What initially started as a branding project to spark conversations at the DEFCON hacker conference, ultimately grew into a revolutionary ethos: to find, fund, and train the future change agents of the free world (algirhythm).
The algirhythm and monolith are a pair of mission patches designed to be given to unique people who are in search of their own truth, and on the mission to transform the monoliths that have impacted their lives.
Inspired by the art of clandestine military patches (skunkworks), these patches were initially designed to spark conversations with interesting people that I met at DEFCON, the largest hacking conference in the world.
Skunkworks is a term widely used in business, engineering, and technical fields to describe a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy - and unhampered by bureaucracy. Their task is to develop advanced or secret projects that are usually visionary and forward thinking.
When I mention “McKinsey meets James Bond” in the About section, this is what I meant.
The roles that algirhythm fills, specialize in building ad-hoc Skunkworks programs within larger organizations (monoliths).
The patches are known in the military as an esprit de corps with personnel. Designed to identify with a particular unit, patches are intended to build a winning spirit within the culture (algirhythm patch). A common spirit existing in the members of the group inspires enthusiasm, devotion, and strong regard for the honor of the group.
Other Military morale patches are for groups that undergo the same event (monolith mission). The purpose is a shared sense of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty between members of a particular group. In the case of these patches, I find people who are in resonance with their own unique truths. Those same individuals are usually infected with a purpose, seeking to change and transform their own personal monoliths.
The algirhythm and monolith patches were designed separately but naturally grew into a cohesive pair. Today they are given as a pair because you can’t be motivated as a change agent without a purpose or cause to change.
The algirhythm patch represents the cohort of change agents you are joining up with. The monolith patch represents your personal mission of transformation.
The algirhythm started in 2003 when researching the concepts of resonance, rhythm, and flow. I was searching for the signal that we as humans can instantly tap into. Our own unique resonant frequency makes each of us unique.
While researching the concept of resonance, I came across an ancient word quintessence: the most fundamental or perfect essence of a thing.
In medieval times, quintessence was called the 5th element, ether and believed to be latent in all things. Earth, water, wind, fire, and ether (your quintessence).
In physics, quintessence is a hypothetical form of dark energy, postulated to explain the accelerating expansion of the universe.
The purpose of the algirhythm is to help people identify their own quintessence, or the most essential essence of their being.
In order to tap into your quintessential signal, you need to find your most resonant frequency or truth. The question then becomes, what personally resonates with you as an individual? What is your individual truth?
Resonance is difficult to define in plain terms. Suffice to say that a resonant sound is deep, clear, and continuous.
If something resonates with you, it typically has the ability to evoke or suggest an enduring image, emotion, or memory.
The algirhythm waveform is modeled after the concept above illustrating resonance on a clamped string. There are three harmonics in the algirhythm wave.
Fundamental: The singular wave represents the fundamental or source frequency. It represents the individual's quintessence.
Second: The second harmonic represents the infinite as well as the pair. Ie the relationship that is created by pairing two similar objects, emotions, or people.
Third: The third harmonic represents the new whole that is created by the pair. Also symbolizing a triad, this is where a group begins to form.
Nodes: Each node in the algirhythm wave represents an element with ether in the center.
The algirhythm waveform is modeled after the concept above illustrating resonance on a clamped string. There are three harmonics in the algirhythm wave.
In Greek “algos” was a neuter noun meaning pain. The suffix “-algia” denotes a painful condition. The “O” in algorithm symbolizes the cycles or seemingly infinite loops we can get stuck into.
In Greek “algos” was a neuter noun meaning pain. The suffix “-algia” denotes a painful condition. The “O” in algorithm symbolizes the cycles or seemingly infinite loops we can get stuck into.
The suffix “-rhythm” represents your resonant cadence, pulse, heartbeat. Each person’s rhythm is different and unique to the individual.
(Dot) net in algirhythm.net represents the growing network of change agents that I am building.
As a hobby, I collect clandestine mission patches. The artwork on each patch is packed with hidden symbolism and interesting codes. The patch designs are not only exquisite, but are created with the intention to make people think about what the patch is supposed to represent.
I also find inspiration decoding the hidden messages in street art. Oftentimes my walking meditation will be to wander the street of a city and see what the universe reveals.
One of the tricks spies use is to hide in plain sight. With street art, there are many conversations that take place in public - hiding in plain sight.
