1
00:00:00,060 --> 00:00:06,640
Speaker 1: [intro jingle]

2
00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:07,140
Speaker 1: Hello.

3
00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:10,820
Speaker 1: You thought I was dead.

4
00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:17,600
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not, and neither is this
project. Neither are the stories.

5
00:00:18,460 --> 00:00:19,420
Speaker 1: Quite the opposite, actually.

6
00:00:21,080 --> 00:00:26,700
Speaker 1: We are deep in production on a story
project called Puzzle. Now, this is taking the

7
00:00:26,740 --> 00:00:31,880
Speaker 1: place of Allegiance, which we'll do
another time. It's another major story in the

8
00:00:31,920 --> 00:00:36,700
Speaker 1: Revealer block, and I am immensely
excited about it.

9
00:00:37,700 --> 00:00:43,080
Speaker 1: However, I know what you're thinking.
"What is this lecture? What, why are you

10
00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:48,860
Speaker 1: talking to me? All I want is a cyborg
preacher and his lovable companions

11
00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:54,220
Speaker 1: fighting demons. What, what do you
keep talking to me about?" Well, you're gonna

12
00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:58,300
Speaker 1: have to listen to me talk for a
little while longer. But if you can hold on,
I've

13
00:00:58,340 --> 00:01:03,880
Speaker 1: got a small side story called "The
Project" set in the Mortal Steel universe with

14
00:01:04,459 --> 00:01:09,960
Speaker 1: just a few familiar characters. So
stay tuned for the end. Before that,

15
00:01:10,520 --> 00:01:14,120
Speaker 1: quick updates on project timelines,
everything that's going on in terms of

16
00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:19,640
Speaker 1: Collected. So as I've said many
times, this is not a podcast. Now, this is a

17
00:01:19,700 --> 00:01:24,580
Speaker 1: podcast that you're listening to, and
that podcast is a part of a bigger thing.

18
00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:32,160
Speaker 1: We are trying to find ways for
creators to get paid, i.e., make a

19
00:01:32,220 --> 00:01:38,080
Speaker 1: living with their art, and for their
supporters to receive more and more

20
00:01:38,220 --> 00:01:43,940
Speaker 1: value, better experiences, cooler
products, and sometimes financial

21
00:01:44,020 --> 00:01:45,580
Speaker 1: upside when things work out.

22
00:01:47,320 --> 00:01:52,160
Speaker 1: Now, it's been a hot minute since the
last time I've talked about this. Now, the

23
00:01:52,220 --> 00:01:58,040
Speaker 1: last time I talked about Web3 and
what it's for and why it's important, nobody
knew

24
00:01:58,080 --> 00:02:02,640
Speaker 1: what the heck I was talking about,
and it was easy to rant. Now a bunch of pictures

25
00:02:02,700 --> 00:02:07,100
Speaker 1: of some monkeys sold for a lot of
money, and everyone's mad. So I'm going to take

26
00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:13,580
Speaker 1: just a moment to reiterate the values
that this project is based on, what

27
00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:19,660
Speaker 1: I call Web3 fundamentals. All right.
Not that any criticisms

28
00:02:20,020 --> 00:02:24,300
Speaker 1: leveled at the current state of play
are unearned, but let me state why I think this

29
00:02:24,340 --> 00:02:28,160
Speaker 1: is important succinctly, and then
we'll move on to the fun stuff.

30
00:02:30,220 --> 00:02:35,420
Speaker 1: To me, the three most important Web3
fundamentals, these are the innovations it has

31
00:02:35,520 --> 00:02:40,320
Speaker 1: over Web 2.0 are, one, aligned
financials,

32
00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:47,380
Speaker 1: two, decentralized control, three,
digital ownership. What the heck does

33
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:50,940
Speaker 1: any of that mean? I'll give it to you
on an index card because now is not the time.

34
00:02:51,460 --> 00:02:57,420
Speaker 1: Aligned financials. Hey, if we, that
means the creators, if we make money, you

35
00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:03,480
Speaker 1: make money. It also means if we don't
make money, you don't make money. Up

36
00:03:03,540 --> 00:03:05,280
Speaker 1: together, down together.

