Symbiosis Applications PBC's Values
Guide Its Actions

This is one of our most important principles. Yes, it is broad, but that helps us apply it to every decision. Think of all the harms done by major tech platforms and companies. For instance, many studies show that social media use has signficantly harmed general mental health of many young people, especially children, teens, and young adults. Societal trends have mostly ended in the wrong direction as these apps rose to prominence, dominating hours of our individual lives per day. We are entering into the social tech sector to correct many of these societal harms.

The wording of this principle may be unexpected. It means that we should design products and services that make an individual choose to engage with the world. We want to inspire people to live their best lives, cultivate relationships, and have fun.

Personal growth should be an important goal in life. What this means for you may be different than what it means for somebody else. We want to make it possible for anybody. We are not interested in stagnation. We want people to explore, learn, and inspire.

We believe that we can create better experiences if we personalize them to individuals. We want to provide you with the best suggestions for you personally. We want you to be able to control your experience and adjust feature and privacy settings as you see fit. Relationships are made by developing trust and intimacy. We want you to experience this with others, so we are hoping to develop trust and intimacy with you to facilitate your relationship cultivation with other people.

Pay attention to how often you or others talk about someone in non-human terms. It may surprise you. We believe that society would be a lot friendlier, safer, and more supportive if everyone respected or even celebrated differences, quirks, and desires rather than shaming or laughing at them.

This is one of the values that we consider the most when designing our products, and its one that we intend to strongly enforce in our communities.

Let's define types of Symbiosis in the definition regarding species:

Mutualism

both species benefit from interaction

Competition

multiple species are harmed when together, sometimes disproprotionately to the extent one is unaffected

Predation or Herbivory

one species feeds on another

Parasitism

one species benefits while a host is harmed

Commensalism

one species benefits while another is relatively unaffected

Amensalism

one species is harmed while another is relatively unaffected

Mimicry

one species benefits from copying another, often by disrupting others

Neutralism

neither species is affected

Applying this to humans, we want to optimize for everyone in an interaction to benefit as much as possible, like mutualism. In other words, we want to minimize replicating other types of symbiosis when metaphorically applied to human relationships. We definitely want to actively work to cut down on predatory behaviors. We also want to reduce behaviors similar to parasitism, which we believe are not advantageous to either party in the long term. Likewise, we do not see a reason for tolerating behaviors similar to ammensalism. We want people to be mindful of their behaviors and interactions with others. If both parties are not benefitting, then they should figure out how to both benefit or consider devoting more of their time to more mutually beneficial relationships.

The Symbiosis app considers these different relationship patterns and attempts to optimize for mutually beneficial relationships. Among other factors, supporting mutualism and penalizing other patterns are important considerations in your personalized suggestions.

Unlike some other apps and media services that try to profit from monopolizing your attention and design for addiction, we design to improve your mental and social health. We recognize that the Symbiosis app is not the most important thing in your life. We have metrics and goals designed to maximize your mental and social health while minimizing the time you spend on the Symbiosis app. Our primary business model is built on premium subscriptions, not ads. We think if we continue to help you find success in improving your mental and social health, we can both be succesful long-term.

This principle inspired our "Any online distraction from in-person experience should be likely to create offline value" principle. We include it separately because we want to emphasize the "Nurture mindfulness" part. We want to nurture our own mindfulness, your mindfulness, and mindfulness of the general public.

The Symbiosis app has features and guidance to encourage this practice.

While redundant, including this principle helps frame our general mindset.

We are aware that there are people who often behave like predators, parasites, and lose-lose competitors. We are aware that our actions or inactions, if not pre-processed through our principles, may result in harm. At Symbiosis Applications, PBC, we actively consider how our behavior, words, products, and services may affect other people and organizations, and we try to minimize, mitigate, or avoid any harm. As a public benefit corporation and per our organizational charter, we are legally required to produce a net benefit.

In social tech, harm is actually the default. Some business models depend on it or exacerbate it. Moving foward with practices that result in harm is the cheaper and faster option. At Symbiosis Applications, PBC, we care about your safety, wellness, and privacy. We will make your protection and thriving a top priority, even if it comes at extra difficulty and expense for us.

Some social tech services present you with countless profiles of people and ask you to make spontaneous decisions, typically based on superficial information, that may determine whether or not you have a relationship with the presented person. We believe this app pattern often trivializes people. It removes possibilities, and we think it makes the remaining possibilities seem less valuable or less urgent. We think endless scrolling also makes possibilities seem less valuable or urgent. This is an example of the paradox of choice. Having only a few options typically leads to more progress.

The Symbiosis app attempts to balance the paradox of choice and the freedom that comes with optionality. We provide suggestions that our technology predicts will be mutually beneficial for everyone involved. The app presents you with what are approximately expected to be the best suggestions first and then progessively discloses more as needed. If the app detects that you are having trouble deciding on a person to contact or a gathering to attend, it may remind you of the paradox of choice and suggest that you choose from one of the most-suggested options. Although sometimes presented as an optional action, the app never forces you to make a decision that removes an individual option from being shown again in order for you to proceed.

Fairness and justice are complex topics. Sometimes the solutions to problems may seem simple because concepts of fairness and justice often have strong emotional weight. Unfortunately, what may be fair and just to one might not be to another. As a mission-driven entrant into social tech, Symbiosis Applications, PBC feels it has a responsibility to take fairness and justice seriously. For us, this means that we consider our approaches to these concepts to be complex, changing systems. Sometimes we may need to cut out some of our values or policies. Sometimes we may need to remove people from our services or company. Sometimes we may need to ask the community for advice.

One problem area that we could really use support in is deciding how to handle people who have violated our Terms and Conditions. We are not against banning people, but we do wonder how to make this process fair. What should review processes and appeal processes look like? Must people always be involved, or can AI sometimes handle banning and content removal when it predicts a likelihood of violation? Should people who have been banned be able to get back onto the app? Under what conditions? Our current opinion is that banning does little good; it only reduces direct harms through the app. However, what are the externalities of banning someone? Will they become angrier? Will they become more violent? If we have the platform and opportunity to attempt to teach and guide people to healthier behaviors, do we have an obligation to try? Should we forgive people who meet certain criteria and allow them back on the app, where they may once again cause harm if they have not changed? These are difficult decisions, and we would like your input. Please email us feedback to [email protected].

Symbiosis prioritizes your safety, privacy, and experience. As we grow, these will remain our priorities. We recognize we will have more influence and responsibility as we grow. We are committed to being a force for good, and we constantly re-evaluate our processes, poilcies, products, and services with updated knowledge and values.