 The internet is revolutionizing every industry, and the world of ideas is no different. I'm Steve Patterson. I'm a philosopher working outside of academia, and you may have come across my work with Patterson in Pursuit, which is a weekly podcast where I'm traveling the world, interviewing different intellectuals about really big ideas. You may have come across my work on YouTube where I'm releasing videos like this, or some of my articles online, or you may have read my first book on philosophy, Square One, The Foundations of Knowledge. None of this work is produced thanks to a university system. It's all made possible from supporters like you online who value the work that I'm doing. I'm convinced that the future of intellectual progress will not come from people who are working within the academic establishment. It's going to come from people outside the academy who can work online without any of the pressures to conform to the ideas and the standards of your peers in academia. There's a new world out there, the wild west of ideas, and we're smack in the middle of it. And because I'm outside of the system, my work doesn't have to be hyper-specialized, doesn't have to be really jargonistic in a way that virtually nobody can understand. My goal is to discover truth and then to communicate it as clearly as possible for those individuals who care. Now what that means is I can cover work from philosophy and metaphysics and epistemology and logic to mathematics, to critical thinking about social problems and economics and politics. My work covers all of these areas with the same lens that I'm trying to break apart the truth in any given field and analyze it based on its principles. And if you value that, then this is your opportunity to show your support and make this voice a little bit louder. With this show and the work that I'm doing, I also don't have to pretend to be an idle bystander where I just humbly comment on the ideas of other people and I just don't know anything about anything. No, I've been working on these ideas for more than a decade. I've got, I think, a lot of conclusions. I want to put my ideas to the test. And I'm not shy about communicating to you, putting my ideas out there to say, hey look, this is what I've discovered. This is why I think it's true. What do you think? Is this right or is it wrong? So if you like this style of communication and if you like the idea of analyzing big ideas in a straightforward and honest manner in ways that everybody can understand, then please become a patron of the show where you can contribute a dollar or two every time a new article or a podcast or video is released. And if you have more means, then, of course, feel free to donate more. If you do, you get all kinds of good perks. So every level of support gets a free copy of all the books that I've written and all the books that I'll write in the future. Right now that includes what's the big deal about Bitcoin if you're interested in Bitcoin, and square one the foundations of knowledge. And you also get access to a private Facebook group which is filled with other patrons who are also trying to discover truth together. At higher levels, you get access to things like private Skype chats, Google Hangouts, Q&A sessions, behind the scenes videos, and a bunch of other cool stuff. So if you value the work that I'm doing and the worldview that I'm trying to create based on foundational principles and rationality and the universality of logic, this is your opportunity to support that worldview and make it that much louder.