Decentralized Networks Thoughts Scuttlebutt, IPFS, and Dat
Networking can be demonstrated with people as an anology, and it usually works except for how the speeds are magnitudes off and people naturally handle errors more gracefully.
And the way we currently structure internet applications is analogous to, like, a command economy. All the locus of decision exists in one spot, in a server. It may delegate, but it doesn’t ever truly *co*-ordinate. And there’s no way that’s computationally efficient. The internet allows to access a distant computer with our own, and that’s *all* we’re doing most of the time. It’s exactly like having a whole country of self-interested intelligences close to their individual problems, and trying to make a handful of government officials solve it instead. (And remember: computers handle their errors even less gracefully than people do.) We aren’t using most of the compute we have at our fingers!
So that’s my focus in decentralized technology. Instead of central coordinators, make swarms of individually capable nodes that can interoperate. Put the controls where they can react meaningfully to local conditions.
An example of this is moderation. Social media moderation teams have to deal with SO much shit, all the concentrated filth in the world lands on their head. They can barely keep up. And we *still* need to have a individual blocking & mute tools, because they can’t hope to react appropriately to local need.
Contrast this to the moderation models for scuttlebutt and cabal chat TBC
Decentralized Networks Thoughts
Scuttlebutt, IPFS, and Dat
Networking can be demonstrated with people as an anology, and it usually works except for how the speeds are magnitudes off and people naturally handle errors more gracefully.
And the way we currently structure internet applications is analogous to, like, a command economy. All the locus of decision exists in one spot, in a server. It may delegate, but it doesn’t ever truly *co*-ordinate. And there’s no way that’s computationally efficient. The internet allows to access a distant computer with our own, and that’s *all* we’re doing most of the time. It’s exactly like having a whole country of self-interested intelligences close to their individual problems, and trying to make a handful of government officials solve it instead. (And remember: computers handle their errors even less gracefully than people do.) We aren’t using most of the compute we have at our fingers!
So that’s my focus in decentralized technology. Instead of central coordinators, make swarms of individually capable nodes that can interoperate. Put the controls where they can react meaningfully to local conditions.
An example of this is moderation. Social media moderation teams have to deal with SO much shit, all the concentrated filth in the world lands on their head. They can barely keep up. And we *still* need to have a individual blocking & mute tools, because they can’t hope to react appropriately to local need.
Contrast this to the moderation models for scuttlebutt and cabal chat
TBC