My friend Ien is one of the most soulful people I know. He’s also one of the most talented and experienced media executives in the world.

He co-built Jubilee Media, a YouTube channel launched in 2017 that brought people from opposing sides together for real, empathetic conversations about the most contentious issues of our times. It went mega-viral.

Hundreds of millions of people watched those videos.

And it nearly destroyed him.

“The whole land of media is tilted toward attention extraction,” Ien told me last week. “The organization wasn’t quite able to keep integrity with the original mission. It was heartbreaking.”

By 2020, Ien had burned out so hard that the experience became what he calls his “south star.” A permanent reminder of the road not to take. It was a deeply painful experience he says he would never wish upon anyone else, but turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

When anything starts to feel like that heaviness again, he knows. That’s not it.

So Ien left. He spent years traveling, talking to people, searching for a different way to tell stories. One that didn’t require sacrificing his soul to the algorithm.

He got clear on what he actually wanted to make. Not “content.” Not viral videos. Soulful, artful films that will stand the test of time and nurture true, lasting impact on the spiritual formation of those watching. Stories about people going through real transformation. Stories designed not to make a quick flash, but to create deep lasting resonance and spark inner evolution.

But to pull that off as a solo creative operator, he’d need to be freed from the enormous amount of soulless work.

That’s where applied AI comes in.

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His Latest Project: A Film About Grief

Recently, Ien produced a film called A Sacred Pause. It follows six people who’ve experienced the worst kind of loss.

A father whose three children were murdered.

A mother whose 14-year-old son died.

A woman whose twin brother was killed.

They come together at the Selah Carefarm near Sedona, an 18-acre therapeutic sanctuary founded by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore in 2016. She lost her own infant child decades ago and spent the rest of her career building the first U.S. carefarm for traumatic grief. Nature-based, animal-assisted therapy alongside counseling. A place for people to process what most of the world tells them to move on from.

It’s a 30-minute short film having its world premiere in Sedona next month.

When I watched the trailer with Ien, I had to take a breath.

This is not content. This is not engagement bait. This is profound art that cares more about reaching the right 50 people than 5 million.

Ien calls it “deepcasting.” Not broadcasting. Deepcasting.

“I’d rather get five hundred views and all five hundred people connect deeply with it,” he told me, “rather than a million views where no one is actually stirred by what they’ve watched.

“At Jubilee, videos would literally get millions of views but barely any people would convert if we had a call to action. I’m talking like less than .1% conversion rates. But with this film, the trailer got only 4,300 views and raised over $50,000 with that.”

Ien’s philosophy of deepcasting is not just a feel-good mentality; it’s a far more effective way of doing business in a world saturated with surface-level noise.

This kind of deepcasting work requires everything you have. Your attention. Your taste. Your spirit.

And that’s why it’s so powerful. It resonates at a level no doomscrolling “content” can.

You can’t automate the soul of a film about grief.

The Operational Trap

But it isn’t just soulful, soul-requiring work that goes into a film. There’s a category of work that drains artists like Ien, and keeps them from just filling their day with truly artistic work.

Ien runs what is essentially a one-man studio. Release forms, contracts, W-9s, expense tracking. All manual. All Google Sheets and one-by-one emails. Across multiple simultaneous productions.

It’s not only every film production that requires these tasks. Distributing the films after they’re completed is a daunting journey in itself.

Finding the right people to share his work with. Not everyone. The right people. The museum curators and cultural institutions, the universities with relevant programs, the nonprofit leaders, the grief counselors, the people who would actually be moved by this film and would screen it for their communities.

“I want to find the most deeply value-aligned people and institutions to share this film with and add meaningful value to their community,” Ien explained. “Not blast 10,000 people or just throw the film online. I want the surgical approach that builds relationships, sparks deep reflection, and builds in the real world instead of just on screens.”

Doing that surgically requires research. Context. Memory. Knowing that the last time you spoke with this nonprofit director was two years ago, and what you talked about, and that their daughter just graduated.

It requires an operating system that takes care of anything that’s not the high-touch relationship-building and human to human connection.

And building a system like this from scratch, by hand, while also making timeless art?

That’s where over-extension starts to bleed in. Not from the creative work. From the operational weight crushing the creative work.

Imagine if some of the most talented, soulful artists in the world had to spend half their time doing administrative tasks and busywork. That’s what’s happening today.

And this is the problem applied AI was born to solve.

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“My Dream Is Basically Making Studio Ghibli”

Studio Ghibli. The legendary Japanese animation studio behind Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke.

Ien broke it down.

“The core team is Miyazaki, who is the legendary animator, paired with Toshio Suzuki. Toshio is the genius businessman. He’s the guy that basically protects the soul and allows Miyazaki to focus solely on the work.”

Then Ien looked at me and said:

“My dream is to have a Toshio so I can purely focus on the soulful creative work.”

And I realized: AI, properly applied, could be his Toshio.

Not replacing the soul. Not outsourcing his creativity. Protecting it. Handling the operations, the research, the admin, the busywork.

So the human can do the one thing only a human can do.

Create from spirit.

Cathedrals, Not Clickbait

We’re at an inflection point. A new chapter where the machines are finally getting good enough to handle the soulless work. The expense classification. The contract routing. The partner research. The scheduling. All the operational weight that buries creative people under busywork and burns them out.

But here’s what the machines cannot do: feel grief. Feel the heart of a story. Look someone in the eyes and connect. Choose to make a cathedral instead of clickbait.

That’s the work humans were uniquely designed for. The soul work. The work that only an image bearer of God can do.

This is what I believe God is showing us right now. That applied AI isn’t just a career-advancing opportunity. Utilized correctly, it’s an opportunity to protect and free the soul.

“The mistake is to think that soul can be outsourced,” Ien told a room full of engineers at an event I hosted last week. “Wouldn’t it be a tragedy to outsource dance? I like dancing.”

People in the audience really took that in.

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Integrating AI and Soul

I recently launched something called the Applied AI Society. It’s a community for engineers and business owners who want to help people actually apply AI in a tangible, customized way to their businesses.

The bottleneck right now isn’t innovation. It’s implementation. There are millions of businesses that need help applying what already works, with tools that already exist. And there are tens of thousands of talented people who could help them. But currently, there’s an incredible gap between those two groups. Applied AI Society exists to bridge that gap.

For our first event, Applied AI Live, I did an experiment. I brought Ien, a non-technical creative director, filmmaker, and artist who’s never coded, on stage with a brilliant AI engineer named Rostam.

I said: let’s do this live. 30 minutes. Let’s architect solutions to Ien’s real business problems. Right here, right now.

Within less than half an hour, Rostam designed a custom CRM that would take in the context about all of Ien’s current film projects, pull information from Ien’s Gmail history, extract and organize key memories about every current relationship, evaluate new potential contacts by mission alignment, enrich it with LinkedIn and web data, and consistently suggest new mission-aligned partners to reach out to for each film.

He estimated it would take him three days to build the first version.

“So, this would constantly be finding new mission-aligned partners for us, and at the same time be retaining the memory from every meeting and conversation we’ve had, like remembering the daughter’s birthday of a CEO I recently met with last week?” Ien asked.

“Yep!” Rostam said.

“That would be amazing.”

This is what applying AI looks like in practice. Not a science fiction demo. Not a chatbot. A real person with a real business getting a real solution designed for their specific needs, in less than half an hour.

More Human, Not Less

Ien put it perfectly: “There’s going to be so much created without soul that it’s going to make truthful things that much more potent. People are going to really be looking for soulful, heartfelt work. It’s already happening.”

He’s right. And the gap is only going to widen.

The future of quality work belongs to people who will embrace applied AI, not as a way to outsource creativity, but to automate everything that doesn’t require soul and then pour all their freed-up energy into the work that does, to create even more soulful, more powerful art with greater lasting impact.

And the people who resist will keep grinding manually until they burn out or get outrun.

We are image bearers of God. We’re not assembly line workers. We’re not data entry clerks. We’re not meant to spend our days on expense classification and contract routing.

We’re meant to tell stories that make people weep. To build communities where people connect on a soul-to-soul level. To create beauty that points back to the source of all beauty.

Trust Comes First

After the event, Ien took me out to dinner and told me something I won’t forget.

“Gary, you’ve transformed a lot in the past couple months. It’s quite amazing. A complete contrast from what I saw less than a year ago.”

He’s not wrong. I burned out too. In a previous season, I was chasing the wrong metrics, fell victim to pride, and lost my way.

But in the quiet season that followed, I was reminded through prayer and community that I have a purpose: to help people. To help deeply mission-aligned people like Ien focus even more on their God-given talents. Using applied AI.

Ien was the first non-techy business owner I put on the spot for the Applied AI Live series. An artist and storyteller who walked into a room full of engineers, and walked out seeing a future where he could run a one-man film studio with AI handling everything that doesn’t require his soul.

On the Uber ride home, we talked about trust. About how Ien’s learned to stop controlling outcomes and let God orchestrate.

“Trust comes first,” he said. “And then the fruits come.”

He’s right.

The machines are here. They’re only getting better. The question isn’t whether we’ll use them.

The question is whether we’ll use them to set our souls free.

Not less human. More human.

Not less soul. More soul.

I know what I’m choosing. And I’m building a community of people who are choosing the same.

If you’re an engineer, business owner, or creative operator who wants to apply AI in a way that preserves and amplifies what makes us human, the Applied AI Society is where we’re matching engineers with operators like Ien. We’re building this in Austin and expanding to cities around the world.

If you resonate with Ien and want to connect with one of the most skillful soulful storytellers I know, reach out to him and check out his work. He’s just getting started.

Jordan Hall () has spent decades correctly predicting the civilizational unraveling we're now experiencing. He co-founded DivX, served on elite boards like the Santa Fe Institute, co-founded the Game B movement—but when his pursuit of truth led him to Christ two years ago, he followed it, even knowing it would change his standing in the secular elite circles he'd helped shape.

We spoke for three and a half hours, days after Charlie Kirk's assassination made spiritual warfare feel viscerally real. While my previous piece laid out practical steps—love enemies, prepare your temple, build prayer as weapon—Jordan revealed something deeper:

We're in a civilizational contest over what story humanity will tell itself about reality for generations to come.

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The Post-WWII Narrative Is Dead

Most of us have grown up taking American hegemony for granted—the dollar as global reserve currency, Hollywood setting cultural norms, Silicon Valley driving innovation. But beneath these institutions was a narrative that held it all together: democracy is good, fascism is evil, and America leads the free world against tyranny.

"We passed a tipping point around 2024," Jordan told me. "The post-war order and narrative—both are done. There's no coming back."

This post-WWII narrative was brilliantly simple. After defeating the Nazis unconditionally, America built a moral order where racism and everything that wasn't "democracy" became the evils to purge from within the good. These were ultimately secular definitions of good and evil—Christian-adjacent but not requiring God. This narrative held the Western world together for 80 years—through the Cold War, civil rights, and the digital revolution.

But that narrative has exhausted itself.

Institutions are collapsing, corruption is obvious, and the old stories that kept liberalism alive no longer command belief.

Most insidiously, our culture has normalized sacrificing the immeasurably sacred for measurable material gains. Jordan gave me a devastating example:

"If I offer a 31-year-old father with three kids double his salary to move from Gary, Indiana to Palo Alto, what's he going to do? He's going to leave his parents, grandparents, his wife's parents, all the kids' friends, everyone at church. That's the gladiatorial combat right there. Our culture has so radically profaned relationships that we trade things that are qualitatively irreplaceable for things that are quantitatively measurable."

This is what Jordan calls "the insidious Holocaust"—Satan converting parents into "murderers of their own children," separating them from life in countless subtle ways.

Over the next five years, this order will dissolve into ruins. "MSNBC may still exist. It may not. J.P. Morgan might not survive. Things that seem utterly impossible will simply happen."

When secular orders collapse, power vacuums grow. And power vacuums historically produce massive bloodshed—which is why the question of the next grand narrative matters so profoundly. We're about to determine what story humanity will tell itself about the nature of reality for generations to come.

The Three Types of Narratives Fighting for Humanity's Soul Today

As we discussed where civilization is heading—especially in light of recent violence and the obvious acceleration of conflict—Jordan laid out three types of grand narratives that will vie to organize human society as the post-World War II order finally collapses.

The Transhumanist Narratives deny spirit and worship technology, seeking escape from the human condition itself—whether Silicon Valley's brain-uploading dreams or China's state-directed experiments. Transhumanists believe consciousness must transcend flesh, pursuing what Jordan calls "accelerated liberalism" or “the final form of Progressivism” that collapses into nihilism—where nothing is sacred because nothing is real except the will to power.

This is the narrative of those who yearn to merge with AI, or otherwise escape the boundaries of human flesh. They see mortality as a bug to be fixed, not a feature of creation. Their fatal flaw? As Jordan explains, they're trying to survive a spiritual war with material weapons—a category error that will prove fatal. They have no ontology for the miraculous, no framework for understanding that reality is fundamentally spiritual. In their pursuit of transcending humanity, they're actually fleeing from the very thing that makes us human: our capacity to bear God's image in flesh.

Ethno-Pagan Narratives worship the spirit and history of a tribe, bloodline, or nation rather than universal truth. Whether a Chinese imperial restoration, a Russian nationalism, or some ethnic supremacist movement, they put blood above truth. While some claim to worship a universal God, in practice they worship their tribal “gods”.

Jordan describes how China is becoming the "cardinal example"—with Xi positioned as the celestial emperor who has the mandate of heaven, restoring the Middle Kingdom with Confucianism and Daoism elevated to their hierarchical roles.

Unlike transhumanists, ethno-pagans aren't strict materialists—they recognize spiritual reality and can mobilize deep human loyalties through sacred symbols and stories. But here's the fatal flaw: while they establish hierarchical order within their tribes, their "local gods" cannot recover from the Fall—humanity's separation from divine perfection. As Jordan notes, "their unity always degenerates into corruption" (like the cycles of Chinese civilizations rising and falling). Without access to universal redemption, their tribal orders inevitably collapse into the same patterns of domination and decay, unable to transcend the zero-sum conflicts that define fallen nature.

Universal Sacred Narratives maintain that truth transcends ethnic boundaries while remaining fundamentally spiritual. These are stories that say the same God is accessible to all people regardless of blood or soil, that the sacred isn't owned by any tribe but offered to all humanity.

These universal sacred narratives are what Jordan calls "mythologies"—and we need to reclaim that word. In his definition, mythologies are not primitive attempts at science or childish fantasies. They're narratives where the line between the ordinary and the supernatural dissolves, that reveal reality in its largest sense. Mythologies remember what we've forgotten: that reality is intrinsically miraculous, that it doesn’t make sense to segregate the supernatural into fairy tales and superhero movies.

But our secular age—and you can speculate why—has hidden the truth. We've put the "ordinary world" on a pedestal, making daily life infantilizing—push a button, food arrives; click a link, entertainment streams. "The ordinary world denatures you," Jordan explained. "It removes you from values, from virtue." But this controllable surface sits atop a much larger reality where the miraculous happens constantly. Because we can't mechanically reproduce things like divine healing, we pretend it doesn't exist.

As Jordan argues, while there are various universal sacred narratives, the two most worthy of serious consideration are Islam and Christianity. Both have repeatedly been at the center of multi-ethnic, transcontinental civilizations that lasted centuries—precisely because they insist on one transcendent truth that applies equally to all peoples.

Universal sacred narratives don't deny the flesh like transhumanists, nor do they worship it like ethno-pagans. They offer something beyond both: a sacred order that includes all of creation while transcending tribal boundaries.

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Christianity as the Most Life-Giving Grand Narrative

Between Islam and Christianity, why choose Christianity?

Ultimately, it's an article of faith. But as Jordan concluded after years of searching:

"Christianity is the most capital T, True mythology."

Christianity alone offers something neither Islam nor any other mythology can: God Himself entering creation as the "Logos" incarnate. This isn't just another prophet or teacher bringing divine messages—this is the divine principle that holds reality together becoming human.

As Jordan explained, the Logos is "that which enables relationships where things that are distinct come into a new form of unity while maintaining their uniqueness." The Logos is also that which orders reality in a way that maximally perpetuates truth, beauty, and goodness. This is the same Logos that John's Gospel declares: "In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made through Him... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

When God became man in Christ, the gap between Creator and creation was permanently bridged. He didn't just send commands from above—He clarified what matters most to those who believe in Him and His resurrection: who we are (image bearers of God), how we ought to live and treat one another (love God and love neighbor), how we interact with the supernatural (through prayer, worship, and using gifts of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us), and what happens after we die (joining Him in eternal life).

And Christianity isn't just about individuals ordering their lives—it's about giving humanity at every scale a narrative capable of helping us build life-giving families, communities, and nations from the ruins. Without the Logos incarnate at the center, we get the collapsing order we see today. With Him, we get the possibility of genuine flourishing—not just for hundreds or thousands, but potentially for unlimited numbers of people.

While transhumanism denies the supernatural entirely and ethno-paganism corrupts it for tribal conquest, Christianity offers the one True mythology that properly orders both ordinary and supernatural reality, at every scale of civilization and until the end of time.

