Language as Action
Fernando Flores, building on Austin and Searle's speech act theory, showed that language doesn't just describe the world — it changes it. A request, a promise, a declaration: these are acts that create new realities and bind parties to obligations.
His "Conversation for Action" model maps every commitment cycle through four phases: Preparation, Negotiation, Performance, and Acceptance. Agentic AI is now capable of operating in every one of these phases — drafting requests, accepting promises, verifying performance, and declaring completion — at machine speed.
Developed the Conversation for Action model while at Stanford, 1982.
Bitcoin as the Settlement Layer
Traditional inter-company payments involve banks, wire fees, net-30/60/90 terms, accounts payable departments, and factoring costs. Each step adds delay, friction, and a third party who extracts a toll.
RSK (Rootstock) is a Bitcoin sidechain that brings smart contracts to Bitcoin's security model. RBTC is pegged 1:1 to BTC via PowPeg and secured by over 50% of Bitcoin's proof-of-work hashrate. Smart contracts on RSK can hold funds in escrow, verify conditions, and release payment automatically — no intermediary, no float, no fees beyond the network transaction cost.
When an AI agent fulfils its obligations, Bitcoin settles. Instantly. The code is the agreement.