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Essay 1: Higher is Not a Headless Brand
Essay 2: The Token is The Problem and The Opportunity
Essay 3: Higher Forever
As I write, the two co-authors of Higher's Greenpaper, have just released new pieces of writing individually - LGHT deconstructing the Matrix we are currently enslaved to: Technology, Money, Design, and Media, and Jihad speaking to networks as product and agency as a desired network impact.
Together they are pointing to the current state of things more broadly but perhaps there is no better scene to take their ideas seriously than Higher.
Situated at the intersection of Technology and Money, what if we designed media that expanded the network's capacity to distribute agency to humans, in relation to Technology and Money?
The cultural practice of the Higher scene(network) is already positioned in this way:
To explore new ways of feeling and seeing higher regardless of market action.
As previously discussed, feeling and seeing higher is a mode of perception and exploration of the ways in which this can be decoupled from a technological and monetary reality, aka market action, results in the distribution of agency, and ultimately genius.
The mechanism may be something like: we are no longer affected by market action, we have one less external factor influencing our thoughts and behaviour, we can do more with our attention, and we can birth more genius.
Agency is a function of the mind. In order to enhance agency, the site of enhancement is no other than the mind.
One could argue that technologies enhance agency, but if agency is as Jihad defines it: the ability to define a clear vision and act on it with intention. Then, the only site worth paying attention to is the one in which a clear vision and intention are cultivated and from which action originates.
In both cases, that site is the mind.
Networks are clusters of minds. Technology, Money, Design, and Media all filter through minds. We live every moment of our lives, with our minds.
If we want to truly take seriously the responsibility of freeing ourselves from the Matrix, as LGHT describes it, and to live with agency, as well as distributing the possibility of that agency to others via our network as our product, as Jihad suggests is possible, it may start with recognising that the site of necessary impact is the mind.
As you may remember, it is my belief that the core value offering of higher is the distribution of genius.
This value offering is primarily manifested by inviting individuals into the process of agency (to clarify their own vision and to act on it with intention), through interaction with the scene.
Following this, through further collaboration and agency fuelled action, innovations are discovered and genius can be distributed and recognised.
Importantly, nobody tells you what that process has to look like. There is a huge amount of freedom in what your vision can be and how you move towards what is possible. The process may look widely different for different persons who join the scene.
However, if we are to agree that the primary site of practice for engaging higher's cultural practice is the mind, it may be useful to understand what exactly the possible changes to ones mind might be and how they are allowed to occur.
Referring again to our jihad provided definition of agency: the ability to define a clear vision and act on it with intention, it appears that clarity of vision and the ability to act on it with intention are the most important faculties of mind to enhance.
Clarity of vision is an imaginal act, a direction of ones attention, and can only be as clear as ones incorporation of all the factors that make up it's possible reality.
Action with intention is an embodied reality, a direction of ones attention, and can only be as impactful as ones incorporation of all the factors that make up the present reality.
In essence, in being agentic, we are traversing the gap between the imagined and the physical, through the energy of attention.
The most valuable enhancements therefore are those that give you control over the direction of your attention. Without the ability to direct your attention to traversing the gap and to re-direct it when you've been distracted or new information arises that requires a new form of action, you cannot adequately form a clear vision or act with intention.
Therefore, we might concentrate our efforts of exploring new ways of empowering individuals to understand and direct the flow of their attention through exploration of the medium of mind.
Importantly, again, whilst I may have a vision for how to do this, the core value proposition of Higher is not in it's declaration of a singular way of doing things, but in it's invitation to be part of a scene of people experimenting along a particular line of exploration. It is through this that we give ourselves the best possible chance at distributing genius
If we coordinate and collaborate on the mission of enhancing agency, new forms of enhancing agency are then sure to arise, through the distribution of genius.
So here's an invitation into a possible future:
Whilst the Higher scene may lead to the distribution and recognition of many forms of genius, I would like to invite you into a specific mission, based on what I have written above.
My thesis is that by providing agency enhancing services to both scene participants and those outside of it, that overall participation in the higher scene will increase, and all will benefit as a result.
Here are some ideas that I'm currently engaged in:
Soon, I hope to launch higher mindfulness club entirely for free, rewarding participants with HIGHER for showing up as well as consistent participation, following funding from The Higher Party.
This will be a 6-month experiment in distributing techniques and practices that I personally have found effective in enhancing my own agency and are proven to enhance attentional capacities and improve the wellbeing of those who experience anxiety and depression.
At the same time, higher mindfulness club will provide the stage for the scene to be in conversations around clarifying vision, next actions, and remembering intentions.
Importantly, nothing that is presented needs to be taken as fact. I encourage you to come along and DYOR on these practices and techniques, as well as to get into conversation with other higher network participants on the basis of shared exploration.
My intention is, that through participation, these techniques will distribute higher agency to more individuals who are already part of the scene as well as to newcomers. You can help to distribute genius by bringing your curiosity, engaging the sessions in earnest, not taking my word as gospel, and inviting new people into the process.
Find out more here.
Even sooner, I plan to help launch the first Permapool.
