Now that the ability to ship code has become easier than ever, figuring out the 'why' becomes much more important than the what. I'd highly recommend joining the Kernel mentorship program to explore this question.
If you're interested in joining, please let me know, and I'd be happy to nominate you as a fellow for this year.
Today's session starts in two hours on Discord: https://discord.gg/FdbwqmKX6S?event=1385700098767458334
We'll be exploring the memory and cognition theme again, this time through an introduction to Michael Levin's work and thinking.
Memory Research Group
Starting June 26, I'm leading this research group that meets every two weeks on Thursday.
My work on memory and technology now forms the basis of a book project Artificial Memory, so I’m excited to bring my background research into these discussions, as well as to bear witness to this research group taking on a life of its own.
Link with more info is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jCnl-0_JpZgnL1a5GJktuFuFnd3jOp8a_i6hHecO9Pw/edit?usp=sharing
As part of the Edge City Protocol Worlds track last week, I hosted a session called Memory Models Book Club. We read excerpts from Elizabeth Eisenstein's The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe to compare the phase shifts engendered in part by the printing press to today's phase shift from computing and AI.
It featured many of my favorite things, like the art of memory, plus a story about Louis XVI being recognized fleeing Paris, and even a roughly hewn hypothesis about "memory realism," challenging the notion of the printing press as only a reproductive technology for the written word.
This session will give way to an enduring Memory Research Group, which I'll share more information on soon.
Imho the field most poised for disruption is study of the past (archaeology)
Imagine a person digging their shovel in the dirt and finding Gobekli Tepi x 100 as technologies allow us to see underground, through forests
New Club Case Studies on mutual funds
Organizational structures can fundamentally change, and align, the economics of financial infrastructure.
While there's lots of talk about "aligned incentives," everyone building new organizational and financial infrastructure can look to the creation of mutual funds in the 1970s as a prime example.
Read it here: https://syndicate.io/blog/research-piece-mutual-funds
New Club Case Studies on keiretsus
Earlier this year, I read Alliance Capitalism by Michael Gerlach to learn about keiretsus in post-war Japan.
They're clusters of independently managed firms defined by shared governance mechanisms, partial cross-shareholding, and interlocking directorates.
They aren't models to emulate, but some of their disadvantages could be mitigated by transparent, voluntary cross-shareholding mechanisms today.
They could also be a way for infrastructure projects, which require research with different financial risk models, to bootstrap overall funding.
Read it here: https://syndicate.io/blog/research-piece-keiretsus
Inner Library consulting, workshops, and case studies
Last year, I started a consultancy through which I write, as well as advise on organizational design, memory, and strategy.
Through this work, I’ve developed workshop formats that help organizations explore how they'll evolve over time.
First day of archery in the backyard this year. When living in the forest, spring actually feels like a miracle, with so many creatures gone then suddenly, all back.
Next installment in the Club Case Studies series on mountain clubs
Since moving near the Appalachian Trail, I've gone deep on the history of mountain clubs, being curious how these organizations comprised of local chapters coordinated across cultural, political, and bioregional fractures.
In the US, they built, maintained, and stewarded most public access trails until the 1970s when many responsibilities passed to the federal government. Today, groups like the Appalachian Mountain Club still have local chapters that maintain basic infrastructure like huts for hikers.
Read it here: https://syndicate.io/blog/research-piece-mountain-clubs
