Unravelling a Strange Loop

Unravelling a strange loop


Our story begins, as all good stories do; at the beginning - but that is where it ends.
Allow me to guide you back in time, to where the story of this strange loop begins.
The date is Dec 12, 2012 - A lone spaceman takes 'one clumsy step' into the future, and in doing so changes our lives forever.
This man is Rony Abovitz.
Rony has been described by many people in many different ways. He's been called strange and eccentric, or brilliant, if you want to paint him in a positive light. But why are some of the most powerful companies, and people, in the world, willing to invest billions of dollars (and counting) to this man? That my friends, is how our story begins.
Rony was raised by Jewish parents who moved to the U.S.A. from Israel in the 1960's. He was always a creative child, and his parents encouraged this behaviour.
Rony attended the University of Miami, a school that now has close ties to Magic Leap, the second company Rony has founded. The first was Mako Surgical, where Rony designed 'Star Wars-like' robots to perform surgery. This was Rony's dream. But he had another dream - one that would change the way we see the foundations of the universe itself.
Back to the spaceman - This 'landing' took place at TedX Sarasota in 2012, and wasn't really a talk at all. Instead, Rony seems to have decided to hide his entire pitch in this short clip, with the promise of a yo-yo to whomever solved it. I'm writing this today to tell you that after 8 long years, I've finally found the answer - 42.
Allow me to explain how I reached this point:
Rony hid A LOT of stuff in the original TedX talk. Here is just a short list:
The Shaggles - Weird monkey-like creatures holding signs that say 'Fudge'
A giant bar of 'Thwaxo's Strangely Demented Space Fudge'
Note: 'Thwaxos' is greek for 'The Foe'
A man painting in the far left corner
John Lennon
Robots!
Some binary code that translates to: Douglas Engelbart (inventor of the computer MOUSE)
The book 'I am a strange loop' by Douglas Hoffstadter
Moores Law
THE SINGULARITY
Relativity
The Uncanny Valley

