Evolutionarily Stable Strategy

A lot of the subtle details of the design of the Dendrite Network are misunderstood or missed entirely when people first hear about it, and at least some of this is due to the fact that the D.N. is an evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS).

Unlike most business models and indeed most human planning, the D.N. model cannot be replaced by a competing model.  Put another way, any potential improvement to the D.N. that could not be symmetrically adopted by the all the users would be spontaneously rejected, and any potential improvement to the D.N. that could be symmetrically adopted by the all the users would be, and therefore become the Dendrite Network.

By defining the D.N. in terms of a service or goal, rather than a static institution that has to maintain itself to maintain itself, all possible competition is obviated.

This is literally true: If you can invent a better network I will immediately quit work on this one and join yours. Anything else would be stupid.

However, it is extremely unlikely that you can improve on the current version. I am very good at what I do, and I have been thinking about this system for over twenty years.

(At this point it is customary for the listener to inquire along these lines: "If this is so good, why aren't we using it already?"  Of course this seems like a bright question, but in fact is stark idiocy, and I never have any idea how to answer it.  The answer obviously is, "I have no fucking clue why people refuse to do the blatantly obvious better things that are all around them." I am not in that department.  I am in the department of solutions, and I have them all, but very very few people are actually interested.  It is shocking. I am shocked.  It's not like I need the D.N.  I'm not the one who is rapidly being totally economically marginalized faster and faster every day.)

The D.N. captures the fundamental essence of a public-meme-spreading network.  The "campaigns" and usage patterns that run on top of it (like websites "running" on the web) are subject to wild evolution, but the underlying network is not really going to need to change much.

Yet More on the Dendrite Network

I woke up this morning feeling like writing up a couple of the subtle points of the ol' D.N., so here goes.

No Privileged Position

One thing that I feel is crucial, and that I expect many people to overlook or ignore, is the neutrality of or lack of privileged position in the basis network.

In order to explain more clearly I will employ a metaphor: the basis network is like the Great Plains, and the campaigns that run on top of it are like buffalo. Or again, the network layer is like the Internet, while the campaigns are like the services and sites running on the Internet.

As the operator and steward of the network I do not get any special consideration.  Specifically, I do not take a cut of every sale. In fact, I don't even participate in the transaction. If no one tells me a sale happened I won't even know.  If I want to make money using the D.N. I must start a campaign of my own or help spread others', just like anybody else.

The system is symmetrical, egalitarian, diffident even.  Eventually I will found a non-profit to administer it.

Social Feedback

The D.N. is just a way to spread memes and publicly track the spread. It makes no attempt to provide any communication or feedback between the users, other than publicly recording "reject" notices in the log. It does not even have "accounts".

Because you are generally only exchanging "bump URLs" with people you know, I expect that you can use social channels to communicate with them already!

The D.N. is not meant to foster new connections, only to publicly record and illustrate memes spreading through your existing connections.

Nothing Like a Flowchart

I created a flowchart kind of a thing to illustrate the "flow" through the network.

You start at the upper left with a visit to a "bump URL" and follow the arrows around to the point where you generate your own "bump URL" to pass along to the next people.