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It would be nice if I could wake up and go into a chat with all my friends, but they give me quests of things that are actually important to do and we all do quests together and make a bunch of money and change the world. Instead of just refreshing the tweet stream over and over.
What I’m talking about is a social problem, not a technological one. This is not something you need blockchains for. Or VR, or AI. What you need is a strange attractor. A flag, a mutual vision that draws together a disparate group of people. A swarm of squads.
I like the framing that Richard Bartlett uses at http://microsolidarity.cc. Crew, congregation, crowd. Twitter is a “crowd” environment. Not the best one we could have, but the best one we have yet. GCs are crews. Congregations want to form, but they need churches.
And these are congregations! That strange attractor is an egregore. A little baby godling. Egregores want to help people get together and align their actions toward a greater goal. That’s why we’re symbiotic. But in return, we must build them somewhere to live.
And we must tell them our purpose.
This doesn’t have to be a startup, or a co-op, or a communist revolution. There are internet subcultures who are able to divert a bunch of money and power into building their realities simply as users. i.e.: furries, gamers, memers, TikTok dancers
I think you've just described what is known as a "startup."
— Anastasia (@demystifysci) November 13, 2021
Come hang out with us we have lots to do and will change the world and make a bunch of money doing it and we're cool people you know
I’m glad that people are building the financial and digital infrastructure for new egregores, outside of the current system of nations and corporations. But ultimately what it will need is a level of ritual, personal devotion, and trust equal to a cult, or religion.
And unfortunately for me, I will find it hard to engage with cultish behavior. I’ve been hurt badly by it before, with people I knew and loved in person. How do you find people to trust on the internet?
In a way this is the genius of the Constitution DAO. Crowd-owning a sacred text will give purpose to all the people who participate, and a sense of unearned trust. The opposite of a secret society lol. You know these people share your values. Literally!
buying the constitution is a flex but a bad move strategically. never make a forcing move from a weak position
— web weaver (@deepfates) November 13, 2021
I don’t know if they’ll be able to do it, especially if their buying power is visible on the blockchain. If they don’t have 20 mil, they can’t bluff their way to the top. And if they do, they can still be outbid. Maybe they’re planning some cool smart contract stuff, idk.
I wouldn’t join them anyway. I need a DAO that’s producing things. In the real world, ideally, but software will be necessary as well. It doesn’t have to collect things, it doesn’t have to 1000x in value. Most people are sketched out by things that 1000x in value! They’re risky!
What I really want: • steady, meaningful work to do for • people I care about.
I have this now — family business — and it’s great! But it isn’t something that will scale. And I also want: • to build collective power around a communal vision to change the world
I know what that vision is, for me. And I know a lot of people who agree with it! But I don’t know how to build a congregation around it. I don’t have the tools, and I don’t have the social finesse.
Maybe I can focus on articulating a vision. Other people can disagree with it, or build on top of it. Either way it would be useful to have common frame of reference for discussion. A lot of this stuff is nifty technologically, but not grounded in real people’s needs.
How can I write a promising vision for the future without becoming a focal point for an egregore? I need to build it a virtual house, with a virtual name. Like when Plato made up Socrates. Otherwise this stuff will get serious far too fast. As we have seen
gonna leave the rooncult and join deepfatescult, sounds more promising for the world
— Brain (@BrainSuperMouse) November 13, 2021
I guess the crux here is “actually important to do”. Assuming we have some amount of funds and labor, what is the most valuable thing to do with it? It has to be something that pays back, at least enough to not deplete our funds and labor. But it also has to have a purpose.
I’ve known people in the intentional communities scene for a decade. Coming up with a communal purpose is hard. Finding one that’s also a successful business model? Nearly impossible. I guess the peanut butter factory does okay. But they’re not scaling.
Again, here, the middle stairs are missing. There are long term visions for humanity (already outlining the religious wars to come), and there are short-term strategies like “do a startup” “start a podcast” “pump a dog coin” “get foodies”.
We need cathedrals to build.
Not cathedrals of historic proportion. We should not build for the fortunes of families, or the armies of states, or the glory of old gods. We should build cathedrals to Nature, without whom we would never have made it this far. And to Science, without which we won’t make it out.
Great question. So what I actually mean is that we live on a planet that is past several boundaries for stable ecological functioning and we need to move rapidly en masse to fix it
why aren’t you doing it yourself
— Tim Rooney (@tjrwriting) November 13, 2021
We probably need to return about 50% of the surface to biodiverse full-succession ecosystems (not sure how much of ocean). Without killing a bunch of people, so we need to maintain/adapt technoindustrial cities to hold billions more people. Is that vague? https://x.com/chaosprime/status/1459665818720116747?s=20
What we need are cathedrals to nature (rehabitats) and to science (arcologies). To steward the climate for the indefinite future. Because A) nobody else is going to do it, and B) complex life unlikely to develop again if we kill it all! It’s a huge mission. Where is quest giver?
Currently there are billions of people who would like to save the planet, very few people who will actively say that they want to kill the planet. A good number of people who say one but do the other. Unfortunately, the power is locked up by that last group.
Power here meaning “ability to coordinate mass human behavior”. States have it, religions have it, monied persons and corporations have it. They can’t get everybody to save the planet all at once either! They’re caught in status games and multipolar traps.
If that power could somehow be liquidated — if we could coordinate our behavior well enough that I could predictably have a roof over my head by working to save the planet — lots of people would want to do it! We’re trapped in a local minimum
what i really want:
— web weaver (@deepfates) November 13, 2021
• steady, meaningful work to do
for
• people I care about.
i have this now -- family business -- and it's great! but it isn't something that will scale. and i also want
• to build collective power around a communal vision to change the world
Other people will use these same tools for different values. That’s the nature of tools. I will try to articulate more vision and draw more people I guess.