Vitalia Revisited with Erin Magennis

Transcript

[Music] hey Aron what's up hey glad to be here where you calling in from I know you've been traveling a lot in the past couple months yeah right now I'm up at the mountain retreat in Breen Ridge Colorado Post eth Denver how was your eth Denver experience it was really great it was awesome to have a good number of the core team from eth Chicago there as well as I spent most of my time at the D events and really connect with that community in person is is always great

and to see some of the momentum really gaining in the D ecosystem is super exciting kind of blew my mind that the whole Court team were East Denver virgins we all we all did our thing for the first time but yeah yeah we all got to experience it together and kind of dive into each of our own corners of web three and and then bring those connections back to Midwest which is exciting super so and I'm back in the midwest ready to spread the gospel out here in Chicago at Drive cap um ready to dive in about your experiences of Italia startup city concept that's a new and exciting thing to um to kind of spread the word about I think I think a lot of

people are curious about it and you uh you were there for a couple months so um why don't we just dive right into it um tell us how you found out about it um how what drove you to register for it and uh yeah what your like experience like was there definitely so I guess just backing up for anyone who might not be familiar with vatalia it's a startup Society um kind of connected to the larger umbrella of Network states which was made Popular by bellagi and really just this idea that our like physical location or the country through which we were born into or reside in um doesn't

need to be the dictator of kind of the societies that we participate in as we move into into future environments that allow for a much more globally connected ecosystem um that isn't just di tied to your Geographic domain at that given moment and this really allows for flexibility of New Economic jurisdictions to pop up and be able to support some of these different cities um or states that that want to exist in this type of way and so Balia is a startup city that is located

ated in prospera which is a special economic zone or jurisdiction in Honduras and one way to kind of understand that is similar to how um indigenous reservations in the United States have some different maybe regulatory aspects or properties to to their zone or region um but still are able to benefit from some of the larger benefits of being located in the US such as military protection um these different special economic zones kind of have some similar properties and that's what prospera is um a few that are particularly interesting to a lot of

Vitalia residents are just more flexibility on biotech regulatory side allowing for more experimentation at earlier stages in that scientific discovery process as well as um better kind of tax uh taxes um from that business and personal side um so when people are building out these different companies um will really be able to put some of their different funds to to good use and really have um bigger impact through through just kind of some of those different aspects that these zones allow for um falia

their primary focus is on longevity and making death optional um so really kind of heavy leaning into that biotech side and also having startups Founders Builders really be located there and support them in in taking those next steps forward at the entire infrastructure buildout layer for um really creating sustainable and vibrant and thriving ecosystems in some of these new zones uh a few things I want to dive into there that that you touched on so one this idea of a longevity research making death optional and also you know this concept of a startup City especially in

places you know offshore um I think some people outside of crypto and really just you know will will look at these and say oh this is just a way for you know people with money to um to go and have fun on a beach and and not have to pay taxes right so like what are what are some of the benefits to these uh you know local communities that the startup city concept can bring that battalia may have brought um and then yeah and then we can talk about some of the longevity stuff definitely so Vitalia startup city is located in prospera special economic zone which is located on Raton which is an island part of Honduras and Raton has 2 million

tourists visiting it every single year but those tourists are constantly cycling through so in terms of like actual like proper infrastructure buildout or even um like having good roads or different um just things that we might take as common or take for granted in the US or other Western countries um having cities that really kind of plant their flag in the ground there is able to contribute to the buildout of some of this infrastructure which benefits the entire Community there um additionally Balia and prospera um they're constantly doing work with

the local community there and me like most if not all of the prospera leaders are all from Honduras so they're really creating this new Zone as a way to make hurus overall better and just bring more opportunities um to where they're from so there sometimes this different conversation of oh this is just this extractive type of modernday um kind of experience or and I would say it's a lot more sustainable and actually beneficial for the local ecosystem than it is just going there

