title: @0thernet: Many people think a dog is a man’s best friend, but for Chinese people, the hors...
author: 0thernet
contenttype: twitterarticle
published: 2025-10-26T15:44:27+00:00
source_url: https://x.com/0thernet/status/2023204430200610830
word_count: 741
Many people think a dog is a man’s best friend, but for Chinese people, the horse is the ultimate co
Many people think a dog is a man’s best friend, but for Chinese people, the horse is the ultimate companion. Over five thousand years ago, the Botai people of Northern Kazakhstan were the first civilization to domesticate horses. In China, horses became a vital part of civilization during the Shang Dynasty (1600–1100 BCE). A millennium later, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty dispatched forces to modern day Uzbekistan to acquire “heavenly horses,” which were critical for upgrading China’s military power. When the heavenly horse kingdom refused to sell them, China took the horses by force. Today, the popular Chinese idiom 马到成功 (mǎ dào chéng gōng ) means “success follows the horse’s arrival” and alludes to the importance of cavalry in military victories.
I am Chinese. My dad is part Manchu , and his family worked in a lumber factory in northern China. They relied on carts and horses to ship the logs from far away mountains to Harbin before selling to other wood businesses, including my grandmother's family business, which made furniture, tools and building materials. Business boomed until the Cultural Revolution, when both families plummeted into poverty. Even when they were starving, everyone was told to never eat horse meat no matter how hungry they were. My dad grew up in poverty (30% of his childhood classmates died) but he studied his way out, landing at Peking University, and then America, where he met my mom.
Fast forward a century after my ancestors made their fortune with horses. We're in the midst of another revolution, this time with AI. The timeline is like a noisy town square, full of people hawking different tools to make you more productive. The lexicon of AI is confusing and polarizing. Is it going to look like some kind of machine god? A virtual employee? A Mac Mini? Nobody knows. If you go to the Zo website, you’ll see that we call Zo a companion, not an assistant. That’s intentional. An assistant is someone you command from above, and sometimes treat like shit (cue Devil Wears Prada). At its worst, an assistant is like a dog.
Right now "AI companion" has a seedy connotation (AI gfs/bfs). I believe we'll outgrow this soon, and begin to see AI as a true companion. Today, AI is like a horse. You must train with it, but if you put in the work, you can extend your reach beyond the limitations of your frail human body and mind. Zo’s mascot was deliberately chosen. Pegasus – not just any horse, but the mythical winged horse of gods. A beautiful thing, fully yours, but with a life of its own, and magical powers beyond your ken.
We believe the relationship between humans and AI should feel similar to the relationship between humans and horses. Zo is an easy to use, managed alternative to OpenClaw that still enables total custody and flexibility (you own the infrastructure). We'll soon be fully compatible with @openclaw , so you can give your Claw the power of Zo (and a nice UI). With Zo, you command the raw horsepower of cloud computing [0], without any SaaS middlemen. The four horsemen of the SaaSpocalypse? They're all riding Zo Computers.
My mom's been using Zo for 7 months
Humans and horses mutually elevated each other for centuries. Horses gave us speed, strength, and reach. We gave them care, purpose, and direction. The unbridled power of computing (now enabled for everyone on earth via AI) shouldn't replace human qualities like judgment, experience, or creativity — it should extend them. We humans carry the responsibility of being good stewards to our horses, so that together we can travel to foreign lands (and fly to new heights if you're using Zo, the winged horse 🪽 ).
Chinese New Year is this week. One reason I’m horse crazy is because I was born in the year of the Horse. If my ancestors allow it, this year will be an auspicious year for me – and for every member of the @zocomputer community. Join us .
马力全开 (mǎlì quán kāi) “Release the full power of the horse”
– Ben
Thank you @bytheophana for ghostwriting most of this article. I love you and my ancestors are rooting for us ❤️
PS – come celebrate LNY with us, @DsgnBuddies , @buildclub_ , @gracepace_ , and @sugarjammi tomorrow in SF 🧧
[0] Relevant slide from our pitch deck
Consumers accessing the raw horsepower of cloud compute
Posted: 2025-10-26T15:44:27.000Z
Engagement: 57 likes, 9 retweets, 3 replies