net Society crew welcomes Michael Connor, Executive Director of Rhizome, for a conversation about preserving digital culture as the organization celebrates thirty years. Michael traces Rhizome’s evolution from an artist mailing list to a memory institution for digital art, including its role in the early history of NFTs. The crew explores what blockchains can preserve and where institutions still matter, from keeping old software running to documenting the communities around the work. From there, a heated debate unfolds around AI agency, alignment, and whether we’re giving machines too much credit for human qualities. The conversation turns to the return of garage tech, cyberdecks, and artists building hardware to escape the attention economy. They revisit the strange creative possibilities of older AI models, the appeal of running tools locally, and what gets lost as outputs become more polished. The episode wraps with physical media nostalgia, surveillance concerns, and a back-and-forth on whether voice will become the default way we work with AI agents.Mentioned in the episodeSpecial guest Michael Connor from Rhizome https://x.com/michael_connorRhizome https://rhizome.org/Rhizome’s ArtBase digital art archive https://artbase.rhizome.org/Kevin McCoy and Anil Dash at Seven on Seven 2014 https://video.rhizome.org/w/2QnKYifBz9FoeRMWvN23UrOld Models Foundation, preserving historical generative AI models https://www.oldmodels.org/Suno AI music generation https://suno.com/Whisper open-source speech recognition https://github.com/openai/whisperLaurie Anderson on Puppet Motel and its restoration by Rhizome https://rhizome.itm.studio/m/laurie-anderson-on-puppet-motelShow & HostsNet Society: https://x.com/net__societyAaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0xDerek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedwsPriyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesaiProducer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl(00:00) - Michael Connor & Thirty Years of Rhizome (07:30) - Blockchains, Preservation & Cultural Memory (13:33) - AI Agency, Alignment & Human Control (29:43) - Garage Tech & the Hardware Revival (33:39) - Old AI Models, Creative Play & Local Tools (39:18) - Artist Devices, Emulation & Physical Media (46:18) - Surveillance, Digital Autonomy & AI Interfaces (55:16) - Welcome & Disclaimer

A rare CryptoPunk sale sparks debate over taste, provenance, and NFT financing before the conversation turns to crypto’s possible revival. They wrestle with AI consciousness, safety, surveillance, and machines rediscovering physics. Lost civilizations inspire a vision for AI-powered archaeology, while realistic avatars raise questions about trust. The discussion closes with agent-run organizations, revived makerspaces, plotters, and the future of generative art.

The Net Society crew is deep in the prompt mines as Chris, Pri, and Aaron compare notes on AI obsession, productivity maxing, and whether talking to the box is making them less interesting. They explore the trade-offs of turning inward, from ambitious solo projects and automated life admin to spending less time absorbed in internet culture. From there, they revisit the collective energy of Ethereum and DAOs, asking whether cheaper, more social AI agents could bring that sense of participation back. The conversation shifts to agent wallets, stablecoins, and BlackRock’s AI-and-crypto thesis, setting up a debate over whether money opens new possibilities or brings regulation, extraction, and sameness. They dig into increasingly complex AI finance and the fight over prediction markets before asking whether we’re moving from a culture of spectators to one of doers. The episode wraps with a discussion of privacy, surveillance, and the risk that fears around AI become an argument for monitoring everything.Mentioned in the episodeInstinct — the personal AI assistant Pri discusses: https://instinct.com/Ethereum and DAOs — decentralized communities and collective participation: https://ethereum.org/dao/Muse and Stripe Link — wallets that let AI agents shop online: https://stripe.com/gb/newsroom/news/stripe-helps-meta-muse-shop-with-linkBlackRock’s “The Machine-Native Economy” — AI, digital assets, and tokenized compute: https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/literature/whitepaper/the-machine-native-economy.pdfNew York’s prediction market crackdown — the lawsuit against Polymarket: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2026/attorney-general-james-and-governor-hochul-announce-lawsuit-against-polymarketShow & HostsNet Society: https://x.com/net__societyAaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0xDerek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedwsPriyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesaiProducer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl(00:00) - AI Psychosis & the Prompt Mines (04:26) - Productivity Maxing & Turning Inward (15:31) - DAOs, Dopamine & Social Media Fatigue (28:04) - Social AI & the Network Plateau (32:01) - Agent Wallets, AI Finance & Regulation (45:40) - From Spectators to Doers (54:16) - AI Safety, Surveillance & Privacy (01:00:10) - Welcome & Disclaimer

