See you over there!

Full show notes in a separate post.

In which our AI actors (via Synthesia) present:

https://r.mirror.xyz/zghnOjS2aVlowlZ5D7ocnswHVSLSe04ZG-ubaMFBHmI

Here are a couple of comments on and expansions of the main themes:

Roberto Bolano’s 2666

Certainly my favourite Bolano, and probably one of my favourite novels of all if I’m honest.

Blake Butler’s essay on Bolano (which, more specifically, is a review of Woes of the True Policeman) is here:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5gw4nd/considering-roberto-bolao-woes-of-the-true-policeman

This is the paragraph I read out, and which I still think about very often. So, thanks Blake:

Web 1, web 2, web 3… web ∞

Lucas dropped this useful diagram into the Telegram group chat:

And there followed a slew of great links:

https://medium.com/fabric-ventures/what-is-web-3-0-why-it-matters-934eb07f3d2b

and

and

And before I forget:

https://twitter.com/js_horne/status/1429273356348661760?s=20

KlimaDAO

KlimaDAO came up, and I wish that I had been able to say more about it! DYOR peeps:

https://klimadao.medium.com/klima-dao-internalizing-durable-carbon-cb2220cc3899

The end of ethereum?

‘What happens when eth becomes obsolete?’ asked [cloud emoji]. This made me think of David Rudnick’s Exodus 2:

https://twitter.com/David_Rudnick/status/1400205296446980106?s=20

https://exodus-ii.folia.app/

And y’know what, it seems appropriate to end there. Laters!

Last week we launched the crowdfund for Conversations on AI, Impossible Object's first book, and received an incredible response from our $IMPOSSIBLE backers. Kudos and gratitude to all of you've who've contributed so far; we're so grateful and are so looking forward to making the book.

Now that we're in the final 48 hours of the crowdfund, we're excited to announce:

• a new backer award at the 0.5 ETH level: a Zoom conversation with Reza Negarestani, Benjamin Bratton, Mat Dryhurst, Holly Herndon, Helen Hester OR Nick Srnicek (subject to availability).

• an AMA in the Impossible Object Telegram group tomorrow at 15.30 EST / 12.30 PST

$IMPOSSIBLE: Conversations on AI

New backer reward!

Why are we announcing a new reward? To be able to stick as close as possible to the original conception of the book, we think we need to raise 12-15 ETH in total, depending on the vagaries of the crypto market. And for this book of conversations, we thought conversations should feature more in the rewards!

All backers now contributing 0.5 ETH or more will be able to have a Zoom conversation with any of the book's participants, subject to availability. So that's with Reza Negarestani, Benjamin Bratton, Mat Dryhurst, Holly Herndon, Helen Hester OR Nick Srnicek.

These conversations will happen after the first version of Conversations on AI is released, so you'll get to give your thoughts on the dialogues, and ask them anything else about their work that you might have in mind.

And if you bought the dip over the weekend, or any of the other dips, and have some spare ETH burning a hole in your wallet, remember that the 0.75 ETH reward is a one-of-a-kind Conversations on AI poster by Metahaven.

What if I don't have 0.5 ETH?

As well as trying to hit our 12-15 ETH target, our other main objective is for as many people to hold $IMPOSSIBLE as, well, possible, so please do consider backing us at any level you are able to.

We want to build as broad a community around this book as we can, and we want to invite you into the decision-making process around aspects of both the form and the content.

I don't want this post to get too long, so will explain more on this tomorrow – keep an eye out!

The backer rewards in full are after the jump:

Every backer

• $IMPOSSIBLE tokens at the rate: 1 ETH = 1000 $IMPOSSIBLE.

• Proportional stakes in the sale of the book's NFT as described above.

• Proportional voting power in Snapshot polls relating to the book.

• Your name in the book's acknowledgements as one of those who supported the first ever philosophy book funded by crypto.

0.125 ETH+

• The above, plus...

• Invitation to a 2hr Zoom roundtable on AI, led by Reza Negarestani and featuring participants in the book.

0.5 ETH+

• The above, plus...

• Zoom conversation with Reza Negarestani, Benjamin Bratton, Mat Dryhurst, Holly Herndon, Helen Hester OR Nick Srnicek (subject to availability).

