I thought I’d write some scattered thoughts while Icon is waiting review from the app store. Some will be based off of recent tweets, others will be fresh.
Residual Self: the mental projection of your digital self.
Working on Eternal continues my question; what happens when your mental projection of self is not limited by physical realities? This metaphysical question of identity will fundamentally change how we progress online.
If the Snap man/woman/baby filter showed one thing, it is that we constantly crave more agency to manipulate how we can present ourselves. Even if it is just for a joke.
I recently showed a few friends concept characters for the next phase of Eternal. All of their responses were the same. “ [expletive] I wanna be that now.”
…nearly every ideology represent themselves as champions of freedom, doing what is necessary and even distasteful toward the end pf enlarging the range of possible.
- James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games
Despite the exciting liberal nature that avatars present to abstracting identity. It is also certain that it will also have elements that are distasteful in its promise in creating more digital social freedom.
But this too is necessary, and a sign of progress. Facebook’s problems are actually nice, despite the results. Data misuse and abusing privacy. Russia. Political ads. Harmful content moderation. These are real world issues, yes. But they are clean and identifiable.
The nature of abstraction in how we present ourselves, creates far more nuanced perspectives of how we think of each other. Perhaps we will learn, we have never been more similar than now.
Deviancy, however, is the very essence of culture. Whoever merely follows the script, merely repeating the past, is culturally impoverished.
There are variations in the quality of deviation; not all divergence from the past is culturally significant. Any attempt to vary from the past is culturally significant. Any attempt to vary from the past in such a way as to cut the past off, causing it to be forgotten, has little cultural importance. Greater significance attaches to those variations that bring the tradition into view in a new way, allowing the familiar to be seen as unfamiliar, as requiring a new appraisal of all that we have been — and therefore of all that we are.
Cultural deviation does not return us to the past, but continues what was begun and not finished in he past. Societal convention, on the other hand, requires that a completed past be repeated in the future. Society has all the seriousness of immortal necessity; culture resounds with the laughter of unexpected possibility. Society is abstract, culture concrete.
- James P. Carse, “Finite and Infinite Games”
The two main form factors I’m obsessed with (voice/audio & avatars) are perfect examples of significant cultural pieces that were begun but not nearly finished in the past.
My favorite line from the selection above is “Greater significance attaches to those variations that bring the tradition into view in a new way, allowing the familiar to be seen as unfamiliar, as requiring a new appraisal of all that we have been — and therefore of all that we are.”
I think this is a great framework to bring products into the world. This sits at the core of my “new voicemail” idea, and many others. Our behavior and needs are quite universal and eternal. It is up to us, to craft new and evolving experiences. Realizing that the summation of this evolution, results in the reflection of our very present being.
I don’t have much else to say publicly right now. Taking some time to meditate as we are about to launch Icon and get ready for the next phase of Eternal.
Lately I’ve been really bored with Twitter. Like, really bored….
The constant tech conversation being dominated by Uber and Facebook shows the power of scale. It’s all to their advantage. I think the funniest thing about the Chris Hughes opinion piece is that nothing about breaking up Facebook would actually solve those problems.
Polytopia is my favorite mobile game and I want to play with you.
Pharos AR is an incredible one-off experience, and although I’m biased, we need to have more one-off experiences that hint at larger themes.
Thanks for reading.