💌 There is no antimemetics protocol ☀️

It seems to be that anyone at least somewhat savvy with complex systems has an intuitive grasp of the seemingly terrible shape our world is in. Particularly from the perspective of living systems. It’s now at the point where if I sense that the conversation to begin to even flirt with the notion of the meta-crisis I feel the need to proactively steer matters toward more jovial domains—lest we all succumb to despondency.

But lo!—a recent paper on The Unreasonable Sufficiency of Protocols has me feeling—dare I say it?—optimistic about our ability to effectively coordinate, amidst complexity at scale. There may be ways through this yet.*

* Actually, my introduction to web3 provided the glimmer of hope after nearly two decades of being a jaded ex-academic from the school of environmental sciences—but most of the world doesn’t understand web3 yet, so that topic too is fraught. Protocols, however, may just be the way to broach the wider topic of coordination amidst complexity at scale.