The winter was a good time to contemplate and partake in more idle activities. With the Spring Equinox there is a shift in the day and night cycle. We now have more hours of light to act in the world. In the winter, we reap what we have sown. In the spring, the cycle starts over and it is time to sow again and build for the future. New Year resolutions made at the dawn of the Spring have a greater likelihood of becoming habitual due to the longer days and more sunshine that follows the Equinox.

In the Spring the creating energy is abundant and the world is teeming with new life. This is a force that you can tap into, but before we tap into this force, let us learn about the history and science of the Spring Equinox and how it can serve as a great time to make change and pursue new goals.

History and Science behind the Spring (Vernal) Equinox

The Spring (Vernal) Equinox has been celebrated around the globe for millennia. Many cultures have festivals around the Vernal Equinox, and several celebrate the New Year around this time, including: The Persian New Year, celebrated in Iran and other Central Asian Countries, and the Albanian pagan New Year marks the beginning of the spring-summer period. All of these cultures understand the benefit of celebrating and stepping into a new year in tune with the astronomical cycle as the planet turns away from darkness and into the light.

For the ancient Greeks, the spring equinox marked more than a shift in season. It signaled a reawakening of the world itself. The Greeks connected the equinox to Persephone's return from the underworld1, and the time of year marked the transition from winter's dormancy to the blossoming of new life, a reflection of Demeter's joy when reunited with her daughter. One of the most significant celebrations was the Eleusinian Mysteries, where the Lesser Mysteries, which prepared initiates for the greater festival, were observed in the spring and involved purification, offerings, and symbolic reenactments of Persephone's myth.

The Romans, for their part, observed their own ritual of death and renewal. The Hilaria were ancient Roman religious festivals celebrated on the March equinox to honor Cybele. The festival honored Attis, moving through a period of mourning at his death on March 24, followed by rejoicing at his resurrection on March 25. The Day of Joy, or Hilaria proper, marked the resurrection of Attis and was a time of celebration featuring processions, games, and masquerades. Both cultures understood the equinox as a turning point in the story of the world, the moment the earth sprang up from a freezing hibernation and began again.

The Spring Equinox represents a time of renewal, balance, and new beginnings in nature. The Vernal Equinox typically falls on March 19 - 21, depending on the timing of the Earth’s orbit around the sun. This year, the Spring Equinox takes place on March 20th at 10:46 a.m. EDT, where day and night will be equal in length. The term equinox comes from Latin, where “Equi” means Equal and “Nox” means Night. In Yogi tradition, the day of the Spring Equinox is known as the best day of the year for getting rid of desires and balancing oneself with the ever-changing cycles of the cosmos.

Spring is the time to build momentum. Notice how the trees slowly bud until one day you wake up and all of the buds have blossomed. The internal momentum building up has finally sprouted outwards and quickly fills the Earth with a beautiful array of colors.

The idea is developed in winter and in spring it takes shape. The harvest will not be until the end of summer: the ideas that form in the darkness of winter will sprout outwards in Spring and start to give an appearance of what will be.

Great change takes place in the Spring, with what was becoming barely recognizable. Change is often redemptive but can be challenging when one holds onto visions and sticky definitions of SELF. Embrace the change by taking action through the transformation of ideas into a product, art piece, or project. Find pleasure in the slow, steady progress as you watch the change occur.

The seed you plant now will soon grow and become ripe for harvest in due time

Seeds you plant need to be watered and tended. Ignore them, and they will surely die. Your idea is no different. If you care for it, water it with intention, and nourish it with focused thought then your idea will become fully formed and ripe for harvest.

The process always takes work and sacrifice, but if you put away old habits and desires that are not aligned with your vision, and believe in yourself then you will see it manifest. Doubt yourself and you will watch your ideas shrivel up and die.

