it's thrilling to find threads like this!

@visakanv is circling a mystery that I believe is the ᴜɴʟᴏᴄᴋ to humanity's future.

https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1652548739876409344?s=20

I wonder if or to what extent @slatestarcodex puzzled over this riddle, this phrase... "indescribable mental motion."

i'm assuming the phrase was lifted directly from the patient who experienced the transformative healing from Intractable psychological trauma.

but we can tell that the phrase is a revelation for @visakanv, who goes on to connect the phenomenon ("indescribable mental motion") w/ human creativity.

what happens when we feel "blocked", stagnant? and what accounts for breakthroughs?

why do we frequently "know more than we can say"?

what do geniuses have access to that others do not?

What does Minsky's "mental management" look and feel like as a concrete 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚?


https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1601997144743108608?s=20

strange as it may sound: the "indescribable mental motion" can illuminate the central challenge of our future, commonly indicated in these terms -

𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦
𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦
𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘵𝘺

for those in web3/crypto circles, these are common refrains!

still, we have yet to see meaningful discussions in the space around where the real leverage lies: developing higher spiritual-mental (cognitive) capacities.

here are perhaps subtle signs of a shift...?

On the @MakerDAO forum, @RuneKek's recent amendments to the Atlas Immutable Alignment Artifact (prev. "Constitution") have quite evocative language.

https://twitter.com/MakerDAO/status/1646172897990565888?s=20

See explicit contrast btwn -

technical incentives vs 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯;

letter of the rule vs 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘦;

intelligent vs 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴.

The Maker Atlas aims to "build as much resilience as possible" into governance. But this resilience doesn't derive, primarily, from a material construct - whether the Atlas, or underlying blockchain tech, or the tokenomics.

Resilience emerges from an ecology of distributed epistemic agents whose internal mental motions are coherent with that of the DAO's "big picture" purpose.

Q1: but what the heck are these "mental motions"?

Q2: and how can the "big picture" purpose be grokked in all its nuance & complexity, when just the most recent amendments to the Atlas are ~ 40k words long?

both questions lead us to hints by thinkers like @worrydream & @michael_nielsen.

Bret Victor argues the form of current knowledge work, computer interfaces, media, etc, is an accident of history that "inhumanely" shackles us to one narrow dimension of our cognitive capacity ...

Victor advocates for new, "humane representations of thought" that will allow us to develop latent cognitive capacities currently atrophying from disuse.

https://twitter.com/SpaceXponential/status/1352468375776190465?s=20

Despite the reams & reams of words composing its governance documentation, Maker's Atlas has to acknowledge the limits of dialectical rule-making.

Similarly, the next evolutionary breakthrough will come from liberating our thinking from language.

For the most part, our thinking today is bound to words, operating at the level of abstract, fixed notions.

https://twitter.com/SpaceXponential/status/1350208724107980806?s=20

(p.s. This is a major reason why we typically recall / absorb such a shockingly meager amount of actionable knowledge from reading. We believe we're actively 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 when we read, but in fact, we are 'sleep-walking' through words-as-remembered-notions.)

https://twitter.com/andy_matuschak/status/1140684228444610561?s=20

To become equal to the task of epistemic agency in all its complexity today, thinking must shift 𝙪𝙥𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 of words, so that we experience the vitality of direct, unmediated, intuitive understanding...

These are the "mental motions".

Because they are the primal 𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 that precede the crystallization of words, they have profound potential and implications for healing, creativity and collaboration.

(if you've been exploring or working along these lines, i'd love to connect. DMs are open.)

The Mystery of "Indescribable Mental Motion"

I'm making a crazy wall called "SBF WTF", sans red yarn.

this gem from @ryaneshea is def going on the wall...

https://twitter.com/ryaneshea/status/1592403915718656000?s=20&t=2VYc1ANvPjKOLvEkXBd97w

a "crazy wall" has two sides to it.

there's a manic desperation (hence the name), but I choose to focus on what it is that we're desperate to do...

to 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙.

we can't simply move on.

if crypto and web3 are to realize their potential for humanity, we have to wake up and get to the bottom of what is happening, within and without, to discredit and distort these seeds (incl. our own biases & ostrich syndrome) ...

https://twitter.com/fhomoney/status/1592266967507173377?s=20&t=bI3Ip1V8B9QAAf-jNwdagA

crypto twitter is aeons ahead of mainstream media (cough - @nytimes yesterday) in making sense of the @SBF_FTX @FTX_Official @AlamedaResearch meltdown.


https://twitter.com/BennettTomlin/status/1530610114054574082?s=20&t=lWkgmoM1TpLhyJ8SSag6dA

the sprawling cast of characters... the plausible, yet hair-raising claims...

how to navigate while having to work, eat, sleep & survive these 🎢 times?

https://twitter.com/CasPiancey/status/1592528283077574658?s=20&t=lWkgmoM1TpLhyJ8SSag6dA

you need a squad.

not just any squad.

https://twitter.com/0xfoobar/status/1592401102364106752?s=20&t=lWkgmoM1TpLhyJ8SSag6dA


essential traits in a sense-making squad

have-nots:

❌ emotional or dogmatic reactivity (incl. bitcoin/eth/X maximalist)
❌ conflict of interest (ie, financial gain)

haves:

✅ thorough & conscientious in thought & speech
✅ courage to speak & act against normative influence ("Asch negative")
✅ driven by obsessive love to discover & understand

https://twitter.com/SpaceXponential/status/1419446550418264066?s=20&t=DDrnUxiJbNWjgY-IC-zFzA

i'm building a crazy wall that i'll publish to the web, using @scrintal or @Heptabase.

