I feel like the problem needs different questions. 2021 will demand better modes of virtual collaboration. I'm putting my chips behind it. Imagine the lovechild of a spreadsheet and a persistent, distributed MMO Sandbox. We need to level up as a species in one area: collaboration. Humans are able to thrive due to our ability to collaborate flexibly, in large numbers, usually by way of shared myths[1]. Yet, we've seemed to hit a threshold to how well our species can solve large problems that transcend ideas like national borders and currencies. There is a well-known collaboration threshold in software engineering that gave us the 2 Pizza Team.

I believe we can transcend that threshold by adopting a shared canvas for structured information and systems.

Suppose my Fermi math is somewhat plausible when I say that the annual aggregate of all human food consumption is about 34 peta-calories and that we use 24 zettajoules of energy. What if we the people could collaborate to make that 50 pCal and 19 ZJ 5 years from now, while flattening the per capita distribution? Religion, privately-controlled social networks, and democrapitalism aren't likely to carry us there alone. Humans are good at using, creating, and distributing tools and that makes us highly adaptable. They are good at pooling resources to tackle large objectives.

Here are components I believe are necessary to build an machine for transformative virtual collaboration:

- Simple primitives that transcend literacy and align with human behavior and cognition [2]

- Tactile consumption and manipulation of data and business logic across many surfaces [3]

- Simultaneous replay of media and event data from disparate sources through a multitude of lenses [4]

- Immutability + Time Travel for all data/transactions

- Arbitrary auctions against time, resources, data access, and more

- Ubiquitous simulation, modeling, and learning systems

- Rapid, contextual, stake-driven agreement systems for contract formation and decision-making.

- Zero-trust, edge-first privacy model

- Containerized knowledge work - like each task you pull from your queue gets its own OCI container and X session with appropriate tools, files, keys, and roles. Pausable, snapshottable, sharable, replayable, work.

- Sortable task queues that align with personally defined values, priorities, and constraints.

- Personal Optimization aligned with Global Optimization

- ... better looking video :P

Such a system would work to remove friction related to misunderstanding, misinformation, and misalignment. It would empower and enliven individuals to do work that is truly meaningful and impactful where needed most. It would scale our ability as a team to sense, think, react, and observe. It puts humans and facts in a place of primacy, and allows for async work to... work.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

I've been trying to unpack and realize this vision for the past 5 years. I've got mountains of notes and some meaningful progress on the data and compute infrastructure, business and growth models, some lenses, and an obscene amount of bunny trails into geometric UI paradigms (isomorphic hexagonal tiling, aperiodic tiling and armand bars, ZUIs, and inevitably ur patterns). I've also got a family, day job, and a needy old house. I want to make deeper progress, faster, and in collaboration with others, but I have no idea what the right venue is to pursue this work. Where are the people who are working on this sort of thing? I don't have much of a pedigree for academia, and I'm not in a position to take much personal financial risk. If you have any ideas please let me know.

[1] https://fs.blog/2019/01/yuval-noah-harari-dominate-earth/
[2] https://www.8ways.online/
[3] https://worrydream.com
[4] I define lenses as views, filters, renderers for any device, where the audio/visual output streams of a lens are a function of the data itself. Those could range from 2D rectangle screens to 3D worlds, AR/VR, watches, voice assistants, raymarching projectors, haptic holograms, auric interfaces, smart dresses, whatevs.