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DeSci's road to self-study 017 - Tao follows nature
Preface
This article participates in @Uncommons ' GreenPill podcast series, translating, discussing, and bringing out personal views and ideas from GreenPill YouTube's regular conversations.
This issue is August 29, 2023What can we learn from Natural Systems? with Shuya Gong
Related links to Uncommons are here
Class Representative | Shift
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Man follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature - Chapter 25 of Laozi's "Tao Te Ching"
Different people have different interpretations of the Tao Te Ching; just as people look at nature, what we can learn from it depends on our perspective and method of looking at nature. Nature is always the teacher of mankind.
Guest introduction
Shuya Gong
Shuya Gong is a futurist with a background in mechanical engineering and entrepreneurial design. She is currently a course instructor and innovation fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering, has served as Director of Interaction and Technology Design at IDEO , and has worked with Fortune 50 companies on emerging technology strategies. Since joining IDEO's collaboration in 2015, she has been studying how organizations move from competitive to collaborative advantage, with her first explorations around blockchain.
In this episode of the GP Podcast, Shuya Gong shared what she learned from nature, gave examples of five different creatures, and applied the insights to the development of blockchain. Let’s take a look at what she shared, and then see what imagination it can inspire.
Regeneration
Regenration has always been an important element in GreenPill. A large number of online discussions that ignore the connections and connections of localized communities will only make all theories empty talk.
How can you help revitalize and regenerate local communities? What are you regenerating? Where do you regenerate? For whom does it regenerate?
When we look at different online platforms in terms of online and offline connections, you will find that many projects are just focusing on how to keep the audience on their own online platforms. For example, a dating platform links different accounts, but the actual dating scene takes place offline. How two accounts are connected through an online platform, and then two people interact in the real world, just like we are thinking about how to turn Regeneration from online discussion and interaction into a real process of changing the community. .
The idea of exit to community is to transfer the decision-making power of the network platform to the hands of real users, allowing users to interact, cooperate and connect more, and at the same time have the decision-making power to continue to improve according to the needs of real users. Network platform, thereby attracting more users in need to join, forming a good cycle.
Further reading
Huangdou Ni-Looking for a third way different from the chaos between electric totalitarianism and chaebols
Wendy HsinYun-imaginative-web-3-for-all-doomsday matsutake-book club experience
Five insights from nature - Biomimicry
Nature is a system that works and has stood the test of time. For Chinese-speaking society, we will quickly think of Laozi’s insights on nature in his Tao Te Ching. In the Western world, Biomimicry, a concept that imitates nature, first appeared in 1982. In 1997, Janine Benyus (1997) "BIOMIMICRY: INNOVATION INSPIRED BY NATURE" New York, USA. gave a clear definition of this concept, and Biomimicry began to become popular.
looking to Nature as a "Model, Measure, and Mentor" and emphasizes sustainability as an objective of biomimicry by Benyus
Biomimicry: See nature as a teacher. Through the examples it shows, we can compare it with the solutions we design for different problems, and learn from it how to solve problems sustainably.
While we spend millions of dollars trying to clear forests, destroy land, build embankments, and build dams to manage a natural river, beavers in nature are following their own nature to find branches, build their own dams, and cover the water flow. and reduce the occurrence of river turbulence. Part of the forest was even protected, saving a lot of manpower and material resources. There is probably something worth learning here.
Radishes radish
The growth of radish throughout the season depends on the external environment.
In sunny summers, stimulated by photosynthesis, radish growth is concentrated on the top above the soil layer. This part is very suitable as a salad material. In moderate sunlight, all their energy goes into growing those leaves and the top of the radish; this also results in not much growth happening at the bottom.
In autumn and winter, there is less sunlight, but the soil has accumulated sufficient nutrients and moisture. Nutrients and water therefore enter the roots of the radish, making the bottom of the radish start to become plump and juicy. Therefore, everyone likes to eat radish roots throughout the winter.