for a week and being being a pure tourist and just kind of extracting from the different beaches or um adding more environmental kind of toxins into into the environment there whereas um if it's seen as a home which it is for many vitalian residents it is also treated as a home and treated in a way through which that entire Island as well as extended to um hindur at large there are some different trips kind of going over to the mainland um that's that's part of the whole equation and um people take care of their

homes yeah um okay well let's let's talk more about your specific experience there and some of the things that you saw when we were talking about longevity I think you know you've told me in the past that there's sort of two approaches to longevity one that may interest you more than the other one is the idea of prolonging life as in just making you know basically people who are healthy enabling them to live longer lives maybe we'll call that the Brian Johnson approach um and there but there's also like the improving the quality of life for people you know in the prime of their current years and I think maybe that interests you more um what was your experience like at Italia with regards to what were people more

interested in what what kind of cool stuff did you did you do with that space yeah so um Vitalia is really focused on this longevity and what you were alluding to is this conversation about health span versus life span and that's definitely a debate within the longevity space But ultimately pursuing an advancing research on cellular aging and degeneration long like aging as a whole um is beneficial to almost every other disease State because most diseases that might affect any of us at younger ages not necessarily just at those latter years um is due to cells

rapidly degenerating or Aging in these kind of weird or mutated types of ways and by doing research on what that looks like at the full extent can actually provide Clarity um or at least kind of more of a foundation for a lot of these other conditions um which sometimes gets lost in some of the narrative about longevity um but it's very much a key part of the conver conversation um that that I definitely care about as well just how can this extend to to maybe more underserved populations of

people or people who really need it now instead of just those who are privileged enough to think about extending one's life and do so in kind of a positive mindset type of way which is a privileged perspective to have definitely um so what what were some of like the cool projects experiments that you know you guys did down there in in the two months that uh you know got you excited maybe something that is going to keep going after Italia yeah um one organization that kind of convened or started forming down at Vitalia was the biohacker Dow and that's really focused on looking at a bunch of these different Biometrics to

understand how different changes in your lifestyle maybe different supplements or medications that you might be taking um is affecting your body and doing so in a pretty rigorous way for a good number of people and just making sure that all that data individual people are collecting is able to be standardized in a way that it can contribute to a larger knowledge base um and tying it back to e Denver and just broader dii conversations right now standardization um and coordination has been a very very kind of large theme uh throughout both my experience at Italia and then more broadly um in Desi and

even extended to web 3 comos as well I feel like that kept coming up so biohacker Dow is one organization that um really kind of formed out of Vitalia and while there participated in a couple different experiments one being a CGM or continuous glucose monitor which um you just kind of stick into the back of your arm and it's able to measure your glucose spikes um as you kind of just exist throughout the day and we had I think 26 people have that in for two weeks and we're able to just share results and that idea of being able to be in one place run these different

experiments and then share different um interesting findings each one of us might have experienced with it or questions we might have had as well it was really beneficial both at a personal level as well as kind of a collective group perspective um there were a handful of other people experimenting on different kind of biohacking type things um lab focused on cybernetics and plantables um which they'll be moving their main base down to falia um and then a lot of different Founders and companies especially focused on stem cell Therapeutics and really exploring at the full extent what could it look like to really properly

address and or maybe cure some different diseases so you say when you say you know like start a lab in the Caribbean that sounds I think for a traditional science perspective that might scare some people and thinking like oh like what sort of scientific rigor are they using here like is this actually like good data that they're generating um yeah what are your thoughts on on that like how how much of a trust factor is there with with the community with bringing being able to bring these results back to you know the traditional science Community you know in in more like developed Nations absolutely so um there's a review board down there and it's part of the garm clinic and so for any different

um proper clinical trials it has the ability to go through this review board process and that's really the main standard in science for proposing different clinical trials and making sure those are done in a proper and ethical type of way and that the experimental design of it is um done so in a way that is proper science rather than kind of just um being able to maybe fabricate some of the different findings which is a huge problem across science broadly just the reproducibility crisis where the majority of science isn't actually reproducible um so what we're naming as

