A film director with 2B+ views on my work. Passionate about sci-fi, artificial intelligence, and the human condition. I get political and trolly on Twitter.
Los Angeles
Joined April 2018
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The real secret of magic, is that the world is made of words. And if you know the words that the world is made of, you can make of it whatever you wish. - Terence McKenna – at Los Angeles, CA
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
In 2016 Yemeni engineer Muhammad Abd Allah Hussein Awas presented this design that would regulate a continuous flow of traffic without traffic lights using combined 'half round-abouts'
[source: buff.ly/3WZVj9U]
xitter.gq/Eng_wonders/status/786…
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
In Israel, there is only one check on the power of the government, and it is currently under threat.
From a recent podcast conversation with @lexfridman, to discuss human nature, consciousness, power, and conspiracy. Filmed on July 13, 2023.
bit.ly/ynhfridman
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
Christopher Nolan's movies would be nothing without the secret billionaire who backed them.
Thomas Tull abandoned law school to start a chain of laundromats.
To increase profits he created a computer system that changed prices depending on demand.
After joining an Atlanta investment firm focused on entertainment, and rising to President, Thomas noticed something.
The rise of DVD sales made investing in movies more profitable than ever before.
But the lack of professional capital in Hollywood was puzzling.
Thomas describes the time he spent raising $500M for Legendary Pictures as the hardest of his career.
When the job was done, Thomas had essentially built a bank lending money to moviemakers.
Legendary funded films would go on to generate over $13B at the box office.
The Hangover, 300, Jurassic World the list goes on.
Thomas was known to lean on data analytics and AI to cut marketing costs and predict the success of movies.
But his stroke of genius was an early bet on a young Christopher Nolan.
As the financier behind "The Dark Knight Trilogy" and "Inception", he made 50% of their multi-billion dollar profits.
He even has a Cameo in "The Dark Knight Rises," in the owner’s suite at the Steelers stadium filming site.
Fun fact: he sold another company to Acrisure (the new name bearer of what was Heinz Field).
It makes sense because he’s actually owns a stake in the Steelers.
Seeing the rising demand for American movies in China, Thomas sold Legendary pictures to a Chinese entertainment company for $3.5B.
That’s only $500M less than what Disney paid for Star Wars.
Flush with riches, Tull explains in hindsight he was always more interested in analytics than movie making.
Now Tull is doubling down on a new thesis.
VC's and institutional are warming up to investing in American defense startups.
He's all in on the sector, backing a variety of AI defense companies like one that enables drone swarms to operate autonomously.
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
This painting has no brush strokes — it is made from over 2,000,000 individual dots of colour.
And though this may look like nothing more than a sunny afternoon in Paris, it has a much darker hidden meaning...
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
Thread on history of X dot com and Melon Husk will have to wait until tomorrow as need to stream.
But in the meantime here is a quick story called:
That Time Elon Totalled his McLaren F1 While Trying to Show Off in Front of Peter Thiel 🧵/1
ALT a very totalled mclaren F1
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
To understand Musk's renewed obsession with X and focus on financial services, you REALLY need to understand the X/Confinity merger that became PayPal.
And, particularly, the Peter Thiel-led coup that kicked Musk out as CEO/Chief Strategist.
Here's how that happened. 1/🧵
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
This is crazy.
Characters in this video game are hooked up to an AI language model.
Now watch this player go around and tell them that they are an AI in a video game...
Makes us question our own reality doesn't it?
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
🔥 WOW!! Italy's new Prime Minister @GiorgiaMeloni addressed the Kremlin assets in the Italian Parliament who want her to withdraw support for Ukraine because, according to them, it's "better to live in a dictatorship than to die."
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
My Dad once told me 15 years ago that America loves to see a great public figure fall.
Someone they once loved.
Someone they once admired.
Which eventually was hated.
Which eventually was misunderstood.
But he also said what America loves even more is to see that same person redeem themselves.
The rise and fall of a hero is a real thing.
But it’s in the 🇺🇸 DNA to see people rise up.
We tend to idolize at first.
We then tend to demonize.
But we eventually learn to humanize.
This evolution is needed in order for a great nation to learn and move on.
God bless!
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
We are on a journey through space and time and we will never be in the same place twice.
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
As we reach these tipping points Civil Disobedience and disruptive acts are beginning to look like the only way we get world governments to take the action that suits the catastrophic events we are experiencing. Prepare your minds for mass peaceful civil disobedience.
1/ Here's a🧵on why the record shattering extremes in Europe are so unsettling for climate scientists.
It's increasingly looking that we've underestimated the impacts of #ClimateBreakdown...
xitter.gq/WxNB_/status/168132472…
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
ChatGPT got worse because its experiencing alzheimers, dementia and old age
Same problems humans run into. Kinda like a fly living on 24 hours, or dog years, an Ai's lifespan is only 6ish months
Absurd to assume artificial brains are immune from aging, rot and decay
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
The future of homeownership in the US:
In 10 years:
Buying in a top 25 city will be unattainable for most young families.
In 20 years:
Buying in a top 50 city will be unattainable for most young families.
There will be a dramatic shift of people moving to “satellite cities” further and further from the main city. Especially near cities where it’s easier to expand out (think Vegas and Phoenix).
Renting in a top 50 city will be as normal as renting in NYC, LA, or SF because owning a house simply won’t be a realistic option for most.
Too many people think that because housing is currently unaffordable, that it’s destined to fall or burst. That’s not how it works unfortunately. There are plenty of counties/economies that prove housing can get even more unaffordable in the US.
The only solution is building. Building more. And then building more after that. And that requires de/re-zoning and deregulation.
We’re currently 10+ years behind the number of new houses needed to match population growth. And it will take 10+ years to catch up. And that’s not even necessarily new houses in desirable cities/areas.
Housing is broken, and there is no easy or quick solution.
ÉLI SOKHN☉ retweeted
15/ With his novella René, Chateaubriand launched the Romantic movement in France
His protagonist: “The ancient world had no certainty, the modern world had no beauty.”
In his Memoirs, Chateaubriand would write: “Beauty, a serious trifle, remains when all else has passed away.”