What I want to say here is "how do we adapt to changes in the environment" - as the environment and time change, are there other routes or transformation mechanisms in the way the organization is built that can allow the organization to capture changes in the environment and convert its value into another way? ways to transfer and store them into the organization.
In the cryptocurrency market, this equates to bull and bear market changes. Capital evolves from abundance to scarcity, and then back again, just like nature's spring and winter. Just like when the mechanisms, partners, and systems you have built face a suitable environment, you will know that you are growing, just like a carrot head; when you encounter winter, you need to have a bridge and create a complementary mechanism. Swing in different environments.
Each system is different, and all you have to do is find your own radish tops, middle bridges, and radish roots to adapt to the spring and winter conditions on the market.
Lobsters Lobster
Lobster is a conditionally immortal creature. As long as it can complete the molt during its life cycle, it can grow longer. If it continues to stay in its old shell, of course it will feel very comfortable and there is no need to spend extra resources and energy to break the old state. In this way, it will eventually be stuck in the old shell and die. .
In cyclical change, we know when it's time to change the way you play, using extra resources and energy to break out of the old, comfortable shell you've been living in until you can go through the entire process of transformation again.
"Step out of your comfort zone and you will grow."
Not just individuals, but every organization will face a choice at that moment: whether to devote additional resources to try to launch new projects and adapt to the new environment; whether to continue to do what we are good at; or whether to do both so that we can Maintain your expertise while creating new opportunities to launch the next amazing product.
Taking reality as an example, the recent Gitcoin brand has begun to be reshaped, using lichens, mosses and fungi as inspiration for the brand. Maybe we can see what kind of enlightenment nature will bring us.
Extended reading - Soybean paste - Green Pill Network 1 - What are the things worth noting about the issuance of NFT by local organizations?
Moss Moss
Although moss is a very small and simple organic organism, it absorbs carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen. Although it is only a small amount each time, over time, it completely changes the earth's original environment full of high concentrations of carbon dioxide. Many species that depended on high concentrations of carbon dioxide disappeared. This is why we can no longer see the large flora and fauna of the Choras period.
Moss seems so insignificant, existing independently on different plants and rocks, but it completely changes the earth's atmospheric environment and the natural system. Although this is a continuous and slow process, it is done step by step.
"How do you think about influence?"
We often look at how to achieve broad and dramatic change in a short period of time. We hope that within a month, everything will change towards the blueprint in our minds. So we have a lot of output in a short period of time and the output is very strong.
But what moss brings us is another kind of slow transformation, like "boiling a frog in warm water." A certain year and a certain month later, you suddenly find that your atmospheric environment has changed from high concentrations of carbon dioxide to oxygen. Once the environment changes, if there are "carrot" characteristics in the organization, we will adapt to the new environment. If not, we may disappear.
This process of "qualitative change due to quantitative change" occurs from time to time in nature, sometimes for weeks or months, and sometimes for as long as ten years or hundreds of years. At a certain point of equilibrium, things start to go in a different direction.
"Do you know that things change all the time? Change is eternal." - "Family Change" Lyricist: Huang Zhan Composer: Gu Jiahui Vocalist: Luo Wen
For example, "profit"/"money" has always been used as an indicator to measure the performance of an organization. Once you start to set your own currency, redefine your own value, and start step by step like moss, absorbing carbon dioxide, releasing oxygen, and changing the surrounding environment , people within the organization and external values. The moment the tipping point is reached, things will change overnight, like magic.
Extended reading - The theories and practices of Uncommons-Radical Markets
Ant ant
Scientists have discovered through research on ants that ants rely on the number of steps they take to measure distance. Humans use "meters" to calculate distances. Animals and insects also have their own standards for distance and age.
This is just like the cryptocurrency we hold, if the value corresponds to "USD". In a bear market and a bull market, if we look at it from a "dollar" perspective, there is a big difference between the two.
