Thinking about how the area of identity signaling mechanisms has shrunk while the information you try to communicate has expanded.
Coat of arms: 2 feet x 2 feet, maybe 10-20 bytes?
Military ribbons/medals: 6”x 6”, maybe 100-200 bytes?
Profile pic: 0.5”x0.5”, and your whole self?
Conversation
Coat of arms
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Couldn’t find a good chart of how to read military formal ribbon displays (is there a term for the full rack of stuff a military person wears for formal occasions, like “coat of arms”?)
The stuff on a very decorated general’s uniform is like 6 rows of patches
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Even a very complex NFT pfp can’t indicate much. Bored ape semiotics seem to be about 1-2 bytes worth.
Regular pfps seem to at most indicate a vibe gestalt, like anime or statue head. Really just 1 bit that sorta parity-checks the whole persona.
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“Type of guy” vibe boards (??) try to convey maybe 8-12 bytes?
It’s hard to gauge information content, since social media heraldic displays assume a sort of subcultural literacy context. So it’s relative information.
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All the people agonizing about who is/isn’t a postrat should just invent a coat of arms scheme because there’s too many bits to convey. Some suggested elements
E(x): LW
🐍: Basilisk
🦀: UST/Sarah Perry
🍆: David Chapman
🐮: Moloch/SSC
😶🌫️: illegibility
🎗: ribbonfarm
🫖: tpot
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