Weaving a Post-Appitalist Future
Decomposing the data silos of capitalist business models. Building the exfrastructure for interconnected digital ecosystems.
The Tyranny of App Silos
Why do we need 10 different apps to talk to the same friends? App silos create terrible UX, fragmenting our digital identities, data, and workflows. But this isn't an accident—it's a feature of appitalism (and ultimately of capitalism).
Artificial Enclosure
Data locked behind walled gardens, controlled by vendors who prioritize lock-in over user empowerment.
Short Time Horizons
Consumer apps expire like plastic products. Your data becomes useless when these corporations inevitably shut down.
Structural Enforcement
These aren't bugs—they're features. Business models depend on artificial scarcity and producer control.
"App silos are not accidental but structurally enforced by business models that prioritize enclosure, lock-in, and artificial scarcity over user empowerment."
The Space Between the Apps
A research initiative to decompose app silos by creating an interface integration domain. Not another app—an exfrastructure for interoperation, built on FolkJS as the computational substrate.
Networked Topology
Contrast to app-centric software. Emphasizing interconnectivity and user agency over vendor control.
Exfrastructure
Like mycelium binding ecosystems together—decentralized, adaptive networks operating beyond traditional infrastructure.
Emergent Interconnections
Named for "leylines"—a metaphor for emergent connections across digital domains that self-organize and flow freely.
Technical & Philosophical Foundations
A shift from software as a tool to software as a medium—malleable, composable, and user-controlled.
Computational Media
Software that is malleable and composable, enabling users to shape their digital environments.
Information Substrates
Contextual containers like spreadsheets or canvases that support flexible interaction and data flow.
Novel Primitives
Scoped Propagators and Semantic Morphisms—new building blocks for modular, interoperable workflows.
FolkJS: The Computational Substrate
FolkJS provides the necessary computational foundation for post-appitalism. It's a malleable, user-programmable substrate that enables the kind of fluid, interconnected digital ecosystems we envision.
Without substrates like FolkJS, we remain trapped in vendor-controlled silos. FolkJS gives users the power to compose, extend, and interconnect their tools—making post-appitalist futures technically feasible.
Key Concepts
Scoped Propagators
Enable data to flow between contexts while maintaining appropriate boundaries and transformations.
Semantic Morphisms
Allow meaning-preserving transformations as information moves between different representational systems.
Canvas Primitives
Foundational building blocks for spatial, visual interfaces that support direct manipulation and composition.
Local-First Architecture
User data lives on their devices first, with optional synchronization—ensuring ownership and resilience.
The Post-Appitalist Horizon
After the app-ocalypse, a new paradigm emerges where user-controlled composability replaces vendor-controlled silos. Where collaboration thrives beyond the constraints of platform capitalism.
Living Ecosystems
Not plastic corporations that expire, but living, breathing, emergent ecosystems that adapt and grow.
User Sovereignty
Tools that serve people, not profit margins. Where users control their data, workflows, and digital futures.
Commons-Aligned
Mutualist, open-source futures where collaboration and shared resources replace extraction and enclosure.
Beyond Apps: Exfrastructure
This isn't about building another app—it's about creating the exfrastructure that enables ecosystems of tools to self-organize and flow freely. Built on substrates like FolkJS, where information moves as freely as ideas should.
Why This Matters Now
Knowledge workers, frontline staff, and creative teams are drowning in fragmented tools. Interlay helps them work across systems with less friction and more control.
Knowledge Workers
Juggling 10+ apps daily, losing context with every switch, fighting tool fragmentation.
Frontline Teams
Need simple, integrated workflows without technical complexity or vendor lock-in.
Creative Professionals
Want malleable tools that adapt to their process, not rigid apps that constrain creativity.
Growing Movement
Local-first, malleable, interoperable software is gaining momentum across the industry.
The Time Horizon Problem
Consumer apps have short lifespans. When they shut down, your data becomes useless. We need durable, resilient systems built for the long term—not quarterly earnings.
Building Necessary Infrastructure
If we want to build a more open, equitable, and adaptable digital future, we need open source exfrastructure and substrates like FolkJS that enable post-appitalism.
Explore & Contribute
Dive into the open source primitives we're developing. Experiment with FolkJS, fork, and build.
Read the Research
Deep dive into the technical foundations, philosophy, and vision behind post-appitalism.
Support the Work
Interested in funding or collaborating? Let's build the future together.
Imagine an internet where information flows as freely as ideas
Join us in building the exfrastructure for a post-appitalist future, powered by substrates like FolkJS.