Likes: belief, enthusiasm, emotion, and common ground
Original mythology and societal metaphor. Likes extend the model from who holds power and what sustains life to what moves between them. They are belief, enthusiasm, emotion, and the feeling of common ground in a commoditized form: a shared vocabulary through which attention and support can become influence. In the mythology, these psychic vibes circulate through Lichen across humans, animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, and other imagined or unfamiliar forms of life.
Original mythology and societal metaphor. This page expands the “Likes: belief, enthusiasm, emotion, and common ground” chapter in the storyworld collection.
Likes extend the model from who holds power and what sustains life to what moves between them. They are belief, enthusiasm, emotion, and the feeling of common ground in a commoditized form: a shared vocabulary through which attention and support can become influence. In the mythology, these psychic vibes circulate through Lichen across humans, animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, and other imagined or unfamiliar forms of life.
A Like is therefore more than a button in this setting. It can represent recognition, belonging, encouragement, or alignment with a possible future. The central question is what happens when that common ground is counted, traded, ranked, or captured. The metaphor does not establish a universal emotion experienced by every organism or a measurable psychic currency connecting species.
In the four-part model, Liches can buy visibility, Leeches can generate attention, Lichen names the living context affected by their choices, and Likes describe how belief and enthusiasm are converted into social power. The proposed aim is to make support easier to share without granting whoever controls the counter ownership of the underlying community.
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