(Creating your first instance for you and your friends … Image by @simzart on tumblr.com)
I think that one of the greatest assets behind the Fediverse is for communities to reach a new level of digital agency. Currently, many communities on the web are bound by their digital infrastructure, for example to Discord or in walled gardens like Instagram, X, Facebook or (albeit on a smaller scale) on their own forums. In the Fediverse, digital communities can become more independent from the technical structures they were build on, but for that, there comes a new responsibility: that of building all of the tech that they were used to get for free; to build for themselves, or at least reign over it.
To be able to tackle this successfully without giving the reign again up to corporations, I propose a new, unorthodox approach: users learn digital skills through a magic system, which they acquire based on fanfiction by their community, until they reach a point where they are able to acquire actual technical skills. Think of it like using training wheels when learning how to ride a bike.
The Harry Potter fandom, thanks to its own unique features, could be perfectly suited here and with it, be able to take digital matters in its own hands. It could ensure a state of agency permanently even against the challenges of the future, through a combination of a very advanced magic system that builds on top of its existing one and fanfiction! It will enable the collective immersion in these kinds of technologies in the same way that humans have found common understandings of complex concepts for hundreds of years: through stories.
For this, it could build on an already popular genre on the web, which, however, has somewhat lost its steam in the last time: Solarpunk. By combining Harry Potter with Solarpunk and an advanced magic system, the Fediverse could for the first time have a cultural product that originated from within it; and that people would join the Fediverse for to participate in.
The open-source collective could use this to remain its hegemony in the Fediverse, or at least to stay remotely relevant against the strong forces that already begin to tear at its seams and at the same time create something, some culture that is unique for the Fediverse and that we can export to the rest of the social web and at the same time, hopefully lead to a new level in community-driven development.
Of course, the highest goal here remains for the individual to acquire digital agency, and it comes second behind the collective’s agency. However, collectives may play an important part on their path towards digital agency. In fact, this should be the main goal of any digital collective.
Part 1: Problem Description and Plan
“Immaturity is the incapacity to use one’s intelligence without the guidance of another.”
– Immanuel Kant
The first goal to user agency is what I would call collective digital agency, meaning that a collective can take digital matter into their own hands. This is different from how we have thought of agency in the digital before. Until now, the goal was to reach user agency out of the stance, but maybe, we should think of users more as networked beings, who want themselves AND the communities they belong to to have digital agency (and most importantly, also gain agency THROUGH them; until the individuum is able to aquire a concept of the digital independent from that of their collective and by this becoming a mature digital agent, enabling to freely chose their collective or found their own one).
Collective digital agency may be the central asset of the Fediverse; and Collective Digital Agency and the H.P. fandom (and maybe the open-source community with it) could be the first to achieve it. This could be possible due to three aspects of the fandom: its already teaching members certain basic skills of the digital with its magic system, they are discussed and further developed in the community with fanfiction, and the magic system is continuously further developed (it could be debated if that’s really the case; but it could easily be implemented). The combination and further development of these three aspects now could bring user agency to a completely new level for communities in general, and the H.P. fandom as it is the most fitted for this, could be the first to do so after the open-source community.
A community with collective digital agency, is a community in which basically every member has the theoretic skills to setup a new instance for the community and run it; and even to join a new collective.
To be able to reach this level of agency, a community or collective needs a path for its members, to acquire the skills that are needed to keep their own community afloat. Harry Potter is perfectly suited here, because it is already acquiring certain skills of the digital world through its magic system. However, it doesn’t reach as far that they can act as a bridge to actual computer science, which is why they need to be expanded. This is the first part how the fandom would need to be equipped to reach the new level of user agency: by expanding the magic system such that it enables a seamless transition from it to actual computer science.
Through stories it the magic system is then elevated into the community, and individuals can decide how far they want to improve their skills. Harry Potter again is perfectly suited here, because it already has a rich tradition of storytelling in the form of fanfictions. All that is needed to do is find the magic system and right popular fanfiction about it.
The open-source community is already highly advanced in the digital agency section, because it enables people to, through learning programming and hard digital skills, to contribute to the development of their collective:
However, it cannot stay the only one to do so. Others need to follow (also it’s not working perfect for the open-source collective either, entry through programming is still rather steep)!
This means that new ways need to be found, because hard computer science is too much of a threshold for most people. Instead, the barrier for an entry must be lowered: through stories. Imagine learning programming and learning digital skills just by reading fantasy!
In fact, this is already the case with Harry Potter: it teaches people fundamental principles of the digital. If we expand that, we can give the Harry Potter fandom digital agency by enabling its own entry to the skills required of their members to maintain their own communities’ agency.
So, these are the three main ingredients to make it happen: an advanced magic system, fanfiction that is built on it and the Fediverse, which only now begins to open up.
