Network Masterplan
I have been working on a network to create virtual dreams as part of an open and permissionless brain computer protocol. In January 2021, I published a whitepaper that outlines the direction of this network and the purpose of virtual dreams. I recommend reading the whitepaper first before reading the masterplan. I have been Network’s primary funding source since inception. The reason for writing this masterplan is to lay out a plan of action beyond the foundation that has now been created.
What exactly are virtual dreams? The analogy to understand virtual dreams is lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is a type of dream in which one has awareness that one is dreaming while dreaming. In a lucid dream one can experience the dream like waking reality without the constraints of physical reality. In the 1970s researchers at Stanford and England proved that this was scientifically possible. Meanwhile in Tibet, dream yoga has been around for hundreds of years. Indeed while the West has explored and conquered the world, Tibetan Buddhists have been exploring the mind longer than probably anyone. They are the original pioneers of lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming therefore represents a fascinating and perfect laboratory to explore the mind and free oneself from the loops that limit one’s life.
The endgame of virtual dreams is to become a programmable technology medium that will leverage neural interfaces to allow individuals to explore a virtual reality of their mind and break free from infinite mental loops. Instead of going to sleep, you will connect your favorite neural interface and go into an alternative reality exploring your mind lucidly. You may be guided by others to face your fears and become aware of the loops that govern your reality. The goal is liberty to dream freely.
Another frontier inward remains hidden from our eyes. Throughout history we have explored matter and further expanded outward. A new journey awaits as we understand that we only know very little about the nature of reality. Similar to how Galileo laid the foundation on which science rests, we are moving toward a revolution in the mind sciences. Galileo used the telescope to explore the outer world. We have been on this journey for quite some time and it will keep evolving as we become a space faring civilization. Similarly, we are at the beginning of creating new telescopes to explore the mind. We are already creating technology to connect brains with computers and vice versa. Those tools will allow us to dig deeper into understanding the nature of reality and questions we have about consciousness. Indeed there is a whole new frontier yet to be explored. This is just the beginning.
When I began this exploration, it seemed unlikely to be feasible anytime soon. Leonardo da Vinci dreamed of flying, but it was the Wright Brothers who recorded the first flight in 1903. Even if neural interfaces are only in their infancy today, there is now a strong forcing function to turn them into the new screen to experience reality. There are different technology startups and many from the open metaverse community already developing a collective matrix that would allow you to dive into a virtual world that many have been dreaming about for a long time. The lucid dreaming community is also working to develop technology to make lucid dreaming more accessible. The dream while it seemed impossible at the turn of the century is now materializing. It may not happen quickly, but soon it will be inevitable.
Network is not competing with anyone to build the matrix or metaverse. We want to accelerate the advent of virtual worlds and see it come into reality in the most open and permissionless manner. The more people are building and investing to make this a reality the better. It is also paramount that we return power to the individual. When I started working on this, I did not want to compete with billionaires building neural interfaces. I began imagining a network that could leverage neural interfaces to empower individuals to find liberty. We are all limited by the loops that we suffer from every day. They are so invisible that we barely notice them. Despite marching towards abundance, we are not really free inwardly and therefore outwardly. This network is a call to prioritize a different kind of freedom, one that comes from being free from the many mental afflictions that we have to learn to reprogram in order to perceive reality with new eyes and transform ourselves into a new self. We also do not want to control people or the content of their dreams. That’s why I have been advocating from the beginning to make virtual dreams available as part of an open and permissionless protocol that would cryptographically ensure that this technology and the data it generates is in the hands of the people and not in the hands of a small set of actors. The last thing you want worry about when entering into a dream in the future is wondering who else is watching.
We are creating virtual dreams in order to empower individuals to break free from infinite mental loops. It is not enough to send people into an alternative reality. We also have to bring them back to reality. Only by having intention to reinvent yourself and then installing those insights that you had during a course of experiencing your mind from a different perspective can you create lasting change. In that way it shares some attributes with the psychedelic renaissance by which virtual dreams could be seen as programmable psychedelics. We are creating a unique format for experiencing a virtual reality of your mind by which you are empowered and possibly guided to break free from those mental loops that you suffer from. We value mobility of thought & mind and unlocking your potential to turn your dreams into reality. Mental health is a systemic problem that needs more attention and resources. Virtual dreams could be a novel paradigm for individuals to face their fears or break out of rigid patterns of thought. We have thousands of thoughts every day. What if we could experience our mind in a virtual reality setting and use those experiences to self-heal or be guided by others to find the way towards freedom.
