Issue 41: Take off and go to Edge City Patagonia

Week reflection [10/13-19/2025]

Intro

This is a collection of writings in the spirit of personal journaling, reflecting on the journey of life, a space to write down my perspectives on various topics that are most important at the time, often having to do with technology, human evolution, startups and personal growth.

Check out this track while reading, it’s what I listened to while editing it.

Sunday Morning Reflections

I was back in my home, in Zion, sitting on the same spot on the floor, looking out the big window, at the trees, the same reference points, the magic settled around me. I was in my place on Earth. It was magical. It was a Sunday, it’s the one day of the week that always has been sacred, the time to put away work, and connect with the larger picture, to ask yourself, what are you working towards? Do you like where you’re going? Are you missing something? Are you actually living your life or someone else’s? Are you using your precious time on this Earth to do the things you want to do and be the person you want to be?

This Sunday I was wondering about this. I felt that in some ways some obstacles I still have to overcome fully, about living fully, really truly being free, free from fear, from trauma response that still can make you paralyzed in a way. Trauma is locked in the body, we as mammals have this response, when we feel we are stuck, helpless, like an antelope being pinned down by a lion, knowing it can’t escape, only waiting to be devoured, it freezes, it goes limp, it’s only chance of survival is if that lion decides to change it’s mind, to have mercy and go away. This situation can happen to modern humans, if a child, a being that is powerless and dependent on their caretaker, is abused physically or emotionally by them, then they can get stuck in this frozen state in their nervous system. They will not get out of it unless they are able to perform the very difficult task of diagnosing what is wrong with them. They will not get free unless they are able to self educate on this, or lucky to have some guide, to find the will and strength to figure it out.

Unblocking Traumas

This echos themes inside novels, like detective novels, (I’m thinking Dashielle Hammet, or the Animatrix ‘Detective Story’) which hook people in, with this kind of mystery, that often people find resonance with their own life, searching for what blind spots, traumas and blockages they have, and how they may free themselves from them. This is what Steve Jobs was pursuing, feeling deeply impacted about the reasons why his birth parents decided to give him up. What were their emotional feelings and reasoning? What is the story behind his origin, before he could remember and have his own power? He was able to free himself from this trauma through primal scream therapy, studying Eastern philosophy and various other kinds of therapies that is described in the Walter Isaacson biography. He was able to unlock the inner power in himself, and he learned that he could help others unlock it in themselves too. The biography talks about how he helped his then girlfriend get away from a harmful cult like co-living community, and believed in her so hard that she could drive a stick shift car herself, that he put his head on her lap as she sped down a highway, putting his life in her hands, with the confidence that inspired her to bring out the inner strength and confidence in herself to handle this new task of driving a stick shift. Then he took this ability to break people out of their limiting beliefs into his roles at Apple and Next, to inspire people to do their best work, to think different, to bend reality, to make the impossible happen. To me, that is the definition of an Enlightened being living in our modern times.

Vasocomputation

There is a scientist that is working on a new field he called “vasocomputation,” that studies how vascular (blood veins) tension acts as a type of memory, that regulates neural dynamic range, meaning in effect, how you think, feel and perceive the world. In his talk linked here he talks about how this explains ‘thoughts’ as patterns of vascular tension, and implications for Buddhist enlightenment. I found his work since he is participating at the Edge City Patagonia - Consciousness Residency that I am taking part in this month. I predict that this new perspective explains things like the trauma described above and how things like somatic shaking therapy, ecstatic dance and scream therapy can help ‘unlatch’ these blockages in blood flow. I imagine having VR applications that allow people to experience traumatic situation in a new whole body physical interaction with the digital space, such that their limiting fear - flight - freeze based response patterns are changed through awareness and guidance in physical movement.

“The Lord will take me in”

On this Sunday, at eleven I got up and decided I needed to go to a random church, the closest one. Since I didn’t have a car, I dressed in running clothes, and went out to run, and found a church. The mass had ended, the schedule I saw on Google Maps was outdated. Yet I stood there in front of the church, chatted briefly with people exiting, then I quietly went in, feeling called to be in this space that is dedicated to the sacred, to whatever is beyond our human comprehension, our human world.