This doesn’t mean that we have to change the H.P. fandom, it would be enough if the open-source collective acquired something from H.P. So basically, we would claim H.P., modify it and then grow our collective based on it. This way, the open-source collective could get into a much better position to achieve digital agency, because the path to acquire the skills currently is too steep. We tell ourselves that everyone in the Fediverse could set up their own instance, but that’s actually not the case. Let’s make it that way with stories.
Part 2: Finding a Magic System
Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.
– Immanuel Kant
A new strategy to turbo-charge the growth of the wizarding world in the Fediverse could be: through a new kind of Fanfiction: it builds on top of the existing magic system a new one, which enables a bridge to computer science. Thus, people that read this kind of fanfiction could apply this in the Fediverse itself and help develop it. Therefore, in the following, I will first introduce a generic cosmic structure on which various magic systems can be build and after that, introduce Patronus2, an addon to the magic system of H.P., which in the combination with Fanfiction and the Fediverse, could lead to a boost in user agency.
The Ether: A philosphical, cosmic structure that assumes the digital world to be a real thing that we can interact with
Before discussing the magic system, let’s first take a look at the cosmic structure it comes from.
The basic idea is that there are two worlds: the physical, which we can see and touch and the Ether, which is everywhere around us, but which we cannot perceive with our senses.
Everything in the physical world has also a representation in the Ether. For example, a tree exists in the physical world, I can touch it and it also exists in the Ether.
Now, you can connect yourself to the ether-representation of any object in the universe by touching it and speaking its name. Then you get access to the information of it like so:
But you can also exploit the interrelation between the worlds to manipulate the called tree. When you manipulate the ether-thing its representation in the physical world will also be affected by this manipulation.
So, when you touch the tree and say: “Fire: burn!” you can burn down the whole tree.
That’s already kind of cool, but you can do way more complex interactions also, like building a stone tower (the ether-dance used here is called Syoombraaya):
You can also loop through all trees of a forest, make them fly in the air and use actions to cut and build a house with them (while these things sound way too powerful there are limitations but for the joy of it let’s just keep things a bit op here).
And then, you can still go further and use language constructs to build long magic speels, in which you can decide what to do based on the environment and so on and make really flexible spells.
So, there is basically no limits to creativity here. Imagine a Minecraft with Magic!
The complete documentation of the magic system can be viewed here:
Adapting it for the world of Harry Potter
(Image by @simzart on tumblr.com)
I called the mathmatical, cosmic structure behind it “Ether” but it can be called anything, really.
It is easy to adapt this to a fictional, more advanced magic system for Harry Potter, which is here called “Patronus2”.
It is simply built on top of Harry Potter’s magic system. That means, the rules for the old one still apply, but it can be used to cast more complex and powerful spells. In this world, you can still cast every spell from Harry Potter, but you can also build new ones.
But to actually understand it, it would be cool to have a H.P. fanfiction based on it.
The idea is, that, if people read this kind of fanfiction, they come into a position in which they are able to aquire actual digital skills much easier. And if they learn more digital skills, they will at some point also see the merits of the Fediverse and be able to help building it in a productive manner. Of course, user agency would also benefit them in many different parts of life. At the end of the day, their aquiring of digital skills should never only be a mean to build one’s own community, but also an end in itself: to help them to get in a position, in which they COULD (and consiously know that they could) acquire actual digital skills and hard computer science knowledge. And along with this must also always come the new responsibility that comes with those skills and some fundamental ethical guidelines.
I lined out a first draft, how such a story could look like, here called “Avada Kedavra – The Digital Prometheus”:
And here the original german version:
Its kind of in the tradition of “H.P. and the Methods of Rationality” and explores the concepts of the Ether through this. It plays in the alternate timeline of the Wizarding World, in which all digital tech in the human world is actually magic, which I outlined in the last post. Of course, it’s only a first example. At the same time, it’s a warning, to use the skills outlined by the Ether (and because they are just sub-skills of digital skills, therefore also digital skills in general), with care.
But the actual work still needs to be done and maybe, this could be done by the fanfiction community. With the help of them, a H.P. fanfiction based on the Ether could gain a wider footing until a bridge is reached from fantasy magic systems to the study of actual “hard” programming knowledge.
If people read this, they would get into a much better position such that they could become mature actors in a digital world. Or they would at least know how to achieve that.
It builds on top of the existing magic system a new one, which enables a bridge to computer science. Thus, people that read this kind of fanfiction could able to cross this bridge and apply their acquired digital skills in the Fediverse itself, in their communities, or even when building their own ones.
Then, people could being introduced to the world of computer science by reading fantasy novels, until they are ready to study the real thing. Instead of a leap of faith, it would become a journey, that people can travel as far as they want to.