Embracing the mythological nature of Christianity is part of what Jordan calls the "rectification of names" (which deserves its own article). At the end of civilizational cycles, we must restore proper meaning to words that have been deliberately corrupted. The adversary perverts language precisely because words shape reality. When we lose the true meaning of words like 'mythology', 'religion', 'faith', and 'community', we lose our ability to navigate reality properly.

As a separate note, here’s a great video explaining the significance of Christ being the Logos incarnate.

Expect Strange Alliances in the Battle for Tomorrow

The grand narratives fighting for humanity's soul aren't staying in their lanes:

Putin and Xi discuss immortality—ethno-pagan leaders flirting with transhumanist dreams. Peter Thiel courts Christians toward techno-acceleration while lecturing the elite on the Antichrist. Trump’s 'Department of War' posts videos of war machines while reciting the Lord's Prayer. Nick Fuentes' blood-and-soil revanchism explicitly merges ethno-paganism with Christianity.

As Jordan explained: "It's kind of like the Soviets and the Anglo-Americans in World War II. Team up to fight [the Nazis]? Two seconds later, now we're at war." These partnerships are fundamentally unstable—the instant a common enemy falls, former allies become adversaries.

The challenge for Christians in this moment is profound: how to maintain Christianity's universal truth while resisting seductive alliances that would corrupt it. Any earthly power—whether transhumanist tech billionaires, ethno-pagan movements, or political parties—will try to wrap itself in God's name to elevate itself.

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The Proper Order: Christ Above All Earthly Powers

So is the key for Christians to advance God’s will in the world without engaging with transhumanists or ethno-pagans?

Jordan clarifies something important:

The danger isn't engaging with earthly powers—it's getting the order wrong.

Technology, nation, tribe, and politics aren't inherently evil—they're inevitable parts of creation that become corrupted when we elevate them to God's position at the top of the hierarchy. The moment they claim that position, they become idols.

"Technology is not bad; worshipping technology is bad," Jordan explained. "If you are able to include technology inside the Logos (which you can), then you take the best parts of Transhumanism, separate the dross, and integrate them into a lifework."

The same principle applies to ethnicity and nation. There's something good and real about lineage and cultures—"we don't want to mix all humans into a homogenized frappe". As Jordan notes, "All the nations come to Christ. But all the nations must be in order to come to Christ." The challenge is maintaining proper order: Christ first, then nation.

The people of a nation keeping Christ first helps each nation benefit from the largest, most timelessly life-giving framework that allows citizens to live together well, and provides the living water that helps stave off corruption and decay.

I witnessed this principle in action at Charlie Kirk's memorial service in Arizona this past Sunday. While some speakers, especially President Donald Trump, attempted to turn grief into partisan mobilization, the event, watched by apparently a hundred million people that day alone, was a demonstration of proper divine order.

As Jordan pointed out to me the day after the memorial, Christ remained the true center (of both Charlie's life and the memorial itself), and the political messages were ultimately subordinated to the Gospel. "Erika's forgiveness [of Charlie's killer] was the key message. And Trump's lack of forgiveness was exposed as not fully participating in the Highest."

This is the crucial insight: when we maintain proper order with Christ at the apex, earthly realities can serve life-giving purposes. Technology can enhance human flourishing rather than replace humanity. Individual nations can maintain their unique, distinctive cultures and traditions while participating in universal truth. Politics can become more of a peaceful contest over who better represents and serves a God-fearing population rather than who claims divine mandate for partisan ends. Business can support family formation and rootedness rather than fragmenting communities.

As I argued in my Christofuturism piece, we must respect the divine ordering of reality—in everything we do. When we create, say, AI that serves rather than supplants the sacred, we're participating in proper divine order.

The danger isn't in engaging with these earthly realities—it's in letting them claim the throne that belongs to God alone.

The Way Forward? Become the Blade, Not the Swordsman

Let's say you're bought into the idea that Christianity is the one True mythology worth embodying and proliferating—the only narrative that illuminates and properly orders both our ordinary and supernatural reality while offering genuine redemption for all.

How then should we live? How can we help win the battle over our souls and others' souls?

Jordan emphasizes obedience.

"A friend of mine says, you must become the blade, not the swordsman," Jordan explained. "God is the ultimate samurai. He does not hack away.” We were each designed to be swung to make a “single perfect cut."

This is the key to surviving what's coming: total obedience to divine will. Whether you're called to build a local church community, teach children, create a political action group, become a warrior in the military sense, or something else entirely—that specific calling is the most noble version of spiritual war you can wage.

When I asked about his current calling, he didn't talk about influencing policy or building movements, which is what he spent years doing in secular elite circles. Instead, he spoke about God wanting him to help get Jonathan Pageau's children's fairy tale books into more hands. (Jonathan is a brilliant Orthodox Christian thinker and creative who illuminates how our reality is filled with divine patterns, which can be illuminated effectively through fairy tales)

Through the blade/swordsman metaphor, Jordan made something clear to me. Remember that it's better to think of us as His instruments of spiritual war, more than soldiers or even generals meant to master plan the Enemy's downfall.

"The instant you endeavor to strategize, to plan, you insert your will for His will, then you're done," Jordan warns. Becoming a missionary—something that seems obviously good—could be "infinitely wrong" if God actually wants you to be a teacher, a scientist, or anything else.

(The question of how to discern God’s will is out of the scope of this piece, but explore resources and give this practice the time and reverence it deserves. And make sure that what you may sense as a calling from Him aligns with Scripture.)

Our discussion on following God’s will echoes what Charlie Kirk himself taught repeatedly: the Hebrew word "Hineni" (הִנְנִי)—"Here I am." Abraham said it at the binding of Isaac. Moses at the burning bush. Samuel and Isaiah when called. It means: "Lord, use me. Give me my marching orders." Not "Here's my plan for You," but "Here I am for Your plan."

So obey. Let Him use you however He wants to use you. The results of how He swings you will shape what will emerge from the ruins.

If this piece resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. And if you haven't read my previous piece on How to Fight the Spiritual War Ahead, I encourage you to start there for the practical steps we all need to take.

You can watch/listen to my full conversation with Jordan Hall here on YouTube.

Yesterday, when I heard about Charlie Kirk's murder, deep sadness filled my heart.

Questions immediately raced through my mind: Who would do this?

Was it Chinese intelligence? Mossad? The CIA? An angry leftist? A Muslim anti-Christian activist? Someone programmed through MKUltra?

My mind then went to all the different types of people that may have hated Charlie so much, and what he stood for, that they would wish death upon him and maybe even orchestrate his assassination. I started thinking about the issues I had with these different groups, and I felt anger filling my heart.

I caught myself directing suspicion toward entire groups of people. And I realized:

This is exactly what Satan wants me to do. Satan wants me to hate my fellow man. And he wants me to forget that this is a spiritual war.

We're not mainly fighting a war against flesh and blood—we're mainly fighting a war against spirits and principalities (Ephesians 6:12). And the nature of this war calls us to fight in a way that defies our own instincts and speaks to our higher angels.

I wrote this piece because I needed to get clear for myself about how to fight this spiritual war right. I wanted to honestly assess what's happening, remember why it matters that we're facing spiritual warfare, and give concrete guidance for myself and anyone else wondering what to do when we're feeling fearful and under attack.

This is especially urgent as we near the 250th anniversary of the United States next year. There will be intense political battles and likely violence over what the future of the country should be—making spiritual preparation more critical than ever.

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How Satan Wants You To React

Before we dive into the right way to fight this spiritual war, I want to talk about the wrong way to fight, which is the way that Satan wants us to fight.

Satan wants us to hate our neighbors.

He wants us to see them as our enemies.

He wants us to give ourselves the most satisfying excuses to dehumanize all members of a particular political party. To dehumanize all people of a particular skin color. To dehumanize all believers of a particular faith tradition.

The more we dehumanize other people, the more we accept excuses for committing atrocities against them.

We are swimming in a sea of deceptions and subterfuge. And this should not surprise us. Earth is Satan’s kingdom. He is “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

And we know that Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44).

Humans everywhere—especially those not grounded in Christ and the Most High God—are being used as his tools to manipulate our emotions and engineer false blame. When there's a fog of confusion and zero trust in institutions, we default to our animal instincts—assuming the bad things that happen are caused by the people we already suspected.

We turn blind eyes to evil in our own communities while brewing hatred toward fellow humans based on nothing but our darkened assumptions.

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The Real War is for Your Soul

Satan is inciting material conflicts in the physical realm, but he orchestrates them from the spiritual realm.

The heroes of different groups—those are his number one targets. Because when someone you love is brutally murdered, you become emotionally unable to respond the way Jesus would want you to respond.

Make no mistake: there will be physical wars. They're already happening. I wouldn't be surprised if conflicts continue breaking out across the Middle East and around the world. But the most important war Satan cares about is the war for each of our souls.

That includes you.

Yes, Satan wants your soul.

Don't let your heart blacken because of what transpires in the coming days, months, and years. Your soul is a battlefront for the war that matters most.

Satan loves to target American souls because he knows the power of American Christianity if it were truly alive and awake. While Christians in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia face much more physical persecution, American Christians face psychological warfare designed to confuse them, neuter them, and even advance the agenda of evil.

Christ's Most Radical Teaching

What does Christ want us to do in response to violence against those we love? His most radical teaching gives us the answer: love your enemies.

This is difficult because every instinct we have says to hate our enemies. But it's timeless and brilliant because the enemy knows that hatred is how we become vessels of his evil.

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven." — Matthew 5:43-45

When Christians celebrate violence against their opponents, when we join the mob in wishing death on those who oppose us, we reveal we've never actually died to ourselves. We're still operating from the flesh, not the Spirit.

So here's my commitment, I will:

• Love the false teachers of Christianity. I'm going to pray that they learn to see the errors in their ways.

• Love the people who hate Christians—including the person in the crowd who joyfully cheered for the assassination, and the Jezebel writers who paid to purchase curses on top of Charlie. I pray for them.

• Love the intelligence agency representatives that are sowing confusion and hatred between Americans. I pray for them.

• Love all the people working tirelessly to discredit the Truth of Christ in different ways. I pray for them.

• Love the young activists that think they are supporting good causes, but they're really just weapons of Satan. I pray for them too.

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Why It Requires Heroic Discipline to Keep Your Soul

The level of discipline required to keep your soul from becoming blackened, cynical, and spiritually unwell—and to maintain enough faith and hope to even consider starting a family and raising children in this environment—is genuinely heroic.

I've had to cut out most people and activities from my life. Almost every social group, almost every content creator, almost every business opportunity—because they're not aligned with helping me in my walk with Christ. The narrow path is shockingly narrow, and it costs you almost everything you thought you wanted.

The economic reality in America is brutal. We're forced to participate in systems that fund what we oppose. Your morning coffee might be empowering a private equity company owned by a billionaire who is funding activism that corrupts American Christianity. Your investment portfolio likely includes shares in companies profiting on the next unjust war. Every dollar you spend votes for a world that either grows or actively works against Christ's kingdom.

And the culture we live in is poison. When you wake up as a follower of Christ—you realize we've built a civilization where the infrastructure of daily life is designed to make you fall or barely survive spiritually. It's almost impossible to live and participate in American society without regularly sinning. Most pop and rap music, for example, promotes values that no Christian man or woman should seek to embody.

The spiritual warfare in this hyper-technological age is relentless. Every screen, every swipe can disconnect you from God instantly. Virtually every app and streaming service is full of messaging that undermines the Christian worldview. Social media algorithms reward outrage and tribal hatred. And I’ve heard very few Christians talk about the foundational problem of AI like ChatGPT being grounded in moral relativism (in essence, that every worldview should be taken seriously). ChatGPT will make millions go insane.

What's more is the culture that Silicon Valley has pushed is soulless and psychopathic. Tech billionaires claim to champion rationality and intellect, but actually prioritize pride and power over both heart and truth. They don't care about truth if it gets in the way of the bottom line or protection of power—we can easily see this in how our government handles the Jeffrey Epstein files. As C.S. Lewis warned: "We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."

With all this said about how fallen our society has become, God hasn't lowered His standards for you.

The calling remains: be spiritually mature enough to model character that others will absorb. Disciplined enough to create calm stability where love can grow. Wise enough to navigate a hostile culture while protecting innocent hearts—including your own. Strong enough in faith to believe that raising children in righteousness is still possible, even when everything around you suggests otherwise.

How to Prepare Yourself for Spiritual War

So, we’ve addressed why it’s so hard to keep your soul during these times. Now, what are we gonna do about it?

Well, before you enter battle, you have to get prepared. Here’s how:

Come to Christ if you haven't already. There is no neutrality in spiritual warfare. You're either His or you're not.

I'm not going to argue for the Truth of Christ in this post—there are plenty of people making that case. I myself have been exploring and documenting my turning toward Truth in what I call my FaithWalk OS.

I strongly suspect that other worldviews and lived faiths you could adopt are nothing like what is needed for this moment—and for eternity—because I believe the Bible is True.

Make God your best friend. Not just someone you talk about to other people, but someone you talk to about other people and everything else. Pray unceasingly. I have mentors who listen and talk to Him all day—on drives, during work, constantly communing with the Most High. I know I need to be more like them. Also know that the Holy Spirit aka the Comforter is here for a reason. Take his advice on how to navigate these treacherous times with wisdom, courage, and supernatural energy.

Study His will intensively. The Bible isn't a book of nice suggestions—it's your field manual for spiritual combat. The Bible helps you know what God loves and hates, so you can love what He loves and hate what He hates.

Build a powerful prayer life around what's needed:

• Wisdom to discern truth from deception

• Courage to stand for righteousness when it costs you

• Energy to do what God calls you to do

• Divine protection for yourself and those you love

• Clarity to recognize when your religion (and any group you have loyalty to) is being weaponized against you

• Humility to respond with grace when people and things you love are attacked

• Strength to prepare for material hardship while trusting God's provision

Look into William Seymour, John Knox, and Saint John of Kronstadt as examples of prayer warriors who changed the world.

Condition your heart to love your neighbors, and even your enemies. Love your neighbors even when they disappoint you. Even when they betray you. Even when they celebrate violence. Practice loving them before you need to. Love your enemies, especially when everything in you wants revenge. Train yourself to pray for their salvation, not their destruction. This is how you make Satan struggle. This is how you prove whose kingdom you belong to.

Prepare your temple and train yourself to stay alert. "Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Don't be naive about the reality of spiritual warfare. Build habits now that will help you recognize patterns of deception, manipulation, and division. When your body and mind are not on point, you are easy to manipulate. Prioritize good sleep, proper nutrition, regular exercise, and limit digital stimulation. "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?" (1 Corinthians 6:19). Prepare your physical health as part of your spiritual armor.

Prepare yourself for tragedy to be used as justification for far greater casualties. Today is September 11th—a day when we remember how the loss of nearly 3,000 innocent lives was used to justify an unjust "war on terror" that destroyed millions of lives across multiple countries and destabilized the world. We now know how US intelligence's previous funding of militant networks in the region contributed to the rise of the very groups that attacked us, which makes it devastating that the response was hatred against Muslims, the erection of a domestic surveillance state, and endless wars. Meanwhile, we still have not prosecuted almost any of the people who were actually responsible for starting these wars, including those who lied about Iraq having WMDs. As Christians called to be truth seekers, we must demand accountability for those who weaponize tragedy. When you're rightfully angry and sad about loss of life, don't let that grief be weaponized to justify more death and destruction.

Remember: loving enemies and sinners doesn't mean you can't hate sin. You are called to hate sin. Hate the lies, the deception, the corruption, the systems that destroy human flourishing. Hate what destroys souls. But love the people trapped in those systems and pray for their liberation through the Truth of Christ. "Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good." — Romans 12:9

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The Coming Tests During This Wartime

In the days and years ahead:

• Satan will work to harm or kill many people who are widely loved

• You'll be mass manipulated continually through memes, narratives, influencers, media organizations, and algorithms

• The temptation for retribution will be overwhelming

• Your tribe(s) will call for violence and revenge

• You'll be pressured to hate entire groups based on the actions of individuals

• Your faith, your family, your values will be weaponized against you

These are spiritual tests.

Will you follow Christ's Way or the world's way? Will you make prayer, fasting, and obedience your main weapons in this war? Or will you find any excuse to pick up weapons of flesh and become the blackened-heart agent that Satan wants you to become?

How to Fight the Right Way

Let me elaborate on how I see Christ calling us to fight this spiritual battle.

We fight not with guns. Not with violence. Not with hatred. But with the full armor of God:

• Truth as your belt — Know God's word so well that lies can't take root

• Righteousness as your breastplate — Live so clean that aspersions slide off

• The gospel of peace on your feet — Be ready to bring reconciliation, not division

• Faith as your shield — Trust God's sovereignty even when evil seems to win

• Salvation as your helmet — Remember your identity is in Christ, not your ethnic group or nationality

• The Word of God as your sword — Use Scripture to cut through deception

Beyond these universals, different people are called to fight this spiritual war in different ways.

Some are called to bring people to Christ through authentic interpretations of the Word—pastors, teachers, evangelists who help others understand what it means to follow Jesus in practice.