scientific truth throughout Society may not actually be truth because we are incentivizing and just um they're incentive mechanisms in place for for reproducing something that may al already have been found um and that's a big problem that hopefully dii will be addressing broadly as well tying it back to Vitalia and prospera being able to really propose and create these different clinical trials and then pairing that into this whole framework of decentralization um can allow for those clinical trials to then capture data and

coordinate with different labs and people located all around the world which will allow for a much more robust data set um coming in into some of this different research rather than it being like oh we're only going study people of this one particular demographic which usually uh doesn't effectively extend to other communities that aren't as researched um so having some more of this flexibility tied with uh mental constructs and social constructs of decentralization as well as those technological kind of infrastructure Railways um could really benefit a lot of underserved populations from a

General Health perspective across the globe that makes sense uh super fascinating I think distrust of traditional institutions is at an all-time high I mean especially postco you know we had a lot of people questioning the efficacy and the safety of covid vaccines so it seems like the moment is right for alternative approaches um lots more I want to talk about on the dii side of things because you're you're so passionate about it and you're so deeply plugged into it um but I do want to give some space towards some of the other things that were going on at Balia I know there was a u you know there was a startup City conference there was um there was an AI conference so maybe you can talk a little bit about those yeah so almost every other week there was a conference that uh really

attracted and some other leaders in the space um down to just kind of convene with people properly living out what these startup Societies or kind of that broader umbrella of network States rather than just theory of it um and so just cool to be able to kind of have that convening of different folks the first conference was focused on longevity uh with more of kind of like a biotech stem cell Therapeutics Focus um then the other conferences were focused on crypto and kind of network States next one was Ai and um Tech

optimism and progress and then the last one was longevity again but with a bit more of kind of like a biohacking or kind of more on that Health span side of the equation and other things we can really be doing now um and it did it did a great job of attracting some of those different leaders into the space and also just sparking the ability for the people there who is a very self- selected group of people to be able to um convene and connect in meaningful ways and different co-founder and other collaboration opportunities spun out of it so is quite effective and and actually Spark

um kind of those Baseline foundations for proper startup and builder buildout of of different projects moving forward that's awesome and I you mentioned notable speakers I mean I was a little startruck seeing some of the some of the lineups we had biology there and of course the aformentioned Brian Johnson any favorites of you anybody who you really think stood out yeah I really enjoyed naval's talk um I felt it was super applicable to a lot of us there just as we continue building out in the world um and tying in a philosophical element into the conversation which that ethics um and just coordination overall is is so important to all of these

conversations yeah for sure uh and then some of these talks are going to be uh released by Italia's recordings right people could can go out there and check them out yeah a good number of them are already posted on the Vitalia YouTube or the Vitalia Twitter X account make sure to post that in the description um cool so moving on to like just more non-conference non work I know you were just overwhelmed with papers to write podcasts to do things to see uh but what were some of the things you enjoyed being down there I mean after all you were down on an island um off Central America what did you uh what kind of fun stuff uh were you um one benefit of these different startup cities is the ability to convene

different resources and just um the ease of being able to connect with other like-minded people as well as um have access to some of that intellectual stimulation and the type of people who show up to these things are usually quite human Centric so we have this really great balance of this deep Tech or scientific expertise paired with um paired with this human connected element which is super super important to balance especially where we're thinking about adoption of crypto and blockchain and web 3 and Ai and all these different emerging Technologies and um so that was one piece I really enjoyed another piece was

just the warm environment there and being able to watch the sunset each night with 20 or 30 other people um who becoming like close friends and your kind of whole Community there or being able to wake up and jump off the Dock and go swimming and this really great balance between um natural environments this kind of startup and really kind of focus on on building creating things um impact tied into that and connection as well as taking care of oneself at a personal level with the sauna that was built out or coal plunges and the gym available and um yeah it was a overall a really great experience for those of us

