Mark Othell

Social algorithms are culture technology--individual/group insights applied to systems, that allow us to witness and embody those insights at scale.

teach_to_fish = lambda men_left: None if men_left <= 0 else teach_to_fish(men_left - 1)

Need shared context! How to start when youre all alone?

(This feels hard for me. I assume i'm just doing it wrong)

Note to self on cultural influnce: not only do i have to identify the sweet spots or trigger points in culture, I have to place them in the right context wrt everyone's expectations.

recognizing that everything is always changing, that it rolls through our reality like a graceful swell and sink or a sudden suffocating crash, and playfully acknowledging that we are all just going along for the ride.

I'd like to think that "que honda?" ("what's up?" or literally "what waves?" is Spanish) represents the deep wisdom in the collective...

@wholebodyprayer Amen

The thing that teaches a child to love + respect nature isnt composting, living on a farm or using no plastic. Its if the parents love + respect the child AS nature, as life, as a being, + truly want the best for that lifeform, whatever that is. then the child has “care to spare”

@DefenderOfBasic This is a a good one. Seems like this could only be measured in the context of a specific cultural shift. Or many, layered. Then look at the arc of takes and in retrospect those who are consistently on the leading edge are sending an alive signal.

My favorite answer so far: your capacity to pay attention & update your world model. I think this is a common thread amongst all who "feel really alive", growth and learning x.com/macusuweru/sta…

there's got to be a way to measure aliveness

@DefenderOfBasic Do these have to be intentional/adversarial memes or would this category of misfires included cultural movements that just never hit critical mass?

does it make sense what this is trying to say?

@TheEmberFlame What's your vision for the larger platform? If you feel like sharing...

Greetings, what are folks working on here? I've been wanting to share more but I don't have a clear sense what memetics encompasses.

@tigran_iii Trying. In my little corner.

one of the biggest unlocks for climbing the Kardashev scale is mass human coordination. we're not even a civilization yet, we're a bunch of tribes fighting each other. who's working on this? how do we fix this, and so quickly?

@FU_joehudson Yes. Just ruthless focus

Anger felt without resistance is a very different sensation than what many folks think of as “anger” It feels like clarity, focused action, or a sense of “This is unacceptable.”

@StephenSkolnick Had to look this one up. Yes, please don't

This is one hypothesis I will not be Barry Marshalling. stephenskolnick.substack.com/p/schizophrenia

2. Platform layer has activity code, data frameworks, api. Users see and compare app metrics, discuss algorithm theory.

A social algorithm platform-as i imagine it-would have two layers: 1. Activity layer has interactive social spaces. Each can be remixed with built in customizations. Users see social metrics.

Trying on the title 'cultural cartographer' but that's not right. I can't see 'the culture'. I dont want to draw the maps. I just want to lay out the paper and let everyone paint their living passion and wisdom so we can all see the beauty humanity holds.

Social media is a social technology but it's not solving anything for the collective so I wouldn't call it an algorithm. Seems like we could use all that same technology to make gamified intelligence systems that actually solve our problems.

Government is a social algorithm. It doesn't give a sequence of precise steps that guide us to functional society. It attempts to set the conditions for humans to work out the challenges we face. We still have to gather the solutions and distribute them to everyone.

Social algorithms are culture technology--individual/group insights applied to systems, that allow us to witness and embody those insights at scale.