“And accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed…” The Declaration of Independence
I hope you all had a Happy Independence Day.
Independence holds multiple meanings. In the context of the Fourth of July, the word invokes freedom from the control of an outside government.
As I reflected on independence this weekend, I was drawn to two other definitions that feel more important in the context of our present moment:
Disconnected with another or each other; separate
Capable of thinking and acting for oneself
We are living through a major inflection point in world history that is at its root tied to the relationship between independence and interconnectedness.
The social web drove us to unprecedented levels of interconnectedness. Never before have we been able to communicate with so many with such ease. Never before have we had access to so much knowledge. Yet over time the social web evolved to provide us each with an independent reality that is crafted with algorithmic precision:
As we grow more connected, our shared reality becomes more disjointed.
In this week’s podcast episode with Ryan Mullins, the CEO of Aglet, a company pioneering the Metaverse, we discuss the convergence of our physical and digital realities. Through augmented reality technology, our physical worlds will soon be overlaid with virtual goods, information, and of course advertisements.
This has incredible potential: our entire environment will adapt and mold to reflect our desires and needs. This virtual overlay will cater to our unique preferences and accelerate independent experiences. However, it can also lead to deeper echo chambers as our new reality mirrors our existing biases. We will still need to live within the collective. We will still need to have some semblance of shared reality.
As we build the Metaverse, how can we stay mindful of a shared reality? How do we ensure that the virtual worlds we create align with our own best interests, rather than those of corporations and governments?
How do we stay independent: capable of thinking and acting for ourselves?
One might argue that reality is already entirely subjective. In that case, a multidimensional digital world with millions of individual representations of truth is appropriate. Maybe true. But how much of these independent realities is actually driven by independent thinking? Most of our online actions are greatly influenced by the machine (literally). As online and offline merge, how much of our world will be dictated by the machine, and who will control it?
Finding independence in an interconnected world is a challenging proposition. But I believe titrating an appropriate balance will ultimately determine the quality of the world we leave for future generations.
Even if it just looks like a toy today, there’s a lot at stake.
Let me know what you think of this post
This Week’s Podcast:
Building the Metaverse with Ryan Mullins, CEO of Aglet
“They asked me, ‘How much time do you spend online?’ That’s like asking me what does the #2 smell like. It’s almost a nonsensical question now because you’re not really online or offline anymore, you’re just onlife. You’re in this space of computation.” - Ryan Mullins
Ryan Mullins is the CEO of Aglet (my latest investment). Aglet is essentially Pokemon Go for sneakerheads. As Chris Dixon said - the next big thing will start out looking like a toy, and Aglet is no exception.
Ryan has ambitions to build the operating system for the Metaverse as the convergence of atoms and bits accelerates. Eventually, differentiating between “real” and digital will become more difficult as the digital is overlaid on our physical reality through advances in augmented reality. In addition, we’ll eventually learn to program atoms - to some extent we already do this through biotech and 3D printing.
In this episode, we discuss philosophy, the differences between German & US startup culture, the US “Fantasyland,” what it means to be “Onlife,” the future of the Metaverse, and so much more.
Ryan has quickly become one of my favorite people to speak to, I learn so much every time and hope you will too.
If you’re building tools for the Metaverse, I’d like to hear from you.
What I’m Reading
IDEAS
Incredible List of Essays Inspired by This Tweet by Patrick O’Shaughnessy
Idea Labs vs. Echo Chambers by Tim Urban
MARKETS
An Uncertain Crisis, Jeremy Grantham on Invest Like the Best
POLITICS
Annexation & Apartheid, Simona Ghizzoni for the Atlantic
The Ghislaine Maxwell I Know, Alan Dershowitz for the Spectator
CRYPTO
Walled Gardens versus Open markets in Payments, Izabella Kaminska for the FT
Introducing 3ID Connect by 3Box Team
The Birth of Proposal Farming by James Waugh
COVID19
The Risks - Know Them - Avoid Them, Erin Bromage
Thank you for reading this edition of the Look Up! Weekly.
As always, feel free to reach out with feedback, guest recommendations, and ideas for future posts and episodes.
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