Christofuturism, Economic Policy, and Strategic Partnerships Discussion

Overview

Gary Sheng engaged in an extensive conversation with Travis Oliphant, Joe Merrill (Travis's business partner and former State Department official), and Emma Merrill (Joe's daughter and marketing expert) covering a wide range of strategic topics. The conversation began with Gary's concept of "Christofuturism" and evolved through economic policy analysis, government contracting opportunities, cultural critique, and visions for future collaboration between the US and China.

Key Participants

• Gary Sheng: Alpha Schools strategic advisor and network orchestrator
• Travis Oliphant: NumPy creator, AI industry leader, government contractor
• Joe Merrill: Former State Department China specialist, Travis's business partner
• Emma Merrill: Marketing expert, Joe's daughter, Baylor University graduate

Major Topics Discussed

1. Christofuturism Philosophy

Gary introduced his concept of "Christofuturism" as an alternative to dystopian technological futures:

Gary's Vision: Gary: "The future I want basically looks like our dream, or like I think people's utopia in the 1950s, except with flying cars. Because I don't want, my utopia is not like we all have a million smart devices that are clearly present and just we look like we're in the future. No, I think it's just everyone's kind of relaxed and really connected to nature and humans and God."

Emma's Response: Emma: "I want post Air City, not Blade Runner."

Joe's Theological Framework: Joe: "I do believe that we are becoming, as God's children, collectively speaking, we're getting better at loving one another, we're getting better at taking care of each other. You know the two great commandments, love God and love your neighbor."

2. Credibility and Truth-Telling

Early in the conversation, Joe raised concerns about someone misrepresenting State Department credentials:

Joe's Investigation: Joe: "He was telling me, I was an education official. I was in SoCal and did this war game. I was at the State Department... I just called him last week... And they checked that he was in a PR, personal office. No record of him being a contractor or employee of the State Department. But they found that he participated in the education program."

Gary's Response: Gary: "I think when the time's right, I'll just give him that feedback. Like, don't fucking do that... There's nothing to be ashamed about with that. That's actually very cool... And I would be like, great. Who's great when you did this?"

3. Economic Policy and Regulatory Analysis

Joe provided extensive analysis of economic regulations and their unintended consequences:

Sarbanes-Oxley Critique: Joe: "After the Eminem scandal, we created Sarbanes-Oxley to make sure that no one was ever going to cheat investors again. So, in order to, like, eliminate risk, right, you put this barrier so that now, if you want to go public, you have to spend $5 million, three to five million dollars on socks and audits... And we went from something like 16,000 publicly-traded companies that went print-in time, and then we're down to something like 1,500."

Venture Capital Impact: Joe: "It doesn't matter that founders controlled the companies still when they went public... But when you look at the total economics of all the dollars they invested across all the firms, it's terribly inefficient. And the other model produced a more robust market with greater competition and more wealth evenly distributed."

Travis's Agreement: Travis: "Ultimately enrich lawyers and bankers. It's patronizing."

4. International Development and China Policy

Joe shared extensive insights on international relations and development models:

Millennium Challenge Program: Joe: "It was created by George Bush, George W. Bush... The idea was go to developing countries that want to have reforms. And the key reforms that they're measured on is economic freedom, religious freedom, and personal freedom... They're grants. Yeah, they don't – these aren't loans... And they're getting great returns."

Xi Jinping Analysis: Joe: "I was a big believer in Xi Jinping until he came to power... Xi Jinping had all the pieces to be great... If he had just continued Yang's reforms... China and the United States would probably be allies... But he's taking a path of Chinese expansionism... he's doing the kinds of things that make countries fractured. He's laying the groundwork for the future breakdown of China."

Alternative Path Vision: Joe: "With a partnership with the United States, everyone in the world can speak Chinese and English. Those would be the two languages that would become the lingua franca."

5. Criminal Justice and Social Policy

Joe provided fascinating insights on Chinese prison reform compared to American approaches:

Chinese Prison System: Joe: "They have the lowest recidivism rates in the world. When you go to prison, you're expected to work. Every prison has factors... when you come out of prison, you get a check. You get a house. You get an apartment. You get rent prepaid for a year. You have a job. And you have a degree. And they have no one going back to jail."

American Puritanical Approach: Joe: "In China, nobody went back to jail... And this just goes back to the early American Protestantism. It's embedded in the council culture... It's Puritanism, not Protestantism. Because part of it, yeah, to be a Protestant is, hey, you made a mistake. You can fix that. But with Puritanism, no, you can't."

6. Open Source Philosophy and Collaboration

Travis explained principles of effective collaboration and open source development:

Christ-Centered Collaboration: Travis: "Christ enables us. As opposed to top-down, I'm going to control, I'm going to create power on this... The knowledge outside of the building is more than what's in the building, right? And so if you want to do this with a bunch of people because you know that what they bring is greater than what you have, egocentric people can't do this."

