In my new book, I came up with the word “Filterworld” to describe our interwoven environment of algorithms. These equations have become inescapable, influencing the vast majority of what we consume online — and thus what kinds of culture we consume, period. I use “filter” because algorithmic recommendations are ultimately filters that sort content.... See more
I was motivated to write Antimemetics in part because I felt dissatisfied with how we’ve unthinkingly glommed onto memetic warfare as a terminal explanation for why people do what they do. Memes and mimicry might explain some of our behavior today, but they aren’t an excuse to roll over and accept things exactly as they are.
Early tokenization efforts had smart ideas; they built new markets and created new ways for artists to make money. These experiments proved particularly valuable for artists with dedicated fan communities but often created parallel economies operating separately from traditional distribution channels.
If LLMs can now ace the IMO, why not make them president and CEO too? They should run the institutions, not us. Relatedly: the idea that Mars colonization or Cluely or whatever is some kind of natural, inevitable endpoint to humanity; that regardless of whether a product is something we want, there is a moral duty to bring it into existence—to... See more
The value is really in the creator communities, and one of the fundamental reasons why Channel was what we ended up building is that it allowed us to re-bundle around ready-made communities. Our entire approach to re-networking a media system is based on how new media functions now.