🫁✨The Nexialist #0027
🫁✨The Nexialist #0027
Pronoia | Protopia Futures | Biohackers vs. Big Pharma | Earthrise | Surreal Matador | Codpieces | Why Do We Have Butts? | 😭 or 😭? | Same Gender Lyrics | RIP Raffaella Carrà
Welcome to The Nexialist, my weekly mission to spark at least one new connection in your brain,
This week, I’ll limit myself to a short introduction, because today's Nexialist is filled with good content. I did my best with the time and brainpower I had, which was a bit less this week due to really cool projects I’ve been working on. So, here we go:
🫀Are You Pronoid?
No, that was not a typo. Apparently, there is an opposite term to Paranoia and I will start using it: Pronoia. “Whereas a person suffering from paranoia feels that persons or entities are conspiring against them, a person experiencing pronoia feels that the world around them conspires to do them good. In 1993 the writer and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow defined pronoia as "the suspicion the Universe is a conspiracy on your behalf".
The page about Pronoia on Wikipedia is quite a short and interesting one. It brings some moments when pronoia has appeared. Of course, Trump was there as a more dark side of it but I like the one below, from (controversial) Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, which I actually never read. Since I went to the Embassy of the Free Mind last week and saw some hermitic knowledge, it popped out:
Pronoia is also a prevalent theme in the 1988 novel The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. In it, the protagonist, a young boy, is told by an older man to pursue his dreams. He tells the boy, "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." The book also deals with omens, signs that the universe wants the boy to follow a specific path, which will lead to his goal of fulfilling a dream.
🤯Protopia Futures
Actually, I heard the word Pronoia while watching this fascinating and exciting video. Monika Bielskyte, Futures Researcher, presents a living manifesto of Protopia Futures. “Science Fiction wields a powerful influence over real-world scientific/technological research, sociopolitical development, and the way we imagine, design, build and live in our cities. In this talk, Monika Bielskyte will explore new horizons of inclusive, contextual & participatory world designs she’s been working towards with @protopiafutures collaborative platform, as an antidote to neocolonial, binary visions of Dystopia & Utopia.” I’ll leave the items from the manifesto and the principles below, but you can read the whole thing here:
FUTURES — IN PLURAL
TODAY’S CRISIS OF IMAGINATION
DYSTOPIA VS UTOPIA: A FALSE BINARY
DYSTOPIA: DESPAIR ESCAPISM & PRODUCT ROADMAP
UTOPIA: A COLONIAL PROJECT
WHY PROTOPIA?
PROACTIVE PROTOTYPING OF HOPEFUL FUTURES
It’s exciting to see so many futures I also like to envision summed up under one concept, and that really resonated with me. Calling it a framework also helps to understand that this can be applied a tool to imagine futures.
THE PRINCIPLES OF PROTOPIA
Plurality - Beyond Binaries
Community - Beyond Borders
Regenerative Action & Life as Technology
Symbiotic Spirituality
Creativity & Emerging Subcultures
Evolution of Values - Culture of Contribution
🧑🔬Biohackers vs. Big Pharma
My boyfriend, Juan, shows me great content all the time. This one about the Open Insulin Foundation, one of the coolest things I’ve seen recently. It’s inspiring to see people using technology and knowledge from different parts of the world and go against the pharma industry.
We’re a team of biohackers with a variety of backgrounds, and skills, and relationships to insulin and diabetes from many cities and countries around the world, including Oakland, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Paraiba, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal; Yaounde, Cameroon; and Puerto Rico. We’re working to develop the first practical, small-scale, community-centered model for insulin production to make insulin accessible to all. We envision a world in which communities in need have local sources of safe, affordable, high-quality insulin, and where people living with diabetes and their communities can own and govern the organizations that produce the medicine they depend on to survive.
🌍Earthrise
Iris van Herpen proving once again how incredibly amazing she is. I don’t think I had ever been this breathless watching a fashion video (maybe it was the skydiving in the end.)
Read: Iris Van Herpen On Space And How Couture Is Like Skydiving
🫁Surreal Matador
Again, Schiaparelli was able to make such a beautiful surrealist collection (and video). I just love the chest-armors and adornments.
🍆The Codpiece
The chest-pieces from Schiaparelli immediately reminded me of the codpiece or “those profane protuberances that drew eyes crotchward in the sixteenth century.” I doubt that was not on purpose, bringing this female version of this accessory, like an armor. I didn’t know, but in some places, this was in fashion for centuries.
Anyway, if you want to read about this part of our history, you can read: A Brief History of the Codpiece, the Personal Protection for Renaissance Equipment by Dan Piepenbring
🍑Why Do We Have Butts?
This is a video I didn’t know I needed to watch, and I think humanity needs to. Save it for later and get ready for a video full of puns and knowledge about one of the biggest taboos in our society. (Puns is also the plural of fart in Portuguese). Just a little tease:
It might be the most important hole in your body… It is a hole so important that it’s the first body part you grew. The story of the anus is actually the story of how every complex animal on Earth from mole rats to the mantis shrimp came to be. An orifice to which we owe our very existence? Maybe. It’s time we shine a little light where the sun don’t shine.
😭 or 😭?
First, I have to say that I’m loving the emoji analysis from Emojipedia. So, this happened:
After years of dominance the laughing crying emoji has been dethroned as Twitter's top emoji. In its place today is another teary-eyed smiley: 😭 Loudly Crying Face.
This is the first time an emoji other than 😂 Face with Tears of Joy has been the most used on Twitter on a month-by-month basis.
The toppling of 😂 Face with Tears of Joy comes not long after we here at Emojipedia mused whether or not this seemingly evergreen emoji was being "cancelled" by Gen Z emoji users in favour of alternative means of emojifying laughter and amusement.
Prominent media attention highlighted this trend to those of us beyond Tiktok, with a pushback on the laughing-crying emoji that has been #1 for so long.
People are really using this emoji as a laughing emoji, and I feel old when I see these things. There’s a Nexialist Tip on #0009: Learn Emoji, which I would recommend taking a look at if you’re also confused.
🏳️🌈Same Gender Lyrics
I have to say this (and not as an attack), but something most straight people take for granted is feeling represented in media, art, music. This super cool infographic from pudding, helps us visualize how little (mainstream) music there is about non-straight stories. “I Kissed a Girl” to “Call Me By Your Name,” A story about hearing yourself represented with same-gender lyrics for the first time.
I remember the first time I noticed I was listening to a man singing about another man, it was very recently, with John Grant. And it really hits different. I had made a playlist as well with songs about LGBTQ+ love (or anything else, really, John Grant is pissed at the guy in Black Belt), so I hope you enjoy it. Congratulations to Jan Diehm, Kelsey Campbell, and Lace Garcia.
💃RIP Raffaella Carrà
“Where Sweden had Abba, Italy had Carrà.”
This week we had the sad news about Raffaella Carrà’s passing. On top of being such a beautiful and upbeat pop icon, I just learned Carrà helped spark a sexual revolution in Italy. It’s a big accomplishment I would say in such a catholic country.
Read: Raffaella Carrà: the Italian pop star who taught Europe the joy of sex
❤️If anything made your brain tingle, click like and don't hesitate to share it with the world. It helps The Nexialist to reach more curious minds. See you next week!🦦
🫀If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with your friends. If someone amazing sent it to you, tell them you love them, and you can subscribe at thenexialist.substack.com. If you want to know what a Nexialist is, click here. If you want to introduce yourself or give me any feedback, I would love to hear from you. Drop me an e-mail or say hi on LinkedIn or Instagram.