*January 2023* ## Truth and Trust are Twins Truth and trust are interconnected and without one, the other cannot exist. In the late 20th century, trusted intermediary institutions served as the public source of truth. Today, however, these institutions have largely fallen apart, leaving individuals to sift through information, intermediated by opaque algorithms, and form their own sense of truth. This approach is both unsustainable for the individual and dangerous for democracy, fostering a divergent, relative perception of reality, rendering public discourse nearly impossible. To move forward, we must find a way to construct digitally-native trusted intermediaries, so we can re-establish the foundation for collective sensemaking. But first, it’s important to understand why our 20th century institutions are collapsing. ## 20th Century Institutions are Crumbling Like many complex problems, the answer here is multifaceted. First off, our society and institutions depend on growth, but in a low-growth economy, this equation has deranged. Decades of technological stagnation have starved our institutions of vital resources and gutted the middle class. This scarcity has given rise to resource competition, in the form of woke and divisive politics, which has further attacked our institutions. Secondly, the invention of social media has drastically shifted the power dynamic between the public and elites, sparking a transition period analogous to that experienced with the advent of the printing press. Thirdly, a long stretch of blatant media misinformation, discredited experts, and PSYOP activities have slowly but steadily deteriorated the public’s trust in institutions, to the point where even science been tainted, amid a slew of COVID mishaps. Lastly, globalization has led to the collapse of national identities and institutions, and has replaced them with tribal identities rooted in clan, sect, ethnicity, corporation and gang. ## The Dawn of Internet-Native Institutions The internet is creating a new reality in which traditional methods of governance and trust no longer hold the same power. In order to move forward, we must focus on creating digital institutions; DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and networks that recognize the value of good defaults, increase trust, champion transparency, and prevent manipulation. These organizations should promote portable data, provide evidence of data provenance, and enable proof of identity. They should leverage governance pattern databases and tokenomics. Technologists should make the enabling tools easy to use and accessible. Additionally, corporate structure design should emphasize networks, instead of bureaucratic hierarchies, as the default corporate entity. (Read more: [[The Unbundling of the Corporation]]) ## Call To Action The post-truth era has bred an environment of mistrust, atomization, and conflict. It is essential that the post-truth era be followed by a new era of trust and truth, a [[Neomodernism]] enabled by the development of internet-native institutions. Such institutions should create an inherently transparent and trustworthy environment, leveraging the technologies and resources of our time. %%such as DAOs, portable data, data provenance, governance patterns, tokenomics, and corporate structure design. %% In this way, we can restore trust in the digital age, create a marketplace of ideas, and re-establish the foundation for collective sensemaking. While the challenge is certainly daunting, it is essential to the long-term health of our society — and we in the tech community have an important role to play. %% ## Summary ### Truth and trust are interconnected - In the late 20th century, trusted intermediary institutions, in the form of media entities, think tanks, religious groups, and neighborhood organizations, served as the public source of truth. Today, these institutions have largely fallen apart, leaving individuals to sift through information, intermediated by opaque algorithms, and form their own sense of truth - This approach is both unsustainable for the individual and dangerous for society, fostering a divergent, relative perception of reality, rendering public discourse nearly impossible. - To move forward, we must find a way to construct digitally-native trusted intermediaries, so we can re-establish the foundation for collective sensemaking. ### The Dawn of Internet-Native Institutions - The internet is creating a new reality in which traditional methods of governance and trust no longer hold the same power - We must focus on creating digital institutions; DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and networks that recognize the value of good defaults, increase trust, champion transparency, and prevent manipulation - Such institutions should create an inherently transparent and trustworthy environment, leveraging the technologies and resources of our time ## Other Truth and trust are interconnected and without one, the other cannot exist. In the late 20th