Wiki

Supporting factual information and open source platform provided by Wikipedia. Please give ol' Jimmy some money to show your appreciation!

How to you summarize the totality of scientific, philosophical, psychological, and spiritual knowledge into a single work that can fully convey the gist of the nature of existence to anyone who gives it a thorough reading?

The wiki format provides a wide range of benefits for a project with this goal in mind.

If Wikipedia represents all of human knowledge, the metaculture wiki represents the story that it tells, and a way for our minds to comprehend it and communicate it to others in a singular, packaged work, as has been the tradition among humans since we evolved societies.

Self-Creating, Evolving and Eternal

The first advantage of the wiki format is the ability to collaborate. Since metaculture is an emergent system of thought, there are many people with their own knowledge and perspective about each subject. The wiki format allows them all to contribute if they have something to add.

People also get things wrong, and scientific advancement enhances and replaces old ideas as our knowledge about them expands. Wiki will allow anyone to point out and correct factual errors, or update pages on any subject that has become obsolete. A static writing would forever enshrine those obsolete ideas until it reads like a 50 year old science textbook. The wiki format allows for self-correction of doctrine, which is necessary to avoid dogma.

The wiki format will allow those additions and revisions to continue in perpetuity. If the goal of metaculture is to create a system of thought that can supplant the ones that have stood for the last 2000 years, it needs to allow for all the changes that will come in the next 2000 years. This cannot be accomplished with a static writing format. We can barely imagine what the next 100 years of scientific advancement will bring, much less the next 1000.

It Isn't Done Yet

The foundation has been laid and the framework built. Subject matter experts are needed to finish the house using best practices.

When this wiki was launched it was populated with longer articles describing the core philosophical tenets, along with shorter pages that addressed more specific topics. Videos provide high-quality educational background on each topic. The overall framework of the metaculture belief system is laid out, but there are many details that still need to be filled in, particularly in the expansive best practices section that attempts to describe the practical application of these principles in all areas of life.

This should be a collaborative effort, with like-minded people sharing their expertise on each subject until all of the essentials are covered. Each page should have context for how that topic relates to the holistic vision of the universe, and educational materials for kids, teens, and adults. The text should distill each concept into its core meme, while providing access to the world of evidence that led to this conclusion through links. They should be brief and to the point, but still cover all of the most essential concepts.

And it should focus on why each of these things is wonderful and should fill us with joy!

By design, will never be "finished", only constantly improved. But at first launch it is definitely more of a foundation and a frame than a fully constructed house.

But Don't Overdo It

There is an infinite amount of information that could be included in this wiki. But if it becomes so big that it is impossible to get through it all, it will no longer serve its purpose. It should be possible to consume it like an interactive book that can ultimately be "finished".

Information overload must be avoided. Only the key pieces of information that are necessary to fill in the most common knowledge gaps and relate each topic to the big picture should be provided. Unlimited references are encouraged, but the main content should be limited to a few paragraphs and videos on each subject.

Non-Linear Reading Format

The non-linear reading format wiki provides has two key advantages. Human thought itself is non-linear, constantly veering off on tangents as the conceptual associations we make focus our attention on new ideas. Each person comes to it with their own knowledge and ignorance on each subject. If an article mentions Maslow's hierarchy of needs for instance, you may already know all about this subject or you may have never heard of it. The wiki format allows you to follow that link and learn more about it if necessary, or continue reading if you are already familiar with the subject.

This allows each article to be written much more concisely than it could be in a linear format. In a book it is necessary to dedicate time, energy and space to any concept that the reader is likely to be unfamiliar with. Any avid reader of popular science and philosophy is familiar with the tedium of having the same common concepts explained again and again in every book they read because of the possibility that another reader may be learning about the subject for the first time. The wiki format replaces these redundant explanations with a single link that the reader can follow if needed.

If You Don't Agree, Hover the Links

In order to accommodate the wiki format, some terms are used based on specific definitions or usages that are described on its page. These are often not the most common usage, such as the interchangeability of god and universe in the pantheistic view. It is important to take these definitions into account when considering any statement made on this wiki. While you may not agree with the usage, that is a separate debate. The arguments should be considered using the intended definitions of words that have all been spelled out in detail, rather than the ones based on your pre-existing assumptions.

You can quickly hover over each link and get a preview of the first paragraph and a page thumbnail to make sure it doesn't immediately conflict with your assumptions. The thumbnails also help you recognize alias links that you have already seen. This is easier when reading in a desktop browser since phones don't have a mouse that can hover over a link but there should be an equivalent gesture.

Maintaining Cultural Relevance

While the initial wiki was populated with the writings of a single author, the ideas should be fully separated from their authorship. First person perspectives and personal anecdotes are not used, and references to specific current events and popular culture can be updated to stay current. If a subjective point cannot be made without the first person, the term "this author" will be used in place of "I" to emphasize the anonymous and collaborative goal of this project.

References to religions, scripture, politics and culture should be generalized and made as universal as possible to allow people from any time, place or background to approach the subject matter equally.

Eventually, the wiki platform will also allow for translations into multiple languages and recontextualization of the ideas for individual cultures.

Languages and Education Levels

The wiki will also allow for multiple language translations, as well as multiple education level translations. The initial wiki will be written on an academic reading level and assume the reader is familiar with of the fundamentals of science, philosophy, theology, and fractals. But each page should eventually offer simplified versions that explain concepts using allegory and examples, and provide additional reference materials to help those who are unfamiliar with with the topics being discussed.

Video based tutorials are also provided that provide different levels of simplicity and depth in their explanations. The best publicly available video content on each subject is embedded on each page to help provide rich and entertaining background information.

In its final form, multiple versions of each page can be published with beginner (primary school), intermediate (high school), and advanced (academic) levels of detail, allowing you to switch between versions like you would a language translation.

References

The wiki will allow extensive linking to source material and research that backs up any assertions or conclusions made. The initial framework will mostly describe the perspective and methodology that metaculture will use to identify religious, psychological, political, and economic best-practices rather than drawing conclusions on what they currently are. This task is better left to subject matter experts who can provide this detail and cite the research to back it up. Hence, extensive links to corresponding pages on Wikipedia.org will be used to provide background information since these are written and maintained by experts already, and metaculture simply provides organization and perspective on these facts, not primary research or summarization thereof.

Music and Video

Embedded educational videos related to each subject will be provided where available. These may not always approach the subject matter from the exact perspective being presented in the text, but when they aren't they are complementary or provide good background information.

Some are taken from podcasts or YouTube channels that have a lot of other content, and it should go without saying that linking to one specific video is not an endorsement of all content on that channel.

Basic introductory videos designed for children and students are included, as well as more advanced discussions of each topic, or even full academic lectures. The selection should be curated to ensure the best content that is freely available on each subject should be provided, and anything that will cause your algorithm to send you down a right wing rabbit hole will be avoided.

All pages will also contain a music video for a song that evokes that subject. These can be used as a playlist to provide musical accompaniment as you read.

Instructions for embedding videos

Version Control

Finally, the wiki will track the version history of each article and provide the ability for authors to discuss changes, and for those discussions to be visible to future generations. It's like scripture with version control. giture if you will.