In a world of immense complexity, it’s increasingly hard to focus on what matters.
This is true for our personal lives, as well as for our professional lives. Finding meaning in the maelstrom can be hard. Bombarded by information, messages that matter can be lost.
It gets worse. Everyday, technology is used by extremists of all stripes to promulgate messages that divide people and promote hate. We believe that technology can be used to promote understanding and tolerance in equal, if not greater measure.
That’s why we’re building Ananas.
We share a problem
Complexity, technology, communication, speed, noise. They add up to an existence that is increasingly confusing and chaotic, with objectives of the few outflanking any collective need in society, media and government. “America First” and US retrenchment are examples, with the world’s preeminent superpower now focused on helping itself before others. Other countries feel this way, too.
This sentiment is also reflected on a social level. With heads down and headphones in, we, the people, grow less aware of our neighbours, despite being more connected than ever thanks to the advent of certain technologies. We’re becoming aware only of ourselves, caring less for what exists beyond the sphere of our own screens and feeds. The effect works both ways, as we can no longer rely on our neighbour. The scope of ‘us’ shrinks under the weight. “We First” becomes “Me First”.
Hunched shoulders and bowed heads, US border walls and a global rise in nationalist sentiment. These reactions are a response to the isolation, fear, vulnerability and lack of control we feel, when who we are and what we stand for comes under threat from a vast wave of information, via messages, updates and news, forced upon us every day.
Even if we try otherwise, our collective response to this threat is to either retreat and isolate ourselves further, or fight in the hope we can protect our society, beliefs, religions, identities.
This passion for defending the building blocks of society has led to a surge in support for radical, fundamental ideals and groups who claim to fight a war of identity and sovereignty on our behalf — often through violence and hate. Virtual communities and for-profit media give these groups a voice, because radical voices and clickbaits boost ratings and profit. Hence extreme messages are heard ever louder.
Extremism breeds isolationism. Isolationism breeds fear. Fear breeds hate. And onwards, round and down we go.
At Ananas, we know people want to stop this downward spiral, but they lack the necessary tools to take action. Right now, society simply doesn’t afford many ways for people to channel their burning desire for tolerance and understanding. Thus, society is fragmenting rather than unifying. A solution seems almost further away than ever. Almost.
We’re in this together
We’ve found a way to fight back — peacefully — and we want to share it with you. Together, we can stop this decline and rebuild society.
In an interconnected world, information is now the crucial method of influence. You only need to look at recent global elections to see politicians aren’t winning votes with just policies and facts. Rather, it’s an avalanche of misleading information, advertising being bought en masse, forging opinion into so-called fact. ‘Facts’ used to justify action questionable at the least.
And it’s subjective knowledge — our politics, our religions, our morals — that are most sensitive to manipulation. When subjective knowledge is re-packaged as objective, immutable fact, it leads to chaos, confusion, hate and violence, undermining our core values and identities.
Manipulation isn’t the only problem. It’s human nature, too. Our desire to defend that which we care about brings people and communities into conflict with one another. In the absence of context and balanced views, subjective knowledge is fought over. One person’s subjective knowledge is labelled false and dismissed. And further trouble flares.
We need to defend subjective knowledge from both unnatural and natural forces of distortion. At Ananas, it’s these values we are on a mission to protect. And we need your help.
How to create a better tomorrow
Technology has been great for objective knowledge, but not the subjective. If this continues, we’ll lose touch with the narratives and ideas that fuel culture at the most intimate level. We must learn to use technology to protect what makes us most human: subjectivity.
How do we protect subjective knowledge from distortion? By harnessing the unique power of technology to break down the barriers of isolationism and empower people to rebuild and protect their shared values in a cohesive, peaceful way.
We are using the latest technologies — AI, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and decentralisation — to both incentivise and improve participation, interaction and discourse around subjects that, for too long, have been open to distortion.
With technology, we are returning power to the people and giving them the freedom to make up their own minds about subjects that matter to them.
We need your help
We understand that isolationism comes from fear, and that fear comes from a feeling of vulnerability about a way of life under threat. We can begin to remove the source of that threat by offering people the chance to communicate, collaborate and create communities safe from certain ails of modern society.
The gravity of this mission cannot be understated.
Our future needs unity to face the great challenges of our age. Refugees, global warming, other existential threats such as nuclear destructions… these are all battles that we cannot fight alone. The future may hold even greater challenges. Our ability to overcome these challenges rests upon our ability to come together and cooperate for the good of one global community. We can do it, but only if we find a new way to communicate and work together.
The survival of subjective knowledge can’t be left to chance, or risk society collapsing in on itself due to a complexity and pressure growing much faster than its infrastructure can adapt to.
Our mission isn’t just to stop the downward spiral. Our mission is to replace it with a progressive form of technologically-enabled knowledge. All people deserve to be empowered with the means to build a better future. All people deserve to reap the benefits from this mission. We are giving power back to the people so they can protect their values in the most powerful way imaginable: decentralised, collective, ubiquitous.
We are on a mission to protect subjective knowledge together with all who share our vision. Those that believe in technology’s promise of a brighter tomorrow. To a better world, both outside and within.
That is what matters to us. Will you be part of the mission?
