Futures discourse offers two major narratives: a better world is coming, or the end is near. ¿Por qué no los dos? After all, we're living through the folding-over, twisting, rupturing, and remix of every familiar dyad — self and other, nature and technology, past and future, art and science, creation and discovery. In an age of artificial minds and Eldritch hyperobjects, it's easy to feel anxious; but there is another way to surf the psychedelic experience wrought by the effects of exponential information technologies... a playful, curious embrace of our metamorphosis anchored in deep time, psychedelic futurism, and the zones where science meets contemplative tradition. It's time to hack the mythic frameworks that no longer seem to cut it and make art with them.
Inspired by the work of scholars like William Irwin Thompson, Timothy Morton, Erik Davis, Richard Doyle, and Federico Campagna — and drawing on over twenty years of research into evolutionary dynamics, complex systems science, integral metatheory, and psychonautic high weirdness — Garfield will take us on a guided off-road romp through the bizarre and wonderful moirés of science, philosophy, and mysticism to help us make new sense of our century's metamorphoses and find stable features we can count on in the strange new worlds to come.
Where maps break down and "reality" gets twisted, we might call this:
Structured with extensive learning resources from a career of writing, art, and podcasts, Garfield's course will follow the evolutionary model of searching wide and hot, exploring adjacent possibilities, getting pluralistic, and dissolving paradoxes in a higher logical order.
Enter with questions, leave with better questions. Garfield’s course will help us stay awake and curious as what we take for granted falls away and new things blossom in their place.
The course consists of:
As with all Weirdosphere offerings, the course includes a dedicated Course Community where the instructor and students can post reflections, share links, and exchange thoughts between lectures.
The course begins Tuesday, May 13, and ends Saturday, June 14. All meetings will take place over Zoom via the Weirdosphere learning platform.
Recorded sessions will remain available to registered students after the course is over in video and audio format.
Each week, Michael will assign essays, stories, and other works in view of upcoming discussions — as well as copious extra optional links and rabbit holes. Whenever possible, these will be made available on the course platform. For copyright reasons, students may need to access certain works on their own.
Michael Garfield is the author of the forthcoming book How To Live In The Future, an artist, musician, and independent scholar exploring wisdom in the age of magical technologies at Humans On The Loop. His nonlinear resumé links vertebrate paleontology, scientific illustration, public speaking, innovation research, community management, fine art, and stints at The Santa Fe Institute, Mozilla, and The Long Now Foundation. He works as a freelance consultant and welcomes collaborations with anyone who can benefit from working with a weirdo visionary multitool.
Students will get to:
Registration is $200 for New Members of Weirdosphere.
If you are a paid member of Michael’s Substack or Patreon community, you are eligible for a discount. Please use the registration link provided on his socials to get this benefit.
By enrolling in MG101: How To Live In The Future, you will automatically become a member of the Weirdosphere learning community and receive a discount on all future offerings on the platform. Existing Members should enroll from within Weirdosphere to receive this benefit.
If your circumstances are such that paying full price is an obstacle, please write us at [email protected] to arrange a reduced rate.