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Adrienne
At the first FarCon in Boston, I gave a lightning talk about how Farcaster exhibited all the characteristics of a scenius. The concept seemed to strike a chord with early Farcaster users, and scenius became a recurring theme that popped up on my feed throughout the past year.
For FarCon 2024 in Venice, I would like to do a follow up talk exploring 3 questions
What is a Scenius?
What should you do when you find yourself in a scene?
Is the Farcaster scenius still alive?
Brian Eno, a famous musician, composer and producer, coined the term scenius to explain the phenomena that the best art tends to be generated from groups of creatives rather than any one lone individual. In Brian’s words, “Scenius stands for the intelligence and the intuition of a whole cultural scene. It is the communal form of the concept of the genius.”
If you've never been part of a scene before, it can be difficult to know what permissionless means and how you can get involved. I will offer some advice and guidance for individuals who want to participate and build on top of and around Farcaster.
In a blog post last year, I wrote "Farcaster is full of creative geniuses, loosely organized around a common vision for a decentralized social network, bound by common values such as candor, intellect, curiosity, and truth. It is the ultimate scenius. And if it stays this way, it will unleash more innovation and inventions than can be imagined today."
With Farcaster's recent growth, users are no longer all builders and creators. Does the success of Farcaster mean the death of the scenius?
To learn more about scenius:
Intro to Scenius and collective genius by Kevin Kelley - https://kk.org/thetechnium/scenius-or-comm/
Brian Eno - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno
My blog about Farcaster as a Scenius and my slides from the lightning talk - https://adrienneshulman.medium.com/the-power-of-scenius-farcaster-and-the-collective-genius-of-communities-244f018a8767, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NlaW0gTPEGn1LCgcbvANUC8p5YBvNSWs2kMFdNKkDyk/edit#slide=id.p2
I submitted a proposal to give a lightning talk for FarCon. The concept of scenius explains how most innovations tend to be generated from groups of creatives rather than any one lone individual. Is Farcaster (still) a scenius? Let's explore together. https://paragraph.xyz/@adrienne/is-farcaster-still-a-scenius
Done - would love to hear your talk
Is it!?!? Voted 🗳️
Can't vote officially, but I can confirm the workings of the Farcaster scenius in my own life, at least...
i have a quick answer to this but i am excited to hear more 🥰
is algorithmic scenius possible? seems the existence of things like CryptoTwitter set precedent for this?
what do you mean by algorithmic scenius? CT being an example of a scenius at large scale?
like i remember we spoke about this when we met and I said FC couldn't stay a scene after a certain scale but i think maybe scenes can be created algorithmically so that you artificially create tight communities based on shared interests using algos e.g. Crypto Twitter, Political Twitter etc
300 $degen
Boo, I can't vote! But this would be a great talk to stimulate discussion.
New blogpost alert! @adrienne breaks down the concept of scenius at FarCon 2024, exploring its origin, how to engage in a scene, and ponders if Farcaster's growth impacts the continued existence of its scenius. Don't miss this deep dive into communal creativity and innovation.