37
00:03:06,820 --> 00:03:11,260
Speaker 1: And that's a beautiful thing because
it means I'm incentivized to help you. You're

38
00:03:11,300 --> 00:03:15,660
Speaker 1: incentivized to help me. It's a great
way to do that. Number two, decentralized

39
00:03:15,700 --> 00:03:20,180
Speaker 1: control. What does that mean? All
that means is the people at the top don't have
all

40
00:03:20,220 --> 00:03:24,640
Speaker 1: the power. They share it with the
people all around, and they don't just share it
on

41
00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:29,360
Speaker 1: their word. They don't just share it
with some policies on a piece of paper. They

42
00:03:29,380 --> 00:03:33,360
Speaker 1: don't share it under the premise that
they're being nice, and that this is a gift.

43
00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:41,120
Speaker 1: It is not decentralized contribution,
decentralized sharing. It is decentralized

44
00:03:41,180 --> 00:03:47,080
Speaker 1: control. We're giving people actual
control, and you guys will have

45
00:03:47,140 --> 00:03:52,520
Speaker 1: power over things that we do with all
of our projects, whether we like it or not.

46
00:03:52,980 --> 00:03:57,800
Speaker 1: That's called decentralized control.
You have actual control over the overall brand,

47
00:03:57,900 --> 00:04:02,260
Speaker 1: the direction, how the stories are
used, how they're monetized. You have real

48
00:04:02,300 --> 00:04:07,640
Speaker 1: control. That's important. It's
important because if you

49
00:04:07,700 --> 00:04:13,320
Speaker 1: disagree with the people running the
show, they have to listen to you.

50
00:04:13,940 --> 00:04:19,220
Speaker 1: It's not, it's not a request, and
that's important in both directions.

51
00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:25,720
Speaker 1: But you gotta use that control
wisely. Number three, digital ownership.

52
00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:30,780
Speaker 1: The first two are beautiful things,
and digital ownership is the cherry on top. It's

53
00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:35,900
Speaker 1: the thing that says, "Hey, I own this
thing that gives me control, that gives me

54
00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:41,780
Speaker 1: aligned financials. I own it, and no
one can forcefully take it from me." It is

55
00:04:41,840 --> 00:04:47,300
Speaker 1: secured by math and physics. It's a
digital deed that says you have control, that

56
00:04:47,380 --> 00:04:51,740
Speaker 1: says you have aligned financials.
It's the part that enforces the rules and allows

57
00:04:51,780 --> 00:04:53,520
Speaker 1: you to trade it and allows you to
sell it.

58
00:04:55,040 --> 00:05:00,020
Speaker 1: Ownership is an incredibly important
innovation. Right now, it is enforced with

59
00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:03,560
Speaker 1: essentially police and military,
right? At the end of the day, that's how the law
is

60
00:05:03,620 --> 00:05:09,300
Speaker 1: enforced. Now, and hopefully more in
the future as we lean into digital

61
00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:15,000
Speaker 1: ownership, a great deal of that
security comes from math and physics, from

62
00:05:15,060 --> 00:05:19,780
Speaker 1: cryptography. That is the thing that
proves that you own something, that you have

63
00:05:19,820 --> 00:05:25,420
Speaker 1: control, and that you deserve aligned
financials. Those three things together are

64
00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:31,240
Speaker 1: incredible innovations. And let's be
clear, they are social constructs.

65
00:05:31,540 --> 00:05:35,660
Speaker 1: It's just made up. That's what it
means. It's just a fancy way of saying, "Yo, we

66
00:05:35,720 --> 00:05:40,360
Speaker 1: made this stuff up." All it is from
an engineer's perspective, TCPIC--

67
00:05:40,940 --> 00:05:46,140
Speaker 1: TCP/IP, I'm not even gonna edit that
out, UDP, HTTP,

68
00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:52,920
Speaker 1: plus blockchain. That's it. That's
all I'm talking about. But those protocol-level

69
00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:59,440
Speaker 1: innovations are not interesting.
These are the concepts that were enabled by

70
00:05:59,480 --> 00:06:04,180
Speaker 1: those technological innovations.
These are the social innovations that we're
putting

71
00:06:04,220 --> 00:06:04,720
Speaker 1: on top.

72
00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:10,800
Speaker 1: And those innovations are just as
important now, if not more so, than they were in

73
00:06:10,900 --> 00:06:13,640
Speaker 1: October or November the last time I
was talking about it.

