Is the scam the job, the human trafficking, or both?

Higher than ever is a bit of an overstatement, 2020 does seem to have been the peak. It's still well above the norm for the last few decades.

I don't think this accurately matches the dynamic; overall political engagement (I'll measure it as voters in the presidential elections, though I imagine there are others) is higher than ever. This doesn't always mean that more people are arguing over kitchen tables, but that's my experience too.

Gotta find someone to play with right?

I think they're all super impressive technically, but towards your point, blockchain was designed with some specific goals that make it more interesting from a societal perspective.

Not to be too sterotypical, but both of my parents would be impressed by VR or LLM demos and befuddled by a bitcoin demo, and that's sorta what I'm getting at.

I'd say it was prior to VR. I'm also not sure if it's an example; it might be an example of a mundane tech demo that has an outsized impact.

The struggle for both is to integrate them into user lives and that technical bar is exceedingly high.

I wonder if that's because both of them are essentially outsourcing the human experience (e.g., being on a mountain, talking to a person), which is cool to encounter, but doesn't move the needle for my actual life.

Yeah, I was out there protesting the Iraq war (approximately) 20 years ago, but I'm not sure it was actually more effective than hastagging on bsky.

I mean, look back to 20 years ago right now?

It's very "you don't eat a pig like that all at once"

Probably allegory now that I think about it.