Relational Tech Project. Just found out about this initiative and (without having had more than a skim so far) was reminded of my recently created UpTrust account, so this will be my first post. Hi to all who may see this!

https://relationaltechproject.org/

"We can build what we need

Many of us wish our neighborhoods were more connected. We want to live in neighborhoods where we learn from the creativity, care, and skills of our neighbors — and share our gifts too.

We've been told a perfect app or platform would help us, but that hasn't panned out. The hard truth is that no one is coming to save us.

The good news: we can build what we need!"

Relational Tech Project. Just found out about this initiative and (without having had more than a skim so far) was reminded of my recently created UpTrust account, so this will be my first post. Hi to all who may see this!

https://relationaltechproject.org/

"We can build what we need

Many of us wish our neighborhoods were more connected. We want to live in neighborhoods where we learn from the creativity, care, and skills of our neighbors — and share our gifts too.

We've been told a perfect app or platform would help us, but that hasn't panned out. The hard truth is that no one is coming to save us.

The good news: we can build what we need!"

how do i browse all the conversations? This might be an obvious question but I don't understand....

Is there a way to just see all the threads by date? 

I see the two tabs for Top convos for you and Your Timeline and I also see Your Topics. But are all the threads showing up in one or all of them?

Productivity Systems vs Meaningful Aligned Work. This might be a false dichotomy.

But, every few months, I come across some new productivity idea and get mini obsessed by it. GTD. Anki cards. AI Assistants.

As far as I can tell, I don't have a cohesive system for work or anything. I keep all my tasks in a txt file. Most of my computer files live in my downloads folder or a dropbox sync folder. I have my own "internal" system that's taken bits and pieces from what I've learned.

Recently, I read this article, A receipt printer cured my procrastination

Basic idea is printing out your tasks with a receipt printer (very fast, very cheap, very small). Having it be physical and visible rather than stuck in a digital todo app.

Also saves the headache of manually writing these out on notecards/post-it notes.

I went ahead and bought a receipt printer off ebay. But I have a sneaky suspicion that I'll love this for a few weeks and then drop it entirely.

(also the concern that thermal receipt printers are toxic in daily frequent exposure but there's more expensive paper that's suppose to be neutral/healthy)

It feels like all these systems are modernist hacks to predict and control human behavior rather than trusting its natural eros towards what is meaningful.

On the other hand, meaningful work tied to my identity that's in direct connection to others/near environment, I don't need any system or task manager to do. It naturally flows and gets done.

Then again, there are just thigns that need to get done like paystubs and taxes that I don't have any eros towards so maybe there's a happy medium of systems for necessary but not interesting tasks and trusting natural interest for everything else?

Uptrusting as Oral Culture. Interesting to explore UpTrust w/ the frame that it's more of an "oral culture" than a "written culture", where it has more of a riff and jazz kind of energy than other internet community sites that I frequent. I think it's looking through the comment sections, with the branching and forking, and I imagine more of "sparking a multi-party conversation" and "ah yes" than traditional writing. LessWrong (another experiment in a new internet forum style) is strongly essay culture, Twitters got a bit of oral culture vibes, but perhaps less collaborative (uncertain).

I wonder how far this lens can go for community or product development.

When I was writing this post, I realized I'd rather have dictated it!

How should I landscape my house? I am working on landscaping the home I bought in October, starting with the front yard due to a couple of issues. First, there is a big dip in the yard that floods every time it rains heavily. Second, the driveway is right in front of my bedroom window, causing headlights to shine into my room when people come and go, and limiting my ability to open the windows due to privacy concerns.

I’ve hired a permaculture landscaper who is currently working on a design. Meanwhile, I need to decide what to do about the driveway and whether to add a carport.

I could really use some opinions on the following:

• How would you deal with the flooding issue?
• What would you suggest for the driveway or adding a carport? I can move the driveway to the other side of the house or leave it as is.

I can post photos if there’s a way to do that. I have many ideas also but curious to hear what folks think with this info.

