Sublime Society #4: Identities
In an earlier article, we spoke about Sublime Society identities at a high level. In a nutshell, we’ll be using cats as our common theme, generating profile pictures using MidJourney, and then minting our chosen identity as an SBT via the Sublime Society website.
Today, we’d like to talk about this in a little more detail.
Why cats?
Every project worth its salt has some identifier that makes it instantly recognisable. For a project like ours, where community will be everything, we also require something that unites us under a common theme; for its faults, if Lasrever taught us anything, it’s that [apes] together strong. In its heyday, there was immense power in the burgeoning ape uprising. And so, to put it shortly, we knew we needed that one thing that tells the world who we are, but also a banner that we could gather around together.
During our initial research, we looked at a great many societal models and paradigms. Ones that worked. Ones that didn’t. Empires that rose, flourished and fell. Of all of those societies, the ancient Egyptians resonated with us the most. The Egyptian civilisation was immeasurably switched on. They were profoundly adaptive, and not only discovered and developed revolutionary technology — such as irrigation of the Nile and mastery over its flood patterns — but used this technology as a springboard to advance and enhance its social and cultural ways of being. Philosophically, it’s fair to say there are major overlaps between what the ancient Egyptians did, and what Sublime Society aspires to do.
Really, the cat theme emerged from this foundation. In ancient Egypt, cats were not simply housepets. They were revered as godly creatures. Part of this reverie stemmed from the fact that they were seen as having two distinct temperaments: protective, loyal and nurturing on the one hand, and belligerent, independent and fierce on the other [1]. Map this to modern thinking, and to the human condition as a whole, and it’s undeniably similar to the masculine versus the feminine. The fact that cats were so respected is, to us, an acknowledgment that both spheres are required in order for society to function. We think this is symbolic of the fairness and equality that we believe Sublime Society needs to realise its ambitions.
For bonus points: It’s interesting to note that this feline reverie, while persisting beyond the ancient Egyptian golden age and into the Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptian ages, quickly diminished with the rise of Christianity [2]. And just as cats were cast into the shadows by centralised power structures, we intend to bring them out of the shadows with decentralised ones.
So, yes. Cats.
Why MidJourney?
The overwhelming majority of crypto, defi and web3 projects that utilise NFTs in some way do so using a finite collection. That is, here’s X number of PFPs, which one do you want? Which one best represents you?
The obvious exception to this approach would be daily auction-based communities like Nouns and its sub-DAOs. To the uninitiated: a unique Noun NFT is generated every day, which is sold to the highest bidder.
Either way, for our purposes, the problem with these approaches remains the same. Our identities should reflect who we are, what we do, what our value is, and what we stand for (etc.). We don’t want to leave this up to luck, nor do we want our members to settle for “as close a fit as possible”. Because these SBTs will persist forever, we want every single member of our community to feel their identity is a true reflection of them as an individual, as a contributor, and as a valuable agent of society.
As such, rather than letting some outside party decide who you’re going to be on your behalf, we figured we would let you decide for yourself. We’ve picked MidJourney as the recommended tool to assist with that*.
The reason MidJourney is so powerful, and the reason it’s our AI image bot of choice, is that it’s extremely easy to create jaw-dropping artworks in seconds.
How to Use MidJourney
Firstly, you’ll need to create a MidJourney account. If you don’t have one , you’ll need a Discord account too. Our preference is to use the Discord desktop app, but you can use the browser app if you’d like.
With the account setup done, all that’s left is to dive into image creation. You can do this by joining the MidJourney server on Discord. Once you’re in, head to one of the “Newcomer Rooms” to get started.
In the text field, type /imagine. You should see some auto-complete options popping up as you do. Select the /imagine prompt option and it’ll bring up the prompt input, right there in the text field.
Here’s where the fun starts. Type anything. Anything you want. As specific as you want. “Victorian style house made out of churros with chocolate sauce for a lawn”. “Elon Musk riding a unicycle downhill”. If you can think it, MidJourney can realise it.
Once you’re done getting your feet wet, start to think about what Sublime Society SBT will represent you best. If you’re a developer, for instance, you might want this to be clear from the outset; if you’re a drummer, or a DJ, or an accountant, these might be things you think would be valuable to make clear to other members of the community. So, play around with some prompts, and see what happens. You might just land your new favourite PFP.
If you’re getting a handle on MidJourney and you want to start being more specific, you can comma-separate values in order to return a more bespoke image. For instance, “tabby cat playing monopoly, photo realistic, black & white, film noir” would adhere to the stylistic parameters set out in the prompt.
If you’re really getting a handle on it, check out this guide for some advanced prompting tips.
You’ll notice that, when generating images, the initial response will usually be four images that interpret your prompt in different ways. Underneath these tiles, you’ll see a bunch of options. For now, the most important are V1–4 and U1–4. In either case, the numbers correspond to a given image within the tile layout. But the V and U buttons do very different things. If you hit V2, for example, MidJourney will send you four more Variants of the second image in your grid. So, if you like a given PFP but feel it could use some little changes, that’s the button for you. If you were to hit U1, for example, MidJourney will begin the process of Upscaling the first image in your grid. This is the option to pick when you’re happy with a PFP, and you’ve decided that it’s the one you’ll be using.
When you’re set with your PFP, you’ll find it (along with all other images you’ve generated) in your gallery on the MidJourney website.
How to Mint Your PFP as an SBT
This part’s surprisingly easy as well, although the functionality isn’t quite ready yet. When the time comes, all you’ll need to do is head to the Sublime Society website equipped with your PFP. There, hit “Mint Sublime SBT” and we’ll walk you through it. As a reminder, minting is free but you’ll need to cover the gas.
Why SBTs?
In a society that values capital so highly, it’s a bit alien to think about minting an NFT that can’t be traded. If there’s no value in the NFT monetarily, where’s the value period?
An SBT (as many of you know) is a token that doesn’t hold its own value. It represents your value. For the purposes of Sublime Society, they cannot be traded because they are not meant to be traded. They are to be used as your CV, your passport, your access card. And the value your SBT accrues will be directly linked to the value you contribute as a member of the community. Let’s continue the example, above, and assume you’re a developer. As you chat within our various channels, you strike up a conversation with another member who’s in need of, say, a new website. You happily oblige, you undertake the work, and you’re paid however it is you’ve agreed to be paid. So far, business as usual. Only as you both own an SBT, the client will be able to “vouch for” your developer attribute, increasing the publicly known standard of your work. Over time, you’ll build a reputation that is provable, empowering you to secure more work and higher pay based on verifiable successes.
Or let’s say you’re putting on an event for esteemed artists. You’d be able to extend an invitation to the community, but grant exclusivity to those with SBTs that feature highly for “artist”, “creative” or the like.
This approach is important to us, because it means that you can’t just buy your way into things. You have to A) contribute actual, tangible value and B) continue to provide value over time. So, for those who aren’t willing to knuckle down and do the work, you’ll have to learn to adapt to a new kind of economy. Sorry about that.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, with some better insight into why we’re doing this in this particular way, you’ll have all you need to start creating your PFPs and thinking about how you’ll forge your niche in Society 2.0. There’ll be a new one soon, as always, so keep your eyes peeled. And if you haven’t already, jump into the Sublime Society Telegram channel to say hi. They’re a friendly bunch.
Thanks folks,
Sublime Society
[1] https://www.livescience.com/ancient-egypt-cats.html
[2] https://www.thecollector.com/ancient-egypt-cat-gods-goddesses-bastet/
*If you’d prefer to use a different bot, or even create your own art, that’s fine too. Just make sure the output is high-res, square, and of course, features a cat as the subject.
