What is this?
Humanifold is a social geometry experiment. The idea is simple: your social universe can be modelled as a multi-dimensional mathematical object. Each dimension of your life becomes a petal of that object, and the relationships between the things in it physically pull those petals toward each other. The more connected two dimensions are, the more the shape reflects that.
Build it out and what you get is a picture of your social world as a whole. Not a list or a chart. A shape.
The two axes
↕ Distance
How close is this to you? Runs from centre outward. 0 is intimate (family, your closest collaborators), 10 is remote (the state, markets, global platforms).
↻ Authority
How much power or influence does this carry in its domain? 0 is low, 10 is high. Could be institutional authority, resource control, cultural reach, or whatever makes sense for your dimension.
Dimensions
A dimension is any domain of your social universe you want to model. The defaults (Social, Political, Economic, Cultural) are just a starting point. You might add a specific organisation, a creative community, a platform, a neighbourhood, a language. Anything that represents a distinct context in your life.
- Each dimension becomes one petal of the manifold, arranged symmetrically around you at the centre.
- Drag to reorder them in the sidebar. Order affects how petals sit relative to each other on the surface.
- Adding or removing a dimension reshapes the whole object.
Actors
Actors are whatever you want to put in your social universe. People, institutions, communities, companies, tools, platforms, or even an idea or a movement. If it has a relationship to you or to other things in your world, it can be an actor.
- Position each actor using the Distance and Authority sliders.
- Size reflects authority. More connected actors show a dashed ring.
- There are no rules about what counts. Model it how it feels true.
Relations
Relations are connections between actors, within or across dimensions. This is where the geometry comes alive.
- Edit any actor and check the others it connects to. Set a strength from 1 to 10.
- Within-dimension relations show as solid lines in the dimension view.
- Cross-dimension relations physically deform the manifold: the surface near one actor bends toward the other. Strong connections between two dimensions pull those petals visibly toward each other.
- The more cross-dimension connections you add, the more complex and personal the shape becomes.
The two views
Dimension view
One petal at a time. See actors, connections, and the distance/authority grid for that dimension. Click anywhere on the disc to place an actor.
Manifold view
Your whole social universe as one object. Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom, double-click to reset. The shape is the data.
Saving
Export your manifold as a .hmf file at any time and reload it later. It is plain JSON, so you can open it in any text editor if you want to inspect or modify it directly.