Reinvigoration

Take this time to realign yourself with the goals that you set on January 1st. Reignite the fire you had then and liberate yourself from your fear, doubt, and lack of resolve. Tap into the Spring energy and let it kindle your desires and passions into actionable steps, and later form. Remember how the greats always realigning towards their highest SELF through constant reflection, the embrace of change, and goal setting:

The unexamined life is not worth living. - Sacretes

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often. - Winston Churchill

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. - Albert Einstein

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. - Charles Darwin

Constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself. - Elon Musk

Take this template for the Spring Equinox Challenge or create your own 3-month multi-scale goal planner. Do this again in 3 months, and again, and again, ad infinitum… and surely as the sun rises in the east, so to will you rise to your goals and see them come to fruition.

At this time of the Vernal Equinox, day and night are at equilibrium. Following the Equinox the day starts to slowly over-power the night. The energy is high and with greater solar power there is more for you to tap into, more that you can do, literally more time in the day.

Remember this is also a great time to increase your spiritual energy and let go of desires that are holding you back from peace, harmony, and abundance. By celebrating the Spring Equinox and taking the time to set new goals you save yourself from another year of mediocrity and give yourself a chance to experience exceptionalism.

I know for me the Spring Equinox is going to serve as a catalyst to start new habits, build initiatives, and reframe the vision I have for 2026. I hope you will also take some time to reflect and embrace the idea of the Spring Equinox as a start to a new year and an opportunity for change and growth!

May your eyes be bright and full of everlasting laughter.

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“The myth of Persephone is one of the most well-known and enduring stories from Greek mythology, symbolizing the cycle of life, death, and rebirth. Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility, was abducted by Hades, the god of the underworld. As the story goes, while she was gathering flowers in a meadow, the earth suddenly opened up, and Hades took her to his dark kingdom. Demeter, devastated by the loss of her daughter, wandered the earth searching for her and, in her grief, neglected her duties, causing the land to become barren and infertile.

As famine spread and the gods grew concerned, Zeus intervened and ordered Hades to return Persephone to her mother. However, before she left the underworld, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds—an act that bound her to his realm. Because she had consumed food from the underworld, she could not fully return to the living world. A compromise was reached: Persephone would spend part of the year with Hades in the underworld and the rest with Demeter. This myth became an allegory for the changing seasons—Persephone’s descent into the underworld signified autumn and winter, while her return to the earth symbolized the arrival of spring and the renewal of life.” — History Tidbits

Alexander was not one to wait. When confronted with a terrible decision, he acted with incredible speed and precision. Instead of calculating decision after decision, Alexander relied on his experience and mental fortitude to choose action over intoxicating deliberation.

Imagine the year is 336 BC, “Alexander’s father is assassinated and Alexander becomes king of Macedonia at twenty… Cousins claim the throne, neighboring tribes sense weakness, and the Greek city-states his father had defeated see a chance to break free from Macedonian dominance. Most expect the young king to fail. Instead, Alexander moves with terrifying speed. First, he eliminates all rivals to the throne, having his cousins executed. Then he confirms his father’s old generals in their commands, rewarding loyalty and buying their support. He reduces taxes and grants privileges to the army, securing their devotion. Within weeks, he consolidates absolute power. Lastly, he marches north with lightning speed, crossing the Danube to defeat the barbarian tribes on the kingdom’s borders, which he does in sudden, devastating campaigns. Macedonia is his.” – Jasper Vardag-Hunter

Now we all don’t have a throne to secure, but still when we are confronted with consequential decisions we often find that success fully depends on the speed with which we act. In these decisive moments we may lack complete knowledge and so are forced to rely on experience alone. Learning to strike even when uncertain demands boldness, courage, and the fullness of one’s strength to conquer the success-denying trait that is hesitation.

When I was 22, I found myself in a high-stakes poker game at a local casino. I got involved in a hand where the wager was on par with my net worth, meaning if I went all in and lost, I’d be completely broke. Sweat began dripping down my sides and the idea of total glory or humiliating defeat flashed across my mind. Any hesitation would give away my bluff. The only way to win this hand was to bet the house on it. Speed was my friend and glory my aim. I went all in without a moment’s hesitation, winning the pot and securing my fortune.

