i met j.r. a while ago at the conference i went to at the plaza. he's young, too, also from austin (somewhat), and building a community around him here in new york city.

tonight, we went to the dutch (prince and sullivan st) for drinks (and my side of fries.)

we talked about the metaverse, digital real estate, online currencies as they relate to purchases in an online world (as opposed to real life, the possible coming polarization of people who want to be *someone* either on the internet or in the flesh, clubs, secret societies, literaries in cafes, recreating an intellectual circle in some pub in the modern day, among other things.

it was my first time 'meeting someone for drinks' since i've only recently turned 21. i ordered the same drink as him since i know nothing about alcohol, and the beer wasn't great (what was it? god knows.) but the fries were fantastic.

j.r. really has this ideal community in his head, and i do as well, but it's much easier said than done to create that. we'd like to give it a shot.

among interesting things he said:

described his friend group as an archipelago (a beautiful image to say it is scattered)

termed the thing that brings an intellectual group together a "lodestar"

quoted george c. marshall (of the marshall plan)

quoted something about how beginning and starting are two different things

after i left, i walked back home and thought more about how one might create a society of sorts.

what to call it?

maybe: the paper society.

the lodestar is: debates and drafts of ideas for the world's problems. get a bunch of people together with many sheets of paper and see what everyone comes up with.

or, just gather a group of artists, give them all supplies for a night (and booze), and then raffle off the contents of what they created, which can pay for the booze and the cost to rent a space for a night a month here in new york city.

create very cool invites and send them digitally, and make it a membership of sorts, where one is "part of the paper society", or a member, or a fellow, or a pen, or a something-paper-themed.