(leaning to Scrintal just for floating cards feature - game-changing. also, embedded tweets/video, so I can quickly access content w/o breaking flow.)

i'd be keen to form a small squad to do the research and sense-making.

fearlessly build out the crazy wall & share our process publicly.

(DMs are open.)

there's so much riding on our ability to do this sovereign sense-making work, together.

https://twitter.com/ryaneshea/status/1592626555305754624?s=20&t=Ufk73juRi0pxW-wLo6fQnA

today's breaking news has been a long time in the making...

https://twitter.com/walterkirn/status/1592250805876559872?s=20&t=Ufk73juRi0pxW-wLo6fQnA

now the dominoes are set up for the next step...


https://twitter.com/SpaceXponential/status/1501328761324670977?s=20&t=DDrnUxiJbNWjgY-IC-zFzA

SBF WTF

It's udder chaos rn as I'm simultaneously testing several new tools for thought. But I already know - FEEL - when something lands in a new way.

@napkin_ideas & this moment!! 🤯

Initially I attributed quotes where needed.

But there was this beautiful thought and then 💥, the {name} dangling there at the end, ruining the flow. I couldn't just sit in the thoughts the way I wanted to.

So I removed the attributions & put them in tags. Feels like plagiarism 🥸 but I know my intentions and, and - it's only in ⓉⒽⒾⓈ form that the thoughts break over me like an ocean wave.

Feels good. I've heard peeps describe @napkin_ideas as "relaxing" and this def fits.

(Napkin surfaces your atomic notes using personalized AI. I've just begun using it, but I'm so eager to see how fruitful this can be once my notes hit critical mass.)

I love being able to switch the metadata off and on. The moment it's visible - indispensable as all the minutiae is, the experience changes.

The quality of thinking becomes more point-like, less fluid. Having this polarity active in a single tool is rare.

But wait... The 𝙌𝙐𝙀𝙎𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 🏷.

With its AI, Napkin gives me a potential game-changer.

A new way to surface half-formed intuitions... those waiting to blossom from just-in-time, just-at-the-right-time meetings in parallel universes w/ other half-formed intuitions.

This thought, h/t @holden, is just 🔥. Even though I know there's a world of understanding I have yet to live into, I still have goosebumps now. Somehow I have a premonition of that whole understanding.

Yes, I also use my trusty QUESTION tag in my beloved @RoamResearch (very often). The UI there puts the tool at the center. I have to query the database with more intentionality - forethought.


As for the # of times I've actually queried... it's true for me what is said here.

Not a simple matter of worse than X, but that I'm yearning for even more tool-supported fluidity...

2 years ago, Roam was revolutionary for me in this regard. I took a stab at articulating this here...


https://twitter.com/SpaceXponential/status/1350208477323550729?s=20&t=7FsMAcszdSH3SOuTNIcgTw

when I came across the incredible website on calm computing by @caseorganic, I was stoked to have language for what I was experiencing and loving while using tools like @AREdotNA - and now @napkin_ideas ...

where the tool recedes, bcs invisible...


And how cool is this - Napkin is currently hiring for a generative artist. 🎉


if you're keen to nerd out on new mediums for thought & collective intelligence, DM me and join the @forefront__ Discord.

👀 We're working in this space and will also be launching a new event series in this area soon. I'd love to connect.


https://twitter.com/forefront__/status/1588648653358788609?s=20&t=HWaFV_MPwMj9CIuoyuLW0Q

If you've also been building in this space, pls pls DM - I'd love to jam.


Napkin Love

an oldie (haha) but def a goodie.

a world of pondering to be had in "equipping people to be autonomous is what matters"...

https://twitter.com/WillPapper/status/1524101128421449730?s=20&t=8Aw45JdtI1YVnqkOZBiQBw

🌶️ take: the difficulty in designing for autonomy is due to our incomplete understanding of the human being. this incomplete understanding is reflected in our current social architectures and   seeps into our conception of what is possible in imagined architectures.

reality, to us, is limited to sensory perception as traditionally understood - the 5 senses, separate bodies in space, and the systems that act upon these.

systems are the cause of oppression, so we must design better structures and protocols - so the thinking goes.

the human being is ofc acted upon by structures, but nevertheless there is an agency within the human being that has primal causality - is always autonomous and calls out for recognition and cultivation.