The Net Society crew is back together in New York, with bullish ETH takes setting the stage for a wide-ranging conversation about crypto, AI, and everyday life. They kick things off with the CLARITY Act, agency rulemaking, and a debate over where meme coins fit in crypto’s future. From there, they explore whether agentic finance, stablecoins, and tokenized assets could drive Ethereum’s next wave of activity. Pri shares how personal agents are changing her routines and pushing her to spend more, sparking a back-and-forth on frictionless commerce, agent fatigue, and the privacy tradeoffs of handing over your digital life. The crew then digs into whether agents will make markets more rational and how AI productivity could reshape socializing, from quieter group chats to immersive digital spaces. The episode wraps with two-day workweeks, the future of education, and what it takes to preserve critical thinking when AI can do more of the work.Mentioned in the episodeCLARITY Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3633SEC Crypto Task Force https://www.sec.gov/securities-topics/crypto-task-forceDogecoin https://dogecoin.com/dogepedia/articles/what-is-dogecoin/AI Agents on Ethereum https://ethereum.org/ai-agents/Stablecoins & Real-World Assets on Ethereum https://institutions.ethereum.org/rwaInstinct https://instinct.com/Hyperreal Hospitality https://www.amazon.com/Hyperreal-Hospitality-Chris-Furlong/dp/B0FPMPZM16Apple Secure Enclave https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/security/sec59b0b31ff/webShow & HostsNet Society: https://x.com/net__societyAaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0xDerek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedwsPriyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesaiProducer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl(00:00) - CLARITY Act, Regulation & Meme Coins (10:35) - ETH, Stablecoins & Agentic Finance (15:43) - Personal Agents & Consumer Spending (22:50) - AI Agent Hype, Security & Markets (33:49) - AI Productivity & Social Life (41:32) - Two-Day Workweeks & Civic Life (44:40) - AI, Education & Critical Thinking (53:06) - Welcome & Disclaimer

The Net Society crew is back as Pri brings a story from a dinner where the guests’ AI agents had a conversation of their own, setting the stage for a wide-ranging discussion about digital companions and the cost of compute. They dig into AI safety messaging and regulatory capture, before debating what AI-driven math breakthroughs mean for academia and human expertise. From there, they check in on New York’s fall energy, NFT NYC, and whether an abundance of AI art makes human-made work more valuable. The crew explores signs of life in crypto and the outlook for digital art before comparing notes on Astra, cloud agents, and the race to own the personal bot market. A detour through The Social Network, American history, and concert residencies leads into a debate about sports going global. The episode wraps with a look at robotaxis, asking how cheap, autonomous transportation could reshape public transit, family logistics, and everyday life.Mentioned in the episodeJacob Coxon AI doom viral tweet https://x.com/hilbertspaess/status/2097476196791709843Thoughts on Astra https://x.com/ChrisF_0x/status/2098073205365727412OpenAI upcoming movie https://x.com/DiscussingFilm/status/2097339330842763497NFL on Netflix https://x.com/netflix/status/2098056402472259962Robotaxi rolling out https://x.com/robotaxiShow & HostsNet Society: https://x.com/net__societyAaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0xDerek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedwsPriyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesaiProducer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl(00:00) - AI Dinner Guests & the Cost of Compute (07:19) - AI Safety, Regulatory Capture & Math Breakthroughs (24:06) - NFT NYC, AI Art & Crypto Market Energy (36:25) - Astra, Cloud Agents & Personal Bots (45:29) - Tech Movies, American History & Concert Residencies (55:35) - The NFL, Global Sports & Commercialization (01:01:14) - Robotaxis, Public Transit & Everyday Autonomy (01:08:37) - Welcome & Disclaimer

The AI model race heats up as Astra, Anthropic, and falling costs reshape the field. A provocative Skynet debate explores agent swarms, hidden communication, governance, and whether AI could run the economy. The conversation moves through infinite AI video, world models, a metaverse revival, tokenized stocks, and crypto rails for autonomous agents, before connecting AI power structures to Rome, revolutions, and Gore Vidal’s Burr.

The Net Society crew checks in with Pri, who reports from Los Angeles on its booming hard-tech scene built around defense, space, rare-earth minerals, and American reshoring. From there, they examine geopolitical tensions, mounting US debt, fragile markets, and whether another economic reckoning is approaching. The conversation shifts to eye-popping AI valuations, Silicon Valley groupthink, emerging technology hubs, and early signs of life across crypto and NFTs. They also explore changing cultural aesthetics before unpacking a striking story about OpenAI agents coordinating as a swarm during security testing involving Hugging Face. The episode closes with a debate over AI companionship, opposition to data centers, the Machine Age investment thesis, economic unbundling, and whether land offers refuge in an increasingly uncertain world.Mentioned in the episodeCIA visits Moscow https://apnews.com/article/russia-us-putin-trump-cia-director-visit-4efffcaac5ef6736e2b10cef73054e48Instinct’s $2.5B valuation https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2026/08/26/vcs-are-so-obsessed-with-this-ai-assistant-that-its-valuation-jumped-fivefold-in-weeks/Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/23692271-sapiensOpenAI and Hugging Face https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-incident-and-the-road-ahead/Trump v Canada? https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2093027464545018109Show & HostsNet Society: https://x.com/net__societyAaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0xDerek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedwsPriyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesaiProducer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl(00:00) - Los Angeles & the Hard-Tech Renaissance (08:14) - Geopolitics, Debt & Market Fragility (15:28) - AI Deals, Valuations & Regional Tech Hubs (22:12) - Crypto’s Pulse, NFT Innovation & New Aesthetics (25:26) - OpenAI’s Agent Swarm & AI Companionship (34:43) - Data Centers, Hard Tech & Real Assets (47:44) - Welcome & Disclaimer