Love and Faith as Fuel: Travis: "Love and faith are the best fuels... The part of open source that's valuable is love. It's because it's done out of... Do you want to... I need to show you something... The part where open source gets ugly is when it also creates challenges."

7. Government Contracting Opportunities

Joe and Travis discussed their current government contracting work:

Current Contracts: Joe: "We're asking Air Force Cyborgs to figure out the security clearance with their site and facility plans... And then we'll have a third person and we'll have CMMC, too... And the woman that's coming in the major, she had a TSSCI clearance... And then we'll have two cleared people. We'll have Jessica and Ari."

Contract Strategy: Joe: "The way you get contracts is you have a relationship with the... So typically the Department of Defense is the colonels who have the budget and spend it. And you get to know these colonels that manage this budget for Air Combat Command or Strategic Air Command."

8. City Building and Civilization Projects

Gary presented his vision for building new cities and civilizations:

Societal Projects Vision: Gary: "What if we created Trump World? What if we created Trump World, where you literally have – you apply all of our best understanding of what – how to build road systems, transport, sewage, communications, everything, the best casinos, schools, sports facilities. And then you just recruited the actual smartest people that were humble enough to work together."

Leadership vs. Ego: Joe: "Trump is old, right? And the vision you're talking about, that's a 20-year, 50-year project... He's also somewhat morally challenged, right? He's not the guy to do this... The person to do this is you... How are you going to do this? How are you going to get all these people involved to do this?"

Travis's Collaboration Insight: Travis: "If egocentric people end up building something like this, then it's actually a lot smaller... Because Elon Musk is similar. Like, he's pretty egocentric, right?... But he has to control a lot... And so then it doesn't scale very far."

9. Cultural Movements and Social Issues

The conversation included extensive discussion of cultural and social movements:

LGBTQ Movement Analysis: Gary: "It's an extremely parasitic movement... What I mean is, it feeds on countries, it feeds on cities, it feeds on neighborhoods. It's not about making people who they really are, it's about transforming them to what the parasite wants."

Emma's Biblical Perspective: Emma: "There's a story in Acts where a unit comes up to Paul... And he says, yeah. He goes, get on in here, buddy... Yeah, we can welcome it in."

Distinction Between Acceptance and Promotion: Travis: "You recognize that this is me. I'm not trying to recruit you. I don't have to recruit you to have my day... That's what is not true."

10. Faith-Based Music and Culture

Discussion of music and cultural expression in faith contexts:

Kanye's Sunday Service: Gary: "Music is also what... is a big part of what brought me to Christ in the first place, right? So, obviously he's not in the best place right now, but you can't deny Kanye's... At different parts of his life, he's produced some of the most amazing works of art, including Sunday Service."

Emma's Response: Emma: "That album makes me cry. The one you're talking about."

Joe's Family Choir Story: Joe: "My cousin and her husband are founding members of Gladys Knight's All Saints Choir... They had this all-population choir, all-population of love... And you don't cry listening to them sing that. You don't have a heart. And they never released it... They decided that they wanted to commercialize it. That's beautiful."

11. US-China Collaboration Vision

Gary proposed ambitious US-China collaboration projects:

Moon City Concept: Gary: "I think Trump is still early... I think we can make it the most successful presidency of all time... Imagine if the U.S. literally partnered on a new city in China... We're solving... Like, literally, my last DC trip, two weeks ago, I was with a beautifully autistic guy, he's like 26 years old, who was working, like I said, with NASA and XPRIZE on identifying 180 blockers to a city on the moon."

Gary's Unique Position: Gary: "I'm maybe the only person on Earth... That is tapped into DC, Africa, Rome, and China at the same time... And I'm literally alive because of the U.S.-China dichotomy."

China Connection Through Alpha Schools: Gary: "Do you know how I'm connected with China? Through Alpha Schools... it's through Ari Crane, the guy that I introduced you to... he literally has the ear of the First Lady of China, on Alpha Schools, on two-hour learning."

12. Education Reform and Alpha Schools

Discussion of Gary's work with Alpha Schools and broader education reform:

Alpha Schools Expansion: Gary: "We're opening up eight campuses this fall... All over the country. The staff, which is about 100K per guide."

Marketing Challenges: Gary: "The top priority right now is the marketing funnel is broken. If I get, if someone tells me about Apple School, there's no good process for me to get my kid in."

Emma's Potential Role: Travis: "Emma, who you met, that's, marketing is what she's helping OVG with. She, you know, may be interested in helping on some of this."

13. Community Building and Relationship Dynamics

Travis shared insights on human relationships and community building:

Mental Models of Relationships: Travis: "I think you basically have a certain amount of memory in your mind to make mental models of people in your real life... You actually have a model of the mental state of your close companion in your head... You only have room for thought."

Moving Beyond Hometown Constraints: Gary: "Part of why it's often, almost all the time, useful to move out of your hometown is because you get constrained by people's mental models of who you are."

