Episode Details

On this episode of the Crazy Wisdom Podcast, Stewart Alsop is joined by ~tiller-tolbus to explore his three current projects: Red Horizon, Sen Chain, and Aegean. The conversation navigates through the intricacies of Urbit, touching on the common threads that bind these ventures together. Tiller shares insights into how Red Horizon is making Urbit more accessible, how Sen Chain offers a unique blockchain integration, and how Aegean envisions a new kind of browsing experience within the Urbit namespace. For more details on Tiller's work, you can connect with him on Urbit at tiller tolbus, or follow him on Twitter at @tiller_tolbus. You can also learn more about Red Horizon at redhorizon.com.

Check out this GPT we trained on the conversation!

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction to the Crazy Wisdom Podcast

00:06 Meet Tiller Tolbus: Projects Overview

00:20 Understanding Urbit and Its Projects

01:42 The Vision for Aegean

03:33 Challenges and Realities of Urbit Development

07:03 The Evolution of Urbit's Ecosystem

18:02 The Future of Urbit: Ares and Beyond

20:02 File Sharing and Data Ownership on Urbit

26:58 The Human Mind and Megacorps

27:18 Urban's Vision: Owning Your Stuff

28:11 Urbit vs. Linux: Multiplayer Computation

28:43 Ares: Expanding Data Capacity

30:41 Shrubbery: Addressable Data Paths

34:51 Learning Hoon: Challenges and Rewards

37:11 Philosophical Insights: Nietzsche and Computing

38:24 Idealism in Software Development

41:42 The Ground Floor of Computing

50:57 Urbit's Practical Future

53:51 Red Horizon: Hosting Provider

54:51 Conclusion and Contact Information

Key Insights

1. Urbit's Vision of a Unified Digital Ecosystem: Tiller Tolbus discusses how Urbit is designed to create a unified digital ecosystem that promotes composability and interoperability. Unlike the fragmented nature of traditional computing systems, where apps often do not work well together, Urbit aims to allow disinterested parties to build components that organically fit together, reducing the need for direct collaboration and communication overhead among developers.
2. Red Horizon’s Role in Making Urbit Accessible: Red Horizon is highlighted as a crucial project for making Urbit more accessible to users. By providing a hosting solution that allows users to run their Urbit instances efficiently and affordably, Red Horizon is paving the way for broader adoption of the platform. Tiller emphasizes that this accessibility is key to the future success of Urbit as a viable alternative to centralized cloud services.
3. The Importance of Shrubbery in App Development: Tiller introduces the concept of Shrubbery, an application design system that standardizes how data is organized and accessed within Urbit. This standardization makes it easier for different apps to interoperate, addressing one of the major challenges in current app development on the platform. Shrubbery represents a step toward making Urbit a more developer-friendly environment, potentially leading to more innovative and cohesive applications.
4. Aegean’s Vision for a New Browsing Experience: Aegean is described as a project that aims to redefine how users interact with the Urbit network. By conceptualizing a browser that navigates the Urbit namespace, Aegean seeks to create a more intuitive and user-friendly way to access and share content on the network. This project highlights Urbit's potential to offer a fundamentally different internet experience, one that emphasizes ownership and control over personal data.
5. The Philosophical Foundation of U