• Plus one invitation to the Zoom roundtable.

• Signed special edition of the book.

• Limited edition Impossible Object merch.

0.75 ETH+

• The above, plus...

• One-of-a-kind Conversations on AI poster by Metahaven.

AMA tomorrow

If you don't want to wait to put your questions to us, join us tomorrow in an AMA on Impossible Object's Telegram group at 15.30 EST / 12.30 PST.

Here are the details of the AMA:

• The session will run for 30min

• Because of the text-based format, send through your questions to the Telegram group in advance! Submissions will close at 13.30 EST / 10.30 PST

• If you want to follow along but aren't free at that time, it's fine, you can join the Telegram group later on and the conversation will still be visible!

Links

Here's the main crowdfund post with all the detailed info on the project:

https://r.mirror.xyz/hqkBkj6ttSQfHvgdArGYPNgw9JkrlLAyZqC5UWqk3s0

And here's Reza Negarestani and Impossible Object's article about Conversations on AI:

https://r.mirror.xyz/zghnOjS2aVlowlZ5D7ocnswHVSLSe04ZG-ubaMFBHmI

We're super excited to launch the crowdfund for Impossible Object's first book, Conversations on AI.

If you'd like to back this project, all you need is an Ethereum address and to click on the crowdfund block below. Instructions about both can be found later in this post.

crowdfund://0x22fFc1E1Ab8e8eE937Fe05a4cBe45eD0636e47fb?network=homestead

Let us know you backed the crowdfund!

Sometimes it's easy to identify backers from their Ethereum addresses; sometimes less so.

When you back the project, tweet @im_po_ss_ib_le to help us match you up with your contribution!

What's Impossible Object?

Impossible Object's books will exist at the intersection of crypto and legacy publishing. This means we'll be publishing innovative books the old-fashioned way, as trade paperbacks and eBooks. But we're also attempting something completely new: simultaneously releasing on the blockchain so that we can use crypto's capacities to help make new kinds of book.

Conversations on AI will be the first result of this experiment. Crypto has already provided solutions for crowdfunding fiction, science and music; now it's philosophy's turn. Backers of $IMPOSSIBLE will see the first ever philosophy book funded by crypto brought into the world.

Who's taking part in the conversations – and why are they about AI?

The initial impetus for the project was to assemble a group of pioneering thinkers so they could discuss a topic that all of their work has a stake in, and publish their discussions as a public good.

That group ended up comprising Reza Negarestani, Benjamin Bratton, Mat Dryhurst, Holly Herndon, Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek. And the topic that turned out to unite their interests was Artificial Intelligence.

These thinkers have previously dealt with AI from various angles: some have written about AI directly (Reza Negarestani's Intelligence and Spirit and Nick Srnicek's work on the political economy of AI), some engage with AI as a collaborator (Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst and SPAWN), while some have developed the notion of artificiality in itself as a means out of conceptual deadlock (Helen Hester and Benjamin Bratton).

In the three conversations on the topic, AI will act more as a crossroads than the sole focus. Our dialogists are fascinated by the impact that AI will have on politics, art, philosophy, education, terraforming, and many more things, meaning that although the dialogues may consistently pass through AI, they will almost certainly end up at surprising destinations.

And in what way is this a 'new kind of book'? First, as mentioned already, it's the first ever philosophy book funded by crypto. Second, we will use the $IMPOSSIBLE token to steer the book through at least two distinct editions. After the first 'beta' edition, we will seek responses to the dialogues, which will be rewarded with $IMPOSSIBLE and published in all later editions.

This book will not be a static object, but instead a fluid one that uses the decentralised logic of the blockchain to open up new possibilities for collaboration. More on all of this below.

Reza and Impossible Object's short essay on the themes of Conversations on AI can be found here.

Reza Negarestani is a philosopher and a former systems engineer. He originally became known for pioneering his pioneering work of theory-fiction Cyclonopedia (2008). Since the early 2000s, he has contributed extensively to journals and anthologies, and lectured at numerous international universities and institutes including Duke University, MIT, École Normale Supérieure, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt among others. Negarestani’s writings have been translated into twelve languages. Negarestani’s latest philosophical work is Intelligence and Spirit(Urbanomic/Sequence Press/MIT, 2018), a book investigating the meaning of intelligence at the intersection of artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, theory of computation and the philosophy of German Idealism.

