Balaji Srinivasan closes the Network State Conference 2023 for 1,200 attendees, asking them to scan a QR code for an exit poll with contact info and polarizing questions to map community consensus. He gives out an online Anthology of Biology illustrated by Jack Butcher and organizes a group photo.
All right, so we are now at the closing remarks. We just got through 40 speakers, and so we have more than a thousand people here, actually, as you probably learned at registration. You know, actually we had more than 1200 people, and there were so many more wanting to come. So whatever we do next, we'll be in a bigger venue and whatnot, which is great. So the movement is absolutely growing. And so what I want to do just we've had tons of lectures and content and so on and so forth. I wanted to give a few very quick slides and let's get to hanging out and connecting with people for the next couple hours. And then lots of folks are going to be around in Amsterdam for the evening and for the next few days. So lots of network state connections. Okay, so just some closing remarks. So basically, you know, two things I have for you, okay? An exit poll and a parting gift. Okay, so the exit poll is very simple. Just scan that QR code or go to theneworkstate.com poll. Okay. You might also take a photo of it and then like. Like QR code, scan it later in the event that WI fi is flaky or cell reception is flaky or something like that. Okay. This will take you about maybe 10 minutes to do. But it's actually essential for turning what we're doing here further. I mean, we've already started turning it from theory into practice. You've seen a lot of literal concrete getting poured, you know, in some of the talks here. Right. And a lot of, you know, thinking on how do we make this work for security, and how do we make it work for Main street, and how do we make it work given the political environment and so on and so forth. But this exit poll actually helps in a different way, which is it helps us understand where the community is at. Okay? So we ask some basic questions, like, you know, just your contact info, like, you know, your. Your ETH name or your Solana name. We ask, you know, what country or what city you're in so we can pick the next venue. We asked for feedback on the conference itself. And if you've got a great tweet on the conference, or you should tweet it on the conference. If you haven't tweeted on the conference, go and tweet on the conference and then paste in the link to the tweet. So I'll create a page of all the tweets. So then that'll be like a kind of a nice souvenir, like a record of what everybody thought at this moment like putting your John Hancock on the Declaration of Independence kind of thing, you know. But the fourth thing that's on there is actually a list of sort of polarizing questions. And the reason I'm asking a bunch of these polarized questions, you can of course ask. Answer na to them. But the reason is, as I mentioned in the poll, there's something that Scott Alexander calls a scissor statement. Right? And a scissor statement is something which one side thinks is obviously true and the other side thinks is obviously false. Like, you know, is Thor a God or not? That's an. That's a non controversial one from the olden days. Okay. And people probably came to blows over that. So the reason that we've asked a bunch of these sort of political questions in there is that what we're doing is inherently political. And I want to figure out how to avoid unnecessary scissor statements. Figure out where the center of mass of the community is. What things do we have consensus on and what things do we somewhat disagree on? And then try and figure out, okay, how do we, you know, optimize for that center of mass? And I have a mental model of where I think all of you guys are in terms of being. Well, I don't want to prejudge it. Okay, so. So the exit poll for a reason. All right, so please do this. It'll help us a lot. And as an added sweetener. Okay, you know, I'll actually, I'll give you the parting gift even before you complete the exit poll, but are you going to raise your hand? Can you guys raise your hand and say you're going to complete the exit poll? Please raise your hands. Okay, thank you very much. Okay, so please do complete this. Here's your parting gift. Okay, so it's the NetworkCity.com front poll. Here's your parting gift. So he did this completely of his own accord. I did not ask him to do it. Eric did the Navalman act that sold a million copies. And so he, of his own accord, did the Anthology of Biology. And he's such a great guy. And I was thinking, you know, all the journos who hate tech, all the guys who are haters, I have to spend some cycles on them. Why not spend time on a guy who's actually like a great, you know, great guy? And so Eric wrote this book, which is actually, it's really as much Eric as it is me because it's kind of a compilation of like tens of thousands of snippets from tweets and Podcasts and so on that he found interesting. And it's always interesting to see what others find interesting. So that QR code, if you scan that, you get the first chapter. It's online anthology of biology. It's also got the illustrations by Jack Butcher, who many of you guys know from Crypto. He's an amazing artist, and I think it's actually an amazing piece of work. And this is like a prequel for maybe the Network State hardcover or what we might do there. Okay. And a lot of other things coming there. That's a parting gift. So you guys all got the screenshot of that? Yep. Good. Take a photo of it if you haven't. All right. And that's a wrap. But one last thing, which is we. We are actually making the Network State movie. If you guys want to be in the movie, I'd like to take, like, a group selfie of you. Okay. So if our camera guys. All right, there are camera guys coming. Great. So we were going to do a few, like, first, I'll, like, kind of stand like this. You guys can say something, you know, maybe, I don't know, say network state. I know we said that a few times, but it's good for the one more cut for, you know, the official movie, and then we can come in and get a group selfie if you guys want to do that. Okay, so let me do that. Yeah. Yeah, we do. Group tip. Come on down. Yeah, we're doing this all together. All right. And then don't fall stage. That's the key thing. That's right. Come on in. Come on in. How should I p. Should I just stand like this? Can you angle it properly? Okay, great. Sit down. If I sit. If I sit. I don't know. If I don't know his camera angle. Okay. Okay, great. Okay, great. Yes, of course I'm going to do something the mosh. I know it's not that kind of audience. Crowd surf. Okay, great. All right, we got it. We got it. This is like the ultimate, like, you guys know, the AI thing, which is like the Norse Vikings in the. In the boat, you know? Right. You know, or like ancient Egyptians. Right. So this is the future. Are we good? We also have to thank the streamers. Oh, yeah. What? The streamers. All the people watching in tuning. Oh, yes, of course. Streamers. Qt. QT this. QT this, if you want. Okay. This is great. All right, guys, so we. I think we got. We got the content. Oh, okay. All right. One more. All right. Okay. Oh, my God. Everybody wants to take a selfie now. Okay. So should I turn around? Okay, great. All right, two, three. All right, one, two, three. Network state. Can we get one more? All right, ready? Okay. One, two, three. Network state. All right. That's right. Okay, great. It.