Can someone actually have any Teal if they score 0% Orange, Amber, Red, and Magenta? Going through the scores of the Better Political Conversations quiz is fascinating. (reference: https://www.guidedtrack.com/programs/we0q1pq/run)

Now, this very well could have been someone running an experiment to test the scoring, or to try to get a sense of a friend or family member, but they did give a name where a lot of people leave that blank.

Their scores are:
Teal 55%
Green 45%
Orange 0%
Amber 0%
Red 0%
Magenta 0%

Is it at all possible that someone could select every single response at Orange, Amber, Red, and Magenta as False, wrong, or just doesn’t make sense and have any actual Teal?

Also interesting, I got an email from someone who thinks of himself as primarily Orange, but was surprised that his quiz results came out 0% Orange. He referenced his Meyers-Briggs results as a reference in support. Utterly fascinated, I’ve asked him to let me know what correlation he sees between the Integral levels and Meyers-Briggs, and I’ve asked him what statements at Orange would have had his quiz results come out accurate for him.

Each time I make a significant edit in the content of the project I make a note of the change in the google sheet where I’m keeping track of scores. Here are the averages of the currently 75 scores:

Amber 26%
Green 25%
Teal 21%
Red 12%
Orange 11%
Magenta 5%

One blatant pattern I’m seeing is that high Green scores ALWAYS pair with a high score in Amber, and that people who have that pairing always score exceedingly low in Red and quite low in Orange.

Supporting bipartisan Bromance? I think I’m starting to hope that JD and Tim can embrace and mutiny on their respective Presidential candidates.

I like that we’re getting deeper into the issues and realizing it’s not a simple issue solved by rhetoric. I like the civility even though the problems are heartbreaking and terrifying.

Can someone actually have any Teal if they score 0% Orange, Amber, Red, and Magenta? Going through the scores of the Better Political Conversations quiz is fascinating. (reference: https://www.guidedtrack.com/programs/we0q1pq/run)

Now, this very well could have been someone running an experiment to test the scoring, or to try to get a sense of a friend or family member, but they did give a name where a lot of people leave that blank.

Their scores are:
Teal 55%
Green 45%
Orange 0%
Amber 0%
Red 0%
Magenta 0%

Is it at all possible that someone could select every single response at Orange, Amber, Red, and Magenta as False, wrong, or just doesn’t make sense and have any actual Teal?

Also interesting, I got an email from someone who thinks of himself as primarily Orange, but was surprised that his quiz results came out 0% Orange. He referenced his Meyers-Briggs results as a reference in support. Utterly fascinated, I’ve asked him to let me know what correlation he sees between the Integral levels and Meyers-Briggs, and I’ve asked him what statements at Orange would have had his quiz results come out accurate for him.

Each time I make a significant edit in the content of the project I make a note of the change in the google sheet where I’m keeping track of scores. Here are the averages of the currently 75 scores:

Amber 26%
Green 25%
Teal 21%
Red 12%
Orange 11%
Magenta 5%

One blatant pattern I’m seeing is that high Green scores ALWAYS pair with a high score in Amber, and that people who have that pairing always score exceedingly low in Red and quite low in Orange.

Politics self-assessment quiz from an integral perspective. I’m obsessively working on a course I’ve been trying to build for 4 years and have recently made big breakthroughs with. I’ve just completed the first draft of questions in the topic of politics.

Ideally, the way this would be scored is that people could rank all of the statements that are true for them, put as many responses as they want in a no way bucket, and put as many responses as they want in a I don’t get it bucket. I haven’t found a quiz builder tool that will let me build it that way yet, so in the meantime I’m using one that lets me randomize the order the responses are shown in and lets them rank the answers.

Here’s the first draft of the prompts, would love any and all feedback, support, and nit-picking!

What are your opinions and feelings about politics?

 M I personally don’t care, that’s just not where my focus is in my life.

 R I’ll stand firm until I die to defend my country.

 A I worry that things could be heading in the wrong direction.

 O The people with the best strategies will always win.

 G The efforts of good intentions are persistently threatened by corruption and greed.