Lowering the threshold to computer science/programming could be very beneficial for the Fediverse, because contribution is key and additionally, you need a basic understanding of computer science to see its merits and why it becoming the future of the web would be beneficial to society.
Of course, user agency shouldn’t be reached by any means. It should be made sure that these skills come with ethical boundaries and that the magic system isn’t used to establish sect-like structures. That’s why it should always come with the ideals of the enlightenment and more precisely: with the philosophical teachings of Immanuel Kant.
But in my opinion the point is that people already develop a quasi-magical understanding of the digital. What is the difference between touching an iron nail to cast off demons or to run a useless anti-virus program on your phone? It’s more similar than we tell ourselves. In this sense, it would be better to build them a bridge to an actual, scientific understanding of it rather than leaving them in the dark. Then the challenge becomes about giving them the skills to reach that kind of scientific level such that they can actually understand the concepts rather than believe in them.
We are narrative beings, complex concepts have always been woven into myths, legends and stories. I’m sure that one could make use of them and still honour the ideals of the enlightenment. We cannot let our digital worlds be ruled by a clerical class that rules from above; but we need to make light and show people a path that they can pursue to reach these heights, too.
Initially, I created the magic system so that people could learn programming with it. The idea was that just by reading fantasy books, they would learn some basic coding skills, however, nowadays with AI doing much of the code generation and actual coding becoming less and less important, this goal has become less and less relevant as well.
The same hold for the story. It has become from a light, fun story become more like a warning for society; to always question whether the powers that come with this technology are used for the right reasons and I also still hope it could give people at least a first glimpse of how the digital world works internally. Because we also need to think about the societal aspect of immersion: how can we, as the society or a community, provide a ground to enable a healthy immersion of a member of society, through which the person can gain user agency instead of losing it.
This can only work by shaping the interface over which the digital is provided to us itself through cultural and societal structures, which are only beginning to develop. Already, the technical interfaces work more and more over all our senses, while our cultural understanding of them, and with it, the possibilities we have when using them, fall way behind that: we are still in the world of clicking and touching. We haven’t even begun to explore the possibilities of language yet.
That’s why we need to think about how we can create cultural and fictional concepts through which we can understand and use; and in consequence: navigate and form this world, in which the use of language will most likely play a much more central role.
Part 3: Outlook – How this could change our interaction with tech in general
Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play.
– Immanuel Kant
The Ether or similar magic systems could serve as a new interface for the Fediverse and the digital in general. This could also become a new aspect of community digital agency: to control and being able to customize the interfaces to the tech a community uses for themselves based on the stories they tell each other.
Additionally, this would allow the H.P. fandom to start a live of its own, step out of the shadow of its creator and create something of its own; which could maybe also be a solution to the whole causa-Rowling. It could emancipate itself from her.
In the future, this magic system could become a universal interface to technical devices, through which people can easily interact with digital objects and build their own things with them.
This could make “the wand” the perfect companion for every VR/AR-device, because people immediately know how to use it; because they already know it and have a feeling for it.
“Lumos!”
However, a condition would be that the magic system of a device is customizable, such that different collectives can develop and use their own interfaces to the digital world.
What would AI agents be in this scenario? Of course, communities that train their own AI agents on their own data are a thing that comes natural to mind. Elon Musk does it on X, Mark Zuckerberg wants to do it with his services. It only makes sense.
However, the difference from what I have in mind is how they want to use it. For Zuck, the AI agent becomes something that resembles something alive, e.g. the avatar of a celebrity, etc. Maybe this will change, but it’s at least currently like that. On X, it’s a little bit different: its mostly understood as a tool, I think, but for individuals.
For me, AI agents should also be a tool, but, since it’s been trained by the data of the community, it should also be a tool FOR the community. A shared tool to that enables members of the community to discover, navigate and make use of the digital.
A magic system or whatever you want to call it could be a neat thing here. The AI agent could learn the magic system based on the data by the community and then provide the according interface to it. If this interface falls behind the actual magic system (which it inevitably will), people will try to improve it. If the interface is better than the fiction, they will alter the fiction accordingly; and if the interface falls behind the actual technical possibilities, it will eventually come out by the interaction with other collectives, which will lead to an altering of the magic system and in turn, to an adaption of the magic interface by the AI.
All the while, it should always remain clear, that the magic system is just a mean to understand the digital and not real magic.
This way, the AI agent becomes the interface to the digital, which, as long as it is controlled by the people that use it, is exactly how it should be in my opinion.
So, there are three ways AIs could be viewed in the future as user interfaces:
- As a tool (focus on individual use; trying to get as much power into the hands of the individual as possible)
- As a magic system (focus on collective use; trying to create shared understanding)
- As an alive being (basically only abstracts one of the first two views)
I think the one that gives most user agency, transparency and collective agency is the second one, it would also enable a responsible use of it, since it’s much easier to discuss ethical rules of a shared system rather than that of a multitude of tools with completely different interfaces or an interfaces that enables you to do any command possible in the language you speak; or a magical, alive being, in which people don’t know at all what happens inside.
