My feeds have been weighed down with discussion of “the metaverse”. Like a dying carp in a koi pond it just keeps rising and falling toward a 100% predictable end.  I don’t know what it means, but we can be pretty sure it is defined in its own idiosyncratic way by its own users for its own benefit.  I ran into a more oblique discussion of it recently in a news report on slime mold.

Any discussion of the metaverse seems to devolve to a discussion of networks, specifically top-down and bottom-up networks. This is no different. Slime molds are bottom-up networks and you can read more here about how slime mold colonies predicted the Tokyo subway networks here.  How does this connect? We are always creating networks any time we ask that classic research question.

I connected to it in part by reading an eye popping essay by Venkatesh Rao, “Coordination Headwinds”, where he discusses and, way more importantly, networks the idea with lots of links and evocative notions.  If anyone wants to annotate this essay, go here. Choosing to read this article is full of added value, especially if you are a leader or manager in your organization.

I also created a network to explore and curate the idea of coordination headwinds here using Wakelet:

If you wish to add to the network of links and ideas, here is the share code for the Wakelet above:  udpkmn8t

This post is both a platform and a network and subject to all the adjacent possibilities the authors address in the Wakelet above.  The title of this article also reflects this.  Is this post a top-down defined metaverse or is it a minimum viable, bottom up universe?  I prefer to think of it as a crossroads where you can refuel.