 T The current political landscape shows me a mirror of my inner world, and the most impactful solutions start by looking within.

What are your priorities in how you interact with politics?

 M I’m not going to do anything that might make my people reject me.

  R As long as I can live my life the way I want to, we’re good, but as soon as someone tries to get in the way I’m going to fight for my rights.

 A I perform my civic duty, like voting, writing to my senator and staying aware of local politics, because that’s what a conscientious citizen does to maintain what matters.

 O I leverage connections and resources to move the cogs of the political machine in directions that support my endeavors.

 G I volunteer for causes that work to fix systemic flaws and care for those in need.

 T I trust the overarching trend that life has always had toward greater good, and I take action when needed.

What do you want or expect from politicians?

 M As long as me and my family’s lives stay the same, whatever they do is ok by me.

 R Take charge, get shit done, and don’t get in the way of what I want.

 A Protect our valued traditions and morals.

 O Make everything as functional as possible without getting in the way of progress.

 G Undo antiquated laws that systematically oppress and harm people, and create safety nets to ensure everyone’s basic needs will always be met.

 T Stay aware of societal patterns, and look for solutions that balance holding firm limits with honoring the current views of all who live here.

What are the keystones of our political culture?

 M I’m not really sure.

 R Honoring our forefathers who fought for our independence.

 A Maintaining law and order.

 O The system of checks and balances makes sure history doesn’t get in the way of innovation.

 G Legislation that protects people and the environment.

 T Public and private entities interacting to create policies that accurately represent the beliefs of the people.

When you talk about politics, where do you tend to come from?

 UL My feelings- what makes me feel safe and protected, and what makes me feel threatened.

 LL The people I love- what matters to them and will help them feel safe and protected.

 UR Data- polls, statistics, and effectiveness.

 LR Systemic impacts- how voting functions, ways laws are implemented, etc.

When you take in information about politics, what do you want most?

 UL Personalization- ask me questions and find out what matters to me.

 LL Connection- let’s listen to each other and see what we discover.

 UR Facts- I want to study what’s happening and why it’s happening.

 LR Structures- I want to explore the methods and protocols at work.

Checking where this post goes. Just checking if this ends up in a group

... i wish i could tell what replies are replying to in the feed. i like the replies being in my feed, but want some loose indication as to what or who they are replying to.

What are your sci-fi TV show recommendations? Some i loved that jump to mind:

• The Expanse
• Most of the Marvel stuff like Loki, What If?
• Rick and Morty
• Legends of Tomorrow Etc

... i wish i could tell what replies are replying to in the feed. i like the replies being in my feed, but want some loose indication as to what or who they are replying to.

How does "Anderson v TikTok/ByteDance" relate to UpTrust? (continued from the Uptrust slack)

Links:

• https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/judges-rule-big-techs-free-ride-on
• Hacker News discussion

This stuff was hard for me to make sense of. I think writing about it here has helped.

The Moody v NetChoice case mentioned in The Big Newsletter is about NetChoice (Facebook, Google, etc.) in reaction to recent laws passed by Florida and Texas. NetChoice claims that content moderation is their right according to the US constitution’s First Amendment

https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-supreme-court-weigh-state-laws-constraining-social-media-companies-2023-09-29/

The Florida law calls for consistent censorship standards on a platform, allowing opt-out of recommendation systems in favour of objective sorting methods, equal opportunity for political candidates and news sources, disclosure of censorship methods and events, and offboarding for censored users. The Texas law prohibits social media companies from censoring users based on their viewpoint (while allowing for removal of illegal content), and requires disclosure of how the platform’s recommendation and moderation systems work, as well as providing reasoning and an appeals process for censored users.

Next is Anderson v TikTok/ByteDance, the main subject of the The Big Newsletter article. The case was escalated to the US Supreme Court after being dismissed from the District Court. The District Court claimed that the Communications Decency Act, section 230 immunised TikTok. The actual Supreme Court document was surprisingly easy to follow (given that I have no background in law), and it felt like a good overview of the history of this kind of problem.