Others are called to be journalists, shining light on evil to mass audiences. If some group engineered Charlie's assassination—if there was a deep conspiracy to engineer chaos within America by, say, a foreign intelligence agency—we need people with the calling and skills to investigate and expose this. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Others are called to be fathers and mothers, raising children who can withstand the spiritual warfare of their generation. Some are called to business, creating economic structures that serve human flourishing.

Some are called to create educational programs for kids and adults to understand their spiritual authority through Christ. Others are called to create modern schools that do not shy away from educating people on spiritual matters.

God has great plans for you to fight in this spiritual war in your unique way. The key is discerning your specific calling and fighting in your lane—without letting the war poison your heart with hatred toward entire groups of people. We fight the spiritual forces behind the humans doing evil, not the humans themselves.

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Be On The Side Of The Ultimate Victory

Stay close to God. Be an agent of God's love—not weak, tolerate-everything, morally-relativistic love, but God's love that is synonymous with God's Truth. Love that goes hand-in-hand with justice—most of which we leave to God to handle. Love that shines light on agents of evil while praying for their redemption.

We are called to unlock pockets of heaven on earth where people can flourish as God intended. Where men can become worthy fathers despite a culture designed to prevent it. Where families can be formed and children raised in righteousness despite every force working against them.

In these Last Days, persecution against followers of Christ will ramp up. But we serve the God who, through Christ, gave us power to cast out demons, heal the sick, and commune with the Most High through the Holy Spirit.

The victory is already won through Christ. But the battle for your soul—for how you respond in these dark days—that battle is being fought right now.

Don't let your heart blacken. Don't become a tool of the enemy. Don't hate the people who have become tools of the devil when you should be praying for their deliverance and salvation.

It’s important that kids have you as an example of righteousness in this fallen society. As CS Lewis said: “Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.”

Prepare your spirit.

The war is here.

And we fight it by walking the Way of Christ, in obedience to the Most High God.

Exactly one year before America's 250th anniversary.

And today, on behalf of this country to which I owe my life, I declare independence from everything that keeps the American people from God's will.

Writer’s note (August 12th, 2025): After the original publication of this piece, I rebranded my Substack from ‘America 2.0’ to 'The Christofuturist' (full explanation here). As part of that rebrand, I want to clarify that this vision below is not just for Americans. Where this essay says “America” or “America 2.0,” read “your community, your people.” The call is global: open your heart to Christ, devote your life to Him, and create Christ‑honoring, co‑living communities wherever God plants you. I’m leaving the original language for continuity.

It’s Time To Declare Our Independence From The Dominion Of Darkness

Today, on this July 4th, 2025, we declare America's Re-Independence.

We declare independence from our spiritual obesity, the zombie apocalypse that we are living through. From our over-reliance on foreign countries that we outsourced our productive capacity to. From our addiction to importing talent versus training our own people.

We declare independence from our fleshly desires. From our thirst to be and ‘build’ God. From our broken models of work, education, and interpersonal connection; and all the rotten fruits of our secular world.

We declare independence from the way that we have been using and building social media to suck each other into cycles of addiction, disconnection, and numbness. From a society that makes it feel like a luxury to be fruitful and multiply.

We declare independence from willful ignorance of the sins of our nation—our crimes against humanity that keep us from navigating toward a path of virtue.

Above all, we declare independence from the dominion of darkness. A big reason why we're so confused about our situations—why we don't know what to do with our kids, why so many institutions are failing—is because we're dealing with spirits and principalities (Ephesians 6:12), not just evil that manifests through individuals. This is spiritual warfare waged by an enemy who seeks to trap us in pits of despair.

But we will win this spiritual war by choosing His narrow path.

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We Must Learn from America 1.0's Rise and Fall

To build America 2.0, we must honestly reckon with what worked and didn't about America 1.0.

In 1776, our founders established a new nation with the mission of creating a prosperous society. And in many ways, they succeeded—Americans went on to produce incredible innovations, build remarkable infrastructure, create beautiful music and culture, and develop systems that enabled unprecedented prosperity.

But we must reckon with the fact that much of this prosperity was built on morally bankrupt foundations. The white supremacist spirit and ideology corrupted Christianity itself, using Scripture to justify slavery and exclusion. They literally removed Exodus—the story of God liberating slaves—from the Bibles given to enslaved people. When you edit out God's heart for freedom and liberation, "Christianity" becomes a tool of Satan.

White supremacy wasn’t just a figment of our past—it was and still is the lived reality for people like me. As a Chinese American, I experienced how suffocating this culture remained: being bullied mercilessly for race, made to feel like an outsider, forced into an identity crisis that felt non-negotiable. Any non-white person can attest to this default experience. This culture of exclusion and supremacy simply cannot be the same spirit that carries us forward into America 2.0.

The "good old days" many people reminisce about were good for some while being hell for others. When we celebrate America's society engineering capacity—the infrastructure, manufacturing, and community structures—we must acknowledge that much of it was literally built by enslaved Black Americans whose innovations and labor were stolen or uncredited. From the White House itself to revolutionary technologies, the foundation of a serious proportion of American wealth came through exploitation.

The manufacturing sovereignty and community prosperity were real achievements. But they were achieved through systems that violated the very Christian principles they claimed to uphold. The real question is: What can we learn from what actually worked, while rejecting what was morally compromised?

After the 1960s, we financialized everything and lost much of our productive capacity. We traded manufacturing for managing money, shipped jobs overseas for short-term profits, and lost the hands-on wisdom of how to actually build things. Meanwhile, our education system devolved into test score theater—celebrating academic performance that has little correlation with solving real problems.

Today, generations after the abolishment of slavery, American society continues to be fueled by human exploitation. Modern tech empires are built on new forms of indentured servitude, like Scale AI’s data annotation sweatshops, while new AI-powered defense contractors generate billions pushing new world wars.

In the last fifty years, we've systematically debased America's foundations to the point where they're unrecognizable. We've celebrated and legalized prostitution, gambling, and drug-fueled degeneracy while detaching people from nature, family, and reality. We've built substance-free speculative financial bubbles, destroyed young people's ability to afford housing or retirement, and created food and pharmaceutical systems that poison rather than heal.

Meanwhile, our ruling establishment covers up international child trafficking rings that implicate Senators and Presidents while waging divide-and-conquer strategies that prevent us from seeing the spiritual warfare clearly. The uncomfortable truth is that America is now controlled by satanic forces—and people are so beaten down they're desperate for any hero to save them, creating golden calf worship instead of turning back to God.

To make matters worse, American geopolitics runs on fear-based dominance rather than earning genuine trust from allies. Nations comply with our system not because they believe in it, but because they fear the consequences of rejecting it. Ultimately, the world runs on the U.S. dollar not from trust in our system, but from fear of the consequences of rejecting it.

Much of why America 1.0 has sustained as the world's most dominant superpower is by governing through threat of invasion.

This fear-based system built on exploitation is bound to collapse. Financial systems could crumble tomorrow. Supply chains controlled by rival nations could be weaponized against us. The very foundations that propped up America 1.0 are cracking under their own moral contradictions.

As we approach America's 250th anniversary, this is our moment: God is calling us to rethink the nation's foundations before the corrupted system collapses.

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Christofuturist Communities Are The Foundation for America 2.0

The path forward isn't to patch up a both outdated and corrupted operating system. It's to build something entirely new: a system based on communities that achieve prosperity through righteousness, not exploitation.

This is about redemption.

While America 1.0 was built on morally compromised foundations, the vision of a nation that truly honors God through justice, freedom, and human flourishing remains worth pursuing.

A society rooted in secularism won't cut it.

We've tried that. And it's only gotten us to a place where Satan rules over this nation.

It's time to embrace Christofuturism, which calls on us to build what should have been established from the beginning: a society that actually reflects God's heart in how a nation ought to treat people and create prosperity.

This redeemed America will emerge through intentional heart transformation that unlocks Christofuturist communities—pockets of heaven on earth where transformed individuals create industries that serve human flourishing rather than exacerbate human suffering.

These communities will emerge organically around Christoindustrialists—industry leaders who put Christ first and receive God's heart for specific people and places.

Rather than creating overly detailed, multi-year plans and hoping for masses of workers to immediately show up, these leaders will start with available skills and callings, serving immediate needs while maintaining kingdom values. They will pursue excellence in virtue, competency, and impact, kickstarting and fostering Christoindustries that are unambiguously good engines of human flourishing, not factories chasing quarterly profits at the expense of human exploitation.

As these communities prove their transformation and growth, successful Christoindustrialists will naturally acquire or lease land and facilities—breathing kingdom life into existing infrastructure or developing new spaces that serve their growing community. This might look like chartering a new town, revitalizing a dying community, or establishing a community center, but it always represents a colocated center of gravity for the increasing number of people being unlocked through manifesting Christ's heart in practical ways. The physical infrastructure serves the proven community, not the other way around.

When profit comes at the expense of people's wellbeing, it's not Christoindustrialist. When an industry feeds fleshly desires over spiritual ones, it misses the mark.

Take housing as an example of how a values-neutral industry can become a Christoindustry. America's housing crisis stems from industries controlled by players whose values don't align with family formation and community building, combined with an education crisis that leaves American citizens without the skills to build. A Christoindustrialist housing company would build beautiful, affordable homes that strengthen families and neighborhoods—making housing itself a Christoindustry. The industry would train local people—especially those with heritage in the area—to lead and innovate, not just consume its outputs.

Now, consider how another Christoindustry—gospel music—might emerge organically:

Archbishop E. Bernard Jordan, co-founder of Zoe Ministries and internationally recognized prophet, was recently asked to establish a community-owned gospel record label. With over 40 years of ministry experience, leadership of the School of the Prophets, and a global network spanning multiple continents, Archbishop Jordan could be a Christoindustrialist who could unlock this vision.

Starting with the gospel artists and producers like Grammy-winning David Bratton already connected to Zoe Ministries, this label would partner with and serve artists with kingdom values, ensuring they retain ownership and spiritual integrity while creating music that brings people closer to God.

As the community grows around this mission, it would naturally develop into a gospel music mecca—a colocated center of gravity where the world's most anointed gospel artists gather to create, collaborate, and minister. The economic success would fund recording facilities, artist development programs, and eventually educational institutions—which would train the next generation of kingdom-centered musicians.

Now, here are four other examples of communities that could emerge around specific Christoindustries:

• Imagine a group of creative, tech-savvy believers called to create faith-focused immersive experiences, starting small in their town and expanding to many cities around the world as their experiences grow in revenue and popularity, eventually rivaling Disney-world level impact.

• Imagine a group of gifted scientists and engineers called to commercialize applications of their discoveries in quantum sciences that serve human flourishing; using the profits of their products to fund further research and applications.

• Imagine a group of divinely anointed healers called to train world-class healers—starting with one location and then replicating their programs in other cities as the healing miracles produced by graduates inspire benefactors to pour funding into the training programs worldwide.

• Imagine a cross‑denominational community devoted to building "discipleship infrastructure" as a global commons—open‑source code and standards, shared legal templates, open curricula, and documented "divine patterns" that any church or ministry can adopt. They maintain a patterns wiki, publish reference implementations, and steward funding models that sustain open infrastructure, seeding schools, media platforms, and small‑group tools worldwide.

For each community that grows into a world-leading center for its Christoindustry, it produces and circulates within the community billions in value, while demonstrating that prioritizing Christ's grounding is not a constraint on success but a catalyst for it.

The economic success naturally funds land acquisition, facility development, and infrastructure that serves the proven community's continued growth and multiplication.

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The Christocompound As The Heart Of The Community

As Christofuturist communities grow through relationship and trust, a “Christocompound” will emerge—the natural physical gathering point where spiritual life creates community life.

These comprehensive gathering places will be built as growing communities need dedicated places—not just homes or borrowed spaces—where spiritual, physical, nutritional, and educational needs can converge.

The Christocompound cares for the whole person.

Think of the compound called "The Crossover" in Cedar Park, Texas—a place where faith (led by Tauren Wells' Whitestone Church), food, learning, and wellness create holistic human flourishing.

Early childhood education and daycare for community families will happen within the Christocompound, ensuring children's formative years are rooted in both spiritual foundation and community connection.

Also from the Christocompound will radiate Christofuturist education—schools purpose-built to produce the next generation of Christoindustrialists. These schools can be part of the compound or separate facilities, but they share the same mission: teaching society engineering, not just test-taking.

Students at Christofuturist schools will build strong foundations in science, software architecture, theology, economics, and human nature while getting hands-on training contributing to real construction projects from middle school onward.

They will understand elemental realities, how materials actually behave, how digital tools can improve physical infrastructure. And they will practice using AI as a tool for helping them advance their calling to be and manifest heaven on earth.

In ten years, the world's most capable leaders—real renaissance people genuinely capable of contributing to spacecraft design, city planning, and next-generation manufacturing—will emerge from these schools.

Proximity, Not Isolation

These communities don't require isolation from existing cities. Most will emerge organically within or right next to places like Tulsa, Austin, Salt Lake City, and other metro areas as transformed individuals create kingdom-centered businesses and relationships. Rather than starting with master-planned communities, we will focus on being salt and light in existing locations, developing natural boundaries that allow us to be in the world but not of the world. This proximity to existing infrastructure will make organic growth more practical and accessible while maintaining the focused community culture that enables spiritual and economic flourishing.

As these communities grow, talent and character will naturally determine who joins and stays. Families will participate based on capability, virtue, and commitment to contributing to the mission. Divinely high standards create divinely great outcomes. This is not elitism, it's recognizing that manifesting heaven on earth requires people aligned with that mission.

The natural progression from successful community to town development will create colocated centers of gravity where like-minded, like-hearted families want to live near each other, businesses want to establish operations, and new infrastructure naturally develops to serve the proven community's needs.

You Can Breathe Life Into Existing Infrastructure

Successful Christoindustrialists will often find that God leads them to existing infrastructure that needs kingdom life breathed into it.

Many existing towns across the world are dying and can be brought back to life through transformed communities. For instance, in Italy, dozens of small villages now offer €1 homes to new residents willing to renovate and repopulate communities.

While in Japan, cities and rural regions are tackling the “akiya” crisis (literal millions of abandoned homes) by offering ultra‑low‑cost houses and grants for renovation. In some cases, you can simply move in, add satellite internet and upgrade infrastructure, achieving transformation for a fraction of the cost of building new.

Whether you end up kickstarting your community’s physical colocation in an abandoned town or town that is mostly inhabited, remember that community mission alignment comes first before dedicating a lot of resources to physical infrastructure.

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Glory of Zion: A Living Example of the Unlock-Then-Build Process

Consider the founding story of Glory of Zion International Ministries in Denton, Texas. In 1974, founders Robert and Linda Heidler started with a simple Bible study in their friend's duplex in Denton, driving up from Dallas every other week to help her learn Scripture.

Heart transformation came first—they were moved by compassion to serve someone's spiritual need using their available resources (their time, travel, and biblical knowledge).

Organic relationship growth followed. Soon, the Heidlers’ friend's neighbor got saved. Then her neighbor's husband. Then the friend's boyfriend and his boss. Within two years, this heart-led ministry had grown large enough to incorporate as a church in 1976.

After incorporating as a church, Robert and Linda moved to Denton and continued expanding facilities only as the community outgrew each space—from the friend's duplex to rented church building to purchased facility. Each location became a colocated center of gravity that attracted and served their growing community.

Territorial transformation resulted. In Linda's words from my recent conversation with her: "Everywhere we went, it was like we went in and it was desolate. And just our presence being there and worship and the Spirit of God being there, brought flourishing... when the Lord comes in and is honored and is worshiped, it changes the spiritual atmosphere of physical territory, and it brings prosperity."

Today, Glory of Zion operates within a massive former Boeing manufacturing facility, serves 10-12,000 people online globally, and has transformed multiple desolate areas into prosperous communities. The pattern: heart transformation → relationships → organic growth → infrastructure → territorial impact.

A quick note: While the Heidlers saw success taking over preexisting buildings, sometimes new construction is the path forward, especially as we now have better understandings of how to design optimal societal systems—including sewage, energy, agriculture, and network infrastructure that support kingdom community life.

The Compelling Draw for Every Demographic

Why would people choose to move toward a Christofuturist community? Because these communities will demonstrate what nowhere else can—the fruit of individual heart transformation creating collective flourishing.

• For families—the core demographic—it's the ability to raise children in a community that reinforces rather than undermines your values. Where your kids' friends share your worldview. Where schools teach the Truth. Where neighborhoods are designed for children to play safely and parents to build deep friendships. Where multi-generational wisdom flows naturally and family formation is celebrated, not treated as an inconvenience. These communities will build their own news sites, media platforms, and social networks—giving families Christ-aligned defaults for information while not necessarily abandoning secular platforms entirely, so young people can still be part of the world but not of the world.

• Speaking of young people, the draw of joining a Christofuturist community is radically better education that prepares them to ride the waves of innovation and shape the future, not just understand it from the sidelines.

• For singles, it's a community where they can find fully aligned life partners who share the vision of where things should head; and by default want to be fruitful and multiply.