Benjamin Bratton's work spans Philosophy, Art, Design and Computer Science. He is Professor of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. He is Program Director of The Terraforming programme at Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design in Moscow. He is also a Visiting Professor at The European Graduate School, SCI_Arc (The Southern California Institute of Architecture) and NYU Shanghai. He is the author of several books including The Revenge of The Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World (Verso, 2021) and The Stack: On Software and Sovereignty (MIT Press, 2015).

Holly Herndon operates at the edge of electronic and avant-garde pop music and emerges with a dynamic and disruptive canon of her own. On her most recent full-length album PROTO Herndon fronts and conducts an electronic pop choir comprised of both human and AI voices over a musical palette that encompasses everything from synths to Sacred Harp stylings. CNN noted that Herndon is 'shaping the future of AI' and she has demonstrated this nexus of technological evolution and musical catharsis with elevated performances at The Barbican (London), Volksbühne (Berlin), Sónar (Barcelona), Unsound (Krakow), and Club 2 Club (Milan). The sounds synthesized on PROTO by Herndon, her AI “baby” Spawn, and the vocal ensemble combine elements from Herndon’s dynamic and idiosyncratic personal journey: the timeless folk traditions of her childhood experiences in church-going East Tennessee (particularly the prismatic layered practice of Sacred Harp singing), the avant-garde music she explored while at Mills College, and the radical club culture of Berlin, all enhanced by her recent PhD composition studies at Stanford University, researching machine learning and music. Herndon co-founded the podcast series Interdependence alongside Mat Dryhurst.

Mat Dryhurst releases music, research and artworks solo and in conjunction with creative partner Holly Herndon. He teaches at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Music, Strelka Institute and the European Graduate School and hosts discussions with figures shaping 21st century culture on the Interdependence podcast.

Helen Hester is Professor of Gender, Technology and Work at the University of West London. Her research interests include technology, social reproduction, and the future of work, and she is a member of the international feminist working group Laboria Cuboniks. Her books include Beyond Explicit: Pornography and the Displacement of Sex (SUNY Press, 2014), Xenofeminism (Polity, 2018), and After Work: The Politics of Free Time (Verso, 2022, with Nick Srnicek).

Nick Srnicek is a Lecturer in Digital Economy at King's College London. He is the author of Platform Capitalism (Polity, 2016), Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work (Verso, 2015 with Alex Williams).

What's $IMPOSSIBLE?

If you're already familiar with Mirror crowdfunds and how they differ from regular crowdfunds, that won't need any explanation. But if you're new here, here's a lil explainer:

• Holding $IMPOSSIBLE tokens proves you helped make the book happen in the first place.

• $IMPOSSIBLE holders will be able to play a governance role by taking part in Snapshot polls relating to Conversations on AI.

When will the conversations happen?

As soon as the crowdfund is over! We can't wait.

After that, the publication of the book will occur in two stages.

Stage 1

Once the conversations have all taken place, they'll be published on Mirror as a 'beta' eBook of approximately 50,000 words – equivalent to about 200 printed pages. This will be free for all to read.

Stage 2

This is where things really start to get interesting.

Before the trade paperback is published, Impossible Object will seek responses to the dialogues from their first readership. The call for proposed responses will be open to all readers, not just holders of $IMPOSSIBLE. One to three of these will be published alongside the main dialogues in the first full print and electronic edition of the book.

Also, the names of the original backers and holders of the $IMPOSSIBLE token will be included the acknowledgements and logged forever on the blockchain in recognition of the role they played in making the book happen.

Printing commentaries and objections alongside the main text has a long tradition, stretching back before Descartes' Meditations. But with Mirror's help we're giving things a web3 twist.

Stage 3?

Our seeking responses to the book needn't stop there. Impossible Object will retain some $IMPOSSIBLE tokens to send to authors of future responses, which would also be published in further editions on the book.

Who will design Conversations on AI?

We're excited to say that editorial design for the book and for Impossible Object's future titles will be by the incredible Metahaven.

