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Question Engine

A protocol for thinking via conversation

A medium to know thyself

What is Question Engine?

A composable medium for your data that should last the test of time.

First Principals of Thinking

Life is primarily made up of two tasks, quests (goals), and the questions we ask in order to articulate these quests.

The Problem

The data we use in our applications lacks portability, linkability, sovereignty, transformability, and privacy.

Outline

  • Values and Constraints
  • Messages in the Medium
  • Protocols verses Platforms

A Composable Medium

Social Media at its core is just a file system with RBAC with a CRON job that checks for updates.

Value

Too much freedom breeds chaos.

Value is not within the possibilities but the constraints.

Constraints verse Values

  • The constraints imposed by our technology has implicit values behind them

  • TODO Add in some sort of parable to express the point

Big Tech's Real Values

Messages of the Medium

  • App Stores vs Package Managers
  • Dictionary for Auto correct
  • App/Software/Browser Permissions
  • File Systems, Apple vs Linux vs Object Hash
  • The "Algorithms", can't bring your own!
    • Heaven and Shadow banning

Protocols verses Platforms Problems

  • Complexity
  • Cost
  • Difficulty
  • Decentralization

Protocols are Expensive and Complex

  • Duplication and Syncing of Data
  • Infrastructure and data are ephemeral
  • Setup, Maintenance, Upgrade
  • Moderation
  • Economies of Scale, for example Discord

Federation is hard

  • Most people are not responsible enough to backup their data
  • Many protocols run on DNS, people are not made aware of its importance via education
  • Federated networks can be easily centralized
    • Email is centralized
    • IRC centralized
    • Matrix is still centralized
    • Most Blockchains are relatively centralized

Why Federation Still Matters

  • Protocols are Commons
  • Protocols allow sovereignty
  • The internet still runs on Protocols, Email, TCP/IP, BGP, DNS, TLS, HTTPS
  • Email still exists because it predates TCP/IP
  • Signal is a platform not a protocol
  • Platforms start open and then close
    • Closing of Facebook Messenger's, Reddit's and Twitter's Gates

A Solution Space Opens

In Comes Question Engine

  • Narrative Building Technology
    • Data First Primitives (Not compute like Urbit)
    • Conversation Centered Design
    • Pseudonym Composability
    • Context Commoditization

What is missing?

  • Generalized Social Media Schema
  • Social Media Indexers
  • Explicit Reputation System
  • Filter Bubbles Mapping (Meme Map)
  • Sovereign/Federated Algorithms
  • Quest Engine
  • Sovereign Fractal File System

Extending the OSI Model

  • Layer 9: Social Media Platforms
  • Layer 8: Unix Like Systems OSI Model Diagram

Meme as an Interface for Extended OSI Model

Logs - CGFS Meme Model

QE Meme Schema

Conversation is Context Generation

  • What is the most meaningful conversation you ever had?
    • For me it was at Toronto's 2018 Futurist Conference on the Yacht after party when I learned to think Islander
    • Jeff Bezos Food Parable

Federation needs to be complicated rather than complex

Brainstorming

Build Tim may black net  Conversation equals context generation  Standards don’t matter unless people use them  Have a language for memes not data l, a languages for types and structs rather than compute  A list of visions for what we can do  People are the decisions they make  Blockchain is the operating system for the singularity, it is the new DNA that will structure our destiny  Protocols are autonomy mastery and purpose  What message does each medium express? What is the problem with nerds and how do you wield autistic power  Hash based file system for metadata provision aka everything is now git by default 

Why can’t everywhere be great?

Old Constraints verses New Constraints

Perspective and Environment

The things you own end up owning you. -- Tyler Durden

The medium is the message. -- Marshall McLuhan

"Your environment, the people you associate with, will determine 95% of your success or failure in life." -- Brian Tracy

Thoughts

What do people want and what gets in their way?

In order to understand where one wants to be they must understand where they are.

A good way to understand oneself is to look at your own reflection.

Summarized AI insights that dictate ones values.

Paul mullins (h/ist) on X: "Imagine if @discord’s CDN ran on @IPFS" / X

Paul mullins (h/ist) on X: "So let me get this strait, @joinmastodon #ActivityPub is basically #email except you can publish your emails like an #RSS feed and reply to other people's public publically syndicated emails. Am I getting this right?" / X