In a bit of a departure from our normal format, Daniel Keller interviews Chase Van Etten, founder and CEO of Vaporware about his background and vision for the company.

We discuss:

  • Absorbing the California Ideology by osmosis growing up in Petaluma
  • How custom car culture informs Chase’s approach to technology
  • Gaming as CEO Mode trainer Vs. depressive real world agency drainer
  • Marketplaces as cooperation tech and the need to maximize informational flow rates
  • How Vaporware aims to address the complexities of social computing
  • Right and wrong approaches to standardization in software
  • The multidimensional problem space of growing a radical software project as a startup
  • Taking on megacorp incumbents by doing things outside the scope of their business model
  • The great app-less future, (that Apple doesn’t want you to have)
  • The Operating Function as a new paradigm in computing and foundation for a sovereign Exocortex
  • Functional programming providing the basis for reliable and trustworthy distributed systems and software
  • Vaporware’s competition and target audience
  • The political implications of our technology and legal and ethical challenges
  • Community sovereignty and individual sovereignty
  • Some differing views on the pace of AI development
  • How insanely high Chase thinks your monthly software bill is going to be in 10 years
  • Different ways you can participate in our project if you’re interested!

Artwork: Peter Cain, “Z”, 1989