simondlr # 29 - Short Story: The Line To Anchor City
Hi friends! It’s been a while.
Since the previous post I published, I moved to the USA (NYC) & started a new company, called Untitled Frontier: combining storytelling & NFT memorabilia.
I wrote the first story, called “The Line To Anchor City”.
The cover image from @MadMaraca. https://superrare.co/artwork-v2/the-line-to-anchor-city-25290
Read it here! https://www.untitledfrontier.studio/blog/the-logged-universe-1-the-line-to-anchor-city
It’s a story that follows an uploaded mind trying to get back to reality through his past.
Why this story?
I’ve lately been falling back into reading more about research & sci-fi on simulation theory (like Greg Egan’s brilliant Permutation City), and I feel it provides such a great, fertile space to explore extrapolations of the human condition. If we could live an infinite amount of life and however we wish, what would we do? It kept coming back to me in various forms.
In moving countries during the pandemic (which I started before it all went awry), it was fraught with a long, arduous process of tests, documentation, various restrictions, and admin (rightfully so). I thus transposed that personal experience into a vision of an uploaded mind making the biggest move of their long life: moving back to reality. In many ways, I’m Alan Bloom moving to the ‘big city’ and choosing a new path for the next chapter of my life. I hope his story resonates with others. You’ll definitely be hearing about Alan Bloom more.
Links!
Music x Crypto
I cut my teeth building blockchain projects in the music industry. Jack Spallone, friend, and ex-colleague wrote a pretty mind-blowing thread detailing still some of the possibilities in the space. Also, I had to laugh at Cherie Hu’s tweet. So accurate.
Marvel x Universal
Speaking of rights. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying all the new Marvel content and discovered this odd arrangement stemming from the 90s regarding Marvel & Universal. Marvel ain’t coming to Disney World anytime soon. Indefinite contracts… Yikes.
Legitimacy
I’ve been thinking about the legitimacy of certain systems recently. Especially why, in some social contexts, owning a blockchain asset feels more like legitimate ownership than other forms of ‘digital’ ownership. This blog post from Vitalik Buterin has a great summary of legitimacy as a concept, especially in terms of building legitimacy in digital systems.
Resale Rights x ArtNet
Happy to have “This Artwork Is Always On Sale” featured on artnet along with the rise in attention that NFTs have brought to the art space in general. Hope the conversation continues.
Weezer’s Beverly Hills
This is an incredible ride/journey of a Weezer fan, breaking down why he believes that Beverly Hills, is Weezer’s worst song. I cried at the end, especially because parts of it resonates with my recent journey in life. Moving on to new places, spaces, and people, and reminiscing about old friends and family. Watch it. It’s good!
That’s all for now friends. I plan to write more short stories for Untitled Frontier and I hope you come along with me. I’ve got a lot of ideas to explore!
Remember to catch that sunset! It’s a bit tougher in New York City, but it’s doable. ;)
Simon
