Download my new favorite app, Aglet, and use my code ONM52Z to build your Aglet stash to jumpstart your sneaker collection. Otherwise, explore one of the many links below to learn more about philosophy and the Metaverse.
Ryan is the founder and CEO and Founder of Onlife Ltd, the company behind Aglet App. However, his vision doesn't stop at digital sneakers. That's the beginning. The vision of Aglet is a multi-sided marketplace in which people are designing, buying, selling and flexing virtual fashion and footwear DIGITALLY to build momentum for their digital products to be manufactured IRL. Ryan hopes that the next Virgil Abloh, Jason Mayden, or Tinker Hatfield will come out of Aglet.
Ryan believes strongly in the Metaverse as the next wave of the consumer-facing internet. As a result, the next big opportunity will be for people to master the tools to create virtual objects that will project upon the world.
Ryan lives, works and podcasts from Germany. Get in touch! rmullins@aglet.app
Created by Onlife Ltd, Aglet is Pokemon Go for sneakerheads. Aglet is a next-gen commerce platform that's connecting brands, designers, and sneakerheads through the power of location-based mobile games. Aglet released on April 12, 2020 for iOS devices – you can now sign up at the application’s website to receive updates.
In this episode, Ryan and I discussed philosophy, the difference between German & US startup culture, the “fantasyland” created by the United States, what it means to be “onlife,” the convergence of the digital and the real and so much more.
One of the most fascinating conversations I’ve had on Look Up! to date
“I brought with me this naïve optimism, that I realized was my default setting.”
“Let’s start with “the Basic Fact,” which is that life is meaningless.”
“You die two deaths – there is your body death but also a symbolic death. The mythological layer that has defined the US has been unmasked. Symbolic death is coming out of a worldview and trying to figure out what’s real.”
“If you just remove the screens, everything else looks just like it did in the 70s”
“They asked me, ‘How much time do you spend online?’ That’s like asking me what’s 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.”
“For me, the Metaverse is a reality operating system.”
“The digital and the physical converge so radically, that it makes no sense to ask what the difference is.”
“How do you bring virtual objects and physical objects on the same ontological plane?”
“Why is it called eCommerce? It’s just commerce.”
“How does reality become machine readable?”
“God exists, but I do not think he’s real. To be real, one must possess spacial-typical coordinates and governed by the laws of nature. You can say true things about God even though God isn’t real.”
“To exist is to appear in a field of sense.”
“How does the immaterial soul or substance interact with or cause movements in the physical.”
“What’s interesting about software is that you do have the world of bits and the world of atoms interacting in a way with causality.”
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
“Our island is the world. What we’re doing is bringing this game layer into the world.”
“Game doesn’t have to mean this nonserious space that you just escape into. I think everything is a game. A game is any space in which there is an exchange of information governed by rules.”
00:00 – Ryan’s move from California to Germany
5:00 – Cultural differences between US and Germany
15:00 – Startups in Germany vs. US
20:00 – Modern mythology in the US
27:00 – Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy
32:00 – What is the Metaverse?
38:00 – The 4 phases of consumer computing
44:00 – The hardware of the Metaverse
49:00 – Fermi Questions
53:00 – What is the difference realness and existence
1:00:00 – Philosophy of dualism – interface between two realms
1:06:00 – The role of the entrepreneur converting nonsense to sense
1:10:00 – Realification and the $200B Virtual Goods Economy
1:15:00 – Aglet
Ryan’s Info
Aglet Info
Other Resources & References
Emerson, Self Reliance “Wherever you go, you bring your monsters with you.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius by Ray Monk
Weltschmerz –world weariness
Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen
American student math ranking vs. confidence
Carl Jung on Persona (societal masks)
On Becoming A Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy by Carl Rogers
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga
Joseph Campbell – The Power of Myth
“We wanted flying cars and we got 140 characters” – Peter Thiel (see also Eric Weinstein)
When Tailwinds Vanish by Joe Luttig
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Fall by Neal Stephenson
Josh Wolfe on Shane Parrish discussing the evolution of the Human-Machine Interface
Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock & David Gardner
Fields of Sense: A New Realist Ontology by Markus Gabriel
Homo Ludens – Johan Huizinga
The Will to Power - Nietzsche
Naval Ravikant on Happiness Hacks & The 5 Chips Theory by Tim Ferris
Marc’s Info:
Marc Weinstein, host of the Look Up! Podcast is a public speaker for corporations, universities, and conferences. Click here to view past talks and to book Marc
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