c4ss1us.lab
see also: c4ss1us.lab mmm.page (visual overview)
about
this page introduces my perspectives, main projects and references on the field of technology.
a brief personal context
back when i was 15 years old (2014), i had a quasi-spiritual experience while deciding what the hell i should do with my life. i tell the full story [somewhere else], but in short, i decided that even though i was a typical nerd, loved gaming, and had an affinity for the logic and mathematics involved in programming, i wouldn't learn it, at least for the foreseeable future.
i realized that i wasn't interested in programming per se, but in what could be built with it. sure, games are cool, but it dawned on me that life is the biggest game there is.
i would have absolutely loved to have sword art online (or more recent versions of "alternate reality gaming" such as solo leveling or overgeared) in real life, but i also really wanted to figure out how to play life as well as i can. in the most beautiful, cool, exciting, surprising, fulfilling ways possible.
so i started questioning: how could real life be such an adventure?
and soon later - if life is the biggest game/project we have, why the hell are the tools we have for playing/managing it so much worse than we have for managing fictional characters?
and oh dear, that question has been sending me down into ever-deeper rabbit holes since then.
with the rate of technological progress, i didn't know what the world could look like in 5-10 years, much less who i'd become after that time. instead of trying to figure out exactly where i wanted to be and plan for an unknowable (though foreseeable) future, i simply chose to try to become good at learning itself - so i could be adaptable and learn anything whenever it was necessary.
there's tons to learn on the subject of meta-learning, that go beyond just learning how to learn. it involved questioning what to learn. figuring out what is actually worth doing. it gets very philosophical very quickly.
plus, during my brief period learning the basics of programming, i saw that even though there's some creativity to it, there's also a lot of rule-following in programming. a 15-year-old opinion is not much to base any conclusions on, but it seemed really obvious that we'd soon figure out a way to automate much of this process (turns out we did - hello LLMs 🙃).
basically, i didn't want to be a builder for the sake of building things. i wanted to be an architect first.
i'm not saying this was the "right" approach, nor that it hasn't actually hindered me in many ways, but this path helped me to see much more clearly what i deem as the role of technology and digital systems today - see: what technology is actually worth building⁹⁸.
major challenges to be addressed / fields to work on:
once familiarized with the basics of design philosophies⁹⁸ such as humane/human-centered design and then moving into more-than-human-centered, circular, regenerative and values-based design, the orienting question i've been holding in this field is:
- how can technology support regenerative forms of civilization design, life design and self-transformation?
my current findings/theory of change⁹⁸ has been that we need to develop:
1) a coherent sensemaking layer on and off the web
information systems -> reality maps⁹⁶, knowledge ecologies⁹⁶, material/accounting systems⁹⁸, research⁹⁷, curation⁹⁶ & sensemaking⁹⁸ systems.
2) better coordination systems⁹⁸
distributed/decentralized systems design -> global scale: economic, governance, organizational, self-organizing systems
and local-personal scale: resources, knowledge, data & self-management systems.
3) self-management⁹⁷ & collaboration tools⁹⁷
tools for extended cognition -> OODA loop⁹⁷ augmentation / DIKW management (sensemaking, information management, knowledge development, wisdom development)
life management -> l1f3 management ontology & toolkit -> memex, co-pilot, recommender systems, algorithms, maps, dashboards & more
personal & collective tech stacks -> personal computing -> permacomputing / trust networks / local-first tech
key guiding directions/ideas:
- how might we design & build new economic systems that address the foundational economic incentives for accumulation, extraction, abstraction that are driving the metacrisis?
web3, refi, financial incentives for open-source software, game theory, (...)
- how might we adapt existing systems (reducing harm & expanding utility), while also developing post-collapse, regenerative infrastructure?
permacomputing, low-tech approaches, prototypes, etc.