century, trusted intermediary institutions, in the form of media entities, think tanks, religious groups, and neighborhood organizations, served as the public source of truth. Today, however, these institutions have largely fallen apart, leaving individuals to sift through information, intermediated by opaque algorithms, and form their own sense of truth. To combat this accelerating institutional demise, we must rise to the challenge and construct internet-native institutions that restore trust in the digital commons, allow for a marketplace of ideas, and tackle the multi-pronged challenges of atomization, inequality, and resource scarcity. # Outline ## Intro Today we are living in an era of relative truth and divergent sensemaking. And while truth is, in many ways, [[Does objective truth exist or is everything relative? |an ideal to strive toward rather than a problem to be solved]], our inability to agree on common facts is phenomenon undermining our ability to live in a democracy. So the question to ask is: what comes after the post-truth era? Will we ultimately abandon democratic discourse or will we find a way to re-establish the foundation for collective sensemaking?  ## Truth and Trust are Twins In order to investigate this seemingly simple, but complex question, it's important to establish the premise that truth and trust are twins. Without trust, one cannot derive truth. The analog world of the late 20th century relied heavily on trusted intermediary institutions — media entities, think tanks, religious groups, neighborhood organizations, etc. to make sense of truth. Truth triangulation was largely a social exercise, based on trust. But in the 21st century, these institutions have largely crumbled, atomizing individuals across large platforms. Where trust used to exist in institutions, it now resides in individuals. As a result, individual citizens have been tasked with the challenge of cobbling together a feed of trusted sources, upon which solo sensemaking exercises are attempted, intermediated by opaque algorithms. But this approach is failing. Solo sensemaking is unsustainable. It's too tall a burden for the average citizen and creates a divergent perception of reality, rendering public discourse impossible. Trusted intermediaries are required in order to advance democratic sensemaking. So the question then becomes: how do we construct digitally-native trusted intermediaries? Well first, it might be fruitful to investigate why our analog institutions are crumbling. Truth and trust are interconnected and without one, the other cannot exist. In the late 20th century, trusted intermediary institutions that served as the source of truth have largely fallen apart, leaving individuals to sift through information to form their own sense of truth. This approach is unsustainable and leads to divergent and individualized perception of reality, making public discourse impossible. To move forward, we must find a way to construct digitally-native trusted intermediaries, so we can re-establish the foundation for collective sensemaking. To do this, ## Analog Institutions are Crumbling [[Post-WWII institutional collapse]] Public trust in the fourth estate, the media, is at an all time low. ![[2021-01-03#^6wpaj6]] [[Capitalism creates the wealth necessary to maintain societal institutions]] ![[The Great Transition#^k7l1f4]] ![[The Great Transition#^o6nt4q]] ![[2020-08-26#^2ic6g9]] [[Asset inflation and labor stagnation widens the wealth gap, creating instability]] ![[A. Peter Thiel on the Dangers of Progress#^am7j7p]] ![[A. Peter Thiel on the Dangers of Progress#^jcw7mc]] ![[2021-01-12#^jkl345]] [[2020-05-17#^0jto52]] [[The western religious vacuum]] Today, however, individuals are atomized across large platforms, attempting solo sensemaking exercises intermediated by opaque algorithms. But this approach is failing. We must not lock ourselves in the paradigms of the past while the ground underneath our feet is shifting. Instead, we must lunge forward and construct the digitally native 21st-century institutions required to restore trust in our digital commons. Trust used to exist in institutions, then companies, and now individuals. We trust individuals. And that’s why media is atomizing. A trusted individual who keeps it real + themes (e.g. science, climate change, public markets, etc) creates a powerful media brand. Audience members will cobble together a number of individual truth tellers / business celebrities. ![[P. E21 Media Misalignment, Subjects Controlling Narratives & More With Bestie Guestie Draymond Green#^dzck55]] ![[2020-09-07#^uficpa]] ![[The Great Transition#^t5kneu]] [[The impact of the invention of the printing press]] We must not lock ourselves in the paradigms of the past while the ground underneath our feet is shifting. Instead, we must lunge forward and construct the digitally native 21st-century institutions required to restore trust in our digital commons. ## Digitally Native Institutions / internet native institutions [[The internet is humanity's