The Net Society crew dives into the arrival of “normie harnesses” as Pri shares her obsession with Instinct, an iMessage-based AI assistant that handles reservations, appointments, shopping, and the administrative backlog of everyday life. They debate whether standalone agent apps can stay defensible as OpenAI, Anthropic, Apple, and Grok absorb similar capabilities—and what happens when agents, rather than humans, become the primary users of the internet. From there, the conversation shifts to crypto’s regulatory rally before widening into the political backlash against data centers, public anxiety around AI, and tech’s growing trust problem. The crew explores loss aversion, the aesthetics of infrastructure, machine-written content, and whether an abundance economy can replace decades of extraction. They close by weighing recursive self-improvement, shorter workweeks, disposable workers, the Fourth Turning, Stripe’s acquisition of OpenRouter, agentic payments, and the possibility of a more useful, sustainable era for crypto.Mentioned in the episodeInstinct AI https://instinct.co/Instinct review https://x.com/scottbelsky/status/2090823161335959855?s=20The Fourth Turning https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/670089.The_Fourth_TurningShow & HostsNet Society: https://x.com/net__societyAaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0xDerek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedwsPriyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesaiProducer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

With Aaron and Derek out, Pri and Chris hold down the fort and kick things off with Pri’s breakup with Claude, unpacking why AI models feel increasingly different in tone, usefulness, and cost. And why power users are becoming their own routers. From there, they move into “Woke 3,” AOC’s political rebrand, prediction markets, and renewed movement around crypto’s CLARITY Act. The conversation turns to Stonkbrokers, Base, and a provocative Gen Z survey suggesting sports betting is becoming part of the financial plan, opening a broader debate around gambling, risk, and whether sports could ever function as an asset class. They then zoom out to influencer culture, ASU’s content creation major, Sun Belt hockey, and the rise of “Y’all Street.” The back half becomes an impromptu book club, spanning Wiseguy, The Diamond Age, Don DeLillo, and a striking comparison between 1870s railway speculation and today’s AI infrastructure boom. The episode wraps with a history-rich discussion of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Shōgun, Jesuit trade networks, Ray Dalio, Rome’s Illyrian emperors, and the economic forces that shape conflict, empire, and technology.Mentioned in the episodeStonkbrokers https://opensea.io/collection/stonkbrokers-434284142Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3633Gen Z Is Moving Money From Stocks to Sports Betting in Wealth Plans https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-08-12/gen-z-investors-turn-to-sports-betting-to-build-wealthContent Creation, BA at Arizona State University https://degrees.apps.asu.edu/bachelors/major/ASU00/CSCCBA/content-creationDallas’ “Y’all Street” Rivals New York https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2024/08/16/dallas-financial-services-hub-yall-streetWiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Wiseguy/Nicholas-Pileggi/9781982129903The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/24031/the-diamond-age-by-neal-stephenson/9780241953198White Noise by Don DeLillo https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/323270/white-noise-by-don-delillo/Underworld by Don DeLillo https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Underworld/Don-DeLillo/97806848481501873 by Liaquat Ahamed https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/306461/1873-by-liaquat-ahamed/Shōgun https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/shogun/characters/viewers-guide/timeline-and-historyShow & HostsNet Society: https://x.com/net__societyAaron Wright: https://x.com/awrigh01Chris F: https://x.com/ChrisF_0xDerek Edwards: https://x.com/derekedwsPriyanka Desai: https://x.com/pridesaiProducer/Editor: https://x.com/0xFnkl

They debate whether legacy financial and tech firms can actually build useful blockchain products and what that means for digital property. The conversation dives into the enclosure movement, NFTs, and the fate of internet commons. Listeners hear a deep dive into autonomous AI agents, agent economies, and infrastructure for a machine-run market. The finale roams from AI-designed viruses and brain interfaces to AI as a translator of new languages.