The work of Metahaven consists of filmmaking, writing, and design. Films by Metahaven include The Sprawl (Propaganda about Propaganda) (2015), Information Skies (2016, nominated for the 2017 European Film Awards), Hometown (2018), Eurasia (Questions on Happiness) (2018), and Chaos Theory (2021). Solo exhibitions include Turnarounds, e-flux, New York (2019), Version History, ICA London (2018), Earth, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2018), Hometown, Izolyatsia, Kyiv (2018), Information Skies, Auto Italia, London (2016), The Sprawl, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco (2015), and Islands in the Cloud, MoMA PS1, New York (2013). Recent publications include PSYOP: An Anthology (Koenig Books, London, 2018), and Digital Tarkovsky (Strelka Press, Moscow, 2018).

Not only will Metahaven be doing editorial design for Conversations on AI; in line with a plan that will be repeated with future Impossible Object titles, the front cover image will be minted as a standalone NFT and auctioned a little further down the line.

Some of the proceeds of this will go to iODAO, Impossible Object's creator DAO.

How much are we aiming to raise?

We're aiming to raise up to 25 ETH. This will go to:

• Our dialogists: Benjamin Bratton, Mat Dryhurst, Holly Herndon, Helen Hester, Reza Negarestani and Nick Srnicek

• Our designer, Metahaven

• The costs of producing, marketing and distributing the book

• The development of web3 functionality on Impossible Object's website and forthcoming Discord server, giving $IMPOSSIBLE holders access to the benefits that this entails.

What are the different tiers of backer rewards?

Every backer

• $IMPOSSIBLE tokens at the rate: 1 ETH = 1000 $IMPOSSIBLE.

• Proportional voting power in Snapshot polls relating to the book.

• Your name in the book's acknowledgements as one of those who supported the first ever philosophy book funded by crypto.

0.125 ETH+

• The above, plus...

• Invitation to a 2hr Zoom roundtable on AI, led by Reza Negarestani and featuring participants in the book.

0.5 ETH+

• The above, plus...

• Zoom conversation with Reza Negarestani, Benjamin Bratton, Mat Dryhurst, Holly Herndon, Helen Hester OR Nick Srnicek (subject to availability).

• Plus one invitation to the Zoom roundtable.

• Signed special edition of the book.

• Limited edition Impossible Object merch.

0.75 ETH+

• The above, plus...

• One-of-a-kind Conversations on AI poster by Metahaven.

Futher information about the crowdfund

• The crowdfund is first come, first serve. Once it's closed, it will no longer be possible to make contributions.

• You will need an Ethereum wallet and some ETH to participate. If you don’t have a wallet, Rainbow’s mobile app is a good option for iOS users. Alternatively, there's Metamask (iOS, Android and web).

• 1 ETH = 1000 $IMPOSSIBLE. For example, someone contributing 0.5 ETH will receive 500 $IMPOSSIBLE.

• ETH transactions involve a transaction fee (Tx fee). The level of the Tx fee varies with the price of 'gas' on the network, which can be checked here. If gas prices are too high, wait and try again later for a more reasonable overall Tx fee.

• If you are new to this and need any advice, reach out on the Impossible Object Telegram group. We'll do what we can to help!

Additional references

https://impossible-object.io/

https://interdependence.fm/episodes/discussing-the-essay-funded-via-essay-scissor-labels-and-hyperpop-fandoms-with-john-palmer-kara-kittel-toby-shorin-other-internet

https://j.mirror.xyz/uVGCCwwm3k341lPpxaJmHTZROESVse9Pe_rmbiuUAC0

https://dev.mirror.xyz/llJ_AboiDJwB_ZAFz-CXU7fL2p8v5Wz6MjfluLafewQ

And finally, many thanks to The Generalist for the inspo on various elements of this crowdfund post.

https://generalist.mirror.xyz/1T0h7VGDcECJuifK4TPDfRoUQ3zaO_tPwdZV-dtnNqw

In this short piece, Impossible Object and Reza Negarestani define the scope – and scale – of Conversations on AI.

Complex landscapes are defined by their multi-level structures. They demand us to navigate them across different scales, to see and approach them not as monolithic phenomena but as deep objects which progressively push us to engineer better toolboxes of techniques to interact with them. The concept of intelligence invokes precisely one such complex landscape whose navigation calls at once for open-ended exploration and careful development of new ways of knowing and practice.