collective nervous system]] [[What are strategies to build trust?]] ![[2022-12-18#^ftb874]] ![[2022-12-18#^78gb2v]] [[DAOs]] data provenance (on chain) proof of identity (real identity vs pseudo?, membership public or concealed) twitter view count to transparently view bots portable data - to easily assemble new digital groups and platform filters some will have treasury and political constituency [[B. The Network State]] / I think a great deal about the sovereign *collective*, vs a solo sovereign individual / [[Competitive territorial clubs]] [[Create good defaults]] [[Civil discourse in the information age]] [[Trusted interfaces are valuable in an age of information overload]] I also prefer strong mid-level mini-oligarchic patterns of power to either imperially centralized patterns or extremely fragmented, decentralized patterns." [[Build your own media property and intentional community]] ![[The Great Transition#^x30l85]] ![[The Great Transition#^omggc7]] ![[The Great Transition#^u5ovs5]] [[Corporate structure design]] ![[The Great Transition#^kkxc8d]] ![[The Great Transition#^2wdvqs]] ![[2021-02-24#^w774d6]] ![[Post-WWII institutional collapse#^zt3a0s]] ![[A. The Twin Insurgency - The American Interest#^44gwue]] ## Challenges/Caveats [[Neomodernism]] ![[2022-12-18#^i4gu9i]] ![[The Great Transition#^tkzp5u]] ![[The Great Transition#^8hcpgq]] [[Radicalization]], [[Surveillance capitalism]] [[Humanity will never agree on the fundamental questions and values; create a system in which individuals may paint unique lives]] ![[The Great Transition#^plmo9t]] - psyops / [[Modern warfare]] / [[Hypernormalisation]] - When social structures erode, lonely individuals look for security in the state and the market (and thus, the state swells). ## Conclusion ![[The Great Transition#^542g3w]] # Scraps ## New Institutions data control, portable, private, data record to litigate IP cases and open source creation real identity vs pseudo? do those outside org know who's in it? skull and bones, network state eventually treasury and political constituency publish platform and ideas publically under institution name ## My Tribe generative, optimistic, rigorous respectful debate of multiple perspectives, ethical, help each other win (winning together) application process, in-person retreats not a company, not a fund, not venture scale, stay small enough to maintain trust. trust is the KPI find undiscovered talent, diverse global group, include powerful people too to help lift others up And it occurred to me that It started with a simple question, "what are better ways to relate online"? We are living in an era dense in information, and scarce in both attention and trust. So it's no wonder we're struggling today. Not only are we living in an era dense in information and scare in attention, But this is a dead end. Truth and trust are twins. While the algorithms themselves leave much room for improvement, the While the algorithms themselves are an entire issue of debate, that's not what I wish to focus on here. Instead, I'd like to focus on this nugget of wisdom: "truth and trust are twins". There is no sensemaking without trust. Traditionally, perhaps the most fruitful approach is to investigate why our analog institutions are crumbling and what digitally-native trusted intermediaries might look like. we have each been left with the task of cobbling together trusted attempting solo sensemaking exercises intermediated by opaque algorithms. it impossible to engage in public discourse). Trusted intermediaries are needed in order to sustain democratic sensemaking. So as the ground underneat our feet shifts, how do avoid locking ourselves in the paradigms of the past, while lunging forward and constructing the digitally native 21st-century institutions required to restore trust in our digital commons? We must not lock ourselves in the paradigms of the past while the ground underneath our feet is shifting. Instead, we must lunge forward and construct the digitally native 21st-century institutions required to restore trust in our digital commons. This is unsustainable. For various reasons, trusted intermediaries are needed in order to sustain democratic sensemaking (It's too tall a burden for the average busy citizen to take on and also creates a divergent perception of reality that makes it impossible to engage in public discourse). paving the way for a collapse in public sensemaking. institutions required to restore trust in our digital commons? But why are our analog institutions are crumbling? And what might trusted digitally-native intermediaries look like in the future? Today, however, individuals are atomized across large platforms, attempting solo sensemaking exercises intermediated by opaque algorithms. But this approach is failing. We must not lock ourselves in the paradigms of the past while the ground underneath our feet is shifting. Instead, we must lunge forward and construct the digitally native 21st-century institutions required to restore trust in our digital commons. %%