In 1991, The Red Hot Chili Peppers checked into a Los Angeles mansion. Amidst the jamming, the laughter, the tears, and the occasional siesta, magic happened. A month later, they gifted the world Blood Sugar Sex Magik, an album that's since gone platinum seven times in the U.S.

Now, not every artist has the keys to a Californian mansion or Rick Rubin on speed dial. Yet, today's tools empower them to collaborate from anywhere, with anyone.

Musicians and creators alike can seamlessly come together, turning dormant ideas into shared masterpieces. With the accessibility of new tools, individual voices can join a harmonious choir, echoing louder than ever before.

A Year On

As I delve deeper into Web3, with its unexpected twists and turns, I've taken a moment to reflect since I first explored the Return to the Garden.

TL;DR: I'm still wandering the vast desert. I’ve discovered a land of oases and mirages alike. Age-old collective ideals are receiving modern makeovers. It's less about '70s communes and more about 21st-century collectives. Here, people don't just drift—they consciously choose collaborative, regenerative lifestyles.

My exploration has introduced me to new vocabulary, connected me with brilliant minds, and led me to my squad. We challenge each other, provide mutual support, and cultivate innovative ways of being and doing.

Co-opted from military terminology, ‘squads’ have become the social backbone of Web3. These groups usually consist of 6-12—an optimal size for fluid coordination. With the draw of a fresh kind of collective existence, squads represent a fresh take on community and collaboration.

This group drives change inside me. I find myself navigating the tensions between patience and persistence, between procrastination and percolation. I catch myself caught in my ego and remind myself that this is all about the soul.

Forming a squad feels like throwing a dance party— I’ve discovered that not everyone digs my musical taste or my dance moves. As a people-pleaser in recovery, this brings back a flood of emotions around, ‘What am I doing wrong?’

But from these experiences, I've learned to focus on the positives. Fellow dancers bring their own swagger, perspectives, aspirations, skills, talent, networks, and experiences. It’s intoxicating. The 'I' fades, and is replaced by 'We'. This collective spirit, so palpable in Web3, is like an ice-cold bottled Coke on a sizzling day. Refreshing as fuck.

Squad vibes are the antidote to the isolating pull of today's self-centric ethos. This renaissance of genuine, curious connections is reminiscent of the Fluxus art movement. Made up of an international network of artists, writers, scholars, and performers— their interdisciplinary work was the avant-garde of the 60s avant-garde.

The top priority for Fluxus artists was the process by which art was created. While a Dadaist would start with an idea and then dive into the work, a Fluxist began with collaborators and the creative process. They trusted the final piece to reveal itself.

Marcel Duchamp was a pivotal figure in the movement. Beyond being a painter and sculptor, he was a writer, art dealer, inventor, librarian, chess enthusiast, and even dabbled in fabric-dying. Duchamp championed the idea that art is boundless and participatory.

Similarly, Web3 urges us to embrace and showcase our multitude of selves. “There are so many interesting, attractive, and viable versions of oneself; so many good ways one could potentially live and work. But very few of these ever get properly played out and become real in the course of a single life we have,” writes philosopher Alain de Botton. Instead of leaving parts of ourselves unlived and quietening our unfulfilled destinies - the new internet is spurring us to wave our weirdness flags high.

Sixty years on from the Fluxus movement we see networks like Gemma Projects. The manifesto of this artist-led community bears an uncanny resemblance with a contemporary twist.

Web3 offers individuals unprecedented agency—it promises a space where one can be both distinct and part of a larger whole. One of the finest features of Web3 is it affords you the ability to manage yourself. This typically translates to improved performance, well-being, and creativity.

The read-write-own era of the internet, “Can enable new forms of monetizable media, interoperable and immersive digital worlds, and artificial intelligence services that compensate — rather than cannibalize — creators and communities,” writes investor Chris Dixon.

No longer must we stay numb to the myriad of potential selves that we once alienated. There’s a dancefloor waiting for your ‘unemployed self’ to shake its body down to the ground.

Hit the Brakes

The Ford Edsel flop is synonymous with snake-oil selling. Ford invested hundreds of millions into the car, but Americans weren't buying it - literally. Cars were delivered with oil leaks, sticky hoods, faulty trunks, and, “push buttons that…couldn't be budged with a hammer." It was taken off the market within three years of launch.

The web as we’ve come to know it is now in its early 30s. When it was a pre-teen I was living in San Francisco and witnessed its demise firsthand. Overnight, Pets.com Webvan.com and so many others vanished. What’s evolved since is akin to panning in the gold rush—tech giants have been extracted like pristine nuggets while the rest are discarded into a dirt pile.

We see similarities with Web3 - and are already experiencing system errors. There is plenty of speculation and scams, the tech is still clunky, very odd alliances, and rather ironically - it’s pretty crappy for the environment.

And I can’t say that last year’s ride has been smooth: disappearing funds, money zapped to the wrong wallets, secret seed phrases lost, awkward gas prices, and fickle onboarding. I sense we’re only getting started.

Yet something is different today than in the Edsel era or the dot-com bust. With all the snafus our squad encountered, our partners have gone above and beyond any expectations. They may be a service provider, but they’re anything but conventional. They act like an extension of our squad, our problems become theirs, and at every pothole in the road—they’re right there with us to help navigate the way.

Let the sun shine In

What we need now is more Ma. Ma mixes door 門 and sun 日 together - and when combined it depicts a door through the crevice where sunlight beams in 間. “We see in this symbol not only the outline of a door but a door that is open to light, thus enabling growth, speaking creativity, and permitting freedom,” explains author Kiyoshi Matsumoto. I think the best way to grasp the Japanese concept is through a metaphor: the silence between the notes that makes up the music you love.

I’m not going to deny that a compelling case could be made that we’re already heading on a dark path. But my spirit and stubbornness won’t let go of the notion that we have an obligation to design and then build a preferable future. We must discern genuine progress from mere hype and ensure we pave a path that truly benefits the masses, not the minority.

Anything otherwise would be anti-human.

In taking a collective deep breath, we might sharpen our clarity and enhance our response. This not only shapes our self-awareness but also influences our interactions with others and how we meet the world. Through this refreshed perspective, we can see challenges—be it politics, AI, the chase for profit, or climate emergency—in a new light.

Our tribal nature is being retrofitted to run on-chain. And while there’s still a tonne of gold-plated turds that obfuscate what’s really going on— the sun is beginning to peep in.

Things don’t change, we do.

A collaborative spirit isn't just in vogue—it's the new lifeblood. A fresh operating system helps squads release quality drops. A decentralized city lets you live in nature with friends. And a publishing platform in the wake of Medium runs on-chain. Web3 goes beyond mere tech—it’s shaping how we relate, interact, own, and define ourselves.

We've seen the allure of instant gratification, the echo chambers of social media, and the isolating effects of constant connectivity. But the new paradigm is not just a technological shift; it's a cultural one.

Enthusiasts of a semantic web see this as a golden opportunity—a chance to realign our values, our priorities, and our ways of living and working. The new creative era is the modern-day equivalent of the Chili Peppers mansion – a playground where creators come together, collaborate, and produce the extraordinary.

As we stand at the precipice, peering into the future, the path we take could mean either declaring bankruptcy on the internet or ushering in a new dawn.

The world doesn’t change one person at a time. it changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision for what’s possible.

• - Margaret Wheatley