(this last is the work of social sculpture.)

but the always-active human spirit - active even when denying itself - is either not recognized or downgraded to an epiphenomenon of neural activity.

the human spirit is largely disregarded in the Western worldview.  (that which experiences, the interiority which cognizes, is excluded from the reality of bumper-car particles). thus it is also disregarded in thinking about the design of social architectures.

we know when we see an individual whose initiative and creativity are unfolding, dancing freely.

the rarest of social creations - the true unicorn. often these individuals were fortunate to have mentors or parents who were quiet revolutionaries, who applied their subtle art to teaching or raising children.

the self expression of these individuals is a black swan event - always a surprise, a disruption of the equilibrium. and always a boon to the community.

(why does the deepest, most authentic SELF expression further the communal interest to the utmost? another paradox that can only be resolved by a full, high-fidelity image of the human being.)

social sculpture must provide the guardrails for repeat black swan events, issuing from as many minds as possible, of diverse character, perspective, experience.

"entrepreneurial innovation"

but repeat disruption and shock can arise and be fruitful only within rails of stability and consistency.

in social architecture, stability and consistency issue from the domain of law/equity and of economy.

for instance: relationships that describe rights and obligations, consented to by all of voting age and safeguarded by appropriate entities. a stable currency. an economy free from the interventions of a centralized authority that favors one party over another, etc.

and access to capital, for capital is the vehicle of expression for the initiative and creativity of the individual entrepreneur. without capital, human potential remains stagnant (and the community suffers).

then there is the cultural domain, whose work is to cultivate minds capable of birthing black swan events.

this can only happen if this domain is architected according to the principle of freedom (freedom of thought, of expression, of inquiry) and administered by cultural creators and practitioners themselves - not by the state.

what serves the unfolding of the impulse of freedom within the human mind? it is not the state-created and endorsed assembly line education model of today.

(p.s. I love @EricRWeinstein's take -

"I don't have a learning disability. You have a teaching disability.")


https://twitter.com/SpaceXponential/status/1357027320863711234?s=20&t=L8F9FXtadmQrPlkekHxoCw

in this recent pod, @Flynnjamm says there are 3 things that go into a successful DAO ("and btw, there are no successful DAOs!")

capital formation
capital allocation
coordination

https://twitter.com/cdt_eth/status/1575517875711918085?s=20&t=SqrOh-NALJAws3rYsJS3uw

DAOs have a lot of expectations put on them! I don't think they can meet those expectations without more nuancing of the distinct, though interdependent threads that make up vital, creative social organisms.

Capital and coordination are concepts that contain whole universes.

What gives rise to capital? What hinders coordination? We are brought back to the subtle mysteries of the human being.

A more complete understanding of the human being, of human creativity, allows us to create social architectures that are more faithful to our aspirations.


You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/SpaceXponential/lvnxU1N

Designing for Autonomy (why is it so hard?)

𝟷𝟹 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚊𝚏𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗, I've discovered @tylercowen's Create Your Own Economy. So many fertile connections to the ideas I've been obsessing over re: subcultures, web3, online communities, DAOs, etc.

The preface is just as salient today -

Tyler says the moral vision of the book is a deeply optimistic vision of web-based society. It's about the power of the individual human to take modernity and its tools and re-shape the world according to one's interiority.

Central to Tyler's thesis is the everyday "miracle" of how we manage to take the firehose of information and, inch by inch, minute by minute, order the cacophony of bits into an evolving narrative that gives our lives deep meaning.

Tyler intended the book to be a revisionist view of creativity and cognition. Well I'll venture to be revisionist in turn.

The everyday "miracle" entails something more than just our ability to order & structure information...

It also entails a "something" that is indicated by words like

destiny
providence
synchronicity

(Of the near-infinite amount of content on the Web, how is it that we manage to encounter - after much effort, it is true - just the 🐇 🕳️ s that we need?)

(fun footnote: though Tyler is a non-believer, I've been struck by his articulation of the best argument for God, and his nuanced interest in religion generally.)

Are you feeling exceptionally battered about by the 🎢  of Life? ( 👋 )

🆃🅷🅸🆂 is the time to pay extra attention to the serendipities around new content & thinkers flowing into one's life. And the primary experiential interface here (for many) is the Web.

Tyler's book comes into my life at a time when, outwardly, my professional situation, the markets, the DAO space is in a state of upheaval and uncertainty.

Inwardly, I am questioning and re-examining my relationships with people and  information; and how I embody such relationships in the world, in the form of Intentions and actions.

In short, I am questioning the edifice or order of Meaning I have constructed thus far, very largely from bits gleaned from the Web.

What an incredible gift it is to continually discover (be guided to) bits of Information, make sense of them, arrange and order them just so in a narrative stream that we construct, maintain and interpret - to do this, every day, for ourselves, and on behalf of countless others.

I'll be sharing more good stuff from Tyler's book and the connections to web3 themes.

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/SpaceXponential/do9YEqOIupMR