Monitoring the Situation #3: Who Is Nick Land?

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Science, Innovation, Business, Entrepreneurship, Culture, Disruption, Software Eating The World, Technology

4.4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Zach Dell is founder and CEO of Base Power, an energy tech company that builds affordable, reliable power via home batteries. In this episode of Monitoring the Situation, a16z General Partners Erik Torenberg, Katherine Boyle, and Erin Price-Wright sit down with Zach to discuss the current state of home power generation, what’s misunderstood about the data center buildout, and how to fix the US electricity grid. Plus, Erik and Katherine talk with a16z crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin about Silicon Valley’s favorite Dark Enlightenment philosopher, Nick Land.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Nick Land's work is very vibe.
0:02.0	It's really vibe.
0:03.0	He has an intense, prosaic writing style that is provocative,
0:09.0	intentionally grandiose.
0:11.0	What's happening is new technology is being created,
0:14.0	which is leading to a ton of demand for a thing,
0:17.0	which is exposing the fact that we don't have a bunch of supply for that thing.
0:20.0	And so now a bunch of supply is getting built to unlock new demand. And so new technology will get created, which will unlock new demand, which will expose more supply that hasn't been built. And the fly will go, and that's where we get prosperity and economic growth and GDP. America at the finest. Exactly. Like, this is what it's all about, baby. This is why we're here,
0:38.1	building companies in America.
0:40.4	In 2025, the greatest cracking under its own weight.
0:43.5	Data centers are multiplying,
0:45.1	home batteries are surging,
0:46.4	and the line between energy and tech is starting to blur.
0:49.6	On this third episode of monitoring the situation,
0:51.8	I sit down with the A16Z general partners,
0:53.9	Catherine Boyle, and Aaron Pricewright, along with Zach Dell, the founder and CEO of
0:58.3	base power to talk about the future of energy. We dig into how to make local power generation
1:02.7	affordable, what most people get wrong about the data center buildout, and how we might actually
1:07.4	fix the U.S. electricity grid. Then, Catherine and I are joined by A16Z's Eddie Lazarin
1:12.3	to discuss the philosopher shaping parts of Silicon Valley's intellectual underground.
1:16.7	Nick Land. Let's get into it.
1:21.6	Zach, welcome to monitoring the situation.
	...

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