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  • The Automated Watchdog: Promise and Peril of AI in Government Auditing

    The Automated Watchdog: Promise and Peril of AI in Government Auditing

    1. The Potential Benefits of AI Auditors

    • Massive Data Processing: AI can analyze entire government spending databases (e.g., USASpending.gov) in minutes, a task that is physically impossible for human teams.
    • Real-Time Anomaly Detection: Unlike traditional audits that are often retrospective, AI can flag suspicious transactions, contracts, or grant awards as they happen, enabling proactive intervention.
    • Enhanced Pattern Recognition: AI excels at identifying complex, subtle patterns of waste or fraud across multiple agencies and years that would be invisible to human auditors.
    • Potential for Non-Partisan Oversight: When properly designed and constrained, AI systems can apply auditing rules consistently, reducing the potential for human bias or political influence in routine checks.

    2. Inherent Risks and Systemic Blind Spots

    The risks extend beyond simple technical errors and encompass systemic vulnerabilities that could undermine the entire oversight framework.

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  • The Problem: Radically Decentralized, Resilient Global Information Delivery

    The Problem: Radically Decentralized, Resilient Global Information Delivery

    You must design a system to deliver news content (text, images, short videos) to 1 billion people globally. Your design must adhere to the following constraints derived from first principles:

    1. Zero Centralized Infrastructure: You cannot use traditional CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) like Cloudflare, Akamai, or AWS CloudFront. There can be no central servers or data centers that represent a single point of failure. The system must be resilient enough to function even if entire continents go offline.
    2. Physics-Limited Latency: The time it takes for a new piece of content to propagate to 95% of the user base must approach the physical limit imposed by the speed of light across global networks, not the limits imposed by server processing queues.
    3. Near-Zero Marginal Cost: The marginal cost of delivering content to one additional user must be as close to zero as possible. This means you cannot have costs that scale linearly with users or bandwidth, which rules out traditional cloud hosting models.
    4. Incentivized Participation: The system must rely on its users’ devices (phones, computers) to store and distribute content. You must devise an incentive structure, grounded in economic or game-theoretic principles, that encourages users to contribute their storage and bandwidth without direct monetary payment.
    5. Verifiable Integrity: Content must be cryptographically signed at its source to be verifiable, preventing censorship or alteration by the participating nodes that are relaying it.

    How would you design the architecture, protocol, and incentive system from the ground up to solve this?

    David Gross

    Follow me at https://x.com/dgapps and https://davidgrossapps.com

  • The Problem: Decentralized, Trustless Last-Mile Logistics

    The Problem: Decentralized, Trustless Last-Mile Logistics

    Companies like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Amazon Flex have solved the last-mile delivery problem using a centralized, server-based architecture. A central server, owned by the company, is the trusted intermediary that holds all the data: customer orders, restaurant/merchant locations, driver locations, driver reputations, and payment information. It acts as the “brain,” dispatching orders to drivers based on a proprietary algorithm.

    From first principles, design a system that accomplishes the same goal—efficiently matching customers who want items delivered with a fleet of independent drivers—but without a central server or trusted intermediary.

    Your proposed system must solve the following core problems from the ground up:

    1. Discovery: How does a customer’s order request get broadcast to nearby, available drivers without a central server to see everyone’s location? How does a driver “see” available orders?
    2. Selection & Bidding: How is a driver selected for an order? Does the customer choose? Is there a bidding system? How do you prevent a single malicious actor from accepting all orders and never completing them (a Sybil attack)?
    3. Reputation & Trust: Without a central database of star ratings, how is driver reputation established and verified in a decentralized manner? How can a customer trust a driver they’ve never met? How can a driver trust that the customer will pay? Reputation must be resistant to manipulation.
    4. Payment: How are payments processed trustlessly? The customer needs to be sure they won’t be charged until the item is delivered, and the driver needs to be sure they will be paid upon successful delivery. Design a payment-in-escrow mechanism that doesn’t rely on a central company holding the funds. Consider using smart contracts or a similar cryptographic method.
    5. Efficiency & Scalability: Centralized dispatch algorithms are highly optimized. How can a decentralized, peer-to-peer network achieve comparable route and batching efficiency without a god’s-eye view of the entire system? How does your system scale from a single neighborhood to a whole city?

    Your answer should focus on the fundamental architecture, protocols, and incentive structures, not just the user interface of an app.