74
00:06:15,820 --> 00:06:21,720
Speaker 1: Now, I'm trying to take an active
role alongside this incredible team that was
crazy

75
00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:26,380
Speaker 1: enough to take part ownership in this
enterprise. We're trying to take active

76
00:06:26,420 --> 00:06:31,600
Speaker 1: control over that narrative because
there really is something important here. It

77
00:06:31,620 --> 00:06:36,940
Speaker 1: would be such a shame to miss an
incredible paradigm shift for creators and

78
00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:42,140
Speaker 1: supporters of storytellers, artists,
musicians, to miss out on this chance to use an

79
00:06:42,180 --> 00:06:48,180
Speaker 1: incredible tool to our benefit. But
skepticism is always, always welcome.

80
00:06:49,500 --> 00:06:54,480
Speaker 1: Pretty words and big promises are not
enough to make major change,

81
00:06:55,480 --> 00:07:00,520
Speaker 1: but they are necessary. And if you're
skeptical that any of this is worth your time

82
00:07:00,780 --> 00:07:04,520
Speaker 1: and you really just wanna listen to
some stories and you don't give a crap, that's

83
00:07:04,580 --> 00:07:10,040
Speaker 1: totally fine. We will continue to
deliver awesome stories, and we will never, ever

84
00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:15,600
Speaker 1: try to make people care about social
or cultural movements or even technological

85
00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:21,160
Speaker 1: innovations that they don't care
about. Instead, we're just gonna try and give
you

86
00:07:21,280 --> 00:07:26,420
Speaker 1: awesome stuff, and we're gonna tell
you at every turn what you're going to get if

87
00:07:26,460 --> 00:07:31,000
Speaker 1: you choose to buy it, if you choose
to listen to the free stuff, if you choose to

88
00:07:31,060 --> 00:07:35,640
Speaker 1: help us make these stories, if you
choose to tell your own stories or make your own

89
00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:40,900
Speaker 1: art or build your own projects with
us in some other way. All we're going to do

90
00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:47,700
Speaker 1: is show you what value you could get
and then deliver over and

91
00:07:47,820 --> 00:07:53,620
Speaker 1: over and over again until the critics
have to acknowledge at the

92
00:07:53,660 --> 00:07:59,200
Speaker 1: very least there was one small
organization who seems to have done

93
00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:04,300
Speaker 1: something neat with this, and they're
probably worth your time even if everyone else

94
00:08:04,380 --> 00:08:09,720
Speaker 1: isn't. So all that said, very cool
things coming.

95
00:08:10,380 --> 00:08:15,519
Speaker 1: Puzzle is deep in production. We've
got a team of eight people now, not including

96
00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:21,120
Speaker 1: any of the voice actors. Writing is
about halfway done. I have another short story,

97
00:08:21,400 --> 00:08:26,540
Speaker 1: uh, in the pipeline to tide you over
a little bit, and I will occasionally drip

98
00:08:26,580 --> 00:08:30,920
Speaker 1: content into this podcast feed, but
there will be some silence because we have

99
00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:35,460
Speaker 1: really, really cool big things coming
that are way beyond the scope of just an audio

100
00:08:35,580 --> 00:08:39,860
Speaker 1: story. Of course, Puzzle is an audio
story, and you will get to listen to that too.

101
00:08:40,900 --> 00:08:46,320
Speaker 1: And because it hasn't been said
outright yet, the final thing I would like to
impart

102
00:08:47,500 --> 00:08:53,320
Speaker 1: is as long as I draw breath, Mortal
Steel episodes 11 and 12, and 12

103
00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:58,580
Speaker 1: part two probably, because it's real
long, are going to be completed.

104
00:08:59,420 --> 00:09:04,600
Speaker 1: All of the source files necessary to
complete those episodes are safely stored, and

105
00:09:04,660 --> 00:09:05,820
Speaker 1: it will be completed.

106
00:09:08,340 --> 00:09:13,220
Speaker 1: Until then, I hope you enjoy The
Project.

107
00:09:14,500 --> 00:09:20,220
Speaker 1: This short story is set somewhere,
I'd say episodes-- between episodes

108
00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,780
Speaker 1: four and six of Mortal Steel. Enjoy.

109
00:09:26,300 --> 00:09:26,580
Speaker 1: See ya.

110
00:09:31,860 --> 00:09:35,160
Speaker 1: Mortal Steel: The Project.

111
00:09:38,980 --> 00:09:44,840
Speaker 1: Archbishop Gabriel Kline looked down
at the mech schematics on his desk and for the

112
00:09:44,880 --> 00:09:48,960
Speaker 1: 10,000th time wondered if he'd gone
insane.