who who who might have the flexibility or interest to kind of connect with other people in that type of way on the shared topics uh so on the subject of flexibility how are the U de demographics is it it mostly skue younger people with Boomers such as myself uh would there be something there for me uh yeah talking about more just the representation yeah uh most people were probably somewhere between 25 and 45 there were a few people like in their 60s especially those who have done a fair amount of work in longevity for decades by now or people who have like been a leader in some of these different

conversations about aligning economic and financial incentives when creating new more sustainable structures and um so being able to learn from different people who have been doing this work um for decades mixed with some of us who might be a little bit earlier in our careers um to actually do some of that build out and keep pushing it Forward was a really kind of great balance that I think um dii and the web three space can can continue doing a better job of just learning from the people who have pushed forward open science and open source movements in the past um or who have maybe built up an entirely new

governance structure due to maybe a civil war within their country like there's so many different things that we could be learning from these other spaces and people who who have just done this work already um that I think we'll see more integration with um throughout web three broadly and so that's kind of one aspect of demographics um overall there was a fairly good like representation of people with ties all around the globe um one limiting factor though was some countries especially in Asia don't have ties to hondurus so some people from those countries tried to come to Honduras but since there wasn't a proper

Visa system set up they were stuck at the border and they weren't able to come in um which is is just kind of part of this conversation as well especially as some of these different jurisdictions might be recognized by different countries moving forward Ward what what does this flow look like and how can there be better coordination or recognition and just um excess or streamlining connection between people located all over the globe for sure yeah I feel like so much of this coordination tends to happen online because of that because there are no barriers like that we have physical barriers around nation states and stuff um so I guess moving moving out of the

space moving out of battalia um how do you feel that battalia propel like the design narrative uh for you and both at large what are some of the things that you know you're working on now and what are you excited about absolutely so yeah I found out about Vitalia through it being posted in some different decentralized science or D telegram group chats and due to its focus on longevity buildout and biotech um really has a lot of alignment with what dii is building towards as well obviously dii can look like a lot of other things um Beyond kind of maybe that decentralized clinical trial aspect or um some of some of the different

things that falio has focused on um dii can also look like pure data technical infrastructure or education um and community building with different scientists at conferences or the universities that they're located at um so the and Vitalia are very much connected but both extend beyond just the scope of of the their counterpart for sure so with regards to you any what specific projects um did you maybe start there that you're going to continue work on or maybe that you were already working on that Vitalia helped you move along yeah so at Vitalia I was able to connect with some

different people I've known before in D or web 3 as well as um make lots of incredible new connections and one of the people I was able to reconnect with there is Barat um he is the leader and founder of Dai London which is the largest in-person Dai Community um throughout the entire globe and while there we were talking about the kind of just opportunity in need for a d fellowship program um so we kind of explored if just our different ideas on that and if there was alignment and we found that there was so we're currently working on spinning up the first cohort of muse

Matrix which is a six-month long D fellowship program really focused on introducing web 3 techn technologists to the opportunities in or the challenges in science and scientists or medical providers to the opportunities at different emerging Technologies like ZK AI blockchain broadly um can have to solve some of the challenges they might be experiencing and then connecting these groups together cross-pollinating ideas and that's really the first two months um some of that educational piece introducing them to what's happening in D already and kind of different opportunities D could address and then

the latter four months is focused on actual project or product buildout um that will be helping to facilitate in connection to many of our partners that sounds super exciting um so what does muse Matrix and maybe the the DSi ecosystem at large need most right now is it funding Talent you know getting normies involved just just by being sexy in some way um yeah talk about that yeah so within D side different organizations are taking different approaches and through things like the D Summit and a bunch of us convening around eth Denver um were able

to more effectively coordinate so yes to everything you said more funding can help Propel some of these projects forward um getting more people who are passionate about some of these different areas involved um we really make sure that the impact and what those proposed Solutions are are actually addressing the needs of the people they're supposed to be addressing um technical infrastructure is also a super important part of this conversation the biggest um being pursued right now in the D ecosystem focused on data collection management analysis all of that and then um the other half being Publications