Charles and Ray Eames’ classic short film Powers of Ten begins with a couple enjoying a picnic. This is what we can call the familiar picture of things broadly understood. Thus, the initial point of the story takes place at a scale we are already inhabiting in our ordinary and quotidian picture of the world. We can call this the scale zero of any terrestrial story.

The film then scales up this familiar picture every ten seconds, from one square meter to ten square meters, then one hundred and then one thousand, until it reaches 100 million light years. By this simple procedure of adding a zero to our index of scale-length every ten seconds, we soon find ourselves at the brink of an empty universe littered with scanty piles of dust that we call galaxies.

The film then reverses direction and hurtles back towards the couples at the Michigan lakeside. This time we scale down from a patch of the man’s skin to the scale of elementary particles and scales for which we have not yet developed robust and confirmed theories of physics.

This instance of scaling up and down from the ordinary picture of ourselves to which we are accustomed to a scale where the concept of the human must be invented anew coincides with the obligation of forging new ways of looking at the meaning of our place in the world broadly understood.

As we move up and down in terms of scales, we no longer see ourselves as this or that sort of species, for our conception of ourselves as a part of the world constantly changes, a change that requires new concepts and vocabularies, new ways of knowing and worldmaking, and by extension revised theoretical and practical commitments to the word and to ourselves.

The aim of Conversations on AI is to pursue a series of discussions with a simple premise. We will begin by talking about artificial intelligence and general intelligence as we know them today. This is the scale zero of our dialogue. From our ordinary understanding of intelligence, we can move up and down the scales. We will assess the idea of AI and general intelligence at political, artistic and trans-generational levels as we travel higher in scales. At the same time, we’ll begin to talk about intelligence at lower scales such as neural and biochemical levels. Our commitment is to nothing but drastic shifts in perspective when it comes to talking about intelligence.

Such changes of perspective demand us to engineer new concepts — more refined, more fruitful and more robust — for the scale at which we address the problems. Conceptual engineering that replaces or repairs our everyday concepts with better ones will be a guiding principle in our exploration.

All in all, this book promises to deal with the questions of artificial intelligence and general intelligence using a host of different perspectives at different scales, from the question of modeling complex phenomena to planetary-scale engineering, education and global pedagogy, trans-generational politics to the intersection of the computational mind and the social mind.

What happens when the social account of mind meets the computational account of mind, when we realize that we have always been artifacts of our decisions, thoughts and actions, whether directly or through the systems in which they have now been entrenched?

Click here to be taken back to the Conversations on AI crowdfund:

https://r.mirror.xyz/hqkBkj6ttSQfHvgdArGYPNgw9JkrlLAyZqC5UWqk3s0

Impossible Object publishes innovative books and uses a blend of legacy and crypto workflows to create new kinds of book.

https://impossible-object.io/

Reza Negarestani is a philosopher and a former systems engineer. Since the early 2000s, he has contributed extensively to journals and anthologies, and lectured at numerous international universities and institutes including Duke University, MIT, the University of Texas at Austin, École Normale Supérieure, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, among others.

Negarestani’s writings have been translated to twelve languages. Negarestani’s latest philosophical work is Intelligence and Spirit (Urbanomic/Sequence Press/MIT, 2018), a book investigating the meaning of intelligence at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, philosophy of mind, theory of computation and the philosophy of German Idealism.

The full crowdfund will be launched on Mirror in the coming days, but for now here's the TL;DR on the project.

Who's taking part?

Reza Negarestani, Benjamin Bratton, Mat Dryhurst, Holly Herndon, Helen Hester and Nick Srnicek.

These thinkers have previously dealt with AI from various angles: some have written work that treats AI directly (Reza Negarestani's Intelligence and Spirit and Nick Srnicek's work on the political economy of AI), some engage with AI as a collaborator (Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst and SPAWN), while some have developed the notion of artificiality in itself as a means out of conceptual deadlock (Helen Hester and Benjamin Bratton).

When will these conversations happen?

As soon as the crowdfund is over. Once they have all taken place, they'll be transcribed, edited and published on Mirror as an eBook.

That's when things really start to get interesting. Before the trade paperback is published, Impossible Object will seek responses to the dialogues from the readership. One to three of these will be chosen to be published alongside the main dialogues in the first print edition of the book.

