This made me think of an IKEA from a possible near future (or an entangled quantum adjacency) in which IKEA provides modules that can be fit together to ‘create value’ (whatever that may mean in this future/adjacency). IKEA like LangChain? Depending on the arrangement of furniture agentic opportunities arise? cf. The IKEA Conversation Pit Maybe this is not the naive sense of 'furniture' but perhaps also 'furniture' (the things?) that shape our understanding of being. 'Furuniture' as the underlying, unseen supports/structures that underpin/undergird our everyday experience. Has this come to be a thing because of Metaverse? Augmented Reality? This IKEA wouldn't just sell furniture; it would sell immersive experiences and boundary-blurring tools that allow people to redefine, customize, and even escape their everyday realities.
Experiential Modules: Instead of selling couches and tables, Onto-IKEA would offer "Experience Modules" — tools or apps that install immersive environments into physical spaces or digital realms, allowing users to shift between "modes" of reality.
Reality Assembly Kits: These kits might include augmented or virtual elements (like AR glasses or VR spaces), tactile components, lighting, and sound that bring a curated reality into one's own home. Each kit comes with a "reality map" for self-assembly, inviting users to engage in a "build your reality" experience, both physically and digitally. Imagine an "Isolation Pod" or "Infinite Library" kit that lets you assemble your ideal environment at home with a simple set of digital-physical tools. If you take (and add enough coffee like I've just had) what IKEA does today in the context of domestic furnishings and imagine *that as creating modules for value creation.
Sensory Augmentation Devices: This line would include products like customizable scents, sounds, light filters, and even wearable tech that modulates perception, enabling users to "dial up or down" elements of their environment. Think of a lamp that adjusts lighting based on your mood or a chair that can change the way it feels under different "sensory presets."
Reality Curation Subscription: Subscribers would receive a quarterly rotation of curated digital overlays and environmental artifacts that bring different perspectives on reality. These would be tailored to personal tastes or needs, with categories like "The Surrealist Room," "Back to Nature," or "The Hypermodernist."
Digital and Physical Reality Support: IKEA Ontos would offer a "Reality Support Desk" to help users integrate their modules, kits, and devices seamlessly into their environments. This service would provide insights on "optimal reality framing" based on psychological research, offering setups to enhance focus, relaxation, creativity, or social interaction in both physical and digital spaces.
Co-Reality Labs: On-site at IKEA Ontos stores, these "Co-Reality Labs" would be places where customers can explore multiple versions of reality together. Using AR glasses, VR pods, and multi-sensory rooms, groups could test out different layers of reality and experience curated "parallel" spaces that shift based on collective interaction.
Onto-IKEA would be designed for a world increasingly living in digital and physical hybrids, positioning itself as the "meta-home store" for all kinds of reality. It could partner with metaverse platforms and AR/VR hardware providers, offering exclusive Onto-IKEA environments for both digital and augmented exploration. From crafting virtual worlds at home to altering perception in real-world settings, IKEA Ontos would be a one-stop shop for existential customization

Maybe like Steelcase only it's not just material artifacts but also semantics — units of atomic meaning that can be fitted together in uniquely creative ways, pretty much what organizations do today to create value, perhaps in unique-ish ways. You might have aspects of brand characteristics, you'd have the inputs and outputs that different divisions of a company provide. Or perhaps a better visual analog is like a process flow diagram, but assembled not as a flat plan but as an isometric view with vivid 2.5D little blocks of 'furniture' representing the various process modules ('evaluate brand sentiment based on reacts on social media module 0x48e9 from timestamp index 29406.10829 and produce a weighted scale from 0-9 as output') I like imagining that IKEA either never did or becomes some kind of Swedish AI Furniture company in those ways that companies that did one thing for generations gradually pivot to something else such that the kids in that generation are, like..."Whoa...IKEA used to make bunk beds?? That's crazy!" _ as they take the IKEA onboarding course and walk through a historical exhibit that is basically the IKEA showroom we know today. (Nokia has/had a display in the lobby of the Helsinki HQ that showed how they used to make rope and rubber boots, sort of thing..)