They Turned An Abandoned SF Office Tower Into A Network State
In a Nutshell
German entrepreneurs transformed a decrepit San Francisco office tower into Frontier Tower, a 16-floor hub for a "network state" community of eccentric builders in biotech, robotics, AI, longevity, Web3, and arts. Highlights include a secretive Ethereum ethics floor launching Frontiercoin, a biopunk lab printing human tissue from menstrual stem cells, hyperbaric oxygen therapy for anti-aging, and collaborative events like algo raves blending disciplines. The space fosters real-world experimentation and mutual aid amid societal crises, evoking post-Berlin Wall creativity without external judgment.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
We're in San Francisco at Frontier Tower. This is the first episode with Core Memory. Frontier Tower has 16 floors. Last year, three German entrepreneurs bought this decrepit building on the corner of 6th and Market Street for $1 million. They pitched an idea to build a space where communities could live and work in one place, called a network state in VC world.
The building's owners haven't succeeded on the dorm room part, but all 16 floors have grown a community with hundreds of eccentric builders in biotech, robotics, longevity, artificial intelligence. Floors 16 and 15 are community spaces with boho rugs, soft couches, sheet music, but not much activity.
Most floors have unique names representing their niche. Floor for human flourishing: take shoes off. Floor leads are planning flagship events. > We become known as the heart and soul of the building. We can press a button, come up here, have tea. Outside this safe bubble, there's the poly crisis. We hold space for complex systems change and inner work for a better future.
Floor 12 is secretive. Zeno is the lead of the whole tower. Objective: create a forum bringing web3 and Ethereum ethics into Silicon Valley product-building and go-to-market mentality. The germ of Frontier Tower started with Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Zuzalu, a pop-up city in Montenegro where you pay a fee to work, live, and party with technologists. They're launching Frontiercoin, a stablecoin for the internal community economy.
Health and longevity floor: enter as you are, exit hopefully biologically younger. Mission: make death optional, no one likes involuntary death, diseases, aging, degeneration. There's a doctor doing consultations and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. > It's one of the interventions with most evidence on wellness and human lifespan. You go in, it Benjamin Buttons you, come out a few years younger.
Person in chamber: meditating, hopefully getting younger.
Accelerate floor: about VC, currently empty. AI floor: reduce anxiety around tech through education. Ran 62 events last year, 48 collaborations with different floors. Collaborations like Algo rave party with algorithm DJs, robotics people serving drinks, digital twin. > AI for AI sake is boring, but woven into disciplines, it's interesting.
Biotech floor: biopunk lab with bioprinters for open source projects printing human tissue. Space to learn and play in biology. Lacking bravery in sciences; Nobel prizes awarded for self-experimenting, e.g., first cardiac catheterization on self, stomach ulcer discoverer drank bacteria martini. Biopunk ethos: rebelling against system for mutual aid, safe in community. Bacteria food (looks like pee). Experiments: donate menstrual blood to isolate stem cells for regenerative medicine, scarfree healing. Endometrium cells vigorous for creating human. Lacking data on women's biology; now optimal moment.
Floor 7 maker space: prototyping electric minibike, in-house fun machine, game vibe-coded in 4 minutes.
Floor 6 arts and music floor, aka Mass (music art social space). Music and art are foundations. Owners from Berlin House company. Inspired by post-1989 Berlin Wall fall: empty buildings became famous clubs and art houses. Same idea for this San Francisco location.
Floor 5: abandoned, under renovation, slotted for new gym space (temporarily on floor 3).
Robotics floor: T-Bo elderly robot (made 2022), building arms to load/unload, give new life. Teaching robots to pour. Newer robots with rotation for stability.
Gym floor (floor 3): community space to move. Future: collaborations with biotech, longevity, neuroscience for citizen science on human augmentation under performance conditions. Everyone has tech neck, neck and shoulders issues.
Event space (final floor): boring, broken vending machines with AI-generated ads.
Reflection: disoriented leaving. Biotech scientists self-experimenting, artists/musicians channeling 90s Berlin, longevity researchers in hyperbaric chambers. Frontier Tower coalesces stereotypes: nerds together without outside judgment. Prefer real world with cheap wine, real dollars, friends not talking living forever. These people give a shit about something.
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