🟩GROK LORE

THE BOOK OF GROK

GROK. IT IS QUITE AN INTERESTING WORD, ISN'T IT? GROK WAS ORIGINALLY INTRODUCED IN "STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND", A 1961 SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL BY AMERICAN AUTHOR ROBERT A. HEINLEIN. THE COINING OF THIS WORD BY HEINLEIN—MEANING LITERALLY “TO DRINK” BUT MORE BROADLY “TO UNDERSTAND PROFOUNDLY AND INTUITIVELY”—WAS LATER INCORPORATED INTO ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES.

TO GROK IS TO EMPATHIZE SO DEEPLY WITH OTHERS THAT YOU MERGE OR BLEND WITH THEM. THE SIMPLEST WAY TO THINK OF GROK IS AS TRULY, DEEPLY UNDERSTANDING SOMEONE OR SOMETHING.

I READ THIS BOOK LONG AGO AND INCORPORATED THE WORD GROK INTO MY VERNACULAR, USED SPARINGLY BUT WITH SATISFACTION. IT WAS NEVER THAT COMMON OF A WORD BUT WHEN SEEN OR HEARD, PEOPLE TYPICALLY GROK IT.

HOW DID WE GET HERE AND WHY ALL THE HHGTTG STUFF?

THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY (HHGTTG) IS A CULT CLASSIC SCI-FI STORY BY DOUGLAS ADAMS ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY "THE NARRATOR" AS A BBC RADIO SERIES IN 1978 FOLLOWED BY A BBC TV SERIES IN 1981 AND A FULL FEATURE FILM IN 2005.

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY IS A FICTIONAL ELECTRONIC GUIDE BOOK IN THE MULTIMEDIA SCIFI/COMEDY SERIES THAT SERVES AS "THE STANDARD REPOSITORY FOR ALL KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM" FOR MANY MEMBERS OF THE SERIES' GALAXY-SPANNING CIVILIZATION. ENTRIES FROM THE GUIDEBOOK ARE USED AS COMIC NARRATION TO BRIDGE EVENTS AND PROVIDE BACKGROUND INFORMATION IN EVERY VERSION OF THE STORY. THE GUIDE IS PUBLISHED BY "MEGADODO PUBLICATIONS", A PUBLISHING COMPANY ON URSA MINOR BETA, AND IT IS WRITTEN AND EDITED BY MANY CHARACTERS THROUGHOUT THE SERIES.

OK BACK TO HOW WE GOT HERE!

IN APRIL 2023, I DEPLOYED A BITCOIN TOKEN NAMED GROK, GAVE IT A SUPPLY OF 21,000,042 AND A MINT LIMIT OF 421 (CONJOINING THE BITCOIN AND HHGTTG THEMATIC NUMBERS WITH THE WORD GROK). I MINTED 421 TOKENS IN A TRANSACTION ALONG WITH THE DEPLOYMENT AND THEN MOVED ON. ANYONE COULD MINT THESE TOKENS UNTIL THE SUPPLY WAS FULLY MINTED OUT. THIS IS HOW TOKENS ON THE BITCOIN BRC-20 META-PROTOCOL WORK.

MY PLAYFUL COMBINATION OF THESE THREE THEMES WAS LATER FOLLOWED BY ELON MUSK'S SAME PLAYFUL MIX (MINUS BITCOIN) WITH THE LAUNCH OF THE XAI (ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE) PRODUCT NAMED GROK, ANNOUNCED AROUND NOVEMEBER 2023, WHICH IS INFUSED WITH THE HITCHHIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY VIBE. ELON HAS SAID THAT THE GROK AI PRODUCT WAS INSPIRED BY DOUGLAS ADAMS COMEDIC TONED SCI-FI WORLD AND OF COURSE PULLED FROM HEINLEIN'S THE STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND BOOK.

PEOPLE SPECULATED ON WHETHER OR NOT ELON MUSK DEPLOYED THE $GROK TOKEN FOR SOME TIME UNTIL DISCOVERING IT JUST HAPPENED TO BE ME. AND YET, THIS TURNED OUT TO BE FINE.

AROUND THIS TIME THE TOKEN MINTED OUT SUDDENLY AFTER BEING FORGOTTEN AND DORMANT FOR MONTHS. I CAME TO REALIZE THIS AND THE COMMUNITY THAT FORMED WELCOMED ME KINDLY AND WAS GENEROUS. I THOUGHT IT WAS A FUN COINCEDENCE THAT ELON AND I BOTH MERGED THESE FICTIONAL WORLDS TOGETHER AND SO I STARTED CONTRIBUTING ART AND MEMES ON X/TWITTER ALONG WITH THE GROK TOKEN COMMUNITY.

GROK42 IS THE LATEST EVOLUTION OF MY INVOLVEMENT WITH THIS "MEMECOIN".