Cities are routers in network society

They do packet switching for people.

Jun 5 • 

Gordon Brander

31

March 2025

The shape of network society

“I’m a McLuhan absolutist now.”

Mar 30 • 

Gordon Brander

65

February 2025

Cryptography scales trust

Protocols are to institutions as packet switching is to circuit switching

Feb 25 • 

Gordon Brander

17

Don't fork the ecosystem

Software can be rebuilt, because software is a machine. But a software ecosystem is not a machine. It is a living system.

Feb 16 • 

Gordon Brander

64

December 2024

Where to draw the line?

Breaking a system down into parts

Dec 1, 2024 • 

Gordon Brander

35

November 2024

Places to intervene in a system

(in increasing order of effectiveness)

Nov 18, 2024 • 

Gordon Brander

39

October 2024

Nature's many attempts to evolve a Nostr

P2P and federated protocols converge toward becoming Nostr, but with extra steps

Oct 13, 2024 • 

Gordon Brander

67

September 2024

The Zombocom Problem

Welcome to zombocom… you can do anything at zombocom… anything at all… the only limit… is yourself…

Sep 28, 2024 • 

Gordon Brander

65

August 2024

Raw intuitions about startups

It’s n=1 samples, so hold it lightly.

Aug 3, 2024 • 

Gordon Brander

58

June 2024

Subconscious is Squishy Computer

This newsletter is getting rebooted as my personal lab notebook, a place to post trail markers as I continue to navigate the idea maze around AI…

Jun 15, 2024 • 

Gordon Brander

43

May 2024

Subconscious is winding down

Subconscious started with an idea: to amplify intelligence using a worldwide decentralized knowledge graph. In 2022, we raised a seed and started…

May 16, 2024 • 

Gordon Brander

71

April 2024

Decentralizability

What makes software decentralizable? Immutable data, universal IDs, user-controlled keys.

Apr 12, 2024 • 

Gordon Brander

24