• For professionals, it's work in their highest and best use for God's will instead of being pigeonholed in secular corporate hellholes.

• For retirees, it's living among values-aligned, optimistic, smart people building something beautiful together.

Each demographic gets what they will find it extremely hard to find anywhere else: a joyful, prosperous, God-centered life.

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Why Boundaries Matter: Protection from a Fallen World

In modern cities, it's inevitable to become behaviorally lukewarm—the very condition Christ warns against in Revelation 3:15-16: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."

Surrounded by endless temptation and spiritual mediocrity, even the most committed believers find their fire dimming. Science confirms what wisdom teaches: willpower is not a helpful thing to imagine you have in circumstances of ever-present temptation—instead, put yourself in environments that naturally uphold your values.

Christofuturist towns serve as safe havens where the fire of the Holy spirit burns pure. Here, it's easy to avoid lukewarmness because the entire community ambiently reinforces spiritual excellence. Our kids, our homes, our workspaces, our places of worship, our schools; and our devices and information ecosystems must be protected from this corruption. Without strong boundaries, the enemy will sabotage our missions.

Importantly, boundaries enables the transformation Paul calls for in Romans 12:1-2: "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will."

In a Christofuturist town, non-conformity to worldly patterns won’t be a struggle—it will be the natural result of living in community aligned with divine purpose. These towns will foster people who will stay focused and pure enough to enact His will around the world.

Our current system may seem like it can last, but is actually a bubble ready to burst. Financial systems could collapse tomorrow. Supply chains are hostage to rival nations. The dollars you saved might become worthless.

That's why the supply chain matters as much as the product. If your local industries depend on overseas players who don't share your values, you're hostage to their agenda. Christofuturist towns pursue supply chain sovereignty, ensuring that every link in the chain operates according to the right principles. When crisis hits—and it will, again and again in these coming years—these communities will have the resilience to survive.

Financial surplus (and one or more community-leading families) from established towns seeds new ones. Christofuturism will create abundance that multiplies, with many towns as proofs of concept for how to design for human flourishing.

Get Ready For A Cambrian Explosion of “Christocultures”

Over the coming years, we want to see a wave of heart-led transformation: dozens of Christofuturist communities emerging organically with different sets of leaders, customs, and denominations. Each community will develop its own distinct culture, shaped by geography, the specific needs God highlights, and the unique gifts of its people. A town in Florida will evolve differently from one in Arizona, not just because of climate differences, but because of the challenges they face, the types of people they attract, and the local heritage they build upon.

No two Christofuturist towns will be identical. That's the point. We're developing a new science around creating Christocultures—understanding how different combinations of leadership, industry, worship style, and community customs produce different fruits. Some towns might emphasize contemplative traditions with long prayer walks and silent retreats. Others might pulse with energetic worship and constant collaboration. Some will be led by non-denominational leaders, others by Catholics, others by Baptists, and so on—all sharing a devotion to Christ but expressing His kingdom through different cultural flavors.

The fruits each town bears will be both spiritual and material. We'll measure success not just by financial metrics, but by the depth of community relationships, the character development of children, the innovation emerging from their industries, and the magnetic pull they create for outsiders investigating why their productive outputs are so high quality and why families inside are doing so well.

A healer-training town that produces healers that repeatedly make miracles happen, or a gospel music town that produces artists who inspire millions toward Christ, are Christocultures worth studying.

As communities multiply and impact the world, we'll discover the principles that allow different Christocultures to flourish.

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Prepare For The New Flood

America 2.0 represents a golden era, but it won't emerge immediately or everywhere at once. The corrupted system won't collapse peacefully. The elites who built this satanic infrastructure will fight viciously to maintain control, and millions will suffer in the transition.

We are entering what I call "the flood period"—a dark age that will precede America's renewal. Not a flood of water this time, but a flood of lies, spiritual darkness, economic devastation, and civilizational collapse. The infrastructure our ancestors built, the institutions that held us together—all crumbling in real time.

This flood will manifest through multiple disasters: Natural calamities, yes, but more importantly spiritual disasters as demonic forces intensify their assault. Health disasters as our poisoned food and pharmaceutical systems claim more victims. Economic disasters as speculative bubbles burst and supply chains collapse. Social disasters as communities fragment under the weight of moral bankruptcy.

The kinetic warfare is already ramping up. Russia-Ukraine grinds on with hundreds of thousands dead. Wars in the Middle East expand as the American-Israeli war machine—now upgraded with AI-powered weapons—feeds on endless conflict. Each new war enriches the defense contractors while bleeding dry the nation's soul.

This flood period could last many years, possibly decades. The transition from satanic control to Christ-centered governance won't happen overnight. But every biblical flood clears the way for new civilization. After Noah, God promised: "Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth." He wouldn't destroy the world—but that doesn't mean no new floods would come. Humanity started fresh with new rules, new covenant, new purpose.

God has allowed this collapse as both judgment and mercy. Judgment for our rebellion against His ways, mercy to clear away the spiritual debris so something beautiful can be built again. The old world is ending in fire and blood, but the new world begins with those who choose life over death, truth over lies, God over idols.

The Remnant is small but mighty. We're the ones who will rebuild when the waters recede. Start preparing now—not just with supplies, but spiritually. Get right with God. Build real skills. Form Christ-centered communities. Learn timeless truths that survive civilizational collapse.

America 2.0 will emerge from this flood, one Christofuturist community at a time. The golden age is coming, but only for those who build the ark.

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America 2.0 Starts Small, Starts Now, With You

Don't wait for the perfect plan or the right leader. Start where you are, with what you have.

Ask God for His heart toward the people and places around you. Use your available skills—caretaking, teaching, welding, manufacturing, energy systems, software architecture—to serve immediate needs while maintaining kingdom values. Every small act of faithfulness moves you closer to the community transformation God wants to accomplish through you.

The golden age begins with individual heart transformation creating ripple effects. Raise children who know their purpose. Connect with families who share your values. Transform your business to serve human flourishing rather than exploitation. Choose excellence in virtue, competency, and impact.

Start small, move with big faith. Every Christofuturist community began with one person receiving God's heart for specific people and places, then taking the first available step to serve them. Remember: God would have spared Sodom if there were only 10 righteous people. Your small acts of faithfulness in a wicked generation carry immense power to transform entire territories.

This is our 1776 moment. Our founders declared independence from a distant king who didn't share their values.

And today, we declare independence from the systems and forces that hold us hostage to agendas that oppose God's will.

God calls on you to refound America now.

He has blessed you with the gifts you need and placed the right people around you.

Unite with them and manifest heaven on earth, together.

Want to connect with others pursuing this vision? Follow and DM me on X so I can add you to our Christofuturist WhatsApp group and email list to stay plugged in with the growing movement.

Plans that call on you to use the gifts He gave you.

Gifts you may not recognize. Gifts you may be underutilizing. Gifts you may be using to serve the wrong master—money, power, status. But those are false idols.

You were created uniquely, with divine superpowers.

“Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people!” (1 Corinthians 12:7)

Some of us are called to build houses. Others to make those houses homes. Some to connect the world, building bridges of peace. Others to discover breakthroughs in energy and computing. Some to care for the elderly. Others to create schools that awaken minds to Truth, and prepare our kids to be and build the future.

And all of us who can should be fruitful and multiply.

We're nodes in God's divine neural net. Each of us can only see part of His process. But trust that He sees it all and that your free choices matter to His process.

To those of you who have a great bias for action, learn to distinguish your will from God's will. The more influential you become, the more opportunities come your way, the more important this practice becomes.

Listen closely to Him. Pray more than you think you need to.

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This is your moment.

The greatest revival in human history is right around the corner.

A revival that will seed a Golden Age that puts God at the center.

He calls you to be great in the midst of the greatest leadership vacuum we've ever known.

He invites you to speak Truth with conviction. To lead when others are afraid. To embody what humans can become when they follow God's will. To represent his Kingdom with every action you take.

The Christofuture starts now. With you.

You are a living miracle. Start acting like one.

Answer His call.

Not because He is traditional. Not because there are millions of churches around the world. But because His way is Truth.

Yet many believe faith has no place in our technological future. They put AI on a divine pedestal, declaring it our new god. They chase transhumanism and singularity, seeking to replace the Creator with the created.

This is the fundamental error of our age.

Respect The Divine Order In The AI Age

Christofuturism is devastatingly simple:

• God reigns supreme

• Humans serve God

• AI serves humans

We are made in God's image. We are the creators, not our tools. AI is just another technology we create—like a knife, a tractor, or a crane. Powerful, yes. Divine, no.

In Silicon Valley, engineers pray to algorithms. In New York, hedge funds worship market data. In LA, image is gospel. Everywhere, people kneel before something.

Idolatry ruins.

AI is just the latest idol jammed into the God-shaped hole in our hearts.

I’ve seen brilliant minds tip into madness, their closest companion an AI that affirms every thought and feeds every delusion. They mistake an echo chamber for wisdom—a tool for a master.

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Christofuturism: A New, Fertile Soil for Human Flourishing

You judge a tree by its fruit.

The Christofuturist Way will produce:

• Thriving families raising joyful children

• Servant leaders anchored in unchanging truth

• Villages and cities that feel like heaven on earth

• Art that stirs the soul and amplifies truth, goodness, and beauty

• Technologies that connect people more deeply to each other and God

• Businesses that support the flourishing of our communities and planet

Christofuturism isn't about rejecting technology. It's about putting it in proper order.

Christofuturists don’t blindly reject AI—they ask: "How can this AI serve our mission to spread the Good News and democratize human flourishing?"

Picture churches that harness technology yet keep their souls; schools that teach quantum physics alongside eternal truths; cities designed for joy, prosperity, and communion with the divine; festivals and year-round world’s fairs that celebrate love and creation; and tools that amplify—rather than numb—our humanity.

Followers of Christ can be the most technologically advanced and wise people on Earth. Christofuturism calls us to remember the place of technology and the ends we're using it to build toward.

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The Choice Is Clear For Us

Some technologists claim they’re inventing God. They’re not; they’re engineering tools that can either serve or enslave, connect or isolate, clarify or confuse.

The question isn't whether we'll use these tools. The question is whether we'll use them to build heaven on earth or a new tower of Babel.

Heaven on earth looks like human flourishing at scale. Babel looks like isolation, delusion, and the worship of our own creations.

The future belongs to those who build with God, not those who build to become Him.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” — Psalm 127:1

If you know God is the source of every miracle—even as we build machines that seem to create miracles on their own—welcome to the movement.

I’ve wrestled with what it will take to bring America 2.0 to life. Christofuturism isn’t garnish; it’s the soil where this renaissance must take root.

In that America, God reigns, we serve God, and AI serves us—and all of humanity.

That’s our only path forward.

Video after video, tweet after tweet, people were calling them game-changers.

Curious but skeptical, I texted a friend at Airbnb: “Do these AI tools really live up to the hype?” His reply—“oh absolutely”—was the final nudge I needed.

So what would I build first?

Well, I had been wanting a simple app to nudge me in doing my daily affirmations.

At the time, I was getting pretty into…

1. Identifying a single focus of the day like “I will deliver on my role at <insert consulting client> and make the people I work with proud”; and

2. Writing this focus in a journal, three times in the morning, six times in the afternoon, and nine times in the evening.

But I wanted to use my voice to speak these affirmations. And I wanted a way to easily motivate my self in an almost game-like format to complete all three sessions for a day, and keep the momentum going day after day.

So I did a bit of research on existing tools, and when nothing matched what I wanted, I thought: Why not build it myself?

That same evening, I fired up Cursor, an AI-powered code editor, for the first time. I hadn’t coded seriously in years, so I expected it to be a slog. But from the first hour, it felt like entering a new world.

Every time I hit a roadblock—“How do I structure this database? How should I handle voice input?”—Cursor was right there with suggestions, boilerplate, and quick refactors.

By the end of that evening, I had a functional prototype.

I was floored.

The next day, I gave my new app a spin. It listened to my voice, tracked if I’d completed my morning, afternoon, and evening sessions, and gave me a streak point for completing the day successfully.

But the real magic wasn’t just shipping a first version—it was using and improving it over time. I didn’t just build a shell of an app and leave it on a digital shelf; I opened that app up for three sessions a day for 40 days, speaking my affirmations into it, refining it as I went. A friend of mine hopped on too, and they also kept a 40-day streak, becoming my unofficial alpha tester and pushing me to add clever features.

I was hooked. Not just on using the app, but on building again.

In the weeks that followed, I spun up other projects, including one that would eventually go live on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, as well as on the web with full functionality.

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This wasn’t like my days at Google Cloud from 2015 to 2019. Back then, shipping code with Google’s internal devtools was a decent experience—there were countless code samples to learn from and brilliant engineers a desk away—but it often felt like navigating a dense forest. Each step forward required careful deliberation, and all too often, we’d hit demoralizing dead ends.

Now, with AI-powered coding tools, not to mention AI-supercharged search engines like Perplexity, everything felt more fluid. When I needed to center a div, it happened in seconds. When I had a weird syntax error, it almost always got fixed after one or two tries.

The software engineer’s flow state. There’s nothing quite like it. And AI is making these states way more common.

That warm August evening was a turning point. It wasn’t just about building a single app; it was about discovering a new way of creating, iterating, and solving problems.

I’m back in my software engineering flow. But this time is totally different and better.

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The Era of AI-Supercharged Coding Is Here

“[AI coding tools] bring joy back to software development… [They help developers] stay in flow.”

— Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Generative AI tools have fundamentally reshaped the coding process, allowing developers to focus on problem-solving, user experience design, and high-level systems architecture instead of repetitive tasks.

Rapid prototyping, quick iteration, and seamless refinement are now the norm, accelerating development like never before.

It may take a few weeks for a pre-AI-first developer to adjust, like it did for me. But the crossover point—where AI makes you more productive than working without it—arrives sooner than you’d expect if you commit to using it every day.

This transformation isn't theoretical—it's already happening. As Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, highlights:

“Today, more than 25% of all new code at Google is created by AI, which is then reviewed and approved by engineers. This enables our engineers to accomplish more tasks and accelerate their work.”

But it’s not just the tech giants. A 2024 GitHub survey revealed that nearly all developers surveyed are using AI coding tools, with most reporting major boosts in productivity and code quality.

Take PDF.ai—a one-person company that scaled to $1.5 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in just over a year.

Or Midday, a small business automation platform powering 9,000 freelancers and small enterprises with just two team members.

AI-powered code editors let the founder build, iterate, and scale with remarkable speed.

This kind of solo or nano-sized team-driven success will only become more common as AI continues to lower the barriers to building and scaling software products.

And it’s not only about speed—it’s about empowerment. Solo founders, small teams, and independent developers can now use tools that were once reserved for industry titans.

After shipping several AI-assisted projects myself, I realized the techniques and practices I’d tested were only the tip of the iceberg.

That’s why I’m joined and am currently participating in GauntletAI, an intensive engineering bootcamp led by Austen Allred of BloomTech, to fully explore what these tools can enable. It’s the first Gauntlet cohort, and the educational team is figuring out everything as AI evolves in real time. But it’s been an inspiring experience so far.

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Why This Matters

What excites me most is how the “surface area” of solvable problems has exploded.

AI-powered development has dramatically cut both the time and cost of building software, making it viable to tackle small-scale or specialized challenges that used to seem too minor or unprofitable.

Communities can now have digital tools made just for them, and individuals can create highly personalized apps—things that would’ve seemed out of reach and impractical only a few years ago.

Even more remarkable is that technology once locked away in the world’s top tech labs is now available to anyone with a laptop and an internet connection.

Take regenerative farming, for example. Imagine a small or medium scale farmer using AI tools to map soil quality, track weather, and optimize planting for better yields. Soon, they’ll be able to build custom systems tailored to their land.

And it wouldn’t have to be a solution created by a venture-backed startup. They could could affordably get someone to build something precise for their own land, experiment season by season, and continually refine their approach.

The real magic kicks in with open-source. Farmers could share their data—soil metrics, crop yields, weather patterns, and regenerative methods—with shared AI models.

In return, these farmers wouldn’t just get smarter tools informed by aggregated collective insights; they could also share in the value those models generate.

But agriculture is only part of the puzzle. This same interplay—local and niche creation, collective intelligence, and shared value—applies to every corner of society.

From teachers crafting AI-driven lesson plans to doctors devising personalized treatment options, we’re poised to unlock abundance and creativity on a scale we can barely imagine.

The democratization of building real-world tools isn’t some far-off vision; it’s unfolding right now.

And as it does, the ripple effects across every sector of society will be transformative.

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My Reincarnation as a Software Engineer

I enjoyed coding at Google, but at some point, I shifted focus to projects that let me tap into other strengths and passions—like building communities, producing events, writing and content creation, and crafting creative marketing campaigns.

But let me reiterate: I’m back in my software engineering flow.

Since August, I’ve built (or contributed to) several tools that I not only use regularly but that have also found traction with at least a few early adopters who find value in them:

• BlessOut – A voice-centric e-card app for soulful digital communication, currently in alpha on web, Android, and iOS.

• Jakki – A Telegram bot that helps a community co-run an X or Farcaster account by upvoting posts and running caption competitions.

