Seems like tech just gets more dystopian, politics is irrevocably broken, and most “positive movements” are scams. But I believe change is coming, fast.
I believe, in four years:
💥 It will be broadly clear for the first time what kind of social media are good for us.
👷♀️ Trusted people will be rebuilding democratic and economic systems, working under a common banner with broad approval. &
🚀 A new ecosystem of makers of optimistic, bold social systems will be well-funded and growing fast.
(I’m happy to harden up these claims to the point where we can bet.)
Why do I think this is possible? Because a new ideology is about to emerge. A new, practical vision for how technology and large-scale systems like markets can serve humanity. A new positive consensus, similar to the "livable cities" consensus, but affecting our lives even more deeply than cities do.
It’s been building for a long time, atop the work of philosophers, sociologists, and economists like Charles Taylor and Amartya Sen. Now, we need to crystalize it.
Do some of you remember my 2016 talk, “Is Anything Worth Maximizing?”? It had impacts at Facebook, Apple, and Google. (Mostly with the ranking of feeds and the training of ML models.)
Well, my new talk took 10x more work. The last 7 years of my life, plus the hours of countless designers who worked with me on projects (*). The arguments in the talk range from transaction cost economics; to philosophy of choice, design theory, welfare economics, and more. I’ll release it in December, and I hope it will crystalize that new consensus.
During launch week, I want it to be seen by many groups — by product teams, design professors, founders, civic tech people, institution builders, etc. So, some people from each of those groups need to watch it beforehand, so they can vouch for it during launch week, and send it to their friends and colleagues.
Do you want to help with that? Go to https://www.meaningsociety.org/talks/joe. I’ll send you a link that lets you watch it early, and pre-share it selectively.
Some thanks for the talk
(*) Thanks to Andy Matuschak, Brian Christian, , and Morgan Sutherland for detailed notes on early versions. Ellie Hain for leadership, comradeship, and cultural vision. Ben Gabbai who helped me build The School for Social Design through a painful, risky period. And everyone who went through the school, working with earlier versions of these ideas, as we iterated towards workable methods.