I got inside and just sat, and said a prayer, believing that the universe is a place that is designed to help you succeed, in itself, is a powerful way to help yourself succeed. I felt I was called there, by something, and that I needed to be thinking of myself as a free individual, with a clear line, as if a direct phone line, to my own intuition, the voice in my heart that tells me what is the best thing for me to do, how to have my own way to judge myself, my actions, my own worth. Think of it as a God, or think of it as the child within, or think of it as intuition, or authenticity. It’s a voice that tells you, are you good, are you doing too much of something, or not enough of something, are you working on what you need to be working, are you living the life you are meant to live, are you fully using your talents and potential, are you actually living your life, or someone else’s life?

One of the members of the church community came up to me, sat next to me and asked if he could pray with me, we did, and then we chatted briefly, getting across what was on my mind without self-censorship, and with a few tears. Then he told me a quote from the bible, that he understands, and he said “Though my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take me in” from Psalm 27:10. This was spot on, they were all getting ready to leave and close up, I walked out, exchanged some niceties with the people there, they shared their views, knowing time was short, they invited me to come back again and join the mass. I walked out and then continued my run and did some errands, picking up a few things from Walmart, tackling my long todo list. This was like a cathartic moment, though I tried to not make it obvious.

Take off and go

This statement, take off and go, captures the feeling I had going again on the plane, leaving Illinois, the people here, for Argentina, the next month I will spend in the mountain town of San Martin de los Andes in Patagonia, Argentina, for Edge City - a pop up city in the Ethereum community. I took four flights, Chicago to Miami, to Bogota, to Buenos Aires, to finally San Martin de los Andes. I love the feeling, you remember again that the world is so big, we each are little programs living in this vast network of little communities, each programmed to operate inside our own confines, and feeling culture shock the moment we realize there’s billions of people out there having their own experience, something that our individual minds can’t grasp easily. I landed in this small town, where people that are some of the smartest in the world, that aspire to use and create technology to push humanity forward, I would spend the next few days frequently saying “hi, nice to meet you and “hey where did I meet you before? was it in Bogota? Denver? Vietnam?” Excited just to be able to travel the world and meet interesting people, on top of that, here we are gathered to pursue similar interests like consciousness, human and AI symbiosis, meditation, physical fitness, and self discovery. There are about a dozen different types of ‘residencies’ here which are organizations around a central theme, with participants and facilitators putting on a calendar of events, sharing spaces and doing activities together, from sauna, to hiking, running, flow rope, and people doing scientific experiments on gut biome, psychedelics and more.

Reflections on What to Focus on

On my flight to Miami I watched a documentary on Carl Craig, a Detroit based techno DJ that was active in the late 90’s and 2000’s. His story of a musician, growing up influenced by music tastes from his parents, siblings, and surroundings, growing up in America, an environment that I can relate to, and then growing up to be a prolific and impactful artist in his genera to me was inspiring. I could see that if you enjoy some thing, some creative pursuit, and you apply yourself to it, you make your life be about it, you make it your way of life, your channel of self expression, then you are bound to create something that is appreciated, that is valued, that impacts others in a positive way. Here is a clear example of a being growing up to do just that. It is something you created, that expresses your perspective of the world in this window of time. It doesn’t matter if your art is photography, painting, creating computers, or creating applications, if you just focus and apply yourself, you will create something beautiful and valuable to the world. This is the life I aspire to live, this is the life that to me is full and an example of what Steve Jobs meant when he said ‘make a dent in the universe.’

Have a dream and believe in yourself

This morning I woke up and dived straight into work on my ‘AI power user platform’ luminalog.com. It still needs a lot of improvements, I have a lot of challenges to overcome to make it good, but over the last month or so I have come to the conclusion that I need to have this clear focus on building an AI app that gives us superpowers. This take the form of an AI second brain, like an obsidian (a note taking tool) with AI. The form of it can evolve and change over time, but this goal is the north star, we have all the pieces to make it happen, I need it myself to overcome my own challenges on my journey to self actualization. As the education system is becoming obsolete, in the same way as the horse became obsolete after the invention of the car, we need this application, an AI power user platform, to take the place of the educational institutions. The intersection of VR (for vasocomputational unblocking of traumas), with AI (the personal mentor and second brain) and Ethereum (the facilitation of certificates, rewards and qualifications) is the place where we can create the future. We don’t have a choice, do we want to or not to create the future, we are on a moving train, technology is a process that is constantly changing, we are called to use your faculty of ingenuity as we have since the origin of our species, to create the tools that in turn create us.

Conclusion

This week has been about keeping the home base alive and well, taking care of the spirit connection, taking off to a new continent and dialing to focused work on the big picture goal.

Peace,
- Konrad✌️