Ambient Meaning and the Algorithms of Culture(thelastwave.substack.com)
thelastwave.substack.com
Ambient Meaning and the Algorithms of Culture
https://thelastwave.substack.com/p/the-network-is-the-territory
9 comments
Found the first few paragraphs an interesting exploration of the concept of “curation”. Also interesting was the concept of a semioscape, and its location within a broader latent sociosemioscape. Then talked about curation algorithms ability to both reflect the larger culture and also influence it. Suggested that algorithmic curration accelerates and recursivly affects itself, the content creators, consumers and the larger social context.
> The phrase “the network is the territory” captures the idea that the associative connections and relationships within a network—whether digital or physical—define how meaning is generated, interpreted, and circulated. In this sense, the network becomes a map of meaning itself, shaping the cultural landscape (the territory) rather than merely reflecting it. Networks, through their curatorial structures, dictate what cultural artifacts, symbols, or semiotic objects become visible, relevant, or influential. As these networks grow more complex and intertwined, they increasingly influence our experience of the sociosemioscape, the broader cultural environment where meaning is produced and exchanged.
Edit: misspellings
> The phrase “the network is the territory” captures the idea that the associative connections and relationships within a network—whether digital or physical—define how meaning is generated, interpreted, and circulated. In this sense, the network becomes a map of meaning itself, shaping the cultural landscape (the territory) rather than merely reflecting it. Networks, through their curatorial structures, dictate what cultural artifacts, symbols, or semiotic objects become visible, relevant, or influential. As these networks grow more complex and intertwined, they increasingly influence our experience of the sociosemioscape, the broader cultural environment where meaning is produced and exchanged.
Edit: misspellings
Axes labels for the music genre map, courtesy of
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20586887
down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20586887
down is more organic, up is more mechanical and electric; left is denser and more atmospheric, right is spikier and bouncier.
"Omega aura"
- Zoomer, probably
missed opportunity. the kids rigs on the first picture could have been running DOOM
I cannot find the artist, between queries for World of Warcraft and a footballer.
I thought of my brother. When we had one computer, we fought over it. With two, distant. Only natural, since age partitioned our social circles. Even so, what can people have in common when one keeps starting over and the other levels up?
I never realized two could set up next to one another. A fellow hacker online, and in the real. Ahead and above, miles of cabling. Networks for projects launched in the ocean of bits.
Oh, right--so, semiotics. I could not find the artist, so I took a screenshot of the page.
I thought of my brother. When we had one computer, we fought over it. With two, distant. Only natural, since age partitioned our social circles. Even so, what can people have in common when one keeps starting over and the other levels up?
I never realized two could set up next to one another. A fellow hacker online, and in the real. Ahead and above, miles of cabling. Networks for projects launched in the ocean of bits.
Oh, right--so, semiotics. I could not find the artist, so I took a screenshot of the page.
Oh hell yeah it’s the semioscape person. Thanks for posting! I will say that I skimmed through parts (it’s quite long for typical HN fair and tends towards repetition), but overall glad I stuck with it. Would recommend - at least to check out the sections, and the questions at the end.
I always try to leave a critical comment but I don’t have much for this one. The citations in particular were fascinating, never heard of any of those thinkers. I hope to hear their web dev ideas on this at some point, when they come:
I always try to leave a critical comment but I don’t have much for this one. The citations in particular were fascinating, never heard of any of those thinkers. I hope to hear their web dev ideas on this at some point, when they come:
Yet the space for radical and experimental acts of curating networks remains largely untapped. Social networks are often organic and incidental, forming around affinities, common encounters, desire, collective will, and so on. But are there methods for growing networks in ways that enhance their capacity for creating ambient meaning? What processes of associative reinforcement and meaning-making might enhance the ambient meaning of a network?
> how might you concretize and automate inside jokes?
With C40/50 and GoA2?
With C40/50 and GoA2?