Slime mold and human society

[Alexandra]

I joined the collective to find people, researchers who would be interested in observing a real-life social 'experiment' happening in Belarus right now. In short, Belarusians are now behaving a lot like slime mold. Thousands and thousands of people are using a range of Telegram channels and chats to exchange information, brainstorm and decide on action. Chats are all interconnected too. Unlike slime mold, people are searching not for food but getting rid of the oppressive government. The process is new and mindblowing. Completely decentralised (no control centre), with one clear common goal, and fully inclusive and representative in terms of geographic location, age, gender, profession etc.

Do you know anyone who could be interested? I would really appreciate to get in touch

Greetings ftom Belarus!
Alexandra Godina

[Evan Brown]

Just signed it. Sounds a lot like what's going on over here right now.

[Evan Brown]

Feel free to message me anytime. I'd be more than happy to discuss what's going on over here and over there. It's a crazy world we live in, and I fear what may come next.

[Alexandra]

Thank you Evan! I will, as soon as this craze is over. Right now, it's very difficult to discuss anything - we are in the very middle of it, and when it seems that the situation cannot get any crazier, it does straight after. There seems to be no bottom the government can hit - just see my reply to ian above... Lately, I wasn't following the world news closely enough, but what I saw shows me that the situation is somewhat similar in the US. Looks like the government is also setting up an unpredictable set of events, just on a bigger scale. I think the presidential power system is archaic, as well as education systems in most countries, and, as the result, people are prone to various kinds of manipulations, causing divided societies and ruines lives. Even if Belarus manages to get rid of the president which has been in power for 26 years, the society will still face the same problems. What we can do is to try to understand if and how decentralised decision making and information exchange might help making societies healthier on all levels.

[RyChu]

hmmmm, nice. Have been inactive for a little bit so going through everything to catch up.

[Alexandra]

SITUATION UPDATE - Belarusian slime mold

I am very proud of Belarusians. After three days of horror (with virtually no Internet), they managed to figure out the most optimal way to stop this nightmare (read Amnesty statement below). People were using all kinds of communication to spontaneously come up with different ideas of how to organise protests in a way that is the least threatening, eliminate provocateurs and even get some results. The results are amazing - huge peaceful rallies all around the country, strikes, acts of solidarity from doctors, actors, artists, musicians, builders, workers, grannies, really everyone. But. This is still not enough. Yet

Our "slime mold" also grew significantly - telegram chats doubled and trippled (within a couple of days when the Internet was off), people learned from each other how to use Telegram and VPN, everything just for one goal - to have access to true information, exchange information in order to get rid of the current regime and initiate changes. Now the situation is like this: the government is kind of retreating (which is very unusual for the Belarusian authorities, with the currently "self-re-elected" president in power for 26 years), rats started running from the sinking ship (including a whole new banch of state media journalists and propagandists, as well as some core supporters of the president (who is still in power). I can only add that the main mistake the authorities made is to presume that everything has to have some kind of "control centre". All their strategy was aimed at finding and eliminating that non-existing "centre", and disinform people, lie to them, which, of course, had the opposite effect from what they wanted.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/08/belarus-mounting-evi...

Please spread the word!

[ian]

Watching what's going on with fascination and horror. Hope you're safe and that this momentum keeps building 

[Alexandra]

Thank you Ian! I am safe as much as anyone can be safe here right now. The slime mold-type momentum is building, which is fascinating! It grows and expands, and the opponents' structure is not like slime mold - it's rigid and centralised, and is shrinking at the moment (parts of it decide to join slime mold or just do nothing). However, it gets more aggressive (like a cornered wild animal) and seeks outside support (Russian strikebreakers to replace belarusian technical staff on state TV is the latest example). Please keep watching!

[Theo Caesar]

Hi Alexandra,

I'm currently researching the simulation of social networks with slime mould for my undergraduate dissertation, and would love to discuss your Telegram data with you. It would be ideal to conduct a longitudinal study, where real-time changes in the social network could be paralleled with changes to temperature/pH/food source distancing in the lab with slime mould. Would you be interested in collaborating?

[Alexandra]

Hi Theo! I am interested. Can we discuss it in more detail? Do you have Telegram?

[ori elisar]

Hey Alexandra and Theo,

Greetings from rainy Luxembourg.

I would love to assist in any way to your research. 

Ori. (@orielisar on Telegram)

[Alexandra]

What is your telegram? Let's discuss!

[ori elisar]

Orielisar is my username on telegram