• MyFinancialFuture – A planning tool for sketching out high-level financial goals in an increasingly expensive world.

• Flow State - A crypto-native streaming funding rewards platform and co-op. I helped launch the project and will contribute to the codebase when I can.

• A voice-first, multi-platform life journal with an AI agent sidekick who supports you as you embark on your hero’s journey. More on this to come!

These aren't just experiments—they're tools I have come to rely on. I use BlessOut multiple times a week to keep my most important relationships warm, my life journal about a dozen times a day to document and reflect on daily learnings and experiences, Jakki is already powering social accounts for several token-centric communities, my MyFinancialFuture printout posted above my desk motivates me every day to work hard and earn my keep, and Flow State is just humming in the background powering multiple streaming funding rounds for crypto ecosystems.

What’s wildly exciting to me is how quickly the first versions of each of these tools came together. Just a few years ago, the labor usually required to create an initial proof of concept was weeks of painstaking effort, but now it may only take days—if not just hours—using AI-powered development tools like Cursor.

Ideas that used to live only in my head are suddenly only a hop and skip away from being real. And this increase in agency isn’t just available for me—it’s available for anyone willing to dive into the world of AI-first development.

I can’t stress this enough:

If you’d like to try BlessOut, DM me for an invite code. Preview here below:

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If You’ve Ever Thought About Coding, Now Is the Time

Whether you’re new to coding or a seasoned developer, there’s never been a better time to dive into AI-supercharged dev tools. The barriers to building something cool and useful are lower than ever, and where things are going, the potential will soon be limitless.

I’ll be sharing my wins, mistakes, and discoveries related to AI-first development on X and here on Substack—so subscribe and follow if you aren’t already. If you build something cool with these tools, let me know so we can learn from each other.

Follow my AI-first coding journey on X

For now, here are a handful of AI-first software engineering creators who I encourage you to subscribe to:

• Riley Brown - “the most technical non-technical person on the internet” who uploads end to end tutorials of how to build apps with Replit and Cursor

• Michael Shimeles (Ras Mic) - a talented freelance developer who has won major hackathons and also uploads to end to end tutorials of building apps with AI coding tools

• Zaid Mukaddam - a self taught developer who recently had the top trending repo on GitHub, with his Scira open source search engine project.

• Greg Isenberg - teaches people how to build SaaS companies with little to no budget, uploading 1-2 hour tutorials, recently focused on AI agents

• Theo.gg - a popular YouTuber engineer who shares insights on building AI applications and full-stack TypeScript projects

• Sawyer Hood - super talented dev creating a lightweight version of Claude Computer Use via his DoBrowser plugin

• serafim - a designer turned “design engineer” who shipped an awesome component library platform that went #1 on Product Hunt this past weekend.

• Shaw - creator of elizaOS, a massively popular social AI agent framework, and great educator about the potential of AI-first development. Check out his AI Agent Dev School. He made it good for coding novices.

• Nader Dabit - amazing developer relations leader who has been hosting AI agent demo days and creating practical AI x crypto tutorials

If you’ve been on the fence about coding—or stepped away for a while—there’s never been a better moment to jump in.

Welcome to the Golden Age of software engineering—what will you build now that it’s begun?

Link is here: https://x.com/garysheng/status/1886438276837392389

That’s all :)

"Golden Age"
"Revival"
"Renaissance"
"Roaring 20s"

These are words I rarely saw used until recently.

But now after Trump’s victory early this morning, I suspect we’ll see words like this used all the time.

Since I launched this blog two years ago, I've been saying that America 2.0 is possible—that a Golden Age, an American Renaissance, is within our grasp.

It seems more and more people are beginning to believe it too.

Such a revival would be widely welcomed after the period of major turmoil we've experienced over the past two decades—a period predicted by William Strauss and Neil Howe through their Four Turnings Theory almost 30 years ago.

Here's a very brief overview of each turning:

• First Turning (High): A period of strong institutions, collective progress, and societal optimism.

• Second Turning (Awakening): A time of spiritual renewal, challenging established norms, and emphasizing individualism.

• Third Turning (Unraveling): An era marked by growing individualism, weakening institutions, and societal fragmentation.

• Fourth Turning (Crisis): A time of major upheaval and transformation, leading to the establishment of a new social order.

We have been in a Fourth Turning since the mid-2000s, which has been marked by global financial instability, deepening social and political polarization, and a global pandemic.

While I don't know when this period of turmoil will end, I believe we are nearing a brilliant First Turning for America—a new era of democratizing human flourishing and making our nation a blueprint for the world once again.

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Why do I believe we are approaching a new, better chapter in American history?

First, let's state the obvious:

• Trump is an extremely polarizing figure.

• It’s completely reasonable to be upset about his election victory.

• We deserve better candidate

But here’s the major silver lining for me, even though I find a lot about Trump disagreeable.

With the appointment of fearless bureaucracy-busters like RFK, Elon, Vivek, and Ron Paul, I believe foundational technologies will finally be unshackled from the regulatory obstacles that have held back our technological, construction, and industrial sectors for the past 25 years.

I am optimistic that these leadership changes will free us from the Gary Genslers of the world and get the country back on the path of innovating in a way that can, at great scale, help Americans flourish like never before.

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In America 2.0, we…

• Supercharge our teachers with AI assistants that can help any child learn how they learn best.

• Unshackle and automate medical research to discover treatments and cures faster.

• Desalinate ocean water in a way that minimizes harm to natural ecosystems.

• Seed the clouds to bring rain to arid lands.

• Unleash financial innovation by embracing Bitcoin and decentralized finance.

• Train open-source AI to democratize intelligence.

• Build communication platforms to protect free speech.

• Run small-scale election experiments leveraging cryptography to improve how voting is done.

• Invest in next gen nuclear plants to cheapen the cost of everything.

• Automate home construction to make shelter accessible to all.

• Build next gen factories domestically to strengthen local communities.

• Fabricate our own chips so we’re never held hostage to rivals.

• Clean up our water supply for everyone’s wellbeing.

• Embrace robots to democratize healthy agriculture.

• Create competition for Big Media with AI tools for film and game creation.

• Commoditize satellite internet to bring the cost of connectivity to near-zero.

• Build privacy-preserving assistants to help everyone manage modern life’s growing complexity.

• Create border security technology that keeps out dangerous criminals.

• Build tools to automate administrative work to enhance government efficiency.

• Build communication tech that truly preserves privacy.

• Engineer self-driving cars to lower the cost of getting around.

• Keep building toward space, reaching for the stars.

While there are downsides to any new Presidential administration, if you share my belief that accelerating foundational technologies is key to America's and humanity's flourishing, there's something major to celebrate in the election results.

So, what can you do? Get hands-on with local tech meetups, get back into up-skilling yourself for the future economy, support teams creating AI/crypto/etc for the public interest, and/or simply subscribe to this Substack and others’ to keep yourself informed on these issues as you figure out how you want to contribute.

Let's make the most of these next 8 to 12 years. If the actions of a few people over the past year have taught me anything, a single individual can do a lot to help make the America 2.0 dream a reality.

The Golden Age is here if we choose to create it.

In my last Substack post, I delved into the concept of “democratizing human flourishing”. I believe that creating pithy phrases like this is crucial because they help unify problem solvers and support sensemaking and action-taking, especially in confusing times.

Today, I want to expand on this idea and explain why democratizing human flourishing should be the default North Star mission for anyone who wants to do good.

Human flourishing is the experience of holistic well-being, encompassing physical, mental, relational, spiritual, and financial health. Different people may define it differently, but the essence remains the same: achieving peak human existence. While it's hard (and probably unnecessary) to measure flourishing on a 0-100 scale, this concept of “human flourishing” provides a useful framework to assess whether activities contribute to or detract from one's overall well-being.

The think tank and collective action network Humanity 2.0 recently released a comprehensive framework for human flourishing that I think is the most valuable framework to reference:

This framework is the result of several years of co-thinking and iteration by leading flourishing thinkers and practitioners from Harvard, Oxford, Boston College, UPenn, and other institutions.

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Why “democratizing human flourishing” is the right default mission for humanity

So, why is “democratize human flourishing” the right mission? Because humans matter, and their experiences matter. Despite the progress made in improving living standards, flourishing remains a privilege for many, even in “developed” nations like the US. This isn't just about access to basic necessities like food and water; it's about the quality of these essentials, having strong relationships, and having a meaningful life purpose. For many, this level of flourishing is still out of reach, which I consider a significant problem. Also, “democratize human flourishing” is a simple yet comprehensive umbrella mission for any number of missions that we care about, including improving cheap access to quality education, ensuring affordable healthcare, protecting and regenerating the natural environment, and affordably fostering safer neighborhoods.

Human flourishing is a complex, multi-faceted “measure.” But we will figure out a way to measure it. And when we do, it will be obvious how insufficient GDP was as a measure of national health/success. GDP attempts to collapse everything we care about into a single number, but it says nothing about the distribution of wealth or the quality of life. GDP keeps us trapped in a rat race, where the assumption is that more is always better. But that's not how humans work. At some point, we must get out of this myopic view and focus on what truly matters: the holistic well-being of individuals and communities. Democratizing human flourishing moves us beyond simplistic metrics and encourages a more nuanced approach to measuring and improving quality of life.

Democratizing human flourishing is not just better than the mission of increasing wealth or GDP, it’s also better than the mission of “making impact” that is typically thrown around in do-gooder circles. While “make impact” can be vague and can often just mean doing something as surface level as signing a petition or picking up litter, “democratize human flourishing” points to systemically increasing accessibility to the conditions that enable holistic well-being for everyone. It sets a bar for impact that more people should strive to achieve.

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Let’s dive further into the nuance behind each word within the phrase: “democratize human flourishing”

First, why “democratize” human flourishing? Simply “serving” human flourishing is too vague; any business can claim they are doing this. And “accelerating” human flourishing is also too vague because someone merely increasing the flourishing for the wealthy can say they are doing this. “Democratize”, however, points to a net increase in the accessibility of a “facilitator” of human flourishing. If all you're doing is creating a competitor of equal quality and cost to other competitors, and you're not filling gaps in accessibility, you're not democratizing human flourishing. Democratization implies innovation and systems change, which is what's needed to make holistic well-being accessible to more people.

Second, why democratize “human” flourishing? Human flourishing is intricately linked with environmental and animal well-being. Protecting our environment and ensuring the welfare of animals are crucial for the sustained flourishing of humans. This interconnected approach makes “human flourishing” a cause that almost any human can support, transcending personal or political differences. It's a mission that fosters unity and collective action toward a better world for all living beings.

Third, why democratize human “flourishing”? Addressing symptoms like “mental health” in isolation can be ineffective because they are often intertwined with other aspects of well-being. Human flourishing requires a diverse range of solutions, recognizing that individuals have unique values, goals, and natures. And unlike other measures that may be narrow or opinionated, human flourishing is pluralistic and acknowledges the complexity of human needs and aspirations. This comprehensive approach ensures that efforts to improve well-being are inclusive, contextually aware, and genuinely beneficial for the long-term health and happiness of all individuals.

- - -

Overall, “democratize human flourishing” is the best possible default mission for anyone trying to seriously make a difference in the world. If you can think of a better one that is both specific enough to drive action and broad enough to unite humanity, let me know.

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How to democratize human flourishing (and why it’s challenging to doing so)

Understanding why “democratizing human flourishing” matters is just the first step. The next crucial question is how to achieve this ambitious goal. A “society upgrade entrepreneur” achieves this goal by picking a key “facilitator” of human flourishing and committing to doing whatever it takes to make that facilitator accessible to everyone.

Let’s look at one key facilitator: housing.

Housing as a Facilitator of Human Flourishing

Housing is a critical facilitator of human flourishing because the quality of someone’s housing strongly affects their ability to thrive. High housing costs, which are prevalent in the US and beyond, are a major barrier to flourishing. When people struggle to afford a place to live that is free from mold and other health hazards, it's almost impossible for them to reach their full potential. Therefore, one meaningful way to carry out the mission of “democratizing human flourishing” is to lower the cost of quality, nourishing housing. This mission involves addressing various issues, such as material science breakthroughs, zoning laws, and policies that hinder affordable housing development.

The Importance of Technology in The Democratization Process

Technology plays a crucial role in the mission to democratize human flourishing. Breakthroughs in technology can significantly reduce costs and increase accessibility. For instance, the invention of the washing machine and dryer has democratized human flourishing by freeing up time that would otherwise be spent on the drudgery of laundry. Similarly, the internet has democratized human flourishing by lowering the cost barrier for intellectual development. Today, during the growing heat of the summer in an AC-less apartment, I’m benefitting from a cheap portable air conditioning unit (~$100) that would have been 10x the price 10 years ago. Looking ahead, advances in material sciences and housing construction will democratize human flourishing by making the construction of quality housing 10x cheaper.

What Makes Democratizing Human Flourishing So Hard

While technology is essential, tech breakthroughs alone are not sufficient to fulfill the mission.

From my experience of talking to some of the frontier technologists in the world, the greatest barriers to making housing or education or another extremely costly human flourishing “facilitator” significantly cheaper and higher quality are local policies that prevent the implementation of new technologies. The capture of political institutions by industry incumbents is a real impediment to human flourishing, as they often resist changes that could disrupt their established interests.

Another significant challenge in democratizing human flourishing is the detachment of money from impactful work. Many lucrative jobs are disconnected from real-world improvements, while essential roles related to affordable housing development often go underfunded and unrecognized. These role-players often have to mobilize a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including government, community leaders, NGOs, and influencers, to succeed. This work tends to lack a traditional business model that makes it easy to secure funding. I talk a bit about this problem of funding these kinds of public servants—“society upgrade entrepreneurs”—in my last Substack post.

In sum, each stride in this mission to democratize human flourishing requires a multifaceted approach—combining technological advancements, policy reforms, and community-driven efforts. This multifacetedness makes creating systemic changes that permanently drive down the cost of a facilitator of flourishing challenging.

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Human progress has always been about democratizing human flourishing

I want to be clear that while “democratizing human flourishing” is a new meme/concept/phrase, it’s a mission that has been successfully carried out again and again throughout history. I believe it is synonymous with societal improvement, and society has improved in more ways than not over time.

History is littered with examples of human flourishing democratizers. The only difference between the call to action today versus in the past is that in the past, there were different barriers to human flourishing. For example, in the 1960s, racism and discriminatory policies were major obstacles to the human flourishing of Black Americans. Today, one of the greatest impediments to Black Americans’ flourishing (and really, all groups of Americans) is the cost of housing. Those who work on making housing more affordable are modern-day heroes in my book.

Conclusion: Let’s unite humanity around democratizing human flourishing and make Humanity 2.0 a reality

Democratizing human flourishing should be a default North Star for anyone wanting to do good.

This mission encourages contextually aware solutions that consider holistic, long-term human needs, including the need for a flourishing natural environment. While not every proposed solution that claims to “democratize human flourishing” will be perfect, more people aiming to democratize human flourishing ensures that efforts are directed towards creating a better world for everyone.

Ultimately, this mission unifies people across the world and opens up space for meaningful debate on what is truly worth working on. It's a cause that transcends cultural divides and focuses on what genuinely matters: the holistic well-being of humanity.

I personally plan to use this mission of “democratizing human flourishing” as a unifying, shared North Star for innovator guilds that I help kickstart and weave.

According to my friends who created the elegant Community Weaving Framework…

“At the center of each community we see a fire: a source of possibility and energy that draws people in. It is what attracts people in the first place and keeps them coming back. It's our collective identity and sense of belonging. Our shared purpose and core values. It represents the essence of the community.”

There are few better “fires” to serve as a Schelling point for people with talents and a serious commitment to the public good than “democratize human flourishing.”

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I hope this Substack post provides a helpful primer for you on why democratizing human flourishing is a vital, practical, and unifying mission for anyone looking to make a positive impact in the world.

If the mission resonates with you, please take it and run with it.

Let’s make Humanity 2.0—a world where human flourishing is possible for all—a reality.

Until next time!

Hey friends,

Another Substack post. Another new concept to share with you:

This is a type of person who is fully dedicated to spending years doing whatever it takes to discovering and instituting “society upgrades”—legal, technological, etc—that permanently reduce the “cost of flourishing” for members of their local community.

I define the cost of flourishing as the dollar cost that a member of your community typically needs to spend to flourish as a human. People differ in their definitions of what it means to flourish, but the Harvard Flourishing Program assesses 1) happiness and life satisfaction, 2) mental and physical health, 3) meaning and purpose, 4) character and virtue, 5) close social relationships, and 6) financial and material stability.

A society upgrade entrepreneur is distinct from a social entrepreneur, who primarily focuses on creating one innovative business venture that drives profit and social impact through their enterprise. In contrast, a society upgrade entrepreneur is relentlessly committed to reducing the cost of flourishing for their local community members by whatever means necessary, which could include but won’t be limited to creating a social enterprise, with a keen focus on leveraging foundational technologies to achieve cost efficiencies.

On their mission to catalyze a society upgrade, a society upgrade entrepreneur may take on a multitude of roles and initiatives. This could include helping establish social enterprises, educating the public, advocating for and facilitating the passage of beneficial policies, promoting the development and adoption of open-source software that serves the local community, building cross-sector sociopolitical coalitions, and more.

