> *sonder (n.)*
>
>> the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.
>
> &mdash; John Koenig, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

&nbsp;

_STILL COOKING!_

&nbsp;

## tl;dr

Our access to knowledge carries biases inherent in algorithms _trained_ to ~~promote understanding~~ maximize consumption. This robs us of the _choice_ to understand those who learn, think, and grow differently. `Sonder` is an attempt to make this choice explicit. To at least be conscious of our knowledge bubbles, if not break them.

## deepdive

<br/>

This is the world's knowledge.

and this is you.

surrounded by humans tending to think like you.

accessing this knowledge through algorithms<sup>1</sup> trained to optimize what you ~~need~~ consume &#8594; surprise surprise, more of the same.

making you consider this as the world's knowledge.

which in fact, is your _knowledge bubble_.

a bubble robbing you of the _choice_ to understand those who know, think, and grow differently.

Sonder is an attempt to make this _choice_ explicit.

Knowledge bubbles can be hard to break, but not as hard to be conscious of. Guided by this vision, we have three projects under development:

  - `polar` shows how the same knowledge appears to those from
    diametrically opposite knowledge bubbles
  - `spectrum` shows how access to knowledge varies with variation in
    its polarity and subjectivity
  - `balance` searches the internet for you - maintaining a balance
    between knowledge relevance and knowledge diversity (under
    development)


## Algorithms



<hr style="border:1.5px black"> </hr>

<small><b>1</b> [Collaborative Filtering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_filtering)</small>
