{
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  "origin": "https://www.msweet.net/notes/",
  "page": "152-cobalt-pikes",
  "author": {
    "name": "Matthew McDowell-Sweet",
    "url": "https://www.msweet.net/"
  },
  "created": "2026-11-05T07:32:28Z",
  "updated": "2026-11-05T07:32:28Z",
  "version": 1,
  "content_md": "[Lawrence Lessig](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathetic_dot_theory) posited that we’re all “pathetic dots,” shoved around by law, norms, markets and code. [Pirkowski](https://x.com/mattpirkowski/status/2079618386389291023) reckons these pulls go back to DNA: each layer hardens so something looser can grow on top, and each can either adapt or blow up.\n\nToday that’s AI as solvent and [protocols](https://protocolsforbusiness.com) as crystal, each the other’s evil twin. All crystal and you’re a rock; all solvent and you’re cancer. [David Bloomin and Emmett Shear](https://softmax.com/blog/origins-of-trust) bet we stay in the happy middle through relationships, not rules, earning slack as we go.\n\nA rock and a hard place is just two things squeezing. Pull something every which way and no rule can sort it out, so it has to build a picture of the whole mess, itself included. Perhaps that need to resolve unresolvable tensions is what prods consciousness to emerge?",
  "content_html": "<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathetic_dot_theory\">Lawrence Lessig</a> posited that we’re all “pathetic dots,” shoved around by law, norms, markets and code. <a href=\"https://x.com/mattpirkowski/status/2079618386389291023\">Pirkowski</a> reckons these pulls go back to DNA: each layer hardens so something looser can grow on top, and each can either adapt or blow up.</p>\n<p>Today that’s AI as solvent and <a href=\"https://protocolsforbusiness.com\">protocols</a> as crystal, each the other’s evil twin. All crystal and you’re a rock; all solvent and you’re cancer. <a href=\"https://softmax.com/blog/origins-of-trust\">David Bloomin and Emmett Shear</a> bet we stay in the happy middle through relationships, not rules, earning slack as we go.</p>\n<p>A rock and a hard place is just two things squeezing. Pull something every which way and no rule can sort it out, so it has to build a picture of the whole mess, itself included. Perhaps that need to resolve unresolvable tensions is what prods consciousness to emerge?</p>",
  "content_hash": "sha256:245d818eca89a7abe669492921ecb16fe251204b7a1ec824e9b91f451b40d6cd",
  "media": [],
  "changelog": [
    {
      "version": 1,
      "at": "2026-11-05T07:32:28Z",
      "note": null
    }
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}