Chris TrottierMay 30, 2023
What is the Fediverse?

The clue is in the name! It's a portmanteau of "Federated Universe".

It's not a platform nor is it an ecosystem, it's an entire universe of stuff!

Now think about what's in our literal universe: galaxies, black holes, comets, cosmic dust, planets, an unfathomable amount of stuff.

This is not unlike the Fediverse which also has lots of stuff 🌌

#LearnFediverse
Show threadChris TrottierMay 30, 2023
But what do we mean by "federation"? Before I go further, let me talk about my favourite science fiction: Star Trek!

In the 1960s, Star Trek introduced an interesting idea. It was called the United Federation of Planets (UFoP).

The idea was that a whole lot of planets came together to build an organization greater than themselves.

Humanity got together with other alien species to cooperate. Rather than going to war, we humans created diplomatic ties with Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites to build something greater than ourselves.

Seeing the power of cooperation, even more alien species joined the United Federation of Planets, pooling resources together, to build prosperity.

This is not so different from the Fediverse. In fact, the fictional UFoP works a lot the Fediverse!

#LearnFediverse
Show threadChris TrottierMay 30, 2023
The fictional United Federation of Planets works because they're a network of diplomatically connected to planets.

In Star Trek, there are hundreds of planets that make the sum of the Federation. What's core to making the organization work isn't military. It is communication.

Check out this map of Star Trek's fictional Federation.

#LearnFediverse
Show threadjprestonian
@atomicpoet I had wrongly assumed the reason it worked was because it is *fictional*.
May 30, 2023 at 6:58pmWeb