- what is the role of computers and computation in a regenerative society?
a humane dynamic medium: one that integrates dynamic visualizations, world models, knowledge representations, spatial computing, extended cognition and more to effectively... (see below)
- how might we empower ourselves and our communities to navigate the metacrisis and create omni-win systems?
augmenting our OODA loop: 1) tools for self-transformation -> 2) tools for sensemaking / tools for extended cognition -> 3) tools for self-management -> 4) tools for collaboration -> 5) coordination systems / self-actualization systems.
- how might we get started with designing, building and applying these systems/tools, despite the economic and infrastructure challenges today?
extremely intentional personal systems design: developing across 4 dimensions of a wholistic collaborative life management system. leveraging algorithms, trust networks, low-tech and other forms of existing collaborative infrastructure.
core references:
below are mostly working digital tools with similar scopes/objectives to what i consider important/necessary tech for the challenges/fields above - sensemaking, coordination, self-management and collaboration.
these references can serve both as design references/case studies, as well as practical tools for personal/collective use. they are presented along with their associated relevance scores - and soon i'll add my familiarity degree, readiness score and information density in/of each one.
for organizations conducting research and development, key ideas, papers, and other relevant resources, i'll dedicate a whole publication to exploring them in the future, but down in this page you can already see some parts of it. the list below aims to give you a quick glimpse and way to navigate the most relevant references for the designs/prototypes i've been attempting to create.
i have engaged with the tools/projects below to varying degrees. these scores are estimates based on what i currently know about and how much i've engaged with them. the scores can change completely depending if i learn more, my perspectives change, or as they advance in their own development.
meta-games⁹⁸:
metagame.wtf⁹⁶, world game⁹⁶, SEEDS⁹⁶, fourgames⁹⁴, startover.xyz⁹³, música do círculo⁹³/COLLAPSE⁹³
hardware⁹⁴:
dynamicland⁹⁴, ink & switch⁹⁰, new computer⁸⁸, folk computer⁸⁸
OS design⁹⁵:
duskOS⁹⁵/collapseOS⁹⁵, wonderOS⁹², mercuryOS⁸⁷, codexOS⁸⁷
distributed systems⁹⁶:
holochain⁹⁵, IPFS⁹², solid⁹¹, pears⁹¹, DXOS⁹¹
personal data management⁹⁶:
subconscious⁹³, human programming interface⁹², chronicle app⁹¹
information⁹⁶ / knowledge management⁹⁷:
tagstudio⁹¹, anytype⁹⁰, fabric⁹⁰, catalist network⁹⁰, logseq⁹⁰, obsidian⁹⁰, tana⁸⁹, (...)
knowledge curation⁹⁵ / algorithms⁹⁵:
community archive⁹⁴, sensenets⁹³, trails.social⁹², sublime⁸⁸, interneto⁸⁸, weco⁸⁶
collaborative/web-based tools for thought⁹⁶:
commonplace (app)⁸⁸, kosmik⁸⁶, fermat.ws⁸⁶, tldraw⁸⁶, stack browser⁸⁶, arc browser⁸⁶, scrintal⁸³, napkin⁸³
semantic web⁹⁶:
LLMs⁸⁹, exa AI⁸⁸, golden⁸⁷, find AI⁸⁴, (...)
web-based tools for research⁹⁷/mapping⁹⁴:
the society library⁹⁴, atlas (nomic)⁸⁶, open knowledge maps⁸², connected papers⁸², litmaps⁸², sensemaker (?)
my own projects/designs/prototypes:
l1f3 game⁹⁷, l1f3 support systems⁹⁷, l1f3 protocol⁹⁶, l1f3 management ontology⁹⁷, l1f3 player toolkit⁹⁷, collaborative life map⁹⁶, omnichannel curation feed⁹⁶, minimum viable intentional personal systems design;setup⁹⁶ and minimum viable intentional tech stack;setup⁹⁴.
relevant existing topics/resources:
see: github lists
+ weighted topics map:
personal OS design -> adapt existing systems
algorithms -> personal algorithms design -> personal systems design
digital environments (2d, 3d, XR, views, interfaces, software, games)
physical environments / devices / artifacts
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