Theses 02 / 19 QUALITATIVE published 05 Apr 2026 · updated 17 July 2026 · v18

Data Is the New Metadata

The relationship between data and its containers is inverting. Enterprise context layers are "spoon disappearing" (Andy Chen). Mark's Conway cellular automata metaphor suggests data self-organises when freed from application containers. The model is "data customers and data providers" with nothing in between. When agents can act directly on data without intermediating applications, the data itself becomes the primary asset and everything else becomes metadata — packaging, pre

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When we're wrong

One thesis is currently moving against us — Agents as Primary Users, +9.3% since published. It stays on the board. We update priors on evidence, not on evidence we went looking for.