which is also tied to Identity and some different security conversations um and then just kind of broad Community awareness and onboarding of of scientists and developers in particular into this space but broadly all different skill sets are needed um especially on on kind of that awareness side that was one main takeaway I had from eth Denver and the D Summit um there's a really great conversation on how how just kind of more narrative building in dii could really help Propel the space forward um but an analogy that that popped up over

the past week or so as well is the idea that D is a little bit more than a baby we might be at the toddler stage now so we have our feet starting to get under us um and really build out these these rails to to be able to really create the visions that we have as well as many people throughout scientific space open science space Fair uh have had for decades and decades and have been working towards but they didn't have the right infrastructure at that technological financial and social layer to effectively make happen and now we do that's super exciting I know um I came to the dii summit as a as a full Normie and I definitely felt like I was

at at the beginning stages of something I think somebody alluded to this being sort of like you know 2011 era Bitcoin so exciting super exciting time yeah sure um so okay if Let's help build a narrative for the normies what um what kind of resources um you know can people like me go and check out to learn more about the space and get excited definitely um a little bit biased but last summer I worked with a couple other people in the space to write up a dite landscape analysis and it gives a pretty good analysis um through some surveying we did of the ecosystem and kind of where a lot of the Grassroots dii

organizations got their first Community Support as well as financial support was through a getcoin round um which is a really great way to raise funds especially for public goods efforts um which some of dii is building in as well um the other half of dii being very VC backal Ventures um and so it's kind of pursuing both sides of that throughout the ecos system um so I'd Point people to that mirror article and then we have a bunch of resources listed down at the bottom um the D Summit and a bunch of these different workshops like at scos and oron NOA those were all recorded

there have been a bunch of other incredible di events over the past couple years since it's really come into existence um and just searching like d conference on YouTube should bring you to the D bosson the D DF like all of these different spaces um to be able to learn how it might be evolving over time also a very open invitation to anyone who's remotely curious or interested in Dai whether for themselves for a friend if they're on that Tech side the scientist side the funding side or like the citizen scientist passionate about having positive impact on the world um I'm happy to help connect you into the

ecosystem and really point you in whatever Direction might be most aligned I've worked with a lot of the different DCI companies and Dows over the course of the past few years so um can probably connect people in Fairly effectively and then through this D research D landscape analysis news Matrix and a broader DCI onboarding campaign I'll be launching soon um I have a pretty good scope of the space um awesome um well we'll make sure to post event details about that um and then I got to I got to nag you one final time about Italia best party of Italia yeah there were there were a

couple of great parties um I'm actually up here in Brecken Ridge with the black ravers right now which I met there and they they threw a good party so if you're in the web 3 ecosystem and looking for a good partying Community to get involved with um defin find that group uh those parties were held at the Bitcoin Center in prospera which is actually doing a great job of onboarding the local Honduran Community into crypto and they've really gone through this interesting kind of evolution of going from being unbanked to just like not even having bank accounts to straight into crypto and

it's creating all these incredible economic opportunities for for community like that as well um so yeah really really kind of overall great time at Vitalia and kind of covered the the full spectrum of experiences people might want there awesome shout out to the block ravers catching uh hopefully in a city near you are they touring the country touring the world they have Presence at a good number of the um different web three events um I know they'll definitely be around kind of the dev con southeast Asia circuit in the fall as well um and have some interesting things in the in the works

that people people should definitely follow along with to come be a part of awesome awesome um well thanks so much for your time today eron uh I know the E shy Community is excited to uh see you again in Chicago and help Propel the Midwest to to the heights of all these exciting startup city um Innovations yeah it's it's super exciting we had like 70 people in our eth Chicago goes to eth Denver telegram chat so there's such a great Community blossoming in the midwest um to really kind of be part of building out these different future States and I'm super excited for what that will look like and being able to be a part of it as well

[Music] awesome [Music]