📡 reporting from RADAR .001
our bi-weekly discord digest
Welcome to 📡 reporting from RADAR, our (first) discord digest. Every other week, community curators will surface the best of the best — from the cultural constellations we’re watching emerge to behind-the-scenes build updates as we embark on our journey to discover, incubate, and deliver better futures.
This initiative is part of RADAR’s mission to build the first community owned and powered futures engine...leveraging web3 tools and infrastructure to create a new future for the futures industry, one where our community members move from merely chronicling what’s next to genuinely creating it.
In the future, we’ll use wavelength as a space for more updates, member articles, ponderings & wanderings, fun experiments and — of course — more signals. So subscribe below to keep up with our signature brain massaging magic, straight to your inbox. 🔮💜
Signals Spotlight
1_Identity is Community
spotted in #fashion, #mental-health, and #social-media
After we stopped crying laughing at this latest brandspeak tiktok, we started thinking — she’s not wrong: identity really is so community. With SoulCycle’s next move taking them even deeper into cult territory and plenty of recent writing around the value of community, relative to everything from ownership, to climate, to commerce, it seems clear to us that web2 brands are picking up the collective vibes web3 has been putting down. And it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon: after all, research shows that Gen Z is using ~the metaverse~ (read here: gaming) to cultivate connections and explore who they really are. Community & identity, in parallel.
🔮💭 As identity & community become increasingly intertwined, where might the future of individuality be heading? What does self-expression look like in a world where niche communities mix & meld to form one’s unique identity?
2_S(low) Tech
spotted in #labor, #media-brands, #ai-algorithms, and #self
Maybe we’re all just burnt out from living fast without pausing to process what we’ve been living through, but something about this idea of slowmaxxing really caught us this week. The long-standing Slow Movement deserves to have a moment right now, and in many ways it is (just look at Wordle): influencing the way we think about everything from travel and fashion to tech and content. But that last piece is where things get really interesting. Two paths are emerging: one that’s thoughtfully immersive, almost meditative; and another that’s a bit like its opposite — ambient distraction, dulling the mind to the noise outside. In a world where slowness feels like a luxury, both have their place.
🔮💭 After what feels like a collective global reset of our relationship with time, how might technology continue to evolve to help us manage our pace? How might we think about innovation in a way that works with us, rather than against us?
3_Websta1gia
spotted in #youth, #digital-culture, #fashion, and #aesthetics
Welp, they finally stopped making iPods. Which is funny, given how much we all seem to be yearning to return to their heyday. It’s little surprise that early web nostalgia is peaking right now: from gen z reviving both the good and the very, very bad of y2k to super-niche social networks & substack giving us serious blog era flashbacks (xanga, anyone?), it’s clear that we’ve got simpler times on the mind. Nostalgia can be a comfort, but it can also be a crutch — and when so many, particularly the young, are looking backwards (and in some cases, way, way, borderline delusionally backwards), we have to wonder whether ‘future phobia’ is the even more potent driver at play.
🔮💭 As we become more conscious of ‘future phobia’ and its influence on culture, what might we do to address its root causes? What role can we play as futures thinkers and foresight practitioners to remake our relationship with the future?
4_Same Same but Different
spotted in #pop-culture and #digital-culture
There’s an interesting tension in the air right now. While there’s practically no monoculture to be had, our cultural consumption feels like it’s converging more than ever before. Just as the internet cycles through aesthetic moments and whatever we’ve deemed today’s ‘thing’ at frantic pace, ‘off-line’ culture (if we can even call it that) has become an oligopoly. From old music dominating the charts, to franchise IP dominating just about everything else, it can feel like our ability to create anything new has diminished entirely. And yet, it’s just the opposite: there’s more opportunity for niche creators and artistic innovation than there ever has been. As Adam Mastroianni puts it, “while the top of the charts has been oligopolized, the bottom remains a vibrant anarchy” — begging the question of how we might meet in the middle.
🔮💭 How might we create a world where ‘vibrant anarchy’ surfaces more often, for more people? What role might web3 have in fostering a culture of creativity and innovation that reshapes the mainstream?
The Best of The Rest
The return of the NUMTOTs via r/FuckCars. NYC street style’s uphill comeback. Libraries to the rescue, once again. Your pets, but make them NFTs? Crypto 🤝 Climate. Way too much plastic surgery. And finally: Talking about talking about trends is the latest trend (good thing we’re team futures ≠ trends).
Pulse Check
Focus this Week: If you spend just one hour with RADAR this week, dive into the Research Squad and sign up to help tackle one of our JTBD to progress the research process. These are some big, exciting challenges — and together, we’re going to figure it all out!
Squad Updates:
In the Comms Squad…we’ve launched Member Spotlights on LinkedIn, been working at our social & community management strategy, released our 2-week update from the future on Mirror, and of course, launched this very Substack!
Over in Research Squad…we ran two kick-off sessions to accommodate members across the globe, continued work on our collective research process, launched a JTBD board to tackle what’s next, and rethought how we share signals in the Discord to streamline everyone’s experience.
In Incubate…we ran our first of (3) sessions to define the desired output of the incubation process and some underlying principles for how we’ll get there. We also launched the Incubation Hub on Notion!
Governance kicked off its process for non-critical proposals, launching both a #proposals channel and debuting a format. We’ve shared our first proposal with the community to consider opening some channels to the broader public.
The Inclusive Futures Squad is still looking for awesome members to step in and lead what inclusive futures means for RADAR and champion our proposal out in the world!
And last but not least, over in Product Squad, we’re still hard at work on the RADAR Signals Extension, exploring our Futures Protocol and Proof of Future NFT, and applying for grants with the likes of Celo, Radicle, and HBAR.
Upcoming Events: On Monday May 16 at 11:30am EST/5:30pm CET, we’ll have our first Psi Session to let everyone in on the collective intelligence magic and discuss how we can use Psi within our process!
Community Asks:
Know anyone with DALLE-2? Let’s chat!
Interested in becoming a SuperCurator? Reach out to Keels!
Developers interested in exploring web3? Fancy’s on the lookout 👀
So much gratitude to everyone who inspired and/or contributed to this week’s 📡 reporting from radar — @sam_af, @mattweatherall, @nikitanikitanikita, @daish, @petah, @dwayne“the jock"ronson, @devicee, @supermelk, @kairon, and @oryzae
Not a part of RADAR just yet, but feeling the FOMO? join us here.