Here’s my understanding of what they wrote. The ideas behind Section 230 are:

• A company isn’t considered the author of some content merely due to having hosted it.

  For example, if someone uploads a copyrighted work to a file-sharing site, then only the uploader has violated copyright, not the file-sharing company.

  Here’s a case where I think this played out reasonably: someone tried to sue some bookstores (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.) for defamation because the bookstores had defamatory content as part of the book’s description on its store page. The defamation claim against the bookstores was dismissed because they were not the ones making the claim; it was copy provided to them by the book’s publisher. Only the publisher and the author remained liable.

• A companies with some kind of content moderation policy / screening process is not necessarily liable for all content.

  For example, a family-friendly bulletin board that proactively excludes obscene submissions shouldn’t be liable for defamatory content on the grounds that it has some screening process for submissions.

TikTok tried to argue that its recommendation system is merely an extension of hosting videos, so it shouldn’t be liable for the harm caused by those videos.
The court dismissed this argument:

I would affirm the District Court’s judgment as it relates to any of Anderson’s claims that seek to hold TikTok liable for the Blackout Challenge videos’ mere existence on TikTok’s platform. But I would reverse the District Court’s judgment as it relates to any of Anderson’s claims that seek to hold TikTok liable for its knowing distribution and targeted recommendation of the Blackout Challenge videos.

I think it’s reasonable to hold TikTok accountable for the impact of its highly personalised, virality-biased recommendation system.

Seeing all of this, I’m optimistic for how UpTrust could fit into the legal landscape.
Giving users agency over their content curation means that UpTrust doesn’t need to censor based on viewpoint.
I think transparency regarding recommendation systems and moderation decisions fit in our collective values, and to me they seem like a good thing regardless of whether they’re legislated.

And when it comes to the potential for harm that’s facilitated by the platform, like a recommendation system spreading a self-asphyxiation meme that kids copy and kill themselves, I think it’s reasonable for such a risk to exist. We don’t need to be immune to liability in order to build the thing, and perhaps the risk will help us think about how to make a safer system. Like, if UpTrust did well because 80% of the activity was a child-abuse ring, then it’s kind of okay if the company got nuked or had to make significant reparations. So let’s do our best to make sure we create something that’s good for people, and be willing to kill it if we find out it’s not.

The Relateful Company should embrace more job titles. We’re under-appreciating orange.

We’ve included the green critiques, like the classic:

What gets measured gets managed — even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation to do so - V. F. Ridgway, 1956

But we need to embrace more healthy competition, striving for excellence, even rankings.

one way we can do this is to make more liberal use of titles, and brag on people. @Valerie Daniel is the MANAGING DIRECTOR, and we should have her listed as such in emails and things

What else is healthy orange and how can we transclude it?
What do we already do that is already healthy orange?

Current Session "instructions" (Feb 26): Converse, and see if nudges happen. nudges 

We launched a system where the AI bots can automatically detect intervention points. We need you to make a bunch of comments and new posts to see if they'll engage. So this week we're asking you to engage a bunch, if you can!

It's a little rudimentary at the moment so sometimes you'll get multiple bots responding on multiple posts. We'd love your feedback on which ones you like, don't, when it seemed to miss the spot, anything else you notice. 

Thanks and love yall

J (and the UpTrust team)
p.s. this week I'm at an investor meeting so dara will be with you

# [Optional Zoom](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86795216050?pwd=TllxSzYrTFFXTW5LRmg3WUQrT04vdz09) with Jordan and Dara at least, for faces, questions, help, etc:

Session 1 "Instructions": Posts, Comments, and Feedback. Suggestions:

• Start 1 or more new threads.
• Comment on 3 or more other people’s threads.
• Up-trust 10 or more posts/ or comments.
• Submit at least 3 pieces of feedback via the website.

Questions:

• How easy is each of these activities? What features on the site are helpful for these tasks, and what could be improved?
• Making a new thread
• Commenting on a thread
• Following a discussion, reading and exploring the comment tree
• What aspects of the platform were great? What could be better?
• Any other thoughts or feedback you would like to share?