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Pay-to-Ring Phones: Ending Robocalls by Making Attention Valuable
Hello people. This is the Mad Scientist Supreme, talking today about Kevin Bacon, Glenn Beck, and why your phone should stop ringing for free.
Glenn Beck recently said he finally got a phone, but he doesn’t want anyone calling him. He just wants it for information. That makes perfect sense—because phones used to cost money to ring, and now they don’t. And once calling became free and unlimited, scammers flooded the system.
So here’s the fix: make attention cost something again.
Imagine a small program on your phone. Anyone calling you who isn’t on your approved list has to pay a tiny fee—say the crypto equivalent of a dime—before your phone even rings. Your phone automatically sends back a message: “Pay X to ring this number.”
Scammers won’t do it. Robocallers won’t do it. Unknown numbers disappear overnight.
People in your contacts? Free.
Friends, family, trusted businesses? Free.
Unknown numbers? Pay to play—or your phone stays silent.
You could even go further. If a call comes from an unassigned or spoofed number, your phone never rings at all. It just plays the “number not in service” response. As far as scammers are concerned, your number doesn’t exist. They share that information, and you drop off their lists permanently.
Now flip this idea around for famous people.
If you’re Glenn Beck, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or anyone well-known, you could publish your phone number publicly—and charge for access. Maybe it’s $100. Maybe it’s $1,000. If someone really wants to pitch you something, they pay. If you hang up after ten seconds, you still made the money. Better yet, route it straight to charity.
Your phone rings less.
Charities get funded.
Scammers vanish.
Same idea applies to text messages. If a million people text you, charge for priority. Pay $1, you’re low in the queue. Pay $10, you move up. Pay $110, you’re now first. When the recipient opens their messages, the highest bidder is on top. One click, one read, money earned.
This isn’t censorship. It’s attention economics.
Right now, your time is treated as worthless. Anyone can interrupt you for free. This system flips that around. You set the price. You raise it until interruptions stop. Or you set it to zero for the people you actually want to hear from.
Phones become useful again instead of annoying.
Scammers disappear without laws or enforcement.
Attention becomes valuable again.
That’s the idea for today.
This is the Mad Scientist Supreme, signing out.