Vitalik Buterin
@vitalik.eth
I am noticing that the most successful new ideologies of the past decade are very object-level (prescriptions on specific issues) and quite little meta-level (social processes for making decisions on object-level issues). Examples: * Abstract libertarianism feels much weaker than 10 years ago. But issue-specific versions of it are quite successful: YIMBY (housing), the crypto space * e/acc (it's about all technology in theory, but ends up being about AI in practice) * The largest cluster in effective altruism morphed from being meta-level ("think harder to making sure your donations are going where they can do the most good!") to object level (AI safety, with a little bit of animal welfare and global public health) * Longevity movement Maybe network states and Glen and Audrey's Plurality movement are two exceptions - but in general the above feels like a strong pattern. Any ideas why this meta level -> object level shift seems to be taking place?
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Bara
@barathrum.eth
I would say that mass adoption of the internet started in the 10's. Before that time, before web 2 mostly geeks or high intellectual people discussed their topics on forums. When a lot of people joined the internet in the early 10's they were newcomers and had to adopt old users' behavior. So they started to accept their meta-level ideas and made them popular, just to look as a part of a tribe. So my point is that it is not normal that meta level ideas were popular. It was a lucky moment when an average person was forced to pay his or her attention to such sophisticated topics. I'm an average person and touched meta level ideas last decade. Maybe because those old users (from 00's ) were more educated back then, so the average person who just joined the web had to participate in the topics of those educated people. I mean that the legacy of old users from 00's existed and newcomers accepted them topics.
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