The testicle squished and separated softly like firm tofu as I bit into it. I dipped the remainder in a plate of salt and tried again - nope, still can’t get past the idea of it. I subtly tossed the remainder in the open trash bin while the others continued in conversation. Still, I think I prefer the testicle over the taste of the liver, or what Goku referred to as “nature’s multivitamin”.
Goku (yes, like Dragon Ball Z) and the rest of the carnivore Biohackers had found a local Honduran butcher shop, or Carniceria, where they had practically been given the bag of testicles - along with some surprised looks and snickers from the staff. I had gone there myself, purchasing 6 lbs of quality steak for less than $20 - but personally decided to pass on the testicles.
As I walked back to my condo along the main highway in the rain with my bag of steaks in hand and head still buzzing from the Kava, I thought to myself how strange of a month it’s been. Five weeks ago, I had a pretty typical life in Santa Monica as a software engineer, working to get my crypto startup off the ground. Now I found myself living in a pop-up city on a Caribbean island with 200 starry-eyed optimists from all around the world. Imagine a village comprised of entrepreneurs, biotech scientists, philosophers, crypto engineers, lawyers, and psychonauts - all living together on an island for two months. It could be a recipe for disaster or something magical.
The society of Vitalia is operated like a decentralized student-run university. Anyone can schedule or join classes through an app or by shouting it out on a massive Telegram channel. There’s some pre-organized conferences throughout the two months, but it’s mostly unstructured. The classes range from brain dissection to aerial yoga and everything in between. The overall event is focused on longevity with notable appearances from Bryan Johnson and Aubrey de Grey; but touches on other themes like AI, network states, and crypto with talks from folks like Vitalik Buterin, Balaji Srinivasan and Naval Ravikant. As someone who puts a lot of thought into personal health and tracking I’ve also appreciated the access to meditation, cold plunge, sauna, and even donned a Continuous Glucose Monitor for a group experiment for a couple weeks. I had the opportunity to participate in a “Biohacking Sleep” panel where we dove into our sleep data to understand how sleep is related to mortality, sunlight, and our sex lives (more on this in a future post).
One of my favorite experiences at Vitalia was a chili meditation session led by its creator, Vojta, a Czech biohacking podcaster. It started with some simple breathing exercises to relax and get in a calm headspace. A bowl of yellow and green habanero peppers were passed around the circle of meditators. Some timidly ate the tip while others left only the stem proudly at their feet. While we slowly chewed the pepper, expressions began to change. Eyes started to water and people opened and closed their mouths to see if it would help - it didn’t. The initial heat began ramping up as we were led into a loving-kindness meditation. I tried to focus on the practice but the fire in my mouth pulled all my attention. The furnace grew so hot until that’s all I could feel - every other sensation melted away. The burning was an odd mix of pain and pleasure. Time seemed to pass quickly and before I knew it, the meditation was over and the burning in my mouth was a pleasant, numb sensation. I was surprised at how enjoyable the overall experience was and I have been eager to try it again ever since. If you find yourself curious, I’d highly recommend trying it out.
Like many others, I was attracted to the idea of a pop-up city because I felt that something is deeply broken in our society. If you don’t know what I’m referring to, take a look at the modern banking, healthcare, or political system. Instead of fighting the system directly, we can peacefully build a better one and show the world what’s possible. The rest of the world can then decide if they want to adopt the tested ideas or stick with their existing ways. It’s a win-win.
The idea of forking is at the foundation of the crypto ecosystem and technology. If you don’t like an existing community, you’re free fork off, create new territory and start a new community. Creating new territory is easy to do with software but is a bit more challenging to do in the meat-space. There is finite meat after all. However, this meat-space territory is needed to make meaningful progress on certain problems like healthcare and government reform. Thanks to special economic zones like the Honduran ZEDE, new communities can organize online and come together IRL to explore these new ideas. Parallel experimentation was one of the reasons for the historic success of the United States. In 1932, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote:
It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.
However, due to its historic success, the United States has grown complacent and focuses more on upholding the status quo rather than innovating. This creates a need and opportunity to experiment elsewhere. Whether you like the ideas or not, these experiments provide us with more data that can help us all form better opinions in the future.
Alas, my time within the pop-up city of Vitalia is coming to a close. More adventure is calling and I’ve donated all the blood I can to the local mosquito population here. I’m excited to see how Vitalia evolves over the years and will definitely be attending more pop-up city events around the world. I’ve made some amazing friends over the past five weeks that I expect to be seeing all over the world 🤍