But if you look at it from the perspective of cryptocurrency, the ETH in your hand has not actually changed at all. We need to figure out when to use what units and standards to measure Web3, so as not to get stuck.
Extended reading Da0g0v-Soul Coin Salary-and-Influence Stocks
Cabbages Cabbage / Cabbage / Kale
The word cabbage can be used to describe various vegetables mentioned above. When we choose, we also have different choices because of different needs. This is similar to the various projects on Web3 that share common beliefs but have different features.
Web3 has generated various types of projects because of its openness, decentralization, and authorization-free features. Among the projects, some are classified based on infrastructure construction, some are aggregated based on similar core concepts or values, and some are classified based on different blockchains.
We are like Cabbage, we are all in the same ecosystem or culture, but each performs his or her own duties. There is no need to forget about the advantages of being a cabbage because someone else chooses kale. We share the core DNA, but we make different contributions and even cooperate with different projects to create synergy and mutual benefit. This is the original intention that we should maintain as a project and achieve a balance: let the project find a common DNA but have its own characteristics.
The development of nature has caused species with the same DNA to evolve differently in different environments to adapt to the surrounding environment. Various projects are under the impact of the market, community, and cultural values. Do not give up your own characteristics by imitating others.
Further reading
Liu Guo | Guo Liu-The gaming mechanism of decentralized social media
chaos theory
In nature, there is life and death, and the two are cyclical to each other.
hibernate
Web3 is like a garden of nature. There are giant ginseng trees that have survived for a long time, and there are also projects that surprise the market by suddenly growing beautiful flowers in the spring, but then go dormant in the winter. Facing different market environments, projects adopt their own methods to respond. For example, projects temporarily go into hibernation and maintain operations at a minimum, waiting for the arrival of spring.
Transformation
Like the carrot mentioned above, if the project has the ability to enter another transformation form in response to market changes in two or more modes, it will continue to develop in another way.
end
The alternative is closure. Like the decay of plants and animals, the end of a project will release resources and manpower for the development of other projects.
An intentional ending
The podcast also talks about a kind of intentional ending. In the long-term plan of the project, development is based on short-term, medium-term and long-term plans. We don't need projects to last forever. For example, when we apply for funds, the project can have a clear completion time. Then when we apply for the next fund, we will form another project, just like recreating the cycle of life and death in nature; this may be closer to the operating laws of nature, rather than pursuing the existence of immortality, or an animal. Unicorns that survive for thousands of years only appear in myths.
When a project has a clear endpoint, it does not have to distort the original meaning of the project in order to continue its life. We can reject these distortions gracefully and start a new project with what we have learned. The old culture and spirit will continue to exist in another way.
Every time the market encounters a major disaster, we will gain some experience, learn from these experiences, change our habits, and then apply them to new projects. This is like a DNA mutation in life. If these mutations can adapt to the new environment, reproduction will continue to carry this new change into the next generation of projects.
Extended reading da0 0时道-Learning-ten-year-dao-experience and lessons from-g0v-
The unfinished summer of tile cats｜ren: Chiang Mai will usher in a leap in the spirit of tile cats
DAO ecological imagination
While watching this podcast, I couldn't help but be reminded of an interesting proposition I had been thinking about earlier - DAO ecology. In the Web3 free environment, different projects survive by the fittest. How come there are only the above five examples where the two refer to each other. The development of DAO is as interesting as the development of life.
meiosis
During the recent NounsDAO division, there was cell meiosis (Meiosis).
In September 2023, NounsDAO with more than 28,000 ETH conducted its first fork, and more than 50% of members holding Nouns NFT joined the new DAO with corresponding assets.
This option is a design that already exists in NounsDAO. It is a design mechanism in its DNA, and it is not created out of thin air. The picture above explains several important things:
Only Nouns NFT holders have this qualification, just like you are part of the DNA.
