Megascene

Megascene is a term used to refer to an amalgam of San Francisco's socio-cultural scenes - particularly those that are adjacent to the technology industry.

Due to significant social overlap, its composite scenes are often referred to as one; occasionally, via the metonym "Hayes Valley" (though this more often refers to the West Wing).

Composition

San Francisco's Megascene is estimated to be composed of about 3,000 people.

It is an unusually dense social graph; despite its size, each member is thought to be at most two degrees of social connection away from any other member.

Cultural wings

The Megascene's composite scenes are loosely grouped into four "wings":

• North Wing: Rationality, Effective Altruism, and AI safety/research
• West Wing: Creative technology, garage hackers, and "whimsy tech"
• South Wing: Burning Man, secular spirituality, and meditation
• East Wing: Philosophy, history, literature, and the "neo-intelligentsia"

Social dynamics

San Francisco's Megascene persists on both physical and digital substrates. Largely, this involves group house residency and events, as well as Twitter (dominant in the West and East wings) and Facebook (dominant in the North and South wings).

Notable spaces

A large constellation of group houses and other private spaces are frequented by members. Most of these cater to specific cultural wings:

• Lighthaven - North Wing
• Lyceum - East Wing
• The Alembic - South Wing
• The Center - South Wing
• The Commons - Mixed
• Mox - North Wing