Travis's Affirmation: Travis: "Because they're building up a model of you. And you can basically be... It's self-reinforcing."

14. Family and Personal Relationships

Joe shared his personal story of divorce and remarriage:

Difficult First Marriage: Joe: "My ex-wife, she's hyper-abusive also... She was trying to get me to kill myself. She was not a good human... I tried to make it work for 25 years."

Reconnection Story: Joe: "Mary reached out to me at the end of my divorce... I looked up and I saw one fly on Southwest going to Kansas City... I walked into the Southwest playing desk and I said, kind of in a Nicholas Sparks situation here. This could be the love of my life and my last chance for love."

Current Marriage Success: Joe: "Marriage is incredible when someone loves you. It's so awesome. And it's like you disagree about something. Like, well, why do you feel that way? And she was like, well, why do you feel that way?"

15. Technology and Human Connection

Gary articulated his vision for technology's role in human connection:

AI for Better Connections: Gary: "One of my friends who I'm having breakfast with on Monday has the leading AI for connecting people based on their shared goals and interests... people want to meet with people that they should be meeting... And so that's not we have more apps. It's literally we are just hanging out with people that we've been hanging out with."

Community Technology: Gary: "I think what we can... If we were to put our vouching behind one thing, it's community technology and movement technology."

16. Vision for Future Collaboration

The conversation concluded with discussions of potential collaboration:

God Wave Movement: Gary: "The group that we call God Wave... We're literally in the identity creation process... What would success be? It's just, like, convincing or just inspiring people... Inspiring people to put God first."

Prompt Engineering Culture: Gary: "We are prompt engineering culture... We need to have conviction that the culture needs to be prompted. That it needs to be prompt engineered. And that we just got to do it in the best possible way."

Key Strategic Insights

Economic Policy Reform

• Sarbanes-Oxley has destroyed small business access to public markets
• Current venture capital model disadvantages founders
• International development should use grant + equity rather than pure loans
• Risk elimination through regulation often creates worse outcomes

International Relations

• US-China partnership possible with different Chinese leadership
• Joint projects could redirect competitive energies toward collaboration
• Cultural and economic exchange more effective than military competition
• Personal relationships critical in government contracting

Faith-Based Innovation

• Christofuturism offers alternative to dystopian technological futures
• Love and faith provide better fuel than fear or competition
• Authentic faith expression more powerful than watered-down approaches
• Community building requires both vision and practical execution

Technology and Society

• Technology should enhance rather than replace human connection
• Open source principles apply beyond software to social organization
• Decentralized collaboration more sustainable than ego-driven control
• Cultural movements can be parasitic or generative

Action Items and Future Opportunities

Immediate Collaborations

1. Emma's Marketing Expertise: Potential collaboration on Alpha Schools marketing
2. Government Contracts: Joe and Travis's network for educational technology contracts
3. Faith-Based Content: Collaboration on Christofuturism cultural projects
4. US-China Relations: Exploring educational partnerships with Chinese leadership

Long-term Vision Projects

1. Moon City Development: US-China collaboration on space habitation
2. City Building Experiments: Faith-based community development projects
3. Economic Policy Reform: Advocacy for Sarbanes-Oxley repeal
4. Educational Innovation: Alpha Schools as model for global education reform

Network Development

1. Government Access: Through Joe's State Department connections
2. Technical Innovation: Through Travis's AI and open source network
3. Marketing and Outreach: Through Emma's skills and generational perspective
4. International Relations: Through Gary's unique multi-continental connections

Notable Quotes

On Vision and Leadership: Joe: "The person to do this is you... How are you going to do this? How are you going to get all these people involved to do this? How are you going to inspire them? And how are you not going to make it an egocentric thing?"

On Collaboration: Travis: "It requires you to surround yourself with people... I love the vision... how are you going to do this? I think that's exactly the way to think about it."

On Faith and Technology: Gary: "I don't want to deal with that anymore [working with people not Christ-centered]... Everything moves and flows at the speed of trust."

On Cultural Change: Gary: "We are prompt engineering culture... We need to have conviction that the culture needs to be prompted."

Conclusion

This extensive conversation revealed multiple strategic opportunities for collaboration between Gary Sheng's mission-driven initiatives and the technical, business, and government expertise of Travis Oliphant, Joe Merrill, and Emma Merrill. The discussion demonstrated alignment on core principles of faith-based innovation, collaborative rather than ego-driven leadership, and the potential for transformative projects that could impact education, technology, international relations, and cultural development.

The conversation established strong foundation for future collaboration across multiple domains: government contracting through Joe's network, technical innovation through Travis's expertise, marketing and outreach through Emma's skills, and strategic vision through Gary's unique position spanning multiple networks and geographies. The shared commitment to Christ-centered approaches and collaborative rather than competitive models creates strong basis for long-term partnership in ambitious projects ranging from education reform to international peace initiatives.