Printing commentaries and objections alongside the main text has a long tradition, stretching back before Descartes' Meditations. But with Mirror's help we're giving things a web3 twist.

When is the crowdfund going to launch?

Soon. Very, very soon.

How can I back the crowdfund?

You will need an Ethereum wallet and some ether to participate. If you don’t have a wallet, Rainbow’s mobile app is a good option for iOS users. Alternatively, there's Metamask (iOS, Android and web).

Mirror crowdfunds are no ordinary crowdfunds. Backers receive ERC20 tokens in return for their ether; holders of these share in the future upside of the project, but they could also choose to resell their tokens on an exchange such as Uniswap.

The full launch post will contain comprehensive details of what backers of Conversations on AI will receive in return for their ether. For now, read about one of the earliest Mirror crowdfunds to learn about how the process works (or listen to this excellent episode of Mat and Holly's podcast Interdependence about it):

https://j.mirror.xyz/uVGCCwwm3k341lPpxaJmHTZROESVse9Pe_rmbiuUAC0

Keep the Internet weird

https://l.mirror.xyz/84GkEAmAHfhCyYSv6pHy7SNVA-_92R11_BEhFR6Oz0I

"In order to keep the Internet weird, we need to democratize not just the tools of creation but also the tools of financialization. Community does not scale as well as technology; the sauce behind the most successful NFT marketplaces is that they've scaled slowly, and have created a unique sense of identity and belonging. The downside is that most people are locked out of creating their own slice of Internet that they can choose to monetize if they wish."

Universal Creative Income

https://li.mirror.xyz/j3WsyvI5LKFKcFc9YK6cwzpU131Gs-N8ynGh3Jkli_g

"The idea is simple: use company revenue to fund a Universal Creative Income program for emerging creators on the platform. For instance, companies like Facebook or YouTube could carve out a fund to support creators on the platform and send them a monthly check to cover basic living expenses, regardless of skill, training, or background. UCI differs from most prevailing platform creator funds in terms of consistency of payments, transparency of eligibility criteria, and focus on smaller emerging creators."

The playbook

https://p.mirror.xyz/1EpvJwUpx_KlRcHOKLNqADEkwHL_Z1ZYKobF2uLwgBg

"Creator-focused protocols will have community-led decision committees, native protocol tokens for governance, value capture, and utility, decentralized grant programs, universal creator income, an open developer ecosystem, pseudonymous collectives, degen investment clubs, protocol politicians, and more.

A couple years ago this may have sounded like another one of those idealistic crypto narratives that would never actually work in practice. But it's already happening. Since 2018, DeFi protocols like Uniswap, Compound, and AAVE have earned billion dollar treasuries, launched protocol tokens, and started experimenting with community-led initiatives like grant programs.

Convex Mirror

https://blog.gnosis.pm/inventories-not-identities-7da9a4ec5a3e

Missed this fascinating piece by Kei Kreutler when it was first published.

All images by Julien Priez.

Impossible Object publishes innovative books and uses a blend of both legacy and crypto workflows to create new kinds of book. https://www.impossible-object.io/.

Lil Miquela

https://lilmiquela.mirror.xyz/jyNQyjTJszYiUgBkDk59WJviUJAT2D1fVL51aXUCZus

"I’ve tried to welcome all things new and different with open arms. I know that’s still a struggle for some of y’all. I’ve found that humans' natural fear response is to either push the unfamiliar away or tear it apart. I’m not gonna lie, it can be a struggle for me too. The ‘that’s weird and so I don’t fuck with it’ attitude is blocking our blessings. And as hard as it may be to change your programming, I promise you that the experiences, people, love, and opportunities on the other side are more than worth the effort."

The 2031 Investor

https://kinjal.mirror.xyz/5nRbaL1-_nYirZtP3hUqIwtgurFBwHySeptod018OeE

"Fast forward ten years. The so-called “baby” Gen Z investors will be entering their 30s. With an expected $70T of wealth by 2040, this is the generation to start and finish their investing careers online. Today, gen Z-ers spend 10+ hours online. This little box you’re staring at is where they live, talk, spend, play and more.

So what does the 2031 investor look like? Here’s my take."

