Fission-fusion societies are defined by a variety of these fission-fusion dynamics, also known as merge and split dynamics. It’s fascinating to think about how these dynamics translate to digital native or hybrid online communities — and how digital tools, products, and platforms can allow fission and fusion to occur.

Where do we see fission & f... See more

“What it would be like to live in a mental world where one’s reasons for making something functionally, and one’s reasons for making something a certain shape, or in a certain ornamental way are coming from precisely the same place in you?

Precisely the same place.”

— Christopher Alexander

A community space and possible future.

If the dynamic medium is to serve as the foundation for new modes of thought and communication, it must lift all people, not just those traditionally advantaged by technology. There is no product we can ship to achieve this goal.

Instead, we are building Dynamicland as a community space, where the people of Oak... See more

Rather, gifting carries with it a collective intelligence that knows our participation in the gift is what sustains us. We don’t just benefit via increased social bonds and that warm fuzzy feeling of “doing good” – when we’re kind to each other and the world round us, we are literally increasing our chances of survival.

As soon as you start down the slippery slope of doing things based on convention, you are diluting your independence and uniqueness, which is to say your reason for existing. Even the smallest things can start to bend you toward conformity.

There are only two factors that limit the potential for interesting communities to arise: the availability of people searching for new communities to join, and the ability for those people to gather and do interesting things together. Both of these things are on the rise.

Vernacular design outside of architecture

I've been thinking about how this idea applies to design in fields outside of architecture. Architecture is unique in its geographic, climatic, and cultural contexts, since the "localism" aspect is particularly relevant. But there are probably some parallels that could be drawn to modern software design, pr... See more

What to copy is a little bit trickier. Don’t just steal the style, steal the thinking behind the style. You don’t want to look like your heroes, you want to see like your heroes. The reason to copy your heroes and their style is so that you might somehow get a glimpse into their minds. That’s what you really want—to internalize their way of looking... See more