The corresponding resources are taken away - each Nouns holder can obtain the corresponding 36.6 ETH after exiting the old DAO. Through this fork, the new DAO treasury immediately held 14,000 ETH.
You can't have it both ways.
Further reading:
Foresight News - Nouns’ thoughts on forks: Why are forks wonderful?
In addition, we can see more DAO possibilities in the future from nature’s changing reproduction methods:
Fusion between DAO and DAO
The two Nouns DAO may experience a lack of genes in the future and combine with each other again. The situation is just like fertilization. Through fertilization, the genes become 23 pairs of chromosomes again, giving birth to a new life.
The development of subDAO
Just like budding reproduction, subDAO slowly takes shape under the development of DAO. With the support of maternal resources, it forms its own structure. The members finally divide into a new cell with different sizes but similar functions.
Specialization of DAO functions
We know that if it is just like the budding reproduction of beer yeast, if subDAO just imitates the parent without differentiation, as time goes by, what we will get is just a large group of beer yeast. Functionally it cannot be developed further.
Looking back at the formation of humans and other embryos, why can we develop more complex living systems? Specialization of cell functions produces decisive changes. Starting from the fertilized egg, the embryo repeats the life journey of Brewer's yeast - a simple cell divides into 8.
On the fourth day, we can see that each cell of the embryo has its own positioning and differentiation. For the same goal, each cell begins to take on different tasks. At the end of the day, we have nerve cells responsible for the nervous system, which allow electric current to jump quickly between cells to transmit nerve signals; we have muscle cells that can save and use energy to contract quickly, allowing us to move; we have the ability to sense light and darkness. visual cells and transmit signals to the brain...
Come compare with Gitcoin and you will find out. Gitcoin Grants is responsible for Public Goods Funding, while Gitcoin Passport is responsible for the immune system, Gitcoin Stack/Allo is responsible for the development of internal systems, and Public Good Network is responsible for the underlying system.
More associations
If you think that the differentiation of cells is already magical and can guide the development of DAO, then after reading the full article, I would recommend you to take a look at the following extended reading article with the development imagination of DAO. We welcome your responses. What inspirations have you received from slime mold?
Further reading-
Conclusion
Man follows the earth, the earth follows the sky, heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature - Chapter 25 of Laozi's "Tao Te Ching"
The arrival of Web3 has given the world a fresh layer of land based on tradition. In an environment that is decentralized, has no permission restrictions, is transparent and cannot be tampered with, we always yearn for a better world.
However, we have been polluting our earth and destroying nature in exchange for our own selfish interests. The same is true for Web3. They set up Ponzi schemes under clever names and then run away; they design phishing websites and find ways to defraud others of their wallet private keys and assets; they create a FOMO atmosphere, drive up prices, and earn the difference, etc.
The planet is already seriously ill and Web3 is still in its infancy. I hope that all fellow Web3 enthusiasts will do their part to learn from nature while also caring for it and protecting the beautiful Web3 world.
Reference
The theory and practice of Uncommons - Radical Markets
Wendy HsinYun-imaginative-web-3-for-all-doomsday matsutake-book club experience
da0 Zero Hour Road - learn from - g0v - ten years of experience and lessons from dao -
Liu Guo | Guo Liu-The gaming mechanism of decentralized social media
Da0g0v-Soul Coin Salary-and-Impact Stock
The unfinished summer of tile cats｜ren: Chiang Mai will usher in a leap in the spirit of tile cats
Nouns Split Forks: Why Splits Are Wonderful
There is still a lot of room for DeSci to develop on different chains.
The second Web3Matters community event plans to apply for resources to reward translated articles or self-created DeSci short articles (within 500 words/5 minutes of reading) in Matters. All construction starts with education.
DeSci education article translation essay competition
Total resources: 5000 Likecoin
Reward: Each DeSci article will be rewarded with 1,000 Likecoins. There are currently four vacancies for a total of five articles, waiting for everyone to apply.
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