ideasthesia

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Ryan Collison

I write about cool science and share it here.

Multiple ontological schemas as overlapping geometric frameworks

The Ontological Turn: When Anthropologists Started Believing Their Informants

In the 1970s, when Eduardo Viveiros de Castro first encountered Amazonian perspectivism—the idea that jaguars see themselves as human and humans as prey—he did what any well-trained anthropologist would do. He looked for the underlying meaning. Obviously jaguars don’t literally see themselves as human. The claim

Integrated information network as luminous phi patterns at nested scales

Animism 2.0: Why Serious Scientists Are Taking Spirits Seriously Again

Series: Neo-Animism | Part: 1 of 11 In 1871, Edward Tylor declared animism—the belief that all things possess spirit or consciousness—the most “primitive” of all religious beliefs. The evolutionary trajectory was clear: from crude animism to civilized monotheism to scientific materialism. The West congratulated itself for finally seeing

Vast distributed network infrastructure as luminous web of meaning

Synthesis: Digital Meaning Infrastructure and the Future of Myth

Series: Digital Folklore | Part: 10 of 10 For most of human history, mythology was local, slow, and embedded in physical communities. The stories you inherited came from your culture, transmitted face-to-face, tested across generations, integrated into ritual practice. Myths spread at the speed of migration and trade. The

Flowing stream of memes passing through discernment filter

Discernment in the Meme Stream: What Digital Mythologies Serve You

Series: Digital Folklore | Part: 9 of 10 You’ve internalized thousands of them. Templates for interpreting reality. Frames for understanding yourself. Narratives about how the world works, who has power, what matters, what’s broken, what’s possible. They arrived as memes, spread through your feed, lodged in your brain

Mythic construction as layered narrative architecture through deep time

Mythopoeia: The Conscious Construction of Mythology

J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t just write fantasy novels. He built a mythology from scratch—complete with languages, cosmology, deep history, and internal coherence that rivals any organic tradition. He called this practice mythopoeia: the conscious construction of myth. And he proved something radical: you don’t have to

Parasocial entrainment as one-directional coupling from creator to audience

Parasocial Entrainment: One-Directional Relationships That Feel Real

Series: Digital Folklore | Part: 7 of 10 You’ve never met them. They don’t know you exist. Yet when they post, you feel something. Relief, excitement, worry. When they’re going through something hard, you’re emotionally affected. When they succeed, you feel proud. When they disappear for a

TikTok as sacred temple architecture with algorithm oracle at center

TikTok as Temple: Sacred Space in the Algorithm Age

Series: Digital Folklore | Part: 6 of 10 You open the app. The threshold is immediate—the For You page loads, infinite scroll begins, the world outside recedes. Time behaves differently here. Minutes become hours without noticing. You’re not passively watching—you’re being shown things, as if by an