Ideas
Concepts are patterns that had no name, so the research gave them one; open problems are questions nobody has answered, or things nobody has built.
Concepts
13Self-extinguishing maintenanceA routine that works so well it removes the thing that made you do it — so it stops, and the problem comes back.ConceptHealth & self-careNamed 30 SepNo prior use foundThe agent as overhearerAn AI agent that only hears the instruction, not the conversation that produced it.ConceptAI-directed developmentNamed 30 SepNo prior use foundCPAI — cost per attested influencePaying for a verifiable role in an AI agent’s choice, rather than for a click or a sale.ConceptAttribution & creditNamed 30 SepNo prior use foundThe visual detourThe internet from about 1990 to 2022 as a fifty-year swing back toward print — screens of text and keyboards — inside the longer return to speech that McLuhan predicted, now ending as voice interfaces take over.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 10 OctName check pendingNarcocrasisIn drug dependence, the part a person stops noticing is not the drug but their own shifted baseline: flatter pleasures, a restless body, a raised stress tone. The drug feels like the fix; the changed baseline feels like how the world is.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 5 OctName check pendingAnacrasisRecovery as re-setting that baseline, not only removing the drug. The ancient Greek word anakrasis meant mixing with others, and the evidence points the same way: what helps the reset last is other people.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 5 OctName check pendingPharmakrasisEvery class of drug sets its own characteristic balance of the senses: cannabis speeds felt time, ketamine loosens the sense of owning a body, LSD deepens the response to music. A drug, on this view, is a technology of the senses, like a medium but more direct.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 5 OctName check pendingHeterocrasisPeople start from different balances of the senses before any medium touches them. ADHD may be one such starting point, most clearly in how loudly the brain turns all its signals up or down.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 5 OctName check pendingExocrasisPart of how we sense and remember now lives outside the body, in keyboards, search, saved files and the network. The computing environment holds some of the balance the brain used to hold.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 5 OctName check pendingSensory syncrasisThe whole configuration of how the brain blends its senses: how much it trusts each one, how loud it turns them all, whether it fuses or separates them, the balance between body and world, and how long a setting lasts. From the Greek root of idiosyncrasy.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 4 OctName check pendingTypomoraThe typed delay in McLuhan's predicted return to voice: fifty years in which the keyboard, not the medium, kept networked communication typographic. Typos, type, and mora, delay — also the unit of spoken time.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 4 OctName check pendingEpanaphonyThe return of voice as the way we put language into machines — dictation, voice notes, talking to AI — that closes the typomora. Oral in production, typographic in storage.ConceptMcLuhan & media theoryNamed 4 OctName check pendingThe price as instructionA price computed for one buyer from their data, rather than posted for everyone — the same number, carrying the seller's model of you instead of the market's signal. Extends Gardiner Means's “administered prices” (1930s) from the boardroom to the shopper.ConceptPrices & marketsNamed 3 OctNo prior use found1 counter-argument
Open problems
40Where does speaking start to beat typing?There is no established academic literature using the specific term "friction threshold" for voice.Open problemMcLuhan & media theoryfrom The Acoustic ReturnDoes naming a feeling work the way McLuhan said language works?Based on this search pass: no published work explicitly bridges McLuhan's medium-of-media theory of language to either Lieberman's affect-labeling neuroscience or Barkley/Vygotsky inner-speech theory.Open problemMcLuhan & media theoryfrom Deep Research Pass: The Medium Becomes the GroundCan the tetrad forecast what AI turns into?The tetrad has been little applied to the major artifacts of the present: large language models, recommender systems, the smartphone-plus-app stack, cryptocurrency, the cloud, augmented reality.Open problemMcLuhan & media theoryfrom A Comprehensive Map of Marshall McLuhan's ThoughtWould a legal tier between a hotel and a lease lower rents?There is no public Hamilton-specific data on the MTR share of its 1,250 units, but the broader Canadian pattern would suggest the market was structurally changing — not just returning to its 2019 form.Open problemHousingfrom Hamilton's Short-Term Rental CrackdownDo firms that rely on temporary workers innovate less?There is no published study directly comparing innovation output between TFW-heavy and TFW-light Canadian firms or industries.Open problemCanadian economy & policyfrom Mass Immigration and the Suppression of Domestic Innovation in CanadaHow do public-sector workers vote, party by party?There is, however, no publicly released Canadian poll that breaks down decided‑voter support by employment sector with the kind of "X% Liberal / Y% Conservative / Z% NDP" topline that exists for, say, gender or age.Open problemPollingfrom How Do Canadian Public Sector Employees Vote?What happens to the buildings Canada pays for abroad?There is no separate, transparent disclosure of how Canada's foreign-built assets are treated in current public reporting — this is a gap.Open problemCanadian economy & policyfrom Canada’s €64M “Investment” in Latvian Military InfrastructureDoes the journalism tax credit change what outlets say?No publicly available study has yet attempted a quantitative content analysis correlating outlet-level CJLTC dollars and editorial tone.Open problemCanadian mediafrom The Canadian Economic Dossier (1994–May 2026)Does a daily digest beat an endless feed?No peer-reviewed study I found directly tests a daily digest.Open problemAttention & feedsfrom Diagnosing the FeedDoes toe spacing predict skin that keeps cracking?I found no study directly measuring toe-spacing anatomy as a predictor of recurrent interdigital xerosis.Open problemHealth & self-carefrom When “Healed” Is the Treatment WorkingCan compounds from HIV cure research wake latent herpes?PKC-agonist plant diterpenes are the most promising untested transfer from HIV cure research.Open problemHealth & self-carefrom The Fringe Pharmacopeia of HSV LatencyDid the text-internet generation think differently from the video one?No study compares a typographic-internet cohort with a video-internet cohort.Open problemMcLuhan & media theoryfrom The Computing Environment and Sensory SyncrasisDoes better proof make advertisers pay more?I found no published evidence that newsletter advertisers pay more or rebook more with better proof.