Thank you all, it is inspiring to see that it's evoking these wonderful questions, comments, and thoughts.
The hypothesis we have for the Indian experiment, ZuGrama, is this: When you bring a "Dunbar" number of people (~150 people, maybe it is different for India) together, to co-live and co-build, there is an emergent phenomenon–we think one of it could be 'Ambition' / 'Aspiration'. what do you want to be made possible with pop up cities like this? What > impact would snowball in 5, 10, 20 years to make a change that sprouted > from a pop up city? I think that these pop-up villages could be a new way to, - enable innovation. - not just blind innovation but also to support work that will help humanity avoid getting into locked-in states <https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/11/27/techno_optimism.html>. - live a healthy life. - play a different game. (I think, in India, the fundamental levers for innovation have a game theoretic angle to it <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AFP0QcSTNIoRE77d99rDIeXi3zGvxGCaw6ZYKjYbBCE/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.iganc3cqpbiy> .) In this first iteration, we just want to bring these important conversations to India, creating opportunities for people to engage with some of the best minds across different technologies and philosophies. We are trying to design the space where the probability of having an interesting conversation every time you bump into your neighbor in the pop-up, could be really high. Imagine it as Silklist-y type conversations but offline and in-person for 6-weeks. Also, I do not completely align with Balaji's defn of Network States, mainly due to its emphasis on "founders" – maybe that's why it comes off as a bit cultish. At ZuGrama, we want to soon have this completely decentralized. Although, we are starting centralized with a few "founders", we are developing a strategy for community exit soon. We prefer the term "initiators" to "founders". On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 11:47 PM Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist < [email protected]> wrote: > But without an actual reason for so many people to move in there, it > becomes all make work. Remember the old story where someone hands the only > hotelier in such a town a hundred dollar bill, he passes the bill on to the > grocer to clear his debt there, the grocer passes it on to some other > tradesman, so on and forth till finally the hotelier ends up with his $100 > back in his hands and meanwhile the entire town has become debt free. > > > > --srs > > > > *From: *Thaths <[email protected]> > *Date: *Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 10:11 PM > *To: *Intelligent conversation <[email protected]> > *Cc: *Suresh Ramasubramanian <[email protected]> > *Subject: *Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin > > On Thu, Nov 7, 2024 at 7:45 AM Suresh Ramasubramanian via Silklist < > [email protected]> wrote: > > The last popup city I heard of was an attempt to recreate Galt’s Gulch, > and that failed beause of .. bears. > > > > Sometimes it is just the case that everywhere that is habitable to any > extent is already inhabited, and to a much larger extent depending on just > how habitable a place is (all the usual factors, employment, public > transport, schools and what not in the area). > > > > Back when I lived in Australia, on road trips I would drive through these > hollowed out towns in the interior (The Bush). They were once thriving > towns populated with hundreds of people with a town center, but have become > reduced (through a crash in some extractive economic activity, de-growth of > population, or urban migration) to populations ranging from zero to a dozen > people. > > > > A small handful of them have, in recent years, become revitalised with > refugees/immigrants moving in (starting ethnic grocery stores, restaurants, > schools, doing service jobs, ....) > > > > I can imagine such a town being an ideal location for a pop-up village. > > > > Thaths > > > > > > Where would such a popup city be located and how / where is it going to > exist in a vacuum? Outside an old west, Ayn Rand or Heinlein story, that > is. > > > > --srs > > > > *From: *Silklist <[email protected]> > on behalf of Huda Masood via Silklist <[email protected]> > *Date: *Thursday, 7 November 2024 at 8:42 PM > *To: *Intelligent conversation <[email protected]> > *Cc: *Huda Masood <[email protected]> > *Subject: *Re: [Silk] Exploring pop-up villages: A hello from Berlin > > I forgot to reply to this :) > > Guten Tag zurück aus Bonn! > > Your email made me reach out to another friend/now acquaintance who was > interested in designing Life - for himself and others. It morphed into > another monster altogether but his vision remains the same. > > I'm intrigued by the idea of 'building weak ties' (see reference to > friend/now acquaintance above). And ALLFED sounds very very cool. I hope > you are thriving and happy there. > > After reading the links you provided and the questions you asked, I'm left > with a vague sense of unease - one that makes this feel cultish. I would > like to sit with this feeling to analyze why I am uneasy. Bryan Johnson and > his Bloodboy, referenced in part by Vitalik in the Zuzalu article, play a > large part. Cults get a bad rep, we're all cultish to some extent. But this > set off alarm bells. > > > Tell me, what do you want to be made possible with pop up cities like > this? What impact would snowball in 5, 10, 20 years to make a change that > sprouted from a pop up city? > > I ride motorcycles for pleasure and travel extensively with them, > sometimes with bigger groups and sometimes as solo as solo can get. I > notice that bigger groups consume tremendous amounts of resources, wield a > disproportionate chunk of negotiating and buying power and leave a mess in > their wake for the people, who live in the space long term, to clean up. > Maybe it's just motorcyclists. Or buses full of tourists. Or .. what the > Goans are currently groaning about the influx of the part time Delhi and > Noida population that skewed economics for the native populations. > > Thank you for the mental workout :) > > Ich freue mich, von dir wieder zu hören. > > Huda > > On Thu, 24 Oct 2024 at 13:45, Yeshodhara B via Silklist < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Hello fellow Silklisters, (not sure if that is the right name, but has a > nice ring to it) > > Guten Tag! > It’s an absolute pleasure to be here and part of this awesome community. > Thank you for having me here Udhay :) > > A quick intro—I'm Yesh. I was born in Bangalore, but Berlin is home now. > I'm someone who's pro-humanity and a techno-optimist but with a dash of > healthy pessimism (keeps things interesting!). I’m constantly asking: how > do we help humanity not just survive, but truly thrive in the long term? > > By day, I work as a project manager at ALLFED <http://ALLFED.info>, where > we focus on global food resilience (preparing for events that could take > out 10% or more of the global food supply—think nuclear winter or other fun > apocalyptic scenarios). By night, I channel my engineering and physics > background into designing hyper-stable structures for satellite > <https://www.eumetsat.int/meteosat-third-generation> applications. > > For the past 8 months, I’ve been working on something a bit more > experimental and communal—ZuGrama <http://zugrama.org>. It’s a pop-up > village in India that I’m co-building with another fellow Silklister, Dr. > Anish Mohammed. Think of it as a place where the world’s brightest > minds—scientists, engineers, cryptographers, builders—don’t just work > together but live together, collaborate deeply, and push the boundaries of > what’s possible. It’s inspired by Zuzalu > <https://www.palladiummag.com/2023/10/06/why-i-built-zuzalu/> (which > Vitalik Buterin kicked off), and it pulls from Balaji’s concept of network > states. It feels like the right time for these kinds of experiments, with > similar projects popping up in other corners of the world — 1 > <https://balajis.com/p/network-school>, 2 <https://vitalia.city/>. > > What are your thoughts on pop-up villages or these “networked state” > concepts? Do they excite you? If you could be part of one, what kind of > experiences would you want to have? > > Looking forward to diving into some awesome conversations with you all! > > Best, Yesh > > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist > > > > > -- > > Huda Masood > +91 9886796967 > > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist > > > > > -- > > Homer: Hey, what does this job pay? > Carl: Nuthin'. > Homer: D'oh! > Carl: Unless you're crooked. > Homer: Woo-hoo! > -- > Silklist mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.panix.com/listinfo.cgi/silklist >
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