Social Algorithm Manifesto

June 17, 2025

A social algorithm is a system or process enacted by and between humans, that allows us to do new things. It’s like culture technology.

There exists an algorithm for human alignment.

It is possible for us to understand how humans work in relation to each other.

This won’t be something as inflexible as a book of laws and it won’t require blind trust in a government or all knowing AGI. We can collectively design systems that allow us to create, adapt and improve the learning feedback loop of our culture.

Humans are the agents of change

Humans are the sensory nodes. We can detect the subtle dissonance that destabilizes a movement. We can feel when a new idea is reaching maturity, when the dynamics of a group are unstable or ready for action. These are sensitivities a individual can develop through experience. These are sensitivities that, if we desire to act as coherent collectives, we must begin developing collectively.

Power = Alignment (= Wholeness)

True power is not a thing that one possesses. The universe is not ‘powerful’ for maintaining the laws of physics, it just works in certain ways. It is our ability to witness and build things that align with that reality that make us “powerful”.

This is meaningful in the human sphere because as we graduate from the concept of power as domination we can begin to reveal our true potential. We want to prosper. We want dynamic technology and thriving ecology. There is a ‘power’ that we can love and pursue with open hearts, that works to make our world whole.

Gaps in perception are potential energy

Humanity is a puzzle of which we all possess a unique piece. For some their piece may only serve their closest friends and family, for others their piece will unlock understanding for a majority. Regardless, finding where our perceptions of the world converge is the source of scientific and social innovation alike.

In one domain (science) we have tools for inspecting the gaps between ideas, while other areas remain stunted, paralyzed by fear of the stranger (religion, sexuality, there are lots) or just lacking the tools to hold complex realities in view while their emerging purpose takes shape.

Culture can be a tool we create together

The trick you figured out last year was an insight.
As insights evolve into the tools everybody uses, they become technology.
Culture is the set of ideas and practices whose origins have sunk into myth. Just the way things work…

But also, culture represents character; how it feels to be and work in a city, job, or family.

I want to unify these, to close the gap between the seeking, the experimenting, the spread of insights across the population, and our ability to create lasting meaning while also allowing that meaning to evolve. These can all be part of a conscious collective relationship, a game we play together that adds resolution to what we hold beautiful, that allows us to share in the pride and joy of being human.

With love,
Mo