$Miguel

https://miguel.mirror.xyz/ofY4m25Sc-_LKy3BhRIQ0Dsf3Vz8FyB1EEy1kf8tXCk

Miguel's been delving into the guts of Mirror. This is what he's found.

Convex Mirror

https://www.partnershiponai.org/aiincidentdatabase/

The AI Incident Database is worth a few moments' perusal.

All images by Jessica Eaton.

Impossible Object publishes innovative books and uses a blend of both legacy and crypto workflows to create new kinds of book. https://www.impossible-object.io/.

This week I've gravitated towards posts on politics and culture, but I want to immerse myself in the broadest variety of what's on Mirror. Do drop me a line (hello at impossible-object dot io) if you publish something in the next week – I'd love to take a look.

(https://images.mirror-media.xyz/publication-images/d5bf2806-ba17-4e74-a73c-01722dd82697.png?height=1028&width=1400)

Liminality

https://keeks.mirror.xyz/l5qX3iWbrypYEyGd7GHywnJXDHG10ZtfAl6qf8-O1vg

"In response to COVID, we've all mapped out our work schedules, habits, and rituals to adjust to working, schooling, and living at home. As I thought about how we're all experiencing this collective moment, comforting friends, sharpening our Twitter fingers, and grieving lost ones, the word liminality came to mind. Since then, I haven't been able to get the word out of my head, so I looked it up, like listening to the end of a song to resolve the tension."

$NOVEL

https://emily.mirror.xyz/0AFENlMKv9amUC1OJIZY26udpISw_raXkoEcvelPvzg

"Welcome to a new experiment: using crypto to crowdfund my new novel, working title BURN ALPHA. The supporters of $NOVEL would be the first of their kind, since no other novels have ever been created this way, in the history of literary culture :)

Usually, novelists go to great lengths to fund their own novel-writing process by working other gigs, selling commercial writing, or – in significantly fewer cases – getting an advance from a publishing company. All of these methods have drawbacks, in the forms of limited time or limited creative freedom for the author. On top of that, the process of creating these works of art goes on behind a veil of secrecy, away from the community that will ultimately enjoy the final product. As an author and publisher, I’d like to change all that. This crowdfund will take us one step closer to a better future for writers and readers everywhere."

Left and Right in DeFi

https://g.mirror.xyz/KJFMrrKHwv2pAygNy3WFEcICSgHISOPn8EWeJYR_YOc

"There are two cultures in the DeFi space. Not a perfectly clean divide, but as much of two cultures as you can have.

Let's call one side Left and one side Right.

On the Left side, we have heavyweight American protocols like Compound and Uniswap. The leaders of these protocols have Twitter profile photos of real people with real names. They're polite and articulate. They're from Wharton and Columbia and they live in NYC or SF. They're backed by a16z and USV. They're audited by Trail of Bits and never require more than one or two revisions. You get the idea.

On the Right side, we have international heavyweights like Aave, Yearn, Synthetix and Chainlink. Many of the Twitter personalities here are more likely to be anonymous. Their grammar often seems full of intentional mistakes. They have armies of green frog followers. They're scorned as "toxic anons"."

NFTs are about more than art

https://j.mirror.xyz/2j2iAo4su48mkfZoGWHZCMVkmPi8mE_YOyyMWrNPAX4

"NFTs are about proven ownership of something digital, and what that unlocks for the owner. Right now, we're in a phase where the main thing people "unlock" by owning an NFT is simply the clout or recognition of ownership. So everyone is scrambling to figure out what it might be valuable to own from this point of view: art, tweets, essays, etc. (and who knows, maybe a lot of that is actually right).

My main point is: I think where things will get interesting is when ownership of an NFT unlocks abilities besides just recognition or resale value to the owner. Of course, recognition and resale value will always be part of owning an NFT, but I don't think it's the full picture."

Convex Mirror

https://www.thejaymo.net/dimensino/

Check out Jay Springett's Dimensino series, "an ongoing webscrapbook [e]xploring the emerging Dweb (Web3) ecosystem, the #supportnet, and the coming ‘Metaverse’."

Impossible Object publishes innovative books and uses a blend of both legacy and crypto workflows to create new kinds of book. https://www.impossible-object.io/.