The Alkemist in the City of Dawn: The Future City Archetype is the Conscious DAO City
Blockchain is a spiritual technology with the power to awaken human consciousness and bring unity to our civilization.
origin. n. a point or place at which something is invented or provided
Origin stories are rarely a string of linear events. Due to the iterative and infinite nature of the human mind, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where an origin story begins, and furthermore, where it ends. More often, they’re a haphazard mix of fortuitous circumstances that culminate in an unforeseen deliverance, only to be recognized as a step-by-step process when viewed from a rear-view mirror.
From my earliest days, I have viewed the world through the lens of an engineer — creative and insatiably curious, but intrinsically bound by logic and relegated to the realm of reason. In some ways, my own origin story as the Alkemist began in 2012, when I unwittingly stumbled into the intersection of engineering and spirituality, a place that would come to leave an indelible mark on my understanding of spiritual technology, blockchain, and the boundless potential of DAOs.
Envision a place that belongs to nobody in particular–a mystical center belonging to humanity as a whole. This is a place unbound by the politics of nations, where all humans of goodwill can live freely under one single authority — an authority of supreme truth, inclusivity, concord, and harmony. It is a transcendent city of unending education and constant progress — one where the curiosity of youth never ages. It is a place that bridges the space between the past and the future, seizing discoveries both from within and from without — an environment created to spring humanity forth in the intrepid pursuit of human unity. This place exists, and it is called Auroville.
My encounter with the City of Dawn came at a great crossroads in my life. At this time, I spent nearly a decade believing that capitalism held the answer to all of my questions. I believed it was the key to my success and the means by which I would rise above the difficult realities of being an immigrant in America. I hustled my way to the top, pouring my heart and soul into every venture. It was 2008.
In one afternoon, the 10-year spell had broken, and I lost everything. In the haze of this great disillusionment, one thing was clear — capitalism was a broken system, and I was broken down and burned out. I was filled with the desire to reconnect with my roots, desperate for the answers. When my sister suggested a visit to one of the “most spiritual places in the world,” I could never have known how impactful the experience of Auroville would be for me. Quietly, India had begun calling me, asking me to return home to my roots.
The original concept for Auroville emerged in the late 1930’s as one woman’s dream–a woman who would come to be known as The Mother. Inspired by the vision and teachings of Sri Aurobindo, the father of Integral Yoga and one of the first revolutionaries in India, The Mother officially founded the township in 1968. Auroville was to be a universal town where people of all backgrounds could live as one, with the sole purpose of realizing human unity. The dream around Auroville is one of supreme truth, peace, and harmony–that there should be a place on this earth where humans can live freely as citizens of the world.
Living in Auroville in 2012, I was completely unaware of the connection between this spiritual city and my future experience with cryptocurrency. I did not yet understand the mechanics needed to create a conscious DAO city.
Blockchain is — at its core — a spiritual technology. Decentralized, inclusive, and operating at the optimal speed and growth rate. Prior to the existence of blockchain, we had yet to possess a tech stack fundamentally built around principles of inclusion, transparency, and trust. Since blockchain is a peer-to-peer network and decentralized system, no single person controls the transactions, and the power is distributed among everyone. All participants within a network based in blockchain have the right to make decisions, with trust built into and verified by a transparent and autonomous governing system.
These are the very same principles built into the foundation of Auroville. The City of the Dawn is the intersection of decentralized community, gift-economy, and inclusive governance structure. It is the manifestation of the future city archetype for this planet–the DAO city; a future we are now capable of entering. Auroville effortlessly and divinely aligns with the ways in which Web3 centralizes community–an essential aspect of the function of DAOs.
Imagine the city as we know it, fundamentally reflecting blockchain’s spiritual principles of inclusion, transparency, and trust, but now encrypted with the software update of the DAO.
Auroville (Consciousness & Governance) + Blockchain (DAO) = City of Dawn DAO.
Auroville has all the components of a DAO, minus the blockchain. As a DAO, it has the potential to be the world’s first conscious DAO city on the planet.
Auroville transcends the broken systems and antiquated structures of this world; all it lacks is a governing mechanism that can stand behind its principles, supporting and amplifying the city’s intentions. Blockchain is that mechanism–unity playing out on a software and governance level. These parallel principles reflect a harmony of intentions and a synergy of potential. By combining blockchain software with Auroville hardware, you create the prototype model of the conscious DAO city.
For the first time, we fully possess a tech stack that has the power to bring to fruition a concept born three-quarters of a century ago, finally realizing a vision for a city governed by truth, inclusion, transparency, and trust, and catapulting it into a yet unknown future of unity, autonomy, and consciousness. Auroville is only the origin story–we have so much left to learn and do.
Love & Light,
Alkemist
