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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Venkatesh Rao ☀️
@vgr
Touching grass, “based” turn etc are cultural precursors of this ideological tendency One counter example is metamodernism. Very not-object-level. The object level bias also has a slight illiberal/reactionary bias. The spectrum has shifted right. Not surprising because liberal and progressive ideologies are necessarily more abstract by virtue of being forward looking. If your ideological anxieties make you grasp at the tangible, you’ll necessarily anchor on existing things and therefore the past/tradition/conservatism. “Reality has a well-known liberal bias” as Colbert joked, but tangibility has a conservative/reactionary bias.
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Sharon
@sharonjohn
And within this conservatism you would include things like the techlash which is one expression of a liberal nostalgia for the 90s. That arguably is another movement that fits within the trend: the center-left’s attitude towards technology as an optimistic force for change changing into anti-big tech status quo.
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