    David Gross

    Follow me at https://x.com/dgapps and https://davidgrossapps.com

  • ‪Can Electors Go Rogue? The “Faithless Elector”‬

    ‪Can Electors Go Rogue? The “Faithless Elector”‬

    An elector can vote against the popular vote of their state. This is known as being a “faithless elector.” Historically, however, this has been rare and has never changed the outcome of a presidential election.

    Who are the electors? They are chosen by the political parties in each state. They are often party loyalists, chosen to recognize their service.

    Are there rules against it? Yes, many states have laws that require electors to vote for the candidate they are pledged to. The Supreme Court has upheld these laws, allowing states to penalize or replace faithless electors. As of 2024, 38 states and D.C. have such laws.

    As of 2024, the following 12 states do not have any laws that bind electors to the popular vote winner or penalize them for being “faithless”:

    • Arkansas
    • Illinois
    • Iowa
    • Kansas
    • Louisiana
    • New Hampshire
    • New Jersey
    • New York
    • North Dakota
    • Rhode Island
    • Texas
    • West Virginia

    How often does it happen? It’s very infrequent. Out of over 23,000 electoral votes cast in U.S. history, only a small number have been faithless. The most significant number of faithless electors in a single election was in 1872, when a candidate died after the election but before the electors met.

    Of course. While faithless electors have never changed the outcome of a presidential election, there have been numerous instances of them throughout U.S. history.

    Here is a list of every faithless elector vote for a presidential candidate, broken down by election year.

    Instances of Faithless Electors by Election

    2016: This election had the most faithless electors in modern history.

    Pledged to Hillary Clinton (Democrats):

    In Washington, three electors voted for Colin Powell and one voted for Faith Spotted Eagle.

    In Hawaii, one elector voted for Bernie Sanders.

    An elector in Maine attempted to vote for Bernie Sanders, but was forced to change his vote to Clinton.

    Electors in Minnesota and Colorado also attempted to vote for other candidates but were replaced.

    Pledged to Donald Trump (Republicans):

    In Texas, two electors defected. One voted for John Kasich and the other for Ron Paul.

    2004: One Democratic elector from Minnesota, pledged to John Kerry, voted for John Edwards (Kerry’s running mate) for both president and vice president.

    2000: One Democratic elector from the District of Columbia, Barbara Lett-Simmons, abstained from voting for Al Gore as a protest for D.C.’s lack of congressional representation.

    1988: One Democratic elector from West Virginia, Margarette Leach, voted for Lloyd Bentsen (the vice-presidential candidate) for president and Michael Dukakis for vice president.

    1976: One Republican elector from Washington, Mike Padden, voted for Ronald Reagan instead of Gerald Ford.

    1972: One Republican elector from Virginia, Roger L. MacBride, voted for the Libertarian ticket of John Hospers and Tonie Nathan.

    1968: One Republican elector from North Carolina, Lloyd W. Bailey, voted for George Wallace of the American Independent Party instead of Richard Nixon.

    1960: One Republican elector from Oklahoma, Henry D. Irwin, voted for Virginia Senator Harry F. Byrd instead of Richard Nixon.

    1956: One Democratic elector from Alabama, W. F. Turner, voted for a local judge, Walter B. Jones, instead of Adlai Stevenson.

    1948: One Democratic elector from Tennessee, Preston Parks, voted for Strom Thurmond of the States’ Rights Democratic Party instead of Harry S. Truman.

    1912: Eight Republican electors voted for Nicholas Murray Butler for vice president instead of James S. Sherman, who had died before the electoral vote. This was a case of a candidate’s death, not a political protest.

    1896: Four People’s Party electors cast their vice-presidential votes for Thomas E. Watson instead of the Democratic nominee, Arthur Sewall.

    1872: This is the most significant case in terms of numbers. Horace Greeley, the Democratic/Liberal Republican candidate, died after the general election but before the Electoral College voted. As a result, 63 of the 66 electors pledged to him cast their votes for other individuals.

    1836: Twenty-three Democratic electors from Virginia refused to vote for Richard M. Johnson for vice president, who had been Martin Van Buren’s running mate.

    1796: Samuel Miles, a Federalist elector from Pennsylvania, voted for Democratic-Republican Thomas Jefferson instead of the Federalist candidate, John Adams. This was the first instance of a faithless elector.

    Sources:

    fairvote.org,latimes.com,thegreenpapers.com,wikipedia.org

    David Gross

    Follow me at https://x.com/dgapps and https://davidgrossapps.com

  • Hey Rep. Issa, I’ll Take That Bet: Here Are the Democrats Who Will Support Law Enforcement.