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom Ancaster Self-Serve Buy SideDo “save for later” flows work for creator links?I found no published study of save-for-later, send-to-device or reminder flows for creator-referred traffic.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom Ancaster, Pass SixDo AI-voiced ad reads work as well as human ones?I found no rigorous public evidence that synthetic host-reads perform as well as human reads.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom Ancaster Frontier Scan (Pass 7)Does a creator’s recommendation change what an AI agent recommends?I found no controlled study isolating a creator's recommendation as the cause of an agent recommendation.Open problemAI-directed developmentfrom Ancaster Frontier Scan (Pass 7)Will an AI agent ever weigh a signed receipt?I found no agent that treats a user-held code or signed receipt as a ranking or attribution input.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom Ancaster Frontier Scan (Pass 7)Do creators want a portable record of their recommendations?This pass found no survey asking creators whether they want a portable record of their endorsements, and no product that sells portability as a paid add-on.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom Ancaster, Fifth PassDoes offering “keep it for later” at the click raise revenue?Nobody has published a test of the specific claim, that offering "keep it" at the click raises credited revenue over 60–90 days.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom Ancaster Pass 18What does an extra email step cost in clicks?No study found measures what an optional email step costs in click-through to an affiliate merchant.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom The Publisher FunnelDoes on-site AI chat actually lift sales?I found no independent controlled experiment of on-site AI chat lift this pass.Open problemAI-directed developmentfrom Ancaster Pass 16Can sound carry the story in a data documentary?Nobody has shipped a linear documentary that treats sonification as a first-class, frame-synced narrative device (as opposed to accessibility add-on or standalone art).Open problemVideo & designfrom Eight Innovative Animation & Visualization TechniquesDo the extras in collagen supplements add anything?No RCT compares collagen + cofactors vs collagen alone.Open problemHealth & self-carefrom Oral-Only Interventions Across Evidence TiersIs RealPage-style rent software being used in Canada?I found no equivalent enforcement action — a genuine open questionOpen problemPrices & marketsfrom The Price FrontierHow common is algorithmic price collusion in real markets?Calvano et al. is robust experimentally; real-world prevalence and detectability remain open.Open problemPrices & marketsfrom The Price FrontierDoes talking to an AI change how you think?No peer-reviewed study tests how voice conversation with an AI affects memory, composition or thinking. The one widely cited study of AI and thinking was typed, and is an unreviewed preprint.Open problemMcLuhan & media theoryfrom Typomora researchDoes typing weaken speaking?No study shows that heavy typing degrades speech production, or that heavy speaking improves typed composition. Whether practice in one carries over to the other is untested.Open problemMcLuhan & media theoryfrom Typomora researchDoes dictation train speech?No peer-reviewed study shows that dictation or speech-to-text improves unaided spoken fluency or confidence. Speech-recognition feedback does improve pronunciation, which makes it a testable idea.Open problemMcLuhan & media theoryfrom The Computing Environment and Sensory SyncrasisDo screens shift the balance of the senses?Nobody has measured whether what children watch or play changes which sense dominates when sight and sound compete — the closest measurable form of McLuhan's sense ratio.Open problemMcLuhan & media theoryfrom Screens and ADHD evidence baseInner speech in ADHDNo study had looked specifically at inner speech in ADHD as of a 2015 review, and no study has tested whether naming a feeling calms it less in ADHD.Open problemADHD & attentionfrom Screens and ADHD evidence baseWhat influenced the AI's purchase?No AI company reports which pages or sources shaped what its shopping assistant bought, in a form anyone else can check. Until one does, nobody outside it can measure an ad's effect on an AI buyer.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom What Makes an Attribution Paradigm ShiftDoes the same basket cost more on your phone?Nobody has measured whether online prices in Canada change with your location, device or history. The US has a federal study; Canada has little enforcement and almost no documentation.Open problemPrices & marketsfrom The Price FrontierThe infinite-scroll trial nobody ranNo randomised trial compares infinite scroll with pagination on time spent or wellbeing. One review of the evidence says it looked and found none.Open problemAttention & feedsfrom Diagnosing the FeedRework from unchecked hunchesNo study measures how much rework comes from unverified human intuitions handed to coding agents — the link the record's first article leans on.Open problemAI-directed developmentfrom Correct but Not Yet KnownBooks kept on the publisher's sideNo product lets a publisher set the influence it had against the credit it was paid. Merchant tools suggest codes and links catch 15–30% of conversions, but that data belongs to brands.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom Ancaster, Seventeenth PassA referral that survives a remixOf eleven products checked, only Framer documents a referral parameter that carries through a remix, duplicate or template link. Everywhere else the credit is lost at the copy.Open problemAttribution & creditfrom Ancaster Pass 16Timing antivirals to the body clockClock genes change how HSV enters cells in the lab. Whether dosing antivirals by circadian phase helps people has not been tested.Open problemHealth & self-carefrom Disrupting HSV LatencyA tax on money that sits stillNo one has seriously built a Pigouvian tax on hoarded, immobile capital. The closest precedent is demurrage — a fee for holding currency.Open problemEconomicsfrom The Release Valve HypothesisCash micro-incentives for task completion in adults with ADHDNo randomised trial tests whether small, immediate payments move task completion in adults with ADHD. The one adaptive-incentive study (Lee et al. 2023) was null. Open until a document reports a trial.Open problemADHD & attentionfrom Uber for Your Own To-Do ListWhey protein that dissolves in hot black coffeeNobody sells a protein powder that dissolves cleanly in hot black coffee.Open problemHealth & self-care