Some of these conversations artists can’t have in public for fear of punishment or retribution. Others, just make you think.
When working through the initial patch design with Dan from EFWA, we hit a wall where the concept was strong, however the final cohesive design hadn’t landed yet. I decided to take a quick walk to change the air, and on my street art adventure, I serendipitously discovered the missing piece.
Fortran is an old low-level assembly language developed by the OG Monolith IBM in the 1950’s. It was designed for scientific and engineering applications. Fortran is old, but it is still very fast because it was designed to enable applications to parallelize operations.
The Smith Chart on the Field and Electromagnetics textbook (left) ended up being used in the bottom of the algirhythm patch. Smith charts are used to visually measure impedance of a transmission line and antenna system as a function of frequency.
The algirhythm patch has many layers of meaning. Everything starts with the fundamental resonant waveform, representing quintessential energy as well as the cycles of life. The subcomponents are listed below:
14 stars represent 14 rules in my code. These are listed under The Code section of this website.
The shadow shape in the middle of the patch represents two things. First a massive satellite dish broadcasting(see below). Second a Phoenix rising from the ashes, symbolizing transformation (death and rebirth).
A massive satellite dish broadcasting truth out into the cosmos. In 20 years, humanity will be encoding consciousness into data, and beaming ourselves across the stars.
Gold represents money without a central bank. Gold has also represented what is of value for over 5,000 years. Gold in this case also represents your value system (stars). What is your value system that will stand the year of time?
Morse code spells out algirhythm.net
The Smith Chart is an impedance map. Also representing the need to get grounded in order to face resistance.
The algirhythm name is faded because I blend in seamlessly with operations.
The green waves represent the alpine forest. A quiet space for the massive dish to pull a strong clear signal. Second, they can represent energy fields in the background like Quintessence in physics.
A monolith is a large and impersonal political, corporate, or social structure regarded as intractably indivisible and uniform. Monolith means we always do this one thing “mono” the same thing “lith”.
Cycle of Monolith: All innovations become monoliths over time. Monoliths are cultures or institutions that don’t want to change, because the old way has solidified to the point that it’s almost unbreakable.
You hit peak monolith when an s-curve (accelerating innovation) runs out of gas, and a new disruptive innovation (s-curve) is building steam to overtake it.
The culture of the monolith then becomes centered on survival. As a result, the monolith is motivated to change even less, and thus accelerate its own demise.
The goal is to transform legacy systems without shutting them down. If you don’t do this, you surpass the point of systemic risk and the monolith collapses. This is the cycle of monoliths.
The old monoliths ruled from the top down. Think organized religions, centralized governments, or command and control style organizations. There was a deliberate and understood hierarchy through which power flowed.
These were the institutions of old that seemed to stand the test of time.
The new monolith is an algorithmically generated network, with invisible rules that no one can see. We think we are using technology to express ourselves, but the more we integrate with it, the more individuality and privacy we surrender.
Eventually the structure will either form a decentralized networked consciousness, or a homogeneous consciousness that is centrally directed.
The monolith is made of people and powered by AI’s. The hive mind is taking over as we feed it with our selfies and infinite chat logs.
Today we live in an economy of attention. As humanity attempts to express individuality, the paradox is that we end up becoming more homogenous by mimicking what appears popular. Social media algorithms tune and filter what we see and think.
Digital feudalism is here trying to disintegrate individual and locally decided social contracts.
Today we live in an economy of attention. As humanity attempts to express individuality, the paradox is that we end up becoming more homogenous by mimicking what appears popular. Social media algorithms tune and filter what we see and think.
Orange progress bar is the monolith consuming all organic things (burning) green and blue. Blue color is shared with algirhythm, which is an embedded but dissolving truth.
There is silver thread on the monolith patch vs gold thread on the algirhythm patch. Silver is the sister metal of gold, representing smaller denominations of value throughout all of time.
The spelling of Monolith has 8 letters.
17 total nodes: 1+7 = 8 in numerology.
8 = infinite. Tapping into what is infinite within each human and the culture as a whole.
In Buddhism and Chinese traditions, 8 symbolizes balance and harmony of the cosmic order whereas the Pythagoreans of ancient Greece expressed the eight as organs of knowledge; fantasy, sense, art, opinion, wisdom, science, and mind.
Digital feudalism is here trying to disintegrate individual and locally decided social contracts.