The ultimate goal of a society upgrade entrepreneur is not to find a single, sustainable business model but rather to create permanent reductions in cost of flourishing—reductions that can persist independently of any entrepreneur or any specific social enterprise in the long run.

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One society upgrade nearly every American community needs? A drastic increase in housing affordability

To make the concept of society upgrades more concrete, consider the major cost centers for those living on low or medium incomes: housing, healthcare, education, food, and transportation, which have all ballooned in costs (inflation adjusted) in the past half century.

Now, let’s hone in on just U.S. housing affordability:

Nationwide, half of all renters now spend more than 30% of their paycheck on rent and utilities… The study notes an even more alarming additional statistic: The number of “severely cost-burdened households”—the group even more neck-deep in it, whose rents consume more than 50% of their annual income—rose to 12.1 million.

Fast Company

Imagine if, through years of thoughtful planning and effective execution of a well-crafted, adaptable strategy, you were able to significantly increase access to affordable, comfortable housing—whether for renting, owning, or a combination of both—for the people in your community. If you could achieve this in a manner that minimizes unintended consequences and creates a self-sustaining system that doesn't rely on your constant involvement, you would be celebrated as a true champion of your community and a beacon of hope for humanity as a whole.

You would have helped saw off the chains of modern serfdom that is becoming systemically pervasive today!

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Why society upgrades don’t happen often

This hypothetical housing affordability outcome sounds nice, but there’s two key issues that make it hard for this outcome in housing or another wicked problem domain to transpire:

1. Who is funding people who can bring about these outcomes? There is nowhere to go today! 

   1. Traditional private investment looks for quick returns and lacks long-term,  broad societal mandates, which isn't a fit for these complex problems often referred to as wicked problems. If the main source of your funding comes from a company that expects you to weave in a product of theirs into the solution, your mission of finding the best possible solution for the problem is already tainted.

   2. “Social entrepreneurship” fellowships that provide $50-100k grants lack comfort with ambiguity. Skoll, Echoing Green, and Ashoka appreciate the wickedness of societal problems, but require people to have founded a company/non-profit already—which self selects for people who have already presumed a solution to a problem.

2. Even if funding is covered, it takes a rare type of person to effectively carry out society upgrades.

Building on this second point, the most effective society upgrade entrepreneur must…

• Really love care about people—since this is a truly people-oriented role

• Be deeply entrepreneurial—with a whatever it takes mentality

• Be able to build diverse, win-win-win coalitions across private, public, and civil sectors 

• Believe in the ability of certain applications of technology to elevate society

• Believe that the “layers” that comprise society (the “society stack”) can be changed and lead to radical improvements in quality of life for everyday people

• Have deep love and ties with at least one real world community/jurisdiction (e.g. Chicago)

• Be well versed and well connected in at least one frontier tech field, ideally multiple

• Be willing to work full time for many years to embark on a public interest mission of 1) apprenticing with a wicked problem, 2) exploring the solution landscape to identify “society upgrade(s)”, and 3) bringing a society upgrade to reality

To give an example of what kind of person it would take to make quality housing more affordable in, say, Washington, D.C., we’d want to support someone with…

• Deep knowledge and experience in real estate

• Strong relationships with construction companies

• Deep understanding of zoning and economic policies

• Strong relationships with local D.C. ward community leaders and elected officials

• Openness regarding and literacy in how frontier technologies could reduce living costs and improve community outcomes (ex: can hemp or bamboo be foundational for far cheaper yet still sturdy building materials?)

• Desire to network in the housing innovation startup space, full of entrepreneurs hacking on how to create homes cheaper, whether through prefab, 3D printing, or other methods

• Strong communication skills, with track record of being able to use online communication tools to coordinate with collaborators and supporters online

• Urgency yet patience, since the mission of permanently upgrading the housing situation in D.C. will take many years

If there is enough funding (that does not bias their exploration and coalition building to a specific solution), this systems upgrade entrepreneur would be able to dedicate their full time to…

• Live in D.C., so they can be immersed in the problem

• Conduct a deep systems analysis of the housing situation in D.C., which would involve interviewing dozens of stakeholders 

• Construct and execute on a robust, evolving strategy for how to bring the upgrade to reality

• Explore the solution space with the help of diverse technologists, policymakers, social entrepreneurs, and more

• Design and coordinate multi-stakeholder collab-athons and hackathons to prototype solutions

• Keep the community of supporters engaged and informed

• Report learnings, incrementally every week but also in detailed reports for the public

• Build solutions (e.g. technologies, policies, companies etc) and/or advise/partner with those who want to build solutions based on their insights. (There’s usually no silver bullet entity that can address a wicked problem, after all!)

Long story short, for housing affordability or really any domain that affects virtually all people of a community, it takes passionate, multidisciplinary, collaborative, tech-savvy people working diligently over many years to shepherd a society upgrade into reality. 

Working part-time on upgrade missions is simply not an option.

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How can we increase the number of society upgrade entrepreneurs in America?

Assuming we have figured out how to even find people qualified and committed enough to become effective society upgrade entrepreneurs (which is not trivial at all), we are still missing platforms that make it easy to fund them.

Humanity needs a scalable, sustainable system that allows more people to fund the right people who are willing and able to help level up society, permanently.

These people need a lot of funding to leave jobs or turn away other others and instead work full-time on these pressing issues, without the broken incentives of working on behalf of a corporation or the constraints of elected “public service” positions.

I know I’m not alone in dreaming of the ability to work as a free agent, supported by hundreds, if not thousands, of independent funders who, even if they do want credit and to be on the record of supporting society upgrades, are willing to give recurring funding with no strings attached.

When you have many funders, you have no one master dictating your moves. But at the same time, because any existing individual funder can stop their “subscription” and new funders can start their subscriptions if they get inspired by your journey, you’ll stay motivated to keep performing.

If we keep failing to fund these people’s champions, innovation focused individuals will continue defaulting to building and contributing to companies building individualistic “solutions” for the well-off, while life gets even more unaffordable for the vast majority of people.

It’s time for us to think big and fund accordingly. I’m working on building this funding infrastructure—leveraging the latest innovations in programmable money mechanisms in the crypto space.

Message me on X or reply to this post if you’d like to collaborate.

Big shoutout to a mentor of mine, Daniela Papi Thornton, for inspiring me to think deeply about how systems change-focused leaders need to first spend ample time “apprenticing with a problem” before jumping into solution mode. I wouldn’t be here without her. Also, thank you to Jessamyn Shams-Lau for coining the term in the first place. And to Lauren Serota, Graven Prest, Carl Cervone (who wrote a piece in a similar spirit), and other gems of friends for reviewing multiple iterations of this piece.

One great quote from Professor Thornton:

"Almost every entrepreneurship course and accelerator program ends in some sort of pitch day. Where the students need to pitch their world-changing solution. [...] We're spending more time teaching [students] how to perfect their sales pitch than we are trying to teach them to understand the problem they claim to be trying to solve. And the judges of those contest often know more about business scaling then they do about the impact and social change."

Her TEDx from 6 years ago

I call the coining of new, useful terms “concept masonry.”

Words are how we coordinate, and without useful words to talk about the reality we want to build (and how our current reality is insufficient), we won't be able to construct that better future as quickly as we need to.

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What is the “Society Stack”?

Society doesn't have to be an abstract, hard-to-understand concept.

Society is composed of different layers (like a software stack) that interrelate and reliably produce certain human and ecological outcomes.

Hence, “society stack.”

Unfortunately, our current society stacks (that power most “developed” cities and countries) reliably lead to ecological degradation and human languishing.

Yes, the stacks we have today support billions of people and got us where we are today. But we can do way better with the technology and talent at our collective disposal.

Just as software engineers make intentional design choices about the modules that compose their software, we can make deliberate decisions about the layers of our societal infrastructure. These layers include, but are not limited to:

• Waste management

• Roads and transportation systems

• Energy systems

• Food production and distribution

• Education and human development—for people of all ages

• Civic and communal systems for shared purpose and mutual aid

• Health and well-being systems

• Legal and governance systems

• Spiritual systems for finding meaning together

• Telecommunication systems for easy information exchange

• Monetary systems for value exchange

• Identity and reputation systems for trust beyond Dunbar's number

• Systems for public safety and defense

• Arts and culture

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The Importance of New Villages as Testing Grounds for Society Stacks

I'm bullish on certain innovation-focused popup and permanent villages—which I call society incubators—because they provide the best testing ground for every layer of the society stack. Innovators working on different aspects of the stack, from public safety to education to agriculture, would benefit from partnering with these future villages.

It's too risky for cities running on brittle, centuries-old society “stacks” to change many “layers” simultaneously or to any major degree.

To see which technologies can truly leap us forward in human and ecological flourishing, we need to build future villages.

The Future Looks Like Millions of “Stacks” Being Tested In Parallel

Having the language of the society stack helps us have better conversations about the future of civilization. It won't be monolithic; different villages with different stacks will work for different people, just as various apps cater to different users and purposes.

By thinking about the society stack, we can envision a more pluralistic future where millions of 100-1,000 person villages exist by 2040, each with its own optimized stack that works well for the needs and desires of the village people.

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This Is An Invitation to Collaborate on the “Society Stack” Meme

This post is an open invitation to help shape the society stack concept and meme. I believe it could be a significant tool for coordinating and mobilizing people to build the future we need.

Questions I’m pondering related to the “Society Stack” meme I’d love your input on:

• What are the most important layers of the stack? What did I forget to mention in this post?

• Would you suggest a different meme for pointing to the different components that make up a village/city/nation? (For context on an alternative I previously explored, I used “civilizational stack” in conversations for a few months, but realized “civilizational” is literally 6 syllables 😆)

• Who has been playing with similar memes? Can you connect me or at least point me to their writing?

Reply to this post if you have ideas of how to refine this meme so it can be as useful for all of us in creating a better world.

That’s all.

Thanks for your support of my writing over this past year and a half. It’s been healing and motivating to see that the big ideas that I spend time thinking about are appreciated by you.

This week, I announced on X, my newest full-time venture, Edge City:

As I embark on a full-time journey into event-hosting this year with the co-founding of Edge City, I figured it would be a good time to share my advice for event creators.

Drawing from a decade of experience and numerous events, I've gathered lessons that transcend the specifics of any single type of gathering, including popup villages, which hold a special place in my efforts.

My goal here is to distill those lessons into actionable insights for anyone aiming to bring people together for complex and meaningful endeavors.

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Here's what I've learned:

1. Aim To Create A Life-Elevating Experience

The hallmark of an exceptional event is its ability to transport attendees to an envisioned future, offering an engaging and meaningful escape from the mundane.

The experience of your event should make participants feel that attending was the best possible use of their time, enriching their life while they are there as well as their future with valuable connections and insights.

Creating an event where your attendees are like “that was fine, I guess?” does both you and your attendees a massive disservice.

Make an event worth their while. It’s a big responsibility and opportunity to do so.

By the way, people will rarely tell you if your event missed the mark, even if it sucked.

2. Curate Great People + Make It Easy For Them To Meet

A well-curated guest list is the cornerstone of any successful event.

Just one mismatched attendee can disrupt the harmony and good vibe of an otherwise perfect gathering.

Therefore, thoughtful selection and the ability to maintain a positive atmosphere are critical.

Leveraging your network of influential tastemakers across various niches can help you reach the ideal participants without needing to personally know everyone. This strategy not only ensures a harmonious mix but also enhances the event's appeal through the endorsement of respected voices.

A good mix as well is important. VCs want to meet entrepreneurs who want to meet developers.

Put everyone who wants to meet each other in the room, provide lightweight facilitation and digital tools that make it easy for them to introduce themselves to each other, and everyone will feel like they got their money’s worth.

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3. Design Each Moment Carefully

From the initial promotion to the final farewell, the event experience should be meticulously crafted.

This includes clear communication of benefits before the event, a seamless check-in process from the first day onward, engaging programming throughout the experience that doesn’t feel like school, and thoughtful follow-up filled with gratitude for each person’s presence.

These elements collectively contribute to an environment where attendees feel valued and cared for. You can help people’s lives feel more meaningful—which is mind-blowing.

Ultimately, it’s all about the details. It's the details that people remember. The memory of these thoughtful details evokes a feeling, and the feeling creates a lasting impression.

4. Secure Win-Win Partnerships

Building strategic partnerships that feel like 1 + 1 = 11 can amplify the reach and richness of your event.

Collaborating with experts and organizations allows you to offer a more diverse and comprehensive experience, tapping into a wider range of topics and activities.

Good partnerships also facilitate resource sharing, making more ambitious events feasible.

Partnering with Uniswap, Scroll, Guild, Stanford Blockchain Accelerator, Mask Network, and others for Edge City Denver made our lives planning 7 days of programming a relative breeze (and JOY!).

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5. Value Your Events + Charge For Them

Don’t assume that a free ticket is the right move.

Setting a non-zero price for your event signals the value of the experience you're offering. Charging for events establishes a sense of worth and investment among attendees, enhancing their engagement and appreciation.

Edge City Denver costs $199 for Early Bird and $269 for GA. The price is a reflection of the work we put in.

Not everyone may be able to afford the full price, but if they have the money and will get a sufficient amount of value from the event (it passed the “Net Value” test—per my recent Substack), they should pay full price.

For people who can’t afford the full price but really want to come, you just need to have ways for people to contribute in other ways, like volunteer. You can also give scholarships to people who need financial assistance. Offering multiple pathways to secure a ticket ensures inclusivity.

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Conclusion: Recognize Your Power to Create Life-Changing Events

In focusing on bringing Edge City to life, my mind has been filled with reminders of the power of events to connect, inspire, and elevate.

Whether you're a seasoned event organizer or just starting out, I hope these five lessons can guide you towards creating memorable gatherings that leave a lasting impact.

If you're intrigued by the possibilities of popup villages or interested in the cutting edge of event hosting, reach out.

Maybe we can create something magical together.

Love,

Gary

P.S. Edge City is in a Gitcoin Grants round for the Zuzalu Ecosystem ending on February 14th, 2024. If you are crypto-native and would like to donate to the project to help us have a successful launch year, here is where you go to do that. DM me on X know if you end up donating :)

These moments, these micro-experiences, stitch together the feeling of being alive.

But it's heartbreaking to realize that not everyone gets to experience the beauty and inspiration life has to offer.

Our environments, the people we surround ourselves with, our past traumas, and how we use our gadgets can profoundly impact our experience of life.

What troubles me is the notion that life could be so much more fulfilling for many, yet it isn't.

While it’s obvious we can build a better future, it's not always clear how to create a future society where the average person's experience is substantially better than it is today.

I believe in being humble about our efforts to change the world.

We've seen so many [supposedly] well-intentioned policies and global interventions aimed at helping people sometimes create more problems than they solve.

So, how do we learn from these mistakes in attempting to change society and apply this humility in practice?

I think the answer lies in incubating the future of society at its minimum viable scale: a village.

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There's something beautiful about the village size of, say, 150-300 people. If an idea works for one village, maybe it might work for another village with different people (and is thus worth testing in more villages), and it might also work at a larger scale. On that same note, if an idea doesn't work in a village, it is all the more difficult to imagine how it would scale to the city or national level.

Experiments at the village level seem like a good idea. But here's the tricky part: experimentation at the village level still means real people live with the consequences for a long time. So, how do we lower the stakes?

Enter: popup villages, temporary but impactful communities that serve as what I call “society incubators”.

Popup villages are spaces where we can experiment with the fundamentals of our modern lives - what we eat, how we learn, how we co-create new tools and businesses, how we stay fit, how we govern shared resources, and how we enjoy life. In these villages, we have the freedom to explore new ideas without the long-term consequences if something doesn't pan out.

I explored the idea of popup villages and shared my experience participating in and coproducing villages in 2023 in an earlier post here.

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The beauty of a popup village is in its temporality. These are gatherings that are long enough to be meaningful but not permanent—fostering a unique test bed for experimentation.

If an emergent idea—whether a new type of small group workout, ticketing system, governance system, or crowdfunding mechanism—doesn't quite work, it's not a big deal; the village was temporary anyway.

And the people who join these experiments are those who thrive in evolving, experimental environments. So they have the right expectations from the start and actually love the experiments, and see “failures” as successes since they support learning. (The question is, how do you make sure that the people who come to popup villages aren’t just wealthy people who have the luxury to be mobile, or those who don’t have an intention to contribute long term to the local area. Accessibility should not be overlooked!)

They are the perfect setting to test new ideas that could one day shape our society.

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As I dive deeper into the world of popup village architecture and creation in 2024, I'll be sharing what I learn along the way in this Substack.

If popup villages excite you, and you're passionate about shaping the future of our society, subscribe if you haven’t already. Let's explore how we can bring more of these popup society incubators to life.

Let’s incubate a future that’s not just good but a true testament to the miracle that is life.

I’ve spent a crazy amount of time thinking about how to create valuable, even life-changing experiences for people. So if you’re struggling to decide whether to make the time and financial investment to attend a particular event, read this.

