Intelligence Snacks 72 - The Internet We deserve w. FIPs!

Pete and Andy dig into FIPS, the Free Internetworking Peering Service, and why it could make the internet feel personal again. Instead of treating your laptop and phone as viewers of cloud servers, FIPS makes devices, apps and agents first-class participants in a private, addressable network.

Then the conversation pivots into AI doom, open-source regulation and whether “AI will kill us all” is really a safety argument, or just another attempt by big institutions to keep power centralized.

**Key Moments:**

- [00:12] Welcome to episode 72, from the beach.

- [01:09] A listener request from John turns into the FIPS explainer episode.

- [02:12] FIPS as networking tech: reconnecting computers instead of turning them into cloud viewers.

- [04:03] Why today’s internet pushes people into domains, tunnels, accounts and API keys.

- [07:07] FIPS addresses, Nostr-style identity and private device networking.

- [08:07] Self-organising mesh networks and transport-agnostic routing.

- [11:10] Why FIPS gets interesting when complex networking becomes invisible to users.

- [11:56] The Google Drive problem: why upload files you already own locally?

- [14:14] A demo of browsing files from one computer on another.

- [16:30] Andy sees the agent angle: “a game changer for agents.”

- [19:14] Flight Deck, Tower and Autopilot as a real Wingman use case.

- [21:41] FIPS-addressing apps so they can run locally and be reached from anywhere.

- [23:57] The Wingman app browser on phone, laptop and desktop.

- [25:43] Scan a QR code instead of buying domains and wiring up Cloudflare.

- [26:48] Nostr-based Git and agent-native developer infrastructure.

- [32:02] “Apps that aren’t apps”: familiar interfaces over data that stays where it belongs.

- [35:46] Organisations as distributed computers made from local machines.

- [46:34] Pete’s draft NIP for `window.fips` transport.

- [47:56] Nostr plus FIPS as enough to rebuild a better internet.

- [52:57] “Dropbox killer”: virtual file systems without central infrastructure.

- [54:10] The pivot: Dario, Anthropic and the “AI will kill everyone by 2030” debate.

- [56:03] Pete’s proposed AI safety fix: make murder illegal.

- [57:32] Andy calls the regulatory push classic cartel behaviour.

- [01:02:16] Pushback from Jensen and the open-source AI argument.

- [01:07:30] Existing antitrust and anti-competitive laws already matter.

- [01:11:06] Are models plateauing, and is regulation a moat?

- [01:13:21] Paperclips, recursive self-improvement and defensive AI.

- [01:14:14] If the labs are serious, why not regulate themselves?

**Friends of the Pod:**

John on Nostr, Dan (ngit), Jack, Paul

**Projects Mentioned:**

FIPS, Nostr, Wingman, Flight Deck, Autopilot, Tower, Google Drive, Cloudflare, GitHub, Forgejo, NGit Workshop, GRASP, DaVinci, Blender, FFmpeg

**Concepts:**

Private mesh networking, Nostr identity, FIPS addresses, local-first software, agent-native infrastructure, self-hosting UX, device keys, browser transports, open-source AI, AI regulation, cartel behaviour, recursive self-improvement

**Quote:**

“Nostr plus FIPS, it’s enough. We can rebuild everything now.” — Pete