M.H Forrest is the author of The Meaning of Life, a book 368 pages long examining one of the most perplexing questions in human history.
The 5-star book published on Amazon is the culmination of more than 15 years of diving into the mystery of life and challenging the conventional wisdom that is wrapped around it.
Forrest has an uncommon fascination with blockchain technology, and he believes in the potential of NFT to onboard book lovers across the world to web3.
He recently sat down with Olayimika Oyebanji to discuss his new book, his foray into NFT, and why he is doubling down on leveraging blockchain technology.
1. Thank you, Mr. Forrest, for finding the time to do this interview. I would like to know what being an accomplished author means to you. And what are the other things you are passionate about?
It’s a pleasure. Thanks for taking the time to give the interview. You have asked about what it is like to be an accomplished author. Firstly, I would say being an author is probably only really one percent of my activities.
It’s probably taken twenty years to actually put the book together as it is quite a complicated book, as you can imagine from the subject matter. But it’s actually not my main activity because really I am an entrepreneur.
Regarding what I am passionate about, I suppose number one on the list is being such an entrepreneur.
I am an executive music producer and record label owner, and I produce in multiple genres from mainstream to rap to grime to house music and dance music as well as reggaeton in multiple languages.
So, going to studios and spending a lot of time in the studios in my capacity as an executive music producer (and occasionally singer/songwriter) is also one of my key passions.
I am also passionate about changing situations where people say, “That is the way it is and it always has been”.
I think there is a lot of added value I am going to bring into mental health and into equality among human beings in terms of financial distribution of resources and use of resources.
There are of course personal rewards to be had for the meritocracy, but the world is a mess right now in terms of equality.
This has been a long-term plan to a certain degree; trying to reduce or limit servitude so that people can actually move forward with their passions in life rather than just working in McDonald’s or working as an office worker or whatever it might be.
I have been building an infrastructure and web portal (likely to be blockchain compatible in the longer term) to facilitate that.
It is important to take steps now anyway because as the next generation of AI comes on stream even many lawyers, medical practitioners, drivers, etc. are going to lose their jobs.
So it becomes more and more important to focus on that for the future as well as reduce soul-destroying servitude also.
2. The Meaning of Life has a treasure trove of reviews on Amazon and a 5-star rating. What is the inspiration behind writing about one of the most frequently asked questions in history?
That’s a great question. The biggest inspiration was probably for that exact reason; it is the deepest question that mankind can explore, but it is also about the potential unification of spirituality and science.
Atheists tend to say that being religious is lazy because they don’t follow the evidence. Whereas, in fact, it is hypocritical because science itself is only a pattern recognition system and never fully addresses the reasons why and about base reality.
So, the book is multi-disciplined and it looks at every possible potential discipline that can help in the decoding of the meaning of life.
3. One of the reviewers recommended your book to people whose religion is science. Does this sound like flattery to you? Or does the reader need to bring a scientific mind when reading your book?
The person who gave that review has got two degrees. He’s got a degree in Chemistry and one in Law from the esteemed Chicago University. So, he is already highly academic and scientifically minded.
What he meant by the phrase he used was that people who are scientific are quite often not religious in terms of mainstream religion. But the point he was making is that science itself is a religion and these people pray to that religion.
In other words, he is saying that those who make science their religion should actually not be so prejudiced and should do as they tend to as per the scientific method and follow the evidence.
4. For whom do you write?
I guess in some sense the book was written for myself primarily because by putting it together in a coherent fashion I was able to put the jigsaw puzzle of the meaning of life together. But it was also to disseminate such information to the masses.
There are untold benefits locked in this knowledge. Now there is an issue in getting the book to the masses as you probably appreciate because it is deeply philosophical in some parts and fairly scientific in some parts also.
It is for people who are interested in this subject matter and the level of comprehension required is perhaps akin to books like “A Brief History of Time” or “The Selfish Gene”. I have written a series of books about the meaning of life and have so far launched the first.
However, there is also work underway for an equivalent version called “The Simple Truth” which is effectively a plain English edition of the same book, for those who are less scientifically minded.
But obviously, the scientific version was necessary because otherwise, the skeptics who would read the less scientific version would inevitably call into question the validity of the information.
I have also written a movie trilogy based on the same concept. Although it is fiction rather than non-fiction, it plays with many of the key elements that are in the books. I have worked with high-profile movie directors and movie editors to get the script into shape.
Although the work is complete, the time is not yet right for production. So what I am saying is that information within the meaning of life book(s) is in the process of being put ‘out there’ at different levels and using different formats and media to propagate knowledge transfer.
5. What is the meaning of life?
Well, as you know, I have written a very comprehensive book with a lot of information. It is not something you can answer in an interview question. In fact, part of the end of the book in the final chapter says that if you just read the conclusion and read the final chapter you will perhaps be none the wiser because the whole point is to do with seeing all the information and evidence as a whole.
6. Let’s talk about your exploration of blockchain which is new terrain for most people. What piques your interest in it?
My interests are numerous. One of them is based on the fact I have some intellectual property (a patent application) about the utilization of blockchain technology within the field of intellectual property itself and its protection thereof.
Other interests include NFT because as an entrepreneur, I have artwork, photography, music, videos, podcast recordings, audio books, etc. and all of these digital assets lend themselves potentially to NFT; such that people can buy the real-life physical (or digital) versions of these having encountered the NFT. But also there is additional monetization within the NFT community itself.
7. Creating an audio book NFT collection is a laudable effort to open a new frontier for NFT within the conventional setting. Why are you excited about this project?
The reason that NFT is exciting for me is because, as mentioned, I already have a catalog of intellectual property. Therefore, it is a good means of both promoting the IP and capitalizing on selling it through the NFT method.
And I am genuinely convinced that audio book NFT has come to stay.
8. Do you consider NFT to be a boom or a bubble?
I consider that NFT is an unusual animal because everything in our reality is essentially fiat if you drill down to the quantum level. But obviously, we are used to dealing with ‘physical’ entities such as buying a diamond.
Whereas, with NFT, it is merely just a digital representation and it is because of the predisposition of human beings to enjoy scarcity that these ‘assets’ are given value. Really it is just a binary representation that does not have a spacetime physical representation.
But quite often, they obviously are a representation of the physical in that they interact with our senses, such as sight. So, it is in some respect, a strange new world because it is a little bit akin to when people are gamers and they buy clothing or diamonds within that environment.
It kind of doesn’t have what we would consider a true reality but there is a reality by the very fact that the phenomenon exists.
I don’t really have a problem with NFT. It’s just an additional means for people to transact and have a return on experience. But I guess when you have a kid taking a selfie and it is suddenly deemed to be worth a million dollars, then it’s a little bit crazy.
It is in a way akin to art pieces that might be worth a hundred million dollars even though it’s no better than work done by someone who can only command $50.
At least there is some kind of physical nature to art though and I find it a little bit strange sometimes that so much value can be given to something that is more fiat than fiat money.
9. Are you planning to build a crypto community for your readers in the future?
Obviously, I have a number of people including you the interviewer who are experts in this field.
And people in Thailand and other places that are familiar with the crypto community situations and so it seems a logical way to move because there are certain advantages of crypto and blockchain.
I have never been a particular fan of the fact that people buy crypto with, say $10, with an expectation of having $1000 in the future and therefore it is greed that drives it.
It is not like a normal money transaction system where currency has obvious usefulness (notwithstanding the corruption in both its supply and acquisition). Crypto has very often been used as a means of investment, even though there is no real value.
Now, obviously, you can actually link crypto to humanitarian causes and that is to be applauded, but primarily it has been a bubble driven by greed.