    Rep. Issa, regarding your “Over/Under on how many Democrats will support law enforcement,” I’ll happily take the over. You might be guessing not many, but I’m betting on a flicker of common sense from a handful who understand that “condemning violence against law enforcement” should be the easiest bipartisan win of the century.

    My guesstimate? You’ll get about 10 Democrats to vote YES on your resolution.

    Here’s the scouting report on the Democrats most likely to break ranks and join you, and why:

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  • The Phoenix Plan: A Blueprint for American Rebirth

    The Phoenix Plan: A Blueprint for American Rebirth

    Prioritize national strength, economic independence, and internal order.

    Core Principles

    • Competent Government: Before voting on any bill, members of Congress must have one week to read it and pass a test to prove they understand it.
    • “Fortress America” Economy: The plan aims for a self-reliant economy. This includes:
      • Taxes: Making current individual tax rates permanent while eliminating special-interest loopholes, the Child Tax Credit, and complex corporate taxes.
      • Trade and Investment: Using tariffs to protect critical industries and offering residency to foreigners who make multi-million dollar investments in the U.S.
      • Ending Corporate Crime: Forcing companies to be specific about how they use investor money. Seized assets from convicted executives and banks will fund their own prosecution and imprisonment.
      • Nationalizing Crypto: Making all private cryptocurrency transactions illegal. The entire crypto system will be seized and reserved as a financial weapon for the military to use only during a declared war.
      • Honest Money: Transitioning away from the Federal Reserve to a system where the U.S. Treasury issues debt-free money directly.
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  • The Energy Doctrine: A Fantastical Strategy for Earth and Space

    The Energy Doctrine: A Fantastical Strategy for Earth and Space

    What follows is not a sober policy proposal. It is a thought experiment, a flight of fancy designed to shatter the narrow confines of the current energy debate. The public discourse pits solar against fossil fuels as if it were a schoolyard argument, while the real game of power operates on a level of complexity that is rarely, if ever, discussed. This article is a wild, speculative attempt to outline a more complete, if fantastical, doctrine for energy strategy across three domains: strategic deception, tactical resilience, and celestial dominance. None of this is to be taken too seriously.

    The Terrestrial Battlefield: The Art of Strategic Deception

    The first principle of this doctrine is that a nation’s true energy capacity should be its most closely guarded secret. The ancient military strategist Sun Tzu taught that all warfare is based on deception. Publicly available data on energy production is, in this light, a strategic blunder—it’s like handing your enemy the schematics to your fortress. A wiser, if more paranoid, approach would be to reveal only what a sophisticated AI predicts is the bare minimum necessary to project stability, while concealing the true depth of your power. The real strength lies in the undisclosed—the unexpected and the unseen.

    The Deception Layer: Power Beneath the Surface

    The ultimate expression of strategic energy deception lies in moving critical infrastructure where it cannot be seen or targeted: underground. To be truly secure, a nation must possess power generation that is impervious to satellite surveillance, drone attacks, and bunker-busting bombs. The most practical technologies for this are nuclear and geothermal. All forms of nuclear reactors, from today’s fission plants to tomorrow’s fusion concepts, can be housed in deep, hardened subterranean bunkers. Geothermal energy, which taps the planet’s own internal heat, is perhaps even more elegant. With a minimal surface footprint, these plants provide constant, 24/7 power, regardless of weather, time of day, or what’s happening on the surface. By creating a distributed network of hidden geothermal and nuclear sites, a nation could build an invisible power base, with energy transmitted via hardened, buried, or even laser-based systems to ensure a second-strike capability and industrial survival.

    The Solar Paradox and Strategic Response

    On the surface, solar infrastructure is a paradox. In a conflict, sprawling solar farms are a liability—fragile, indefensible, and far more costly to rebuild than the munitions needed to destroy them. If you were Ukraine, fields of glass panels would be an illogical investment. Furthermore, we must consider scenarios beyond conventional warfare. A massive earthquake, a super-volcano eruption like Yellowstone that blacks out the sky with ash, or a meteor strike would render solar power useless. There are even whispers of weather manipulation technologies that could blot out the sun over a target area—a potentially cheaper tactic than building a massive solar infrastructure in the first place.

    This is where the strategic value of natural gas becomes clear. It’s not about powering a peaceful nation; it’s about tactical response in a crisis. The ability to quickly spin up natural gas turbines provides the immediate power needed to launch a counter-attack, power essential services after a natural disaster, or simply keep the lights on in a command bunker when the sun has disappeared.

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