In today's changing world, information flows through our lives like a stream, carrying knowledge, experience, and culture. Memories connect the past with the present and shape how we think and decide. Our brain works like a factory, handling signals from inside and outside, guiding our thoughts and actions. But this process is complicated and uncertain, which makes it hard for us to fully understand the world.
Information is the basic element that helps us understand the world and each other. It flows like a stream, coming from many sources, moving along different paths, and finally joining together like a river. As information travels, it changes and takes many forms. Each stream of information has its own path, shaped and filtered by its surroundings.
As information flows, it becomes records. Records grow into data. Data, when combined and separated, becomes knowledge. Knowledge, when refined, becomes understanding. And our understanding shapes how we act every day and how we interact with the world around us.
The Challenge of Information Feeds
Since the rise of mobile internet, especially with the appearance of information feeds, the way our brain deals with the world has been challenged. Feeds simplify how we see reality. Small pieces of information are given ready-made descriptions, making them easier to produce, share, and consume—but they often lack depth and complexity. This has led to a culture of passive consumption, where people prefer quick and easy content like feeds, short videos, and recommendations. It has shortened our attention spans and made us less willing to engage with complex ideas. Think about it: when was the last time we truly finished a whole book, watched an entire movie, or wrote something based only on our own thinking? When people gather, their conversations are often filled with fragments fed to them by different channels, not their own thoughts.
“Losing language ability has serious consequences, because language is the foundation of thought. If you can't read or write well, you can't think well.”
Losing language ability has serious consequences, because language is the foundation of thought. If you can't read or write well, you can't think well. Feeds, by design, are persuasive and argumentative. They are personal, instant, and customized. They don't leave space for reflection—only for noise, arguments, and irrational reactions.
The Mirror Society
We may be entering a “mirror society.” On one side of the mirror, the rich—or a more advanced class of humans—will be able to protect their data, talk with people, raise children who read real books, and teach them to enjoy movies and art. On the other side, ordinary people may need to sell their data to get the convenience packaged into products. Soon, meaningful conversation and the ability to gain support could become privileges reserved for certain social groups.
From the beginning, our brains have been forward-looking organs, built to predict the future using the past and present. They combine old experiences and reshape them into new possibilities. But information feeds can take this natural process away. When you're immersed in them, your brain's expectations are controlled by machines, meaning your core ability to predict and reflect is outsourced. This weakens the brain. Overexposure to the same kind of stimulation also makes us numb to it, forming habits that block new insights. If the information we take in has no freedom to flow, then no new understanding can ever be born.
Reclaiming Our Cognitive Future
That's why today's social networks—X (Twitter or Weibo), Snapchat, Instagram Reels, TikTok (or Douyin)—are poor tools for real learning. They are built more for arguments than for insight, more for self-expression than for thought. They trap information in fixed opinions that cannot be questioned or reused. They are closed systems, not flexible models for understanding.
Still, we are not saying feeds are bad. We enjoy them, and they are necessary. But for us to thrive as a species, we must move beyond this shallow model of “social networks as conversation” and reach for something more lasting, integrated, and evolving. Something less personal and self-centered, more solitary but also more connected. Something that fits better with the way our brains are meant to think. Something that makes us more human—social on the outside, but thoughtful on the inside.
Introducing EchoStream
In real life, we should build networks of diverse information that allow insights to grow, that evolve over time, and that expand into something greater than any single event, story, or meaning.
This is why we created EchoStream. In this age of AGI, with its huge computing power, rich data, and multi-modal abilities, we want to give people the chance to build their own personal network—an extension of themselves, a kind of assistant, a digital twin, a general AI agent.
EchoStream can help you read, watch, summarize, connect ideas, and keep learning on its own. It can be like a paintbrush, turning your thoughts into pictures; like a think tank, offering sparks of ideas; like an encyclopedia, remembering every bit of information you come across; and like an external memory, far more reliable than a human's. In a way, it grows alongside you. If you keep interacting with it and give it time, it will only get better.
“The time has come to free ourselves from repetitive, meaningless work. We can use our gifts and potential for creative tasks, becoming more fully human.”
The time has come to free ourselves from repetitive, meaningless work. We can use our gifts and potential for creative tasks, becoming more fully human. We don't need to fear AI—there are still many simple things humans can do that AI cannot, and this will remain true for a long time. What really matters is whether new AI tools guide people toward kindness.
EchoStream is designed to be such a network: simple, good, aligned with how the brain works, and built for meaning in the age of AI.
Let us grow together with it, and step forward into a clear and visible future.