After unsuccessfully trying to contact parts of the H.P. fandom to join my Lemmy instance, I don’t anymore think that the Harry Potter fandom will inevitably become a part of the Fediverse; I also think that it may not happen at all, or that it automatically will go in a direction that we want it to. We need to drive that change. We need to build the web that we want. Or we will end up again in a corporate-dominated web or the Fediverse will never happen, also a possibility. But to prevent this, we may need to reach a new level of digital understanding on a collective level. And the way to do this is how it has worked for centuries before: through stories, while managing at the same time to stay true to the ideals of the enlightenment. That’s why it’s crucial to view the Ether as a philosophical construct and never as a religious one.
Language and the use of symbols will play a much more central role in the interfaces in the age of AI; and while we let the interfaces of the old days be designed by companies, the new interfaces should be driven by collective, cultural concepts of the things we want to interact with. Otherwise, we lose control of the things themselves.
Conclusion
(Image by @simzart on tumblr.com)
Getting people to really commit and understand the concepts behind the Fediverse is harder than many people would think; because it requires a completely shift of the mindset: they need to want to take digital matters in their own hands; turning from mere consumers into agents. This is equally to telling people to use their own minds as people did in the age of enlightenment: it completely questions how most people experience tech on a day-to-day-basis and it comes with new, frightening responsibilities; something that has been completely erased from the modern web: responsibility, which is only the logical price for freedom.
The current strategy seems to be to get as much people as possible in the Fediverse and everything will be fine. However: only because they are in the Fediverse doesn’t mean they also lost their centralized mindset. A new strategy based on fanfiction and magic systems is not only about migrating into another system (from closed to open; from walled garden to federated). It’s about changing the mindset behind the way we build our communities online and it tries to ensure an ecosystem, in which we show users a path to grow and achieve true digital agency and communities to continue to stay on top of things over corporate influence. This is crucial: the move to the Fediverse isn’t a thing that you do once, innovation has to be maintained onward and it requires a mindset in the tradition of the enlightenment. Only through this can we continue to maintain user agency for the years to come: by constantly educating ourselves and expanding our horizon. With the help of stories and knowledge. Instead of something that you achieve once, we have to start thinking of digital agency as a journey. And, that communities should make it their own responsibility to ensure or at least encourage the user agency of their members, because it ensures their own digital agency. Because the Fediverse will continue to evolve and there will always be the need to build something. This doesn’t mean that companies shouldn’t be involved in this, the question is, who is driving the change, the communities, or the companies. And for the open-source collective, to keep our collective digital agency, we may need to bring more of these skills to more people; even with unorthodox means. And if we manage to stay clear on the point that its not actual magic but only a mean to achieve digital knowledge, it should also be in the sense of the age of enlightenment.
I think, if done right, this could be really powerful for digital collectives and individuals to maintain their agency. Because it builds on the cultural consciousness. But because Silicon-valley bros always need to be cutting edge and have no time while they accelerate, they have not much sense for that.
The Silicon Valley should stop telling people how their interfaces to the digital should look like. It’s time for the people to decide that. The same holds for ChatGPT. It’s not a conscious being, it’s just another, very powerful interface to alter the digital and it should be treated that way.
Apart from that, the H.P. fandom could become the first project that shows the merits of the Fediverse. People immediately understand why fandoms in the Fediverse work better than in walled gardens. So, this could potentially be huge for the Fediverse and the H.P. fandom, in a kind of win-win situation. So, the next step will be to make the Wizarding World a prominent project in the open-source community, and to get parts of the H.P. on board, probably by writing more Solarpotterpunk-fanfiction.
This could eventually result in a new stream inside the H.P. fandom: the Cyber/Solarpunk H.P. sub-culture, with its own aesthetic, fanfiction and magic system. All of this by the way has nothing to do with Lunarpunk and I don’t want it to be associted with it, because it is too esoteric and irrational. The Ether should be used as a philosophical, or (with care) as a fictional concept and it should always be used to build on the tradition of the enlightenment.
“If it’s not for money and it’s not for girls—what is it for? With Zuckerberg we have a real American mystery. Maybe it’s not mysterious and he’s just playing the long game, holding out: not a billion dollars but a hundred billion dollars. Or is it possible he just loves programming? No doubt the filmmakers considered this option, but you can see their dilemma: how to convey the pleasure of programming—if such a pleasure exists—in a way that is both cinematic and comprehensible? Movies are notoriously bad at showing the pleasures and rigors of art-making, even when the medium is familiar.”
– Zadie Smith (Generation Why)
Fungiverse Tales 