Now the question is how to turn this dream of dreams into reality. The endgame is clear. We have to figure out how we can download the vision to the present day in such a way as to create a strong forcing function that will propel us toward the endgame. In this plan, we will outline three new proposals. A network passport that will provide rights and access to the network. A list of network problems that will grant tokens to those solving them. In other words, those that demonstrate value by solving problems that the network encounters will own a part of the network. And our path towards a first version of virtual dreams, a product that could be used that would fulfill the dual purpose of empowering users to experience a virtual reality of their mind which in turn would allow them to break free from infinite mental loops. Keep in mind that these proposals will evolve and are open to change with the feedback of whoever decides to get involved.
Before we dive into these proposals further, let me share a few words about the foundation that has already been created. I have been working on the network relentlessly against all odds and despite many obstacles for a very long time. Even if you may not see it yet a lot of things have been put in place that will help us going forward to build the network with the principles that I imbued it with. I have not to date raised any outside capital which should be to our advantage if we can now develop escape velocity through network effects. We need to build enough momentum to build a virtuous two-way feedback loop between capital and community in order to improve the product until one day we may even go beyond what I have imagined.
The first proposal is a passport into the network that would give individuals to certain rights and access to the network. Instead of raising capital from impatient capital that would strangle the growth of the network long-term, we can raise funds by selling a limited set of non-fungible tokens. Each of those tokens would grant the holder the right to obtain a passport. Those funds will be directly used to fund the operation and growth of the network. Those passports will make the holder a netizen of the network and grant them access rights to the network that have yet to be determined. As funds will be available on-chain, we can account for the distribution of funds in a transparent manner. As the white paper was published on 1/21/21 we decided to issue a maximum number of 12,121 genesis passports. We cannot make any promises about what the value the passport and what exactly the passport may offer at the beginning. By donating to the network you directly fund our operations and your passport will be known as a genesis passport. For legal reasons, we just cannot make any promises at the time. We will issue a post announcing how you can participate in obtaining a genesis passport into the network should you be interested.
The network also issued a fungible token for its protocol in early 2021 that still awaits distribution. As we haven’t received any outside capital, we can experiment and adhere to Satoshi Nakamoto’s vision of distributing the token through proof of work. Since we have gotten thus far we might as well be innovative and distribute the token to those that solve problems that need to be solved in order to grow the network. I suppose if investors want to get on board they can use capital to solve those problems. We do have a company for which we may raise capital, but the company will support the network protocol, not the other way around. The focus is to create an open and permissionless brain computer network that supports virtual dreams. Those that get the token for solving the problems may decide to sell them to others, but that is not something we are going to facilitate. As this is likely to occur eventually, the scope of problem solving may expand into distributing the token to fund research that furthers our mission.
Over time the community would decide on what problems need to be solved and the schedule of tokens to be released to those that solve problems. As some problems will be more expensive to solve than others, we will adjust the distribution accordingly. We will release the list of problems and issue a detailed post that outlines the distribution of tokens. It may make sense to issue a passport to those that have solved problems and have already received a token for their work.
The network passport and the network problems will be an ongoing campaign and continuously improved upon. As more funds become available to finance operations we will focus our efforts on developing a product. After building the foundation which required a lot of time and capital already, the most important part is now to show that we can create a present day version of virtual dreams as outlined in the white paper and deliver it as soon as possible. We will take pre-orders when we get to this point.
Inspired by Elon Musk’s masterplan for Tesla, we aspire to follow the same pattern of creating a high-end product to a select few that can afford them in order to use the proceeds to fund the next generation of the product that would be accessible to more people. The goal is to create a new version of virtual dreams every year which improves and reinvents upon the original idea. We also want to develop an ecosystem whereby other developers may openly access APIs in order to create useful components and additions to virtual dreams.
Remember this dream to create virtual dreams just started as a dream. With the endgame clear we need to create network effects between capital and community in order to build a network that can manifest virtual dreams in a lasting way. We are narrative free and have a strong imperative to empower people to find freedom by breaking free from infinite mental loops. Together we can make dreams a reality.