Thread by @iAmLikelyWrong

@wminshew 1/n I’m still playing around with it myself, but let me try...

@wminshew 2/n We contain multitudes. But one might say we maintain a single consistent facade in order to be "socially palatable”, among other reasons

@wminshew 3/n By socially palatable I essentially mean able to be cooperated with

@wminshew Freud/Nietzsche/etc. posited that personalities are a complex community of competing interests with the mask of a single overlay. Modern psych/neuroscience seems to be confirming parts of this

@wminshew 5/n Harmless/trivial example: I was always amazed how quickly my subconscious eliminated profanity from my vocabulary upon contact with my mom

@wminshew 6/n Which begs the question: if we actually consist of multitudes, why is that not very socially apparent? Why the single self overlay?

@wminshew 7/n I think there are a lot of reasons for this evolutionarily. Others have commented on it better than I could ever hope to regarding benefits of self-consciousness, ego, etc.

@wminshew 8/n What I do find interesting, though, is not just how it came about, but how it might be affecting the world of interactions/cooperation

@wminshew 9/n A single self overlay engenders trust by necessitating skin in the game. If you only have one “persona” that people can interact with (hence: scarcity), then the maintenance and integrity of that one surface are of paramount importance

@wminshew 10/n This is how Airbnb/Ebay work so well. The scarcity of reputation makes people trustworthy. (I assume) the central actors prevent bad actors from simply deleting their account (persona) and establishing a new one

@wminshew 11/n On the flip side, let’s imagine that you have the potential for multiple selves to manifest themselves as principal actors at different times

@wminshew 12/n I would not know which one of you I’m dealing with. And any reputational damage on one might not contaminate the other. In the real world this isn’t a big deal b/c of the physical nature of the self

@wminshew 13/n Even if you do have multiple selves manifesting themselves, for all intents and purposes you still only have one reputational reservoir b/c of your singular physical nature and surrounding societal/network unity

@wminshew But on the internet could this limitation breakdown? Two trends seem to suggest MAYBE it can:

@wminshew 15/n 1) Power of complete privacy of one’s data is becoming more possible. 2) Trust engendered in disconnected pseudonymous internet personas is becoming more possible

@wminshew 16/n These trends might suggest that it will become more and more possible for people to possess varying personalities across varying domains of social interaction over the internet. And more and more of social life is going online

@wminshew 17/n To some extent we already see this: I am dramatically different on FB than I am on TWTR. I suspect many others are as well. There are 2 versions of me being presented to the world. And I can do this b/c of lack of contagion/interaction btwn 2 networks

@wminshew 18/n On the one hand, one might see this as being an instrument of freedom: people can express parts of their personality they couldn’t before for fear of perception affecting the other personalities they present to the world (contagion)

@wminshew 19/n Alternatively, it makes each personality less important from a reputational standpoint b/c there is no longer a strong unifying force promoting contagion btwn the reputation of different personalities. I.e. less skin in the game

@wminshew 20/n You could maybe think about it as a double-spend problem of persona?

@wminshew 21/n For example, there may be parts of my personality that are only useful for 1 or 2 interactions w/ given market. Lack of iterations = more likely to defect. Whereas when I have 1 central reputation, iteration is unavoidable and endless

@wminshew 22/n In summary: general trend: tribal locality everyone knows everyone—> globalized community w/ privacy—> glob. community w/ less privacy—> (maybe soon) dependable privacy coupled w/ increasing acceptability of pseudonymous personas

@wminshew 23/n The level of accountability shifts w/ each privacy paradigm shift, and accountability is part of the foundation of cooperation. So I find it interesting to ponder future of cooperation given shifting accountability frameworks

@wminshew n/n Not at all sure I’m thinking this through correctly so I welcome other thoughts. But on the edge of my mind recently so figured it was worth putting down in writing