The Device Economies Curriculum
A self-directed research program for understanding how devices shape human reality.
Begin ReadingFoundations
The conceptual groundworkâmediation, embodiment, and ritual.
Mediation Architecture & Reality Framing
How devices function as mediating instruments that frame reality and make the incomprehensible navigable.
3 lessons Cluster 2Embodiment, Repetition & Internalization
How abstract concepts and material practices become integrated into human bodies and minds through repeated performance.
4 lessons Cluster 3Ritual Structures & Sacred Dimensions
How ritual operates as a universal human technology for organizing behavior and creating meaning.
2 lessonsSpecializations
Applying the foundations to technology, media, ideology, and social evolution.
Technology, Material Culture & Non-Neutrality
How devicesâwhether material or abstractâare never neutral tools but always serve purposes and shape reality.
3 lessons Cluster 5Adoption, Diffusion & Network Effects
How devices spread through populations and become collectively adopted.
3 lessons Cluster 6Language, Naming & Conceptual Devices
How language and naming function as devices that frame reality and create ownership over meaning.
1 lessons Cluster 7Reality Construction & Media Devices
How media devices construct our sense of reality.
3 lessons Cluster 8Ideology, Power & Device Non-Neutrality
How devices function as instruments of power and social control.
3 lessons Cluster 9Comparative Genesis & Competitive Dynamics
The evolutionary and competitive dynamics that drive the emergence and spread of new devices.
3 lessonsThe Approach
When we went to school, teachers asked us not to use Wikipedia. What we did was cite the Wikipedia sources instead. This is the root of how digital scholarship in the algorithm age should go.
You start with the things you know you have to learn, and you branch out as you actually develop an understanding and opinions to challenge. The goal is not comprehensive coverage, but depth. Each reading opens doors to further exploration.
This curriculum is a foundation, not a destination. It's designed to be used actively; engaging each text by asking: How does this illuminate the concept of the societal constructs I call Devices? What new dimensions does it reveal?