🌑 k3nn.log — venture into the noosphere

🌑 k3nn.log — venture into the noosphere
Photo by bert b / Unsplash

Maybe its not falsifiable, but I can't shake the feeling that everything's connected.

Maybe I achieved nirvana.

Or maybe it's because every once in a while the poignant scent of evidence smacks my nose like a jar of smelling salts.

From the chaining nature of events culminating in the butterfly effect to the substantial evidence that all life stems from a single root. The biosphere intertwines life such that the extinction of a single species of bee could cause global human population collapse.

One could argue a similar sphere exists connecting humanity itself...

A single lived experience – even just a moment – can shape a person for a lifetime. A shared social experience can shape a culture for a century.

These days, it's as if we're all dipping into the same memetic pool. We're at a point in history when information is more abundant than ever. The internet enables shared experiences on a global scale, bringing us together at a rate we fail to appreciate.

As a 90s kid working in tech, I'm deeply entrenched in these ideas. I've watched the internet develop from the Kid Goku days of screeching dial-up to Super Saiyan web3 on virtual reality, blockchain, and artificial intelligence.

The internet in the 90s [depicted as Kid Goku]

For people like me, the internet is culture.

I believe we are witnessing the next phase of human evolution towards the noosphere.

The 'noosphere' is an idea popularized by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin with his book, The Phenomenon of Man. It describes a product of evolution where human consciousness reflects an increasingly connected hive mind – a sort of thought biosphere.

I find the noosphere interesting because it represents the stage of evolution where consciousness as we know it is no longer a singular phenomenon. One of Teilhard's points, however, is that it never really was.

From atoms and molecules to the necessary configurations required for life – at what point in the evolutionary process does consciousness emerge?

In some ways, this is the Sorites paradox applied to the evolution of mind.

In Teilhard's view, consciousness is the product of evolution's increasing complexity. And through science and technology, humanity becomes capable of collective knowledge and organization on a global scale. This capability [as was the result of cellular complexity leading to conscious humans] is what catalyzes the emergence of the noosphere.

For a book written almost a century ago, Teilhard's views feel remarkably familiar to what is happening with the internet today.

At the edge of the web3 revolution, new methods of human coordination have emerged. At the same time, DeSci builds the scientific hyperstructures of the future.

We may still be early on in this chapter of the human story, but I am personally convinced that this is the technology Teilhard prophesied.

DAOs represent the next phase of human evolution towards the noosphere.


Entry 28.2

Lately, I've been heavily invested in talentDAO. We recently dropped our manifesto and things are really starting to heat up.

We are building a new kind of publication protocol called the Journal of Decentralized Work [JDW], which will help us lay down the scientific foundations for the future of work. If you'd like to stay updated, our Newsletter of Decentralized Work is a good way to follow along. For a deeper dive, you can also read through our Notion.

While the JDW is in development, we're working on tons of research in the DAO ecosystem from onboarding and diversity to leadership and organizational networks. We're currently on the verge of closing out a big DAO compensation study that will provide insight into how various DAO compensation models affect contributor perceptions of fairness and satisfaction.

I'm also working on my own research within talentDAO, which I'll be posting more about in the near future :

  • Validating and open-sourcing a DAO contributor health survey
  • Experimenting with transformer-based NLP models and organizational network analysis via Project Lion

If DAOs, organizational theory, and building the scientific foundations for the future of work are things that interest you, consider getting involved. Whether you're a scientist, strategist, practitioner, or student, we could use all the help we can get.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.


Until next time,

k3nn

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