/Tech15h ago

Casey Handmer says a meeting with a web browser co-inventor derailed into a monologue on political theorist James Burnham

The lecture reportedly connected Burnham to internet encryption protocols

34475791104.9K

#451

Original post

Casey Handmer@CJHandmer#451inTech

I guess I should tell a VC horror story. I probably shouldn't say who but I was invited to breakfast with a guy who invented the web browser, ostensibly to discuss American Dynamism and synthetic chemistry.

Anyway, what I thought was a brief warm up discussion turned into a high speed monologue on James Burnham that was so long I lost all sense of space, time, and feeling in my lower legs.

You might think there's only so much that can be said about James Burnham but that is incorrect. It turns out to be the Oracular source of write only line noise that powers all of SSL/TLS on the modern Internet. SpaceX makes about a billion dollars a year just retransmitting the self-encrypting ideas of Burnham back and forth through the atmosphere.

This incidentally also disproves Dark Forest Theory and solves the Fermi Paradox.

11:22 PM · Jun 8, 2026 · 99.6K Views

/Tech15h ago

Casey Handmer says a meeting with a web browser co-inventor derailed into a monologue on political theorist James Burnham

The lecture reportedly connected Burnham to internet encryption protocols

34475791104.9K

#451

Original post

Casey Handmer@CJHandmer#451inTech

Anyway, what I thought was a brief warm up discussion turned into a high speed monologue on James Burnham that was so long I lost all sense of space, time, and feeling in my lower legs.

This incidentally also disproves Dark Forest Theory and solves the Fermi Paradox.

11:22 PM · Jun 8, 2026 · 99.6K Views

Sentiment

Some users enjoyed the founder's story about the bizarre VC meeting featuring James Burnham as funny and worth experiencing, while many others called the post vague, horrible, or accused the founder of trying to be edgy.

Pos

33.3%

Neg

66.7%

9 comments with sentiment.

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Katherine Boyle@KTmBoyle

@CJHandmer The worst one I’ve heard.

Casey Handmer@CJHandmer

Anyway, what I thought was a brief warm up discussion turned into a high speed monologue on James Burnham that was so long I lost all sense of space, time, and feeling in my lower legs.

This incidentally also disproves Dark Forest Theory and solves the Fermi Paradox.

7h3.2K210

BOOKMARKS2REPLIES1

Casey Handmer@CJHandmer

Uh oh, now I'm on their radar. Illuminati confirmed.

Casey Handmer@CJHandmer

Anyway, what I thought was a brief warm up discussion turned into a high speed monologue on James Burnham that was so long I lost all sense of space, time, and feeling in my lower legs.

This incidentally also disproves Dark Forest Theory and solves the Fermi Paradox.

3h2.1K152

Tom@ThomasConlan2

@CJHandmer just sounds like your embarrassed that you didn't consider making synthetic fuels out of James Burnham

11h1.8K12

Zenyth@chowzy83

@CJHandmer what kind of vague post is this

14h61316

Tonantzintla@SupraTon618

@CJHandmer I wonder who this could be about…

13h4779

Badal@TheBlapse

@CJHandmer I was not familiar with your posting game casey😂

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Simon@SimonTheNoob

@CJHandmer I'm not sure who this egghead is but damn, I would want him to geek out if I had a lunch with him... Probably wouldn't have time to pitch to him but it would be worth it!

Also, Fermi paradox is not about why we can't hear the aliens, it's about why

13h1.9K5

Casey Handmer@CJHandmer

@ThomasConlan2 Mistake learned

7h4742

steppe@poststeppe

@CJHandmer so did you educate him on where you stand on bourgeois vs managerial capitalism?

13h1.4K1

Drawn Out of Water@meo_joule

@CJHandmer Did the Kanye West meme 😆

13h3312

Richard Easther@REasther

@CJHandmer This is very funny, and aligns nicely with my own priors which are based entirely on some random browser developer's occasional brainfarts about fundamental physics.

13h9231

𝕐@softincel

@CJHandmer I met this VC in a grocery store yesterday, . I told him how cool it was to meet him in person, but I didn’t want to bother him. He said, “Oh, like you’re doing now?” I was taken aback, and all I could say was “Huh?” but he kept cutting me off and going “huh? huh? huh?”

7h5871

Jana@TechieTex

@CJHandmer Did Burnham return the feeling to your lower extremities though.

9h5211

Daniel Cronin@danpatcronin

@CJHandmer I understood all of that.

14h5061

Your Mom, Dave@YourMomDave1

@CJHandmer

8h1421

Lbart@Lbart98797669

@CJHandmer You sound like a lower level insider trying to be edgy. What are you doing here? I mean, I'm sure everyone knows whom you are referring to. What's your point?

8h285

Tim Smith@timbot

@CJHandmer Horrible. Name and shame!

11h280

Simon@SimonTheNoob

@CJHandmer They haven't colonized the earth billions of years ago. Therefore, I must conclude that the galaxy doesn't have intelligent life, at least not much beyond our capabilities (and if that was the case, then there would be another, more disturbing question of why).

13h741

Edward Mehr@EdwardMehr

@CJHandmer 🤣🤣🤣

7h491

Austin King@MadeWithOzten

@CJHandmer Tim Berners-Lee can spin a yarn

8h124