Who

So, this is it, this is How it begins. No more sitting on the sidelines pondering and wondering. This is it. This is Where the rubber hits the road.

OK, so, err… wow. Welcome. I guess this is How you start these things, right? I welcome you and I tell you a little bit about my self, Why I’m here and Why you should consider reading on… OK, well, I’ve kinda done that in detail on the about page, which you can link off to, if you so wish…

I feel like I’m jumping into the deep end, because there is so much that I just don’t know, and What I don’t know has many sides to it, so let me try and break this down a little.

What

Firstly, there is so much that I wish to discuss here, about the essence of the #self, the nature of #reality, the meaning of #existence, #consciousness, #choice, #consequence, #awareness, #intention, #sovereignty, #autonomy, #emotion, #liberty, #ethics, #morality, #wellness, #society, #money, #law, #power, #religion, and #technology to name just a few…

How

Then there is Substack, WordPress, Medium, Spotify, YouTube, Rumble, Odysee, and all the other communication channels that are out there, and this doesn’t even begin to account for the minefield that is Social Media today.

Why

I do know Why I’m here on Steemit, and it’s for a couple of reasons:

#1 - Information Gathering

Taking the above point about What I wish to discuss, today we have almost instantaneous access to the most amount of information humanity has ever known. This in and of it self creates a huge problem because sifting through all this information to uncover reliable and verifiable facts is becoming increasingly difficult.

Information overload can make it difficult to discern fact from fiction, and verifiable facts form the bedrock of How we operate within our shared, consensus (objective) reality.

I find my self constructing narratives and mental models within my mind that appear to make a lot of sense to my mind, but these can then become difficult to translate into coherent speech When attempting to explain them to others. Thus, writing these things down here on Highlighter overcomes two challenges.

I get to make sense of these things my self, because if I cannot translate my understanding into coherent text then my knowledge and experience of the subject matter must be lacking.
If I can capture these things in a coherent way, then I can refer them to others, and hopefully receive constructive feedback in ways that may not have yet occurred to me.

I believe this is What Seraph meant When he said:

“You do not truly know someone until you fight them.”
_ Seraph - The Matrix Reloaded_

Obviously, the Matrix films were action movies, so the metaphors expressed within them typically manifested through scenes of hand-to-hand combat involving Neo, but at its core, I interpret Seraphs words to mean that, you do not truly know your self until you find your true self. Here’s another way to explain What I mean by this:

mind.
noun, a beautiful servant, a dangerous master.

When a student is ready, the master appears…

I’ve explained more about this in the about page, but here is the summary, consciousness can exist without thought, but thought cannot exist without consciousness. Ergo, consciousness is an innate quality of Being, whereas Mind is an emergent property of consciousness. Once you deconstruct your Being to its core, you eventually arrive at nothing. Nothing is the truth of all reality (ultimate reality), and so to know nothing, through the experience of enlightenment, is to know thy self.

Once the distinction is made between the conscious self and the thinking mind, truth emerges, and it is this truth that sets us free. This is the “fight” for freedom, or more accurately the struggle for peace, that we are all invited to seek, simply through Being human.

If I can make sense of What is in my mind, by writing it down, then this is a good thing. If those words then translate into meaning and understanding for others, then this is a better thing. If conversations emerge that promote growth and increase understanding, then this is the best thing.

#2 - Process Improvement

So having a corpus of information to discuss is the first thing, but then there is How best to have these discussions… This is of equal importance to me because the way that we are generating and consuming content is changing. There now appears to be as many channels to discuss information, as there is information to be discussed, although I suspect Generative Artificial Intelligence will smash that ratio out of the park soon, if it hasn’t done so already.

So, What is the best way or ways to do this? Well, I figure the only way to find this out is to run the experiment and see Where it goes.

You gotta start somewhere…

Substack seems like a reasonable place to start because:

it’s part of the existing world, Where everything is stored centrally, yet it appears to be somewhat censorship resistant, not that I intend to go around kicking the hornets’ nest, but it does appear to be a relatively “safe” place to hang out.
it’s growing rapidly and making improvements to its platform all the time, so I can grow and learn as Substack improves.
it has a good user base, so connecting with fellow travellers is easier than creating my own standalone website.
I’m also hopeful that Substack provides simple and easy integration into things like Podcasting and Social Media, so I can spend more time on content creation and having meaningful conversations, and less time on the technicalities of “distribution”.

…and see where it goes

“Notes and Other Stuff Transmitted by Relays” is more commonly known as nostr. Don’t worry, I wouldn’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of https://nostr.com, I only discovered it in February this year, but the more I learn about it, the more I want to be involved with it, and the more I want to learn about it.

I think I broadly understand traditional Social Media, but I found nostr to be like a whole new concept that I needed to get my head around, so I don’t expect this to make much sense to someone Who has never used nostr before, but this is my nostr id, or public key…

…and this is my nostr public key: npub15z0mnjepscd9hk3ywkcvuupap7tt0qle64f0uvvygpl3mqerz4tq4dl33y
nostr in a nutshell

nostr is a protocol rather than a platform
anyone can run a nostr node to support the protocol
anyone can build anything on the nostr protocol
the nostr protocol creates a decentralised platform

Because of all these things, nostr is highly resistant to censorship. I’ve only just started to scratch the surface with nostr, but I believe this is the future of open, transparent and secure communication.

Because it’s a protocol, you can use different clients to connect to it. I’ve tried a few and I currently like Primal, so you can find me on nostr via the Primal web client here: https://primal.net/p/npub15z0mnjepscd9hk3ywkcvuupap7tt0qle64f0uvvygpl3mqerz4tq4dl33y

Just this last week I also discovered that there is a type of Substack alternative already being developed on nostr called https://highlighter.com, so you can also find me on nostr via the Highlighter web client here: https://highlighter.com/npub15z0mnjepscd9hk3ywkcvuupap7tt0qle64f0uvvygpl3mqerz4tq4dl33y.

I think this is pretty cool, because it means no one owns it and no one controls it. It is rules based, not based on rulers, and it’s free for anyone to develop on top of, so ultimately the marketplace of ideas will choose Where it goes…

Where

So, I’m going to start on Substack, and take it goes from there, because as the title of this article suggests, “I know nothing.” This is my working assumption, that I know nothing, because I have no real idea about How I am going to do any of this.

I’ve never done a Substack before, nor do I know How to create a Podcast, or How to effectively communicate with fellow travellers via Social Media, so this is going to be a journey of discovery for me. This is my first step into a world that seems to be rapidly evolving, so to help you connect with me, on whatever platform suits you, I’ve mapped out my linktr.ee/danielewen.me.

If you’ve made it this far down the page, thank you! Just writing this first article and the about page has been a useful exercise for me.

I hope that I have somewhat accurately articulated my conscious intentions (the #Who, the #What, the #How, the #Why, and the #Where) for this Project in such a way that it at least makes some sense to you? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and I will do my best to digest any constructive feedback that you have for me. I guess all that remains is the…

When

As there is only the present moment, the time is always Now… so here it is.

I know nothing.

Who