Now one important thing to note is that Rony has already admitted that his old project 'the hour blue' was mostly a red herring. You'll find that this is very important.
First things first - Lets talk about 42. Why is it the answer?
It's mind-numbingly simple really - Its featured in Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy as the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. The book was written by Douglas Adams.
What you'll note though, is that Adams did not pick this number randomly -he borrowed it from another source - and Easter Egg of his own. The number originally came from mathmetician Charles Dodgson - also known as Lewis Carrol - author of Alice in Wonderland.
Now we can truly begin our journey down the rabbit hole.
Lets loop back to the beginning, shall we?
Remember when we talked about the Shaggles and the Fudge? Another red haring from Rony. Fudge - phudge - phydge - phydre - phidre - phi (greek)
Phi is actually the fibonacci secquece - 1.618 is the value of Phi. if we look at the fibonacci sequence, we can already tell it forms a series of Strange Loops. Good - on to the next part.
Next, lets talk about Rony's fascination with 1971.
Rony seems fascinated with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (The 1971 Version) - it is important to note that Rony was born in '71.
Willy Wonka - was the story of Charlie Bucket, a poor boy who found the 'golden ticket' and ended up winning a chocolate factory. He ends up being 'the one'.
Another instance of 'the one' that we can find that Rony clearly is passionate about, is in the Matrix. Neo is the one, but only in the 5th version of the matrix. You see, the matrix loops - it is not just a story of the future, but also a retelling of the past.
When I say this, I mean that the Matrix is a telling of our creation story, and of our downfall. It is a strange loop.
Back to the Matrix - Neo flies on a ship called the Nebachenezzer - which leads me around the loop to another point -
Rony once tweeted 'and while you wait, read william blake - this was unsolvable for a long time - except for the painting of Nebachenezzar that Blake did. First of all, it look shockingly like a Shaggle - but it leads to something else - blake wrote a book called The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, which the image appears in.
Lets jump back to the number 42 - why is it so important? Rony himself says it is always the answer… but why?
Take a look at the 42nd element on the periodic table - its called Molybdenum - when I checked out its potential in computing i was shocked to see that it was breaking records set by silicon chips.
In theory, if Magic Leap is using some kind of new chip, they could revolutionize computing.
But that's not all - 42 is also the sum of 3 cubes. this is a very old and complex math problem that was only recently solved. if we know the answer, we should know the question, shouldn't we?
That's where things get complicated. You see, Adams only tells us the question is - what is 6x7. This is too simplistic for our purposes here, so there must be another question.
This takes us back to the origins of 42, with Lewis Carrol, the mathematician who wrote Alice in Wonderland. Carroll used 42 in everything he wrote, and as a mathematician he clearly knew the number was important.
To understand all these riddles, you will need the key; so here it is:
H - Hofstadter
E - Engelbart
A - Adams
D - Douglas
-Head(set)
Note the 3 Doug's from earlier. Their initials spell out: HEAD. When I mentioned this on twitter, Rony shared a song with me (he's very fond of his music) - called the purpoise song. Now, this is another red herring. What we are really meant to look at here is another HitchHikers Guide reference to the dolphins (the 2nd most intelligent life form on earth), who sing 'so long and thanks for all the fish' as they leave the planet. I looked this song up, and its by a band called The Perfect Circle, and was released on April 20 (4/20–4/2–42). It begins with the lines - time is money and money's time - which is how i got my estimate of the price of ML2.
The time on the video is 5:20. Rony promised in 2014 that ML would cost 'the same as a premium smartphone' - the iPhone 6Plus cost $500USD that year.
Now that I've given you my price prediction, I'll give you a launch date too: the 42nd day of the year - Feb 11. They will reveal ML2 at the Startup Grind Global Conference, which is the biggest event for startups in the world. Feb 11 is also Promise day, a word which appears hidden in the ML website source code numerous times.
Rony isn't crazy enough to call his company Magic Leap and not do something for LeapDay, so we can expect LeapCon to be the 29th of February 2020.
Lets loop back to the beginning again, shall we? When Rony last gave a speech at UofM, it was about the singularity… the origins of the universe - where else have we heard that?
Well, it's all around us - the whole loop. This is the end, and the beginning. Here is my final anaylsis (with many steps taken out so you don't get driven mad like Nebuchanezzer):
Rony wants to find the singularity. He is creating his own universe (The MagicVerse) and a chain of devices that will act as his own version of 'Deep Thought' - the computer from Hitchhikers guide that calculates The Answer. He is looking, like Wonka, Morpheus and Tesla, for a successor, who will carry on what he has begun. 42 is the ultimate answer, and the question is 'why?' and 'how?'. Rony is trying to answer the question of the origin of the universe using spatial computing.
How do I know this? The answer is 42.
42 is the sum of 3 cubes.
42 is 101010 in binary.
Look at that number again - 101010.
Now look at the date of the TedX talk - 121212.
The answer is right in front of you, hidden in plain sight.
To make his plan work, Rony needs to develop something revolutionary - and I'm not talking about optics. I'm talking about Ternary computing. Using the computer chips I mentioned earlier, Rony plans to develop Ternary computing, which will allow for him to perform calculations using ML that would otherwise be impossible - just like deep thought.
Another hidden reference to this number is the Wonkavator - it doesn't work 2 dimensionally, going just up and down - it can go any way you want - to any room. When I get a ride I'm pressing 29B ;)
Anyways, this is the short version of my solution to the puzzle Rony has laid out. I could fill an encyclopedia with all the hints I've found, but everything points back to the origins of the universe - and the end. I guess after all, everything is just a strange loop.
Oh, and to answer your question: why a yo-yo?
Yo-yo is a Filipino word with 2 meanings - to come from and to return. - Another reference to the singularity.
I guess they universe has a sense of i-Rony after all.
Sean, with help from the future citizens of the Magicverse - the next cycle in our strange loop.

P.S. > If I missed a detail, or you have questions, please, ask! I would love to unravel this even more for you :)