Iconoplasm - Caretaker’s Handbook

How do I become a caretaker?

1. Go to any gene page
2. Tap “Become this gene’s caretaker” button under the gene card
3. Read and accept the caretaker terms

Who can become a caretaker? At the moment, anyone with a Discord account can become a caretaker. You don’t need to be a member of Brinedew.bio to be a caretaker. This might change in the future.

Do I need to have a publishing record about this gene to become its caretaker?

Interest alone is enough!

To get up to speed after becoming a caretaker, try to get familiar with basics:

• Your gene’s protein product, its subcellular location and molecular function
• Your gene’s downstream effects in normal and pathological states
• Your gene’s expression pattern across tissues and developmental stages
• What others genes are similar to yours in structure and function
• What other genes interact with yours on both protein level and transcriptional regulation level

My hope is that biology students and field newcomers will first learn the biology of their chosen gene, familiarize themselves with foundational biological concepts through that character, and then use their gene as an anchor to explore other parts of molecular cell biology.

How long can I stay a caretaker of a single gene? There is no time limit - you can settle on your favorite gene and stay its caretaker for as long as you’d like. A vision for Iconoplasm is to eventually settle down to a state where every gene has had the same caretaker for decades at a time.

However, it’s possible that you could be removed from the caretaker position against your wish. One example would be going silent for months at a time despite getting coordination requests from other caretakers. Other such removal policies might be implemented in the future in the interest of the project’s continued flourishing, after thorough consideration.

How many times can I change which gene I’m caretaking?

While you can only caretake one gene at a time, there’s no limit on how many times you can change which gene you’re a caretaker for.

A change frequency limit, currently at 1 change per day, will get adjusted to be slower in the future. This way, the character roster starts chaotic but eventually anneals down to a stable state.

What if I want to swap genes with another caretaker?

Go to a gene page and click the “request swap” button in the gene toolbar. The caretaker for that gene will get a swap request notification and can either accept or reject it. You can only have one swap request active at a time.

What happens when two caretakers have can’t compromise on a compatible narrative?

For now, I will adjudicate the conflicts personally in the interest of sustained community growth. In the future, a formal conflict resolution system might get implemented.

Can the displayed text snippet on a gene page conflict with canonical image on the same page?

To prevent this kind of divergence, each image is tied to the prose and tags that were used to generate it. Caretaker can choose to hide or display the canonical image’s prose, but it’s not possible to adjust it after the image is already generated.

If you as a caretaker want to display a new prose block, the image that was generated by this prose needs to get canonical.

This behavior might adjust in the future if genes get other media (like 3D models).

I contribute work - how is it going to be used?

I expect other people might use the character designs for downstream work:

• Adding characters to pathway diagrams
• Making memorable flashcard decks
• Featuring the characters in books, videos, and games
• Making merch and figurines based on the character

Please note: when you contribute to Iconoplasm, you dedicate your creative work (text and images of the characters) to public domain under the CC0 license where applicable. This means that anyone else can modify your Iconoplasm design, monetize it, and distribute it as they see fit, without needing to credit you.

I contribute work for free and others will benefit from it - how is this fair?

This is the only arrangement in which foundational projects of this scale can happen at all: this is why many fundamental scientific discoveries are still made in public research institutes and not in corporate R&D departments. Profit capture is only possible at the later stages of the pipeline, when de-risking has been done by non-profits - and we’re still too early for that.

It’s completely understandable to feel taken advantage of, when you craft a design and someone else gets fame and fortune for putting it on a mug. Money and status are easily observable immediately. What is harder to see are diffuse long-term benefits of working on a large-scale public-benefit project like this:

• Iconoplasm
• Participating in mission-driven online communities builds long-term bonds of trust with people who are interested in similar things as you. Digital spaces are known to spin off into real-world organizations, businesses and movements (see: Lesswrong, Effective altruism, SCP wiki)
• In 40 years, the doctor treating you from cancer might not have been there if not for using Iconoplasm characters as a study reference. Looking at your work this way, you’re making your own future healthcare cheaper and better quality.

If you’re interested in the idea of Iconoplasm, but you need stronger attribution and ownership of your labor, I will be happy to collaborate with you on the distribution side of things.

Generation tips

**I struggle to make the characters look 20kg or 200kg

There are three approaches to make the weight readable from an image:

1. Recommended - Specify a head-to-body ratio as a separate character tag

I struggle to make the character look their age

In my experience, eye-to-head ratio is great at conveying maturity at a glance.