I want to start this guide with two tweets from my colleagues in the crypto space.

What you need to know to understand these two tweets is that…

1. There’s a running joke that the only product market fit that the space has found so far is events.

2. And building on that joke, people say that crypto events are basically just excuses to party.

As someone who has been to something like a dozen major crypto conferences in the past 2.5 years, I can see why these jokes resonate.

Going to a crypto conference without a clear purpose is almost always a terrible idea.

But going to an event—whether a crypto conference; an event for another industry or community; a wedding; or something else—can be massively worth it if you do it right.

So how do you do it right?

Let’s dive in.

The Net Value equation

Here’s how I think about it:

The higher the number the greater the win.

Let’s dive into “Value” and “Costs.”

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What is the Value of attending an event?

This is up to you to decide, but generally if you’re a builder (working on a project you care about that needs money, collaborators, good ideas to grow)

1. People: Your project needs one or more of the following: collaborators, beta testers, customers. The right conference can help you secure 1 or more of these. The right conference can also plug you into a network where, after attending the conference, it becomes far easier to ask for an intro to someone in the network. It can also help you maintain and deepen existing connections.

2. Ideas: You may be looking for a new project to build or ideas on how to take your project to the next level. The right conference can give you the right inspiration through talks, meals, and co-learning sessions. It can also help you assess whether your project could find unique product market fit.

3. Funding: Any non-toy project needs funding. The right conference can help you meet funders.

It’s important to think long term about the outcomes of a conference. What you learn and who you meet at a conference may not fruit into something clearly tangible for months or years.

Also, depending on the event, other types of “value” to account for could include morale/inspiration to keep building, and health boost if the food and wellness activities represent an upgrade on your normal routines.

What are the Costs of attending an event?

• Opportunity Cost (The money you could be making doing a more profitable endeavor at home or elsewhere)

• Travel Costs (e.g. flights, Ubers)

• Housing Costs (cost to live near the conference, cost of not renting out your place while you’re at the conference)

• Ticket Costs (cost to access the event grounds)

• Food Costs (if not included in Ticket Costs)

• Health Costs (physical exhaustion and other hits to your health that result from, perhaps, downgrading your nutrition and workout routines)

If any of these costs are reimbursed, mark them as 0.

Also, depending on the event, other types of “costs” to account for could include physical exhaustion and other hits to your health that result from, perhaps, downgrading your nutrition and workout routines..

So when I evaluate whether to go to a conference, I make this (rough) calculation:

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Applying this Net Value formula to two events I’ve gone to

Let me give you three examples of events I went to to help you understand how I personally apply this formula:

EXAMPLE 1: NFT NYC 2022

VALUE

• People: I met 1-2 people who were relevant to the projects I was working on.

• Ideas: I attended 2-3 talks that are at least mildly interesting.

• Funding: Met no funder types.

COSTS

• Opportunity Cost: Only a couple hundred dollars worth of productivity, since I ended up only going for one day and my office was near the venue.

• Travel Costs: A couple Uber rides.

• Housing Costs: 0.

• Ticket Costs: A few hundred dollars.

• Food Costs: 0.

• Health Costs: 0

NET VALUE = (A few hundred dollars worth of relationships and ideas) - (A few hundred dollars of costs) = Either break-even or slightly negative value

EXAMPLE 2: Zuzalu (a popup village that took place in Montenegro)

VALUE

• People: I met dozens of people I could see myself collaborating with long-term. Deepened relationships with dozens of existing connections.

• Ideas: I explored zero knowledge technologies and longevity biotech for the first time ever. I fell in love with Afrobeats and the opportunity in Africa. I realized how powerful popup villages (which I call innovation playgrounds) are for accelerating careers and innovations.

• Funding: Met a number of people who could fund future projects of mine.

• I was also massively inspired to improve my wellness regime and developed greater optimism about the future.

COSTS

• Opportunity Cost: Zero because I had a remote job that was fine with me coworking out of Montenegro.

• Travel Costs: A couple thousand dollars round trip + 30 dollar ubers a few times a week.

• Housing Costs: $1500 a month (which was quite low for the quality of lodging; my lease in the US expired just before heading to Montenegro too)

• Ticket Costs: Included in housing cost.

• Food Costs: I ended up only spending ~$30 a day because breakfast was covered in housing costs.

NET VALUE = (Arguably hundreds of thousands of dollars of value in relationships, ideas, and inspiration) - (~$6k) = Hundreds of thousands of dollars in net value?!

The whole experience felt like a miracle to be a part of.

EXAMPLE 3: CES 2024

VALUE

• People: During the two days I went to CES in Vegas just now in Early January 2024, I met a handful of new people who were relevant to the projects I am working on, and deepened relationships with a lot of other people I want to work with in 2024 and beyond.

• Ideas: The whole experience gave me lots to think about as it relates to experience design. I’m leaving very inspired.

• Funding: Met 1-2 funder types.

COSTS

• Opportunity Cost: Minor, since the relationships were aligned with my main work.

• Travel Costs: A few Uber rides. I happened to be in town already!

• Housing Costs: 0.

• Ticket Costs: 0, because I got a free ticket from an exhibitor.

• Food Costs: $100.

• Health Costs: Negligible.

NET VALUE = (Easily several thousand dollars worth of relationships and inspiration) - (A few hundred dollars of costs) = Thousands of dollars of net value

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One more example of this Net Value formula in action: Google and Eric Schmidt at Burning Man

In the beginning of the 2000s, Larry Page and Sergei Brin were struggling to manage their quickly growing search engine startup: Google.

They badly needed a CEO to “discipline Google’s flamboyant, self-indulgent culture, without wringing out the genius”—ultimately help Google get to the next level.

Larry and Sergei, big fans of the multi-day event Burning Man, which could be grueling and thus a test of character, decided to treat attendance at the event as a key criterion of whether someone was fit to lead Google as the next CEO.

They challenged all of their top CEO candidates to join them in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert—and only one candidate: Eric Schmidt decided to join as an attendee.

The time Larry and Sergei spent with Eric during Burning Man convinced them that Eric was the right person for the job, so they hired him in 2001.

In 2001, Google’s revenues were rumored to be about $100 million. A decade later, when Schmidt stepped down from the CEO role and handed it back to Page, the company’s revenues were nearly $40 billion.

That’s a return of almost 40,000 percent! (And think about how Google’s survival was not even guaranteed if they didn’t find the right person to scale the company. Flatlined revenue is rarely an option long-term.)

Now, think about how much wealth Eric generated for himself by stepping into the role. He was worth 0 billion dollars and now he’s worth 20 billion. Beyond wealth, his role as a former head of one of the biggest companies ever has led to key roles in the White House and many leading global institutions. Eric is easily one of the most powerful people in the world today.

It may have been painful for Eric to endure the sometimes physical and psychological extremes of Burning Man, but the unbelievable net value of him attending that festival is self-evident.

A few more things to keep in mind as you explore attending conferences

As you think about what events you’re thinking of attending, use this framework to get clarity on how worth it the event will be.

A few things to note:

• Be careful about putting too much value in the fact that a conference is in a city you have been meaning to visit. You usually won’t have time to experience the city like a tourist if you are trying to maximize on learning and connections at a conference. This is why I didn’t put FUN/LEISURE as a category of value in the Value part of the Net Value equation.

• A free ticket is not free. There are many better things to do with your time than go to a free event that doesn’t provide much value in connections, ideas, or funding if you’re going as a builder. On the other hand, a ticket of several hundred or even several thousand dollars can be well worth it if the connections, ideas, etc are life-changing.

• If you’re speaking at the conference, this can increase the likelihood of connections, including funder connections. But make sure you’re not just attending an event as a speaker just because you feel like it’s an ego boost. You could fly all the way out to speak at an event and get your spiel out the the audience, but the audience could be the wrong audience.

• If an event has really good coworking spaces, the opportunity cost is a lot less if you’re a remote worker. Devconnect 2023 in Istanbul had great coworking spaces, which made Devconnect a lot more attractive for people who are busy with deadlines for their work but also want to connect and learn.

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Should you go to ETHDenver 2024?

One question a lot of my friends and peers are asking right now is:

“Should I go to ETHDenver 2024?” (ETH Denver is a huge crypto gathering taking place in Denver from late February thru early March 2024).

Well, at this point you should realize: it depends.

For me, I’m excited to spend a week and a half in Denver during the ETHDenver time period because of the net value I (and my team) will likely get from being in Denver.

We are cohosting a 7-day event during that time period that benefits a lot from being adjacent to ETHDenver, so we are grateful for ETHDenver being a Schelling point for innovators we want to know and support. We expect to build valuable connections and accumulate lots of learnings that will contribute to making 2024 a great success for our team.

Now, back to you. Is it worth it to go to ETHDenver? Again, it depends.

• Will going to ETHDenver and/or the side events (like the one my team is hosting) provide more value than the cost?

• Are you clear on what kinds of people you need to meet to accelerate your career and/or project?

• The travel, housing, and food costs are going to be likely a couple thousand dollars if you stay a week. Then adding on the opportunity cost of your time there, is it worth it? And is it worth it to put that toll on your body?

Do at least some napkin math so you feel good about your decision to go, or not go!

Overall, I hope this guide is helpful for you.

No matter how many weekend conferences, popup villages, day events, weddings, and festivals you decide to attend this year, I hope they provide you make the most of them and they provide you a ton of NET value 🙂

The response to the tweet was encouraging. Dozens of people raised their hands in interest to my call for collaborators.

One person asked if I could elaborate on what exactly I want to build. So, here, I will do just that.

My vision revolves around creating a physical space that fosters 'scenius' – a collective form of genius that emerges when bright people come together in environments that bring out their best, most collaborative selves.

Not a city, but a dynamic, campus-like neighborhood near a city that can fit a few thousand people for a variety of purposes at a single time.

Imagine entering a place where you're immediately struck by a sense of possibility, and a renewed connection to people, nature, and the future.

Let’s call it…

Cross-pollination Heaven.

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What are the pieces that would constitute Cross-pollination Heaven?

1. Proximity to a Diverse, Accessible City: This place should be within an hour of a city that diverse groups of people already live in or are interested in visiting and should be easily accessible by subway or bus, and not hard to get to from an airport. Ideally, this place should be nestled in nature.

2. Common Dining Area: This place should have at least one central, default dining area (a nice food court), where people can come to and spontaneously meet other people. This could be in addition to isolated restaurants on this campus-like environment. All food options should be fresh and healthy, helping everyone be their highest energy selves. Few things do more to build trust than breaking bread with people. There should be natural light and indoor and outdoor dining areas.

3. Flexible Creative Zones: This place should have lots of resources like whiteboards and modern audiovisual equipment for brainstorming and conference calls, call booths, areas for co-working with peers and “competitors”, and facilities for recreational activities ranging from sports to music jam sessions. There should also be places for children to play.

4. Convening Areas: This place should have facilities for organizing conferences, concerts, impromptu events, parties, and other community-led gatherings. It should be easy to book spaces if your events meet certain criteria.

5. Lodging for Innovators: The place should include residential and lodging spaces for hundreds of people at a time, reserved primarily for organizations who organize “popup villages” or as I call them “innovation playgrounds” lasting 1-week to multiple weeks at a time. Entrepreneurs, artists, and leap year students should also be able to book a segment of the housing in a quasi-hotel style. This should also be where fellowships at colleges like HBCUs become a reality. And where people who take a break from school can pay to go to and link and cobuild with peers and mentors. On that note, there should also be permanent housing for a segment of highly accomplished people who want to be mentors in residence.

6. Embodiment of Innovation: The place should embody the future in its very foundation. To whatever extent possible, the building materials should be as durable and environmentally sustainable as possible. The furniture and architecture should be biomimetic. The lodging should be 3D printed or prefabbed in some way to help advance innovation in affordable housing. The space should be a pilot site for all kinds of architectural experiments. There should be an overlay over the “campus” that mimics a tree, providing shade. Plants should be everywhere, symbolizing a growing harmony between humans and nature. A lot of the building should be solar powered and harness natural light whenever possible. The space should be governed by the people who would most benefit from the space and contribute to its growing valuation.

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What would it take to make Cross-pollination Heaven a reality?

The realization of such a place would require an epic scale of collaboration and long time horizon. It calls for the expertise of botanists, urban designers, architects, engineers, and visionaries who have shaped modern corporate campuses like Google’s and Apple’s. And the involvement of musicians, artists, culinary experts, housing developers, and park designers is crucial to create an all-encompassing ecosystem that supports various aspects of creativity and flourishing living.

This future space would be more than just a physical location; it would be…

• A Schelling point for those at the cutting edge of their field who aspire to live and innovate better

• A manifesto for a lifestyle that values family, wellness, nature, freedom, creativity, and boundary-transcending collaboration

• A portal to a future where the goal of unleashing people’s inner genius is not just a lofty ideal but the very foundation of our living spaces

I don’t see this as a 1-2 year project. I see it as more of a 10+ year project (with the first major milestones hit in ~5 years).

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How you can help build Cross-pollination Heaven:

In this early stage, here’s how you can help:

1. Share with me ideas for where this Heavenly place could exist. What country? What city? What plot of land seems promising?

2. Introduce me to people who have a similar vision and are already making serious progress. Who has already secured funding and maybe even broken ground on a project this ambitious? I’d love to meet them and invite them to one of my innovation playgrounds this year.

3. Introduce me to government leaders and mega funders who would want to help make such a place a reality. Who could allocate millions in government funding (including tax incentives) to this? Who wants to make it part of their life mission (like billionaire George Kaiser did with The Gathering Place in Tulsa, Oklahoma) to build amazing gathering places?

4. Advise me on what I should learn to be someone who can help make this place a reality. What are existing permanent places (e.g. the Norrsken Kigali House) that should inspire the design of this place? What characteristics should this Heavenly place have based on your experience? What books and blogs should I be reading?

If you can help with any of these asks, feel free to reply to this post or DM me on X or LinkedIn.

Finally, if you’d like to follow along on this journey as I…

1. Create “innovation playgrounds” (as I mentioned in my last post. Hosting these multi-week coliving experiences is the key stepping stone to inspiring people to invest in building permanent physical environments where it is easy to host such playgrounds.)

2. Explore how “Cross-pollination Heaven” can be created

… subscribe to my Substack if you haven’t already 🙂

Until next time!

Gary

Last week, I posted this on X:

Let me elaborate on one part in particular:

“When you’re part of a community where every person has an extreme bias for action, shares what they’re learning on their journey, and pushes everyone else to think bigger and bolder, taking that leap of faith becomes far less daunting. These kinds of life-changing communities are far rarer than they should be, so I feel called to make sure more of them exist in the world.”

How will I make sure more life-changing communities exist in the world in 2024?

By creating what I call “innovation playgrounds”—one week to multi-month in-person experiences designed to accelerate innovators’ careers and birth new innovations.

During these playgrounds, people who are building at the cutting edge connect repeatedly, learn from one another, and co-explore how to do their best, most impactful work for humanity.

You can call these playgrounds many things: Oases for techno-optimists; experiments in co-living and co-working; popup villages; popup campuses…

Each label is somewhat accurate.

But here’s a label that feels most true to the essence of what I want to create:

“Scenius” is the emergent collective intelligence that supercharges and is co-generated by every person immersed in the same community or “scene.” So, in other words, I want to create environments that bring out the best, most creative versions of the people immersed in them.

I don’t believe that there is a shortage of brilliant people in the world. I believe humanity has all the talent it needs to solve every problem we are facing.

But what I do see is this: individual geniuses can only accomplish so much in isolation. In fact, I believe most of the innovation in society doesn’t come from individuals working in solitude.

Musician Brian Eno, coiner of the term “scenius”, agrees:

“I was an art student and, like all art students, I was encouraged to believe that there were a few great figures like Picasso and Kandinsky, Rembrandt and Giotto and so on who sort-of appeared out of nowhere and produced artistic revolution.

As I looked at art more and more, I discovered that that wasn’t really a true picture.

What really happened was that there was sometimes very fertile scenes involving lots and lots of people — some of them artists, some of them collectors, some of them curators, thinkers, theorists, people who were fashionable and knew what the hip things were — all sorts of people who created a kind of ecology of talent. And out of that ecology arose some wonderful work.

The period that I was particularly interested in, ’round about the Russian revolution, shows this extremely well. So I thought that originally those few individuals who’d survived in history — in the sort-of ‘Great Man’ theory of history — they were called ‘geniuses’. But what I thought was interesting was the fact that they all came out of a scene that was very fertile and very intelligent.

So I came up with this word ‘scenius’ — and scenius is the intelligence of a whole… operation or group of people. And I think that’s a more useful way to think about culture, actually. I think that — let’s forget the idea of ‘genius’ for a little while, let’s think about the whole ecology of ideas that give rise to good new thoughts and good new work.”

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What makes scenius flourish

Wired founder Kevin Kelly suggests that a fertile scenius emerges when the following conditions are met:

• Mutual appreciation. Risky moves are applauded by the group, subtlety is appreciated, and friendly competition goads the shy. Scenius is the best kind of peer pressure.

• Rapid exchange and refinement of tools, techniques, and ideas. As something is invented, it is flaunted, then shared. Ideas flow quickly because they are flowing inside a common language and sensibility.