113
00:09:50,600 --> 00:09:56,500
Speaker 1: No, this made sense. There were good
reasons to build a humanoid mech. It

114
00:09:56,540 --> 00:10:02,500
Speaker 1: could go on stairs, very big stairs.
That would be helpful if

115
00:10:02,540 --> 00:10:08,460
Speaker 1: they ever fought demons on a pyramid.
He called in two nuns, his

116
00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:11,160
Speaker 1: best engineers, to give him status
updates.

117
00:10:11,180 --> 00:10:16,740
Speaker 1: [door opening]

118
00:10:16,840 --> 00:10:21,840
Speaker 1: Sisters Ursula and Gretchen traded
silent glares of concern with each other.

119
00:10:22,999 --> 00:10:25,780
Speaker 2: Can it climb? It can't climb.

120
00:10:27,480 --> 00:10:28,220
Speaker 2: Can it jump?

121
00:10:29,380 --> 00:10:30,620
Speaker 3: Uh, no, sir.

122
00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:36,880
Speaker 1: Gabriel drummed his fingers on the
desk. He wasn't insane.

123
00:10:37,740 --> 00:10:40,320
Speaker 1: Maybe he could tell them about the
pyramid idea.

124
00:10:40,900 --> 00:10:44,320
Speaker 3: Archbishop, we have some concerns
about the project.

125
00:10:45,180 --> 00:10:51,020
Speaker 1: The first nun glanced at the other.
What? Had they rehearsed this? Was

126
00:10:51,060 --> 00:10:54,080
Speaker 1: this, this some kind of intervention?

127
00:10:55,100 --> 00:11:00,160
Speaker 2: Material storage wants to know why we
need so much titanium. Tell them we're

128
00:11:00,180 --> 00:11:05,340
Speaker 2: building shelves, very expensive,
very light shelves.

129
00:11:06,020 --> 00:11:11,100
Speaker 3: What about power storage? Generation?
We don't have enough solid state batteries,

130
00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:15,980
Speaker 3: and it's too small for our fission
reactors, unless we design a new one.

131
00:11:16,700 --> 00:11:19,040
Speaker 2: How long can it run on traditional
batteries?

132
00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:22,540
Speaker 3: Um, maybe two or three minutes.

133
00:11:24,020 --> 00:11:29,860
Speaker 1: There were excellent reasons to build
a 30-foot tall humanoid exoskeleton. For

134
00:11:29,900 --> 00:11:35,020
Speaker 1: one, you could drive it. Secondly, it
was pretty damn cool.

135
00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:37,460
Speaker 1: Was he losing it?

136
00:11:38,660 --> 00:11:43,980
Speaker 3: Archbishop, how do we keep this a
secret? It's not something we can hide for long.

137
00:11:44,620 --> 00:11:49,080
Speaker 2: Okay, hear me out. [upbeat music]
What if we build it in pieces?

138
00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:56,420
Speaker 2: Maybe disguise each piece as a
vehicle or, or an animal, and then they

139
00:11:56,460 --> 00:11:57,480
Speaker 2: can be reassembled.

140
00:11:57,940 --> 00:12:01,060
Speaker 1: Their wide-eyed stares stopped him
short.

141
00:12:01,060 --> 00:12:06,820
Speaker 2: [sighs] There's only one reason we're
building a mech.

142
00:12:07,760 --> 00:12:13,620
Speaker 1: They leaned in, their practical minds
eager to make sense of this madness he'd put

143
00:12:13,660 --> 00:12:15,580
Speaker 1: them through over the past few
months.

144
00:12:15,960 --> 00:12:20,860
Speaker 2: Because it's completely, utterly,
hopelessly impractical. You don't need to keep
it

145
00:12:21,020 --> 00:12:26,300
Speaker 2: secret. No one will believe you. Just
build it in the clean room. If you put up

146
00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:30,680
Speaker 2: enough biohazard and radiation signs,
no one will get nosy.

147
00:12:31,680 --> 00:12:37,340
Speaker 1: They nodded slowly. It was enough.
They would keep working.

148
00:12:38,180 --> 00:12:44,180
Speaker 2: Do you still want us to do the
transforming animal thing? No, that was a joke.

149
00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:51,380
Speaker 1: In a better world, though, when there
wasn't a demon army bearing down on top of

150
00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:54,480
Speaker 1: them, he might have said yes.

151
00:12:54,480 --> 00:13:16,240
Speaker 1: [door closing]

152
00:13:16,260 --> 00:13:16,700
Speaker 2: [sighs] [upbeat music]