Using a permapool, an organisation will be able to provide a widely recognised public good to the scene and receive funding in exchange. I suggest that this organisation be dedicated to exploring the frontiers of coordination using HIGHER and what media that enhances agency could be.
Specifically, I am suggesting that focus be on five core principles: enhancing agency, embracing uncertainty, and enabling collaboration, generating revenue, and using HIGHER.
This is because in order to successfully distribute the genius of enhanced agency to as many people as possible we have to expand participation and collaboration across the network as well as secure it's long-term future.
Here's how each of our core principles help:
Enhancing Agency
It is extraordinarily valuable to have an understanding of how and why attention flows and how to redirect it to align with ones own intention. Enhanced agency is valuable to anyone who wants to create. Distributing the skills and understanding that allows people to enhance their own agency to create is therefore incredibly valuable for a scene that wants to remain continually relevant. The more people who are empowered by the scene to create, the more people that are likely to return value to the scene through creation and experimentation.
This can be seen as a guiding principle. The organisation may exist to enhance agency, first and foremost.
Embracing Uncertainty
Things are always changing. To stay still is to risk becoming irrelevant or forgotten. We can stave off these potential dangers by embracing uncertainty and encouraging all forms of experimentation, facing realities, and remaining curious. As long as cultural exploration remains an open question, there is more experimentation that can be done. The more valuable experiments occurring in the scene the more opportunity there is for the amount of participation to increase.
This means that the organisation doesn't have to see anything as competition and can readily incorporate new innovations where participation, experimentation, and agency are increasing.
Enabling Collaboration
Scene health relies on collaboration. As participants are connected to one another network effects take hold that amplify scene activity. Participants encountering diversity amidst the scene through collaboration can enhance overall scene agency as visions are clarified and intentions and next actions defined. More agentic participants increases the set of possible experiments that can emerge from the scene and attract new participants into the scene. Collaborations can also invite non-participants to become participants directly.
This can encompass collaborations both within and beyond the scene, to foster diversity and enhance agency simultaneously. The scene will fail without collaboration, as we will fail to distribute genius.
Generating Revenue
Whilst passion can drive the activity of a scene to it's highest potential, it is also important that people are paid for their work so that they can survive in our money-driven world. In general, relying on passion alone restricts the ability of the most passionate to do what they love. Resources are necessary for survival first and foremost, after which they can enable for more expansive things to be done.
This means that the organisation should be treated as a for-profit public goods machine - seeking funds as ETH or USDC, for conversion into 50/50 HIGHER/ETH LP not only through the generosity of aligned parties, but also in exchange for work in coordination, media, and beyond. Enhanced coordination within the scene is enabled by encouraging people to contribute to the pool to signal long-term alignment with HIGHER and engender trust.
Using HIGHER
Value HIGHER. There is no point in accumulating HIGHER if the intention is solely to sell it, it is better used. The HIGHER token can be seen as a form of media and therefore it's main function to can be to enhance agency. Not through it's sale into ETH but through it's potential as a reward for contributing to enhanced agency, or as an incentive for enhancing the agency of oneself or others. Holding HIGHER should be enough to 10x a persons agency. To this end, HIGHER may be used to incentivise behaviours that promote agency and as a reward for committing to agency enhancing choices.
Through commit.wtf, HIGHER holders can be incentivised to go higher and earn in the process. Importantly, no HIGHER need be sold for ETH or USDC.
higher mindfulness club and a permapool org, are just two ways I have thought of that our collective energy and resources to be directed towards in order for higher to position itself as an important source of enhancing agency in our time.
My hope is that the Permapool concept alone could enhance agency amidst the scene. The strategy is free for anyone to use and iterate upon.
Multiple permapools, with multiple forms of governance, and multiple strategies for using the funds could be deployed, with all of them servicing the higher community through at least their liquidity provision.
The most important factor to consider will always be the plan for how permapool fees are utilised.
You may not even agree that we should focus any efforts on enhancing agency.
Whatever comes next, higher is yours.
Agency is important for the world.
The Higher scene is well positioned to concentrate efforts on enhancing agency at this time.
There are ways in which we could coalesce our efforts to enhance agency, if we want to.
The future is wide open.
As a result of Higher's initial introduction as a way of seeing that can inform a response to the world as opposed to a singular product or object; higher is more of a memetic primitive for integration with one's own life and aspirations, than a definable object, and is as a result both dynamic and adaptable.
Another way of saying this is that Higher is meta-transcending - which means that it is durable.
Hopefully, more people will want to contribute to higher, building their own aspirations and discovering their own genius for themselves as well as others in whatever way makes sense to them.
In this model, behaviour flows from the shared understanding and lived experiences of the brand’s participants, rather than from a singular directive. Values are dynamic, growing, and transforming as the brand community evolves. Where consensus emerges, attention concentrates, and genius is validated. The brand overall has fluidity to adapt to metas, in relation to where it's participants are learning as well as acting on their strengths and skills, also known as going higher.
If you think the vision of going higher I have presented today is worth supporting, any and all support is appreciated.
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