Intro
Usually, writers go to great lengths to fund their own writing projects by working other gigs, painfully asking for donations, or putting their most valuable content behind paywalls. All of these methods have drawbacks, in the forms of limited time or limited creative freedom for the author.
Therefore, I’m choosing to crowdfund this article and give fractional ownership to everyone that contributes.
The Article
The vision for this piece is to explore the accessibility of living meaningful, fulfilled lives that support the entire network of global ecosystems using the collective ownership tools of Web3. Once completed, the article will be minted as an NFT and will become an artifact that will act as a guiding source on how to use Web3 for conscious means.
I’ll dissect the current crises of Web2 (the meaning crisis, ethical dilemmas of social media, etc.) and paint a story arc to Web3 (especially DAOs & NFTs) where I’ll investigate how Web3 may unlock novel incentive structures that up-regulate:
- meaning-making
- cultivation of beauty
- career fulfillment
- ethical decision-making
- playfulness
- collective intelligence
- feelings of our shared humanity
- humility
- compassion
- civil dialogue
- empathy
- better sensemaking
- sovereignty
While additionally building structures that down-regulate:
- survival anxiety
- greed
- hatred
- polarization
- echo-chambers
- manipulation
- exploitation
- win-lose dynamics
With the goal of beginning to shift the collective landscape such that winning in this new ecosystem means feeling more connected, more alive, more rooted in the core meaning of existence, and having more love for humanity.
We find ourselves in a cultural renaissance of sorts, one where the pursuit of meaning and beauty is seen as valuable and rewarded as such. I believe that Web3 can generate the wisdom necessary to counteract the momentum of manipulation & exploitation that has been generated by our current systems. Towards this aim, I’ll be exploring a range of diverse topics.
Topics Include (but are not limited to)
- Cultural renaissance for artists
- How Web3 rewards the creation of beauty through NFTs.
- Retaining ownership of digital art while keeping it open-source and free to use for all.
- Finding meaning through the creative act of minting digital assets.
- Incentive structures
- What would it look like to begin constructing tools that optimize for a more coherent shared base reality and optimizing against polarization and dehumanization?
- How do we build a new digital environment that optimizes for the cultivation of meaning rather than self-interest?
- How can we upregulate better sensemaking in the digital sphere?
- What would it look to begin figuring out and optimizing for salience landscapes more focused on truth rather than bullshit?
- DAOs
- How might new ways of organizing business increase the probability that one will find fulfillment in their career?
- How do we give equal opportunities to everyone with an internet connection?
- How might DAOs learn to optimize for the creative potential in each of us?
- Exploring how DAOs will foster networks of communities and connection.
- Web2 and the Decay of Democracy
- What are the deep ethical dilemmas that we face when existing in Web2 ecosystems?
- The ulterior motives of modern AI and the social media giants.
- The problems with the ‘race to the bottom of the brain stem.’
- Polarization, Reality Distortion Fields, and Bad Sensemaking.
- Ethical Technology
- Building humane tech in Web3 ecosystems.
- What does the architecting of ethical technology entail?
- How might technology better facilitate human connection?
- The return to nuanced, civil dialogue
- How do we reclaim our worldviews from the echo-chamber breeding algorithms of Web2?
- Rewarding longer-form, nuanced discussions over petty meme fights and dehumanization.
- The depth of malicious control that Web2 has over our lives and rewarding the development of sovereign sensemaking.
How it works:
As a contributor to this crowdfund on Ethereum, you will be permanently etched in history as someone who made this project possible. In return for your ETH contribution, you will receive $CONSCIOUS tokens. Once the report is released and the NFT is sold, its value will flow back to the Crowdfund contract, and therefore the backers (you!). You’ll then be able to redeem your $CONSCIOUS tokens in return for a proportional share of the ETH in the contract. Yet, the main benefit is being a part of making this project possible and receiving a token that marks this patronage while also giving you ownership in the potential upside of this project.
The completed article will exist on Mirror, publicly accessible to all. It will be minted as an NFT utilizing the Zora protocol, and supporters retain a stake of the total value of the NFT. Any time these NFTs are sold, a percentage goes back to the token holders, who can then redeem them for a proportional share of ETH in the shared pool. Supporters will forever be linked to the crowdfund as patrons that made this project (and the future of digital content) possible.
The Breakdown
Length
~8,000-15,000 words
Turnaround Time
6-8 Weeks
What To Expect
This post will be published within a month and serve as a resource for creators, innovators, and up-and-coming conscious stewards of Web3.
NFTs are the Future
NFTs unlock the capability for actual ownership. Questions of authenticity and scarcity are solved by using the blockchain.
In this period of dynamism, this dance of frameworks, creators must decide what they want to achieve. Those that learn to share — to distribute effort, attention, money, and ownership — have the chance to build deeper relationships with their audience and eventually subvert the concept of an audience in and of itself. In the end, the goal is not to be one thing or another, to be some half of a circle, light or dark. It is to be in the arena, to bring others in, and together, to build something greater than ourselves.
NFTs allow audience members to partake in the creation of the work. Benefits for supporting a project upfront include ownership, investment opportunities, and collaboration opportunities with the creator.
I want to use this post to show other creators that digital content has value and that NFTs are a way to capture it. By backing this post you’re investing into the more beautiful worlds that our hearts know are possible by contributing to a whole new creator economy.