Conversation

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?
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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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