I got the idea when I tried to deconstruct the concept of Metro with Protocols:
- Independence: On the subway people usually don’t talk to other people on it; people now usually use it without communicating with others
- Freedom: freedom of movement in every metro stations in the system after buying the ticket
- Universality: After riding the subway once, the concept is established that it can be used in all other subways: one has the concept of the protocol between man and subway in one’s head, and when riding the subway in other cities, one only has to observe and appreciate the minor differences, the basic concept remains the same.
- Metro is an artifact. However, modern people first accept the protocol and then regulates its behavior according to the protocol.
Idea: Make the Metro of Minds
Theoretically, there is no metro/subway-like concept for accessing the internet. Because of the physical distance in real life, on the internet, one can jump to any page immediately through hyperlinks like a portal.
However, for human cognition, we can’t access any information in one step; our path during retrieval is like traveling through a tunnel, opening doors and jumping around again and again, before finally arriving at the destination.
Even for familiar information, it is possible to jump several times instead of entering it once.
How to build our own Metro?
Theoretically, the architecture of each website can be represented as a tree diagram with instant time to jump from two adjacent levels, There is no protocol like one subway ride where we stand or sit and boringly wait instead of getting off the train immediately.
As blockchain emphasizes the irreplaceability of sequence and process time, can we build the Metro of Minds with blockchain? Pauses, repetitions, and dwell times all have their own meaning to individuals. When we look back at the time we spent looking up and reading on the web, it’s as if we were in the metro system of our own construction.
