Emily Nabnian

But it’s not just about Thiel. It’s about modern society, human behavior, and the philosophy of religion.

What happens in the metaverse doesn’t stay in the metaverse. In this way, virtual garments are a bit like bootlegs. The fake (sign) may not subsume the real (reference), but it exerts power over the way the original is perceived. Eventually, they almost need each other to stay culturally relevant.

The nomad community is uniquely placed to understand what people need from the global layer. New global products, services, institutions, governance, and more. This is what SafetyWing – the initiators of the Plumia project – does: It builds a global layer on top of the health insurance systems that already exist.

“The big secret is that there are many secrets left to uncover. There are still many large white spaces on the map of human knowledge. You can go discover them. So do it. Get out there and fill in the blank spaces. Every single moment is a possibility to go to these new places and explore them.”

Ritual protects communities from the great violence of Mimetic disorder thanks to the real and symbolic violence of sacrifice. Girard said “sacrificial systems contain violence.” 

Human culture began with a murder. That culture was fueled by rage and rivalry, which led to violence. Managing that violence is the secret reason for all religious and political institutions.

After all, if people fight on social media, they won’t fight on the streets. Like a boiling kettle, we have to let out steam somewhere. Better to cool the pot on social media than in the streets. In the words of Thiel, “social media proved to be more important than it looked.”

These buildings aren’t habitable, but we can imagine inhabiting them. These clothes aren’t real, but we can imagine wearing them–in fact, if we accept the term “clothing” in relation to an object we make it real. The metaverse equivalent of the Meat Dress.

Virgil Abloh: "Physical = digital"