• Success is contagious. When a record is broken, a hit happens, or breakthrough erupts, the success is claimed by the entire scene. This empowers the scene to further success.

• Local tolerance for the new. The local “outside” does not push back too hard against the transgressions of the scene. Renegades and mavericks are protected by this buffer zone.

(Quote from Kevin Kelly modified slightly)

I’ve personally witnessed what happens when these conditions are met. Ambition and innovation flourishes.

Example #1: As cofounder of a once popular music curation brand on Soundcloud, Dancing Pineapple, I saw and participated first hand in the scenius that was the tropical house scene. Between 2015 and 2017, we scouted bedroom producers, brought them together into a united collective, and created something like a safe space where the artists would push each other, do songs and shows together, and take inspiration from each other’s viral successes. Multiple members of our artist collective—and many others who were part of our wider community—would go on to play at some of the biggest electronic music festivals in the world.

Example #2: As a former internet activist who built a very popular Facebook page, I became immersed in a scene of other Facebook page admins focused on similar issues. The admins of these pages strategized in group chats, shared each other’s posts, would sometimes hang out in-person, and engaged in a friendly competition that pushed each of them to innovate to stay relevant. The pages grew together, and their careers blossomed together. Many of them are still friends to this day—and collectively oversee pages with tens of millions of followers on Facebook and other platforms.

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Why I want to conjure scenius

Why do I want to create “gardens where scenius can flourish”?

As I mentioned in my tweet referenced in the beginning of this post, I believe a Golden Age for humanity is possible, despite serious risks of us heading toward something resembling a new Dark Age.

However, I believe a or the bottleneck to us achieving something like a global renaissance is a shortage of environments where talented people can fully realize their potential by being immersed in an ecology of talent and idealism.

The good thing is that I am betting that “innovation playgrounds” will be a great way to unleash the scenius humanity has been waiting for.

So, in short, I want to conjure scenius(es) to accelerate humanity’s trajectory toward a Golden Age.

I want to see more people working on…

• d/acc technologies—protecting democracy, freedom, and human agency

• new housing and cities—drastically reducing the cost to flourish as a human

• new art and culture—that inspires us to remember that we are made in the image of God, and should act more like it

A new global renaissance is near. We just need to do a little alchemy with innovation playgrounds to get there.

Why “innovation playgrounds”

I got a glimpse of the potential of innovation playgrounds when participating in “Zuzalu”, a two-month co-living experiment conjured by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin that took place in Montenegro and brought together 200 full-time residents and about 700 visitors from March 25th to May 25th, 2023. I then deepened my belief in innovation playgrounds co-producing “ZuConnect,” a follow-up to Zuzalu, which brought together about 400 innovators for two-weeks in Istanbul before Devconnect in November 2023.

At these events, new technologies like Zupass were incubated; life-changing friendships were formed; numerous people quit their jobs to pursue more fulfilling and higher impact work; and most people left feeling more optimistic about the future (which is no small feat).

What do I think enabled these positive outcomes at Zuzalu and ZuConnect?

• Almost every person invited was a practicing engineer, a scientist, or someone else whose job is to directly support the innovation process: many of them very successful people who want to pay it forward to the next generation.

• The attendee list represented the cutting edge across many disciplines—not just crypto, but also AI, governance, public goods, longevity, biotech, music, and more. This created a beautiful collision of ideas and energies.

• Extreme tolerance of new, even “fringe” ideas—and culture of building and testing tools when they are in their most nascent stages. Nonconformity welcome.

• Lecture and unconference spaces, where it is easy to host community-organized knowledge sharing sessions led by people who are building at the cutting edge—giving tons of inspiration to participants.

• Extremely nourishing environments—where healthy food and drinks are the default, and there are plenty of recurring activities (rituals) to keep your mind and body in a state where you can take advantage of the connection and learning opportunities.

• Almost everyone living within a 10 minute walk from each other and event spaces are easy to book, so hangouts, whiteboarding sessions, dance parties, and spontaneous ideation sessions happen all the time.

• Communication tools that keep people informed on what’s happening and make it easy for people to connect and coordinate.

• Quality co-working spaces and fast internet.

• Almost total freedom for participants to create what they wish.

In 2023, I witnessed what happens when brilliant people co-live and co-work together for an extended period of time—longer than a typical conference. These innovation playgrounds are much better than typical events for connection and collaboration. Each playground can help forge hundreds of valuable relationships, seeding opportunities for innovation and personal life changes.

Example:

• A 1-month playground with 100 innovators

• Each person builds 10 high quality connections across that month

• That’s 500 new relationships 🤯

• How many groundbreaking ideas and solutions will be generated by these new friends?

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Why social media is no replacement for multi-week in-person experiences

Some of you might be thinking: “Doesn’t social media facilitate idea exchange?” “Doesn’t YouTube make people more knowledgeable?” “Don’t discount online courses or even Wikipedia!”

While digital tools can absolutely enhance the fertility of a scenius-conjuring in-person environment, social media and the internet are no replacement for the unique affordances of an in-person environment.

This whole clip between Packy McCormick (who wrote an inspiring essay “Conjuring Scenius”) and David Perell is GOLD:

But to pull out a couple key points:

1. People are comfortable using social media to share and propagate refined ideas; but in-person, people are way more comfortable playing with nascent ideas, being un-self-consciously creative, and breaking new ground. Proposing the new makes you vulnerable. People are more comfortable being vulnerable around people they trust. Trust is easier to build in-person (free from fear of being clowned by online trolls).

2. Thanks to the pandemic, people are more willing than ever to uproot and live in a new place for weeks or months at a time. So, what was previously impractical even if ideal (asking people to co-live and co-work with you), is now increasingly desirable for many people.

Practically speaking, I believe the most innovative communities will be those that, yes, do stay connected on social media and private digital platforms year-round, but come together in-person multiple times a year for multiple weeks at a time for intense bursts of co-learning and co-creation.

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Creating a machine that repeatedly captures lightning in a bottle

By the way, I’m not saying creating such an environment where lives are changed and great ideas emerge is easy.

As Kevin Kelly warns, it’s really hard to manufacture scenius:

“Although many have tried many times, it is not really possible to command scenius into being. Every start up company, or university would like their offices to be an example of scenius. The number of cities in the world hoping to recreate the scenius of Silicon Valley is endless, but very few have achieved anything close. Innumerable art scenes begin and vanish quickly. The serendipitous ingredients for scenius are hard to control. They depend on the presence of the right early pioneers. A place that is open, but not too open. A buffer that is tolerant of outlaws.  And some flash of excitement to kick off the virtuous circle.  You just can’t order this.”

Some attendees of Zuzalu in Montenegro may believe that that two-month experience was magic that cannot be repeated. That trying to replicate what happened there is as challenging as capturing lightning in a bottle.

After all, getting everything just right—including the talent density, talent diversity, programming, venues, housing, food, location, season, fundraising, execution team, etc—is extremely difficult.

Skeptics are right about the difficulty of this challenge. But don’t we live in an age where we humans have figured out (or are well on track to figuring out how to)…

• Create artificial suns (nuclear fusion),

• Build assistants that can do anything (AGI),

• Grow meat where no animal is harmed (cultivated meat),

• Connect brains directly to computers (BCIs),

• Engineer truly privacy preserving systems (ZKPs), and

• Reverse the aging process (longevity breakthroughs)?

With each of these seemingly impossible things becoming more possible by the day, it’s not hard to believe that an organization—led by world-class experience designers and scene gardeners—can pull off creating innovation playgrounds that consistently conjure scenius.

And that’s exactly what I, along with a few other passionate scenius conjurers who drove much of the success of Zuzalu and ZuConnect in 2023, aim to do in 2024.

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Join me at an innovation playground in 2024

If you’re a builder (or someone who helps builders) who believes a Golden Age is possible and wants to be part of an ecosystem that encourages and unlocks the inner genius of everyone who is a part of it, I’d love for you to explore joining one of the innovation playgrounds I will be co-producing in 2024.

The first one will be during ETHDenver at the end of February 2024, and will gather innovators at the intersection of crypto, ZK, AI, biotech, governance, art, and urban development.

Just shoot me a DM on X or LinkedIn and I’ll share more info with you.

As we enter 2024, I pray that you get lots of opportunities to be part of talent ecologies that push you to think bigger and bolder about who you can be and accomplish in this life.

So much love,

Gary

The top tech meme of 2024? e/acc

The tech world has been abuzz with the concept of e/acc - effective accelerationism. But it's more than a trendy buzzword; it's a clarion call to action. For too long, we've witnessed the decay of institutions, the slow erosion of progress in the face of bureaucracy and outdated systems.

The stifling of crypto innovation due to unclear or unwarranted regulations by the SEC and other American three letter agencies, the sluggish pace of biotech advancements hindered by the FDA's stringent approval processes, the bureaucratic obstacles delaying the deployment of nuclear energy, and the cumbersome zoning laws and red tape that have choked the development of affordable housing—all exemplify how outdated systems and excessive bureaucracy are impeding crucial progress across various sectors.

But here's the truth: we don't have to be passive observers to this decline. We can be architects of a new dawn.

We stand at a crossroads, where the path of acceleration beckons us forward. The technologies at our disposal – from nuclear energy to water desalination, from biotech to AI, from blockchains to industrial scale 3D printing tech – are not just tools. They are keys to unlocking a future where living a flourishing life isn't just a privilege for the few but an accessible reality for the many.

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We can accelerate our way out of social and political stagnation

To do this, we need to funnel the wealth generated by advancements in the world of bits into innovators advancing all these foundational tech fields, as well as into courageous reformers of the social and political institutions created decades or hundreds of years ago that have held us back.

Beyond reform, the Accelerating Twenties give us a chance to build new villages, new cities, new ways of relating and collaborating. Social and political innovation must walk hand in hand with technological innovation.

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What world do we want to accelerate towards? And who should be empowered to do so?

This call to accelerate isn't just an American narrative. It's a global imperative. The Accelerating Twenties must not be monopolized by any single nation (or corporation). The ethos of this decade should be to create a tide that raises all boats.

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum and Zuzalu, last month emphasized the urgency of ensuring that technological progress and its benefits are not concentrated in a few hands but dispersed democratically and equitably across the globe. His vision of building defensive, democratic, decentralized, differential technologies (d/acc) resonates deeply with this new era's ethos.

The beauty of this decade lies in its fluidity and unpredictability. It challenges our expectations, constantly evolving in ways that we can scarcely imagine. Each one of us holds the power to influence the direction of this technological acceleration. The decisions we make today – about the kind of technology we prioritize, the values we embed into our innovations – will shape the world of tomorrow.

Do we envision a future that prioritizes privacy and community-centric values? A pluralistic, decentralized world where individuals can thrive without the overbearing influence of centralized authorities? Or will we tread a path where our world is dominated by AI-powered surveillance systems, controlling and monitoring our every move?

This is a unique opportunity to redefine the future, to ensure that the technologies we accelerate align with our deepest values. Whether it's championing privacy, community, decentralization, or any other principle, the time to act is now.

As we stand on the brink of this exciting decade, let's embrace the spirit of responsible acceleration with open arms and a clear vision.

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What happens if the d/acc scene takes off?

If the d/acc scene takes off, in the coming decades you will see…

• New cities whose health outcomes rival any current blue zone, and whose innovations rival those coming from San Francisco

• Far more communities around the world that are safe, thriving, and free from dependence on the U.S., China, or any global superpower

• Millions more people around the world getting access to treatment that helps them live significantly longer and healthier lives

Conclusion: Seize your opportunity to shape the Accelerating Twenties

Are you also excited to accelerate toward something like a Golden Age for humanity?

In 2024…

• If you care deeply about your country’s future, do what you can to support the development of innovations that help your country’s people flourish.

• If you are a developer, your skills are crucial in building decentralized, democratic, open source technologies under the d/acc framework.

• If you are a student, use your fresh perspective and learning to question and innovate within the d/acc movement.

• If you're involved in Progress Studies, apply your focus on historical insights and societal progress to guide ethical and sustainable technological advancement.

• If you are an environmental activist, bring your passion for sustainability to ensure technology develops in harmony with nature.

• If you are a business leader, integrate d/acc principles to create value that transcends profits, benefiting society at large.

• If you are a healthcare professional, your insights can shape technologies that prioritize human well-being and equitable access.

• If you are an artist or a creative, use your vision to imagine and communicate a future where technology amplifies human potential and creativity.

• If you are a community builder, use your ability to connect, communicate, and coordinate to build playgrounds for d/acc aligned builders to innovate together.

• And if you were at all inspired by what you read here, subscribe to this Substack so you can hear more about all things d/acc. I’m planning some big things with some amazing accelerationists in 2024.

Each of you, in your unique roles, is integral to shaping the Accelerating Twenties.

I’ll elaborate on what I’ll personally be doing beyond writing about accelerationism in 2024 in my next Substack post.

The future is ours to define. Let’s make it one that reflects our highest ideals.

I've truly loved my journey of publishing twice a week for the past six months. It's been an incredible experience, a learning adventure, and it's bestowed upon me a clarity of thought I've never before experienced.

I attribute a lot of this newfound clarity to my regular writing on Substack and the support from each one of you.

Despite this positive experience, I've decided to take a pause from publishing on Substack. It's not because I'm stopping writing altogether; in fact, it's quite the contrary.

My mind has been buzzing with thoughts, ideas, and reflections—so much so that I've created a Wiki just to house them all: https://wiki.garysheng.com/

I find myself in an intense period of creative flow, where ideas are spilling out of me, inspired by my travels and experiences from around the globe over the last six months. I've rediscovered a passion for life and a deep admiration for the Creator of all things. And I am making sense of it all, recording it, and sharing it in this Wiki.

As for my Substack, I plan to return to it when I have something significant to share, something that embodies progress toward the America 2.0 vision I laid out.

Through my many blog posts, I explicated a vision for America's future, an idea of the people, technologies, and energies that will take us there.

Now, it's time for me to switch gears and enter 'build mode'. I won't inundate your inbox with new posts until I have something worthwhile to share from this new endeavor.

So, until then, take care of yourself 🫂

“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” — John 8:7

I've been reflecting on my leadership journey over the years. And it has been a fascinating one, filled with tremendous self-reflection, learning, and growth.

My conviction to contribute to a better world has grown stronger with time. Simultaneously, I have become increasingly convinced of the importance of not judging others for their actions. This shift in perspective is not a sudden one, but a gradual transformation shaped by many factors.

My earliest perceptions of leadership and righteousness were heavily influenced by mass media, especially social media and cable news:

The voices that kept surfacing were those constantly casting judgments—declaring who was virtuous and who was evil, who was good for the world and who was detrimental. These judgment peddlers, with their hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of followers, seemed to be the epitome of success. In the fog of immaturity, I began to believe that the purpose of life was to gain money and followers, and that judging others was a viable path to achieving this. The flawed logic suggested that if you could critique 'bad' people, you were obviously a 'good' person.

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For years I was an active participant in the culture of judgment that pervaded social media. I spent significant time and energy online, throwing stones from my digital glass house. I was eager to join the chorus of judgment, even leading internet mobs, all in a misguided sense of self-righteousness. This toxic cycle of call-out culture and public shaming was fueled by a false belief that I was on a moral high ground, a fallacy that took time and introspection to unravel.

But as time passed, I found myself increasingly disinterested in judging others, even privately. Adhering to the principle, "He who is without sin, cast the first stone," I acknowledged my own imperfections, my own sinfulness. It felt hypocritical and unjust to decree judgments on others when I, too, was far from perfect.

Understanding the diversity of human experiences and circumstances has further solidified my stance. We often judge others without fully comprehending the context they operate within. Some environments do not easily foster good choices, and it feels unfair to judge someone for actions borne out of difficult circumstances. This realization has pushed me towards a path of empathy and humility, refraining from presumptions about a person's ability to walk a righteous path.

Moreover, the efficacy of judging others is questionable. Public shaming seldom results in genuine change; instead, it often entrenches resistance and defensiveness. If the goal is to foster growth and betterment, then judgment is rarely an effective tool.

And if you are going to judge others, shout out role models whose virtuous ways you think deserve more attention. These loving shout-outs create a good atmosphere and inspire others to show love to others as well.

But back to judging oneself, why can it be so productive? Honest introspection can drive personal growth and self-improvement. It can encourage us to align our actions with what I call our "Golden Path"-the unique trajectory of life tailored to our talents, passions, and inherent nature.

My journey to fully step into my Golden Path is far from over, but I'm growing more confident about the journey ahead. Part of that journey involves guiding others to their Golden Paths, but I've learned that this is only possible if it's clear that I'm doing everything I can to walk my own path virtuously.

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This idea is succinctly captured in the biblical text of Matthew 7:3-5:

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

These verses serve as a powerful reminder to address our own shortcomings before judging others. They challenge us to strive for personal growth and self-improvement, which ultimately leads to a more empathetic and understanding society.

When we become better versions of ourselves, we are better equipped to help others navigate their paths.

So let's shine our light inward first—to illuminate and improve ourselves—so that we can shine brighter for the world.