ORIGIN STORY is our community narrative regarding who we are, where we are from, and where we are going.
Origin Story recalls Act 1 of Why not World Game which launched on Nov 11, 2022 and sold out Dec 21, 2022.
Below is a reprint of our community “recreation”, telling our story. It comes with video scenes (some with really crappy sound, sorry!) but the “quicky” can be absorbed by casually scrolling the page.
Act 1 of Why not World Game is decentralized, any member of our community can tell the story of how they were introduced into the community.
To visit Act 2, please go to Why not World Game.
Begin here: Origin Story––Act 1, decentralized
Why not World Game emerged within the community of Big Mother, which formed from a Los Angeles tech startup that collapsed in 2020.
When we say our previous company “collapsed”, we mean “collapse” as in “the worst possible case scenario ever”, but worser.
Our failure to launch our technology in 2019 had consequences beyond the disturbances in our own personal lives. Our technology company developed solutions products outside of the Google/Facebook matrix, and our main product was for web journalism and news publishers to achieve 100% audience reach around reliable and verifiable content to counter things like misinformation and disinformation.
If we would have succeeded in launching our network in 2020, this technology could have had unmeasurable benefit during the global COVID-19 epidemic.
Ouch.
(five minutes, seventeen seconds)
When COVID hit in March of 2020, co-founder Zack Zarate was simply worried about his pal, co-founder Rome Viharo, who was the architect for the previously collapsed company, Native Smart.
Just trying to be a pal, Zack told Rome that he should put the old company away, forget about the old thing, and take the time as a paid vacation to focus on the next thing.
“Our story should not be about what fucked up, it should be about how we can put it back together, we should make this a better story, we’re not “fuckup nights”, lol” said Zack to his pal.
I think that was the point, to try to get Rome to laugh, but he wasn’t laughing.
Rome, COVID lockdown, what’s her name, lost everything, on couch–ouch.
Due to COVID lockdown, Rome was stranded and stuck on the couch at his old pal Carey Yost’s spot in Mid-Wilshire Los Angeles.
So two pals were trying to figure out how to cheer Rome up, help him get his bearings back together, help him focus on the next thing instead of the old thing and what’s her name.
Carey Yost, of all things, is a notable cartoonist and designer, far outside of the sphere of technology.
Anyone who knows Carey Yost knows that Carey is a hoot. As a roommate, he is better described as a muppet puppet. This story really can’t go on until you know about Buddy.
How to laugh while sunk in the abyss.
Six minutes, twenty seconds.
In no time at all, Rome was laughing again. It was now time to focus on the next thing.
Turmoil 2020
The riots of 2020 actually began in Los Angeles a few blocks away from where Rome was in Covid lockdown with his ol pal Carey Yost, roommates again for the first time in 20 years.
So Rome grabs Zack and Carey’s ear about a problem that could be the underlying cause of the turmoil erupting in 2020.
The Problems with Binary.
(six minutes, ten seconds)
“Exactly, focus on the new project, Rome. Focus on that “aiki wiki” thing you’re always talking about, let the old thing go.”
The Solutions within Ternary. 9×3 markup language.
(nine minutes, fifty seconds)
So, Zack is pleased with himself, because Rome is tooling away on Aiki Wiki, thinking about the new thing instead of the old thing and what’s her name.
Zack sends him a link to submit the new thing to the National Science Foundation’s SBIR program for entrepreneurs, which Rome does because…a whim?
Everything is suddenly stopped in motion, and Rome disappears into a swirling vortex with what’s her name.
Thirty days later, Zack’s wife Melissa watches the Social Dilemma on Netflix, and learns that Zack encouraged Rome to let go of the old thing to focus on the next thing.
The old thing was equity. The old thing was valuation. The old thing isn’t even old, it just never had a chance to launch!
“Are you crazy, Zack? Why would you let go of something you have equity stake in??? And why now????
Rome returns from the swirling vortex to discover that the new thing was accepted into the National Science Foundation and Zack wants to now bring the old thing back.
Combine the new thing and the old thing?
To proceed with Phase 1 for the NSF grant, Rome would have to form a company around the new thing, and scope out the first pilot.
And the old thing needs three hundred thousand dollars.
Old and new things need funding!
Zack’s six year old daughter gives him an idea…
Specifically, to get Carey Yost to to create an NFT because Zack’s daughter is a fan of SpongeBob Squarepants, which Carey helped design.
Carey is famous with kids. Carey has designed the most popular cartoons in history. Hmm…
This gets Zack thinking…
The crew needs to raise money…
Should Carey do a PFP NFT?
…NO!
Two minutes and forty seconds
GenX versus Millennial, GenX are NOT BOOMERS!
So Zack really likes NFTs, and think its a good idea, but Rome was already thinking about DAO structures and not NFTs. Carey wanted to draw Bucky Fuller.
Zack wants Carey to make a character with regenerative AI.
Why would a cartoonist use regenerative AI to create variations? That’s their job! That’s what animation is, but better because it tells a story.
“Reality check, GenX created the internet for millennials, who messed it up along with the boomers!”
Zack hates it when Rome says that.
Zack felt rejected, like GenX thinks NFTs were dumb or something, and that’s not true at all.
Web3 is great but…
Scarcity and Malthusian thinking is not good for web3: A Toon Talk
Two minutes and forty seconds
Huh? Zack says this is all going to be worthless!
And that is a reasonable position. Everybody trades in scarcity, from crypto to stock to food to natural resources.
Making something “abundant” produces less wealth, not more, right?
….right?
Welcome to the Solar Economy
Zack gets mad at Bucky Fuller, still skeptical. Says “Show me how Bucky would design an NFT!”
So Rome uses Detective Comics to show how Bucky Fuller would design an NFT that could fund the construction of a global energy grid, and even space exploration.
How would Bucky Fuller design a web3 NFT ecosystem?
Eight minutes thirty two seconds
So…this isn’t really resolved.
Zack likes Bucky Fuller but says the whole problem to narrative logic Bucky Fuller NFT is that there is no story here.
“We need a story! How does Bucky Fuller arrive on the internet in 2022? I say let’s make Bucky Fuller a zombie, it’s the zombie apocalypse, and resources are scarce…”
Rome explains to Zack, “No”.
“What? I have rights! This is a DAO! I say we make Bucky a Zombie, how come I do not get what i want?!?!?!?” Zack has a millennial meltdown.
Rome says “because Zack, you have copyright ownership, not the rights to change the story, you only have rights because you are now in the story.“
Just like our audience, our community who has the Passport Token, you are not just following our story now, you are in the story, right at the beginning!
Welcome to Narrative logic and the end Act 1 of Non Fungible Theater
Five minutes and two seconds
End Act 1 “Why not World Game?”
Go to Act 2 @ Why not World Game.