You already know what you need to do. Alexander knew it too. By discarding frivolous deliberation and acting with total conviction, he forged ahead. Consider that by the age of 25 he had conquered Persia and Egypt and had begun extending his empire deep into Central Asia, territories that had defied conquerors for centuries. He built a reputation for speed, making his swift tenacity in battle and politics proverbial. Commanders who faced him barely had time to form a plan before Alexander was already executing his. He wrote his own destiny through sheer willpower, and the world has never forgotten his name.

I imagine him in those moments before action: asking himself what consequences this decision might bring, what experiences he could draw upon to support his judgment, game-theorizing every possible move. Until the moment came and he discarded the contemplative mind entirely, channeling all his energy into the action he had decided upon. Most men never make that final turn. They see the opportunity, they understand it, and still they fail to pull the trigger. Shoulders stooped, they tirelessly orbit it year after year, waiting for a confidence that never fully arrives. You tell yourself that one day you will have the courage to act. But that day never comes, because you are a coward. Or at least, that’s what you were before reading this.

Let the story of Alexander inspire you to cast aside self-doubt and act. You will not always have perfect information. The odds will not always be in your favor. But neither were they for Alexander, and he conquered the known world anyway. When the moment comes, leave it up to the Gods, leave it up to fate. Caesar famously declared “Alea iacta est, the die is cast.” Speak those words to yourself when hesitation creeps in. Believe that success is your destiny. The world belongs to those who move. This is where legends are made, dreams become reality, and you earn your place in the halls of heroes.

Virtual learning was the tip of the iceberg in what was about to be a monumental shift in the way I saw the world. During my sophomore year, a friend introduced me to ChatGPT, immediately changing how I studied and prepared for the future. Grumblings began to appear about the power of this technology and how influential it would be in society. The future quickly turned from unknown to totally unrecognizable. The possibilities were endless, and that was where I struggled most. With no history and no cultural customs, what was there to guide me?

Looking back on the pandemic, I don’t think we realized the extent of what we had lost in the form of life and societal customs. AI promises to do something similar: it promises to replace humans and to outsource the 10x’ing of job productivity, further alienating us from our peers and from purposeful work.

AI dissolves the tradeoffs that once forced us to choose. Tasks become cheap, and any skill can be acquired on demand, breaking down the logic of opportunity cost. Genuine choice has always depended on scarcity: choosing one thing meant surrendering another, and that sacrifice is what gave decisions their weight and meaning. Strip away the cost, and you get an endless, undifferentiated menu of possibilities, each one as weightless as the next: that is its own kind of trap that can be described as slavery to the infinite.

Creativity thrives from the tension between absolute freedom and total constraint. Consider the man in solitary confinement, strapped down, monitored, with nowhere to go and nothing to build toward. Now consider the man who has everything, every resource available, and every option open. Neither one is able to create; the confined man has no room, and the rich man has no reason. The sweet spot has always been the middle: enough constraint to give direction and enough freedom to move within it.

So what does this mean for the question of what’s worth building? Perhaps the question itself has to change. Maybe we stop asking “what can I build?” and start asking something more difficult and human: what would I grieve not having tried?

I don’t have a clean answer. But I think it starts with looking backward before looking forward. The traditions and frameworks our ancestors built were hard-won answers to permanent questions: what is worth doing, what is worth sacrificing, what is worth a life. We were handed a compass and threw it away.

The faster the world moves, the more valuable the compass becomes. Without it, we risk running in a direction totally antithetical to our goals. The ancient lesson of Icarus was never about the danger of flying, but about knowing where the sea ends and the sun begins, and choosing your altitude deliberately. The discipline is to know yourself well enough that when everything is possible, you can still choose what is worth building.

“Every man is the architect of his own fortune.”

~ Appius Claudius Caecus, quoted by Sallust (Letters to Caesar, I, i)

In 2007, a survey by The Harris Poll found that 72% of Americans prefer classical federal buildings to modernist ones. A smaller 2020 study reached a similar conclusion. Besides a general dislike for their appearance, participants who disliked modernist federal buildings reported that their architectural style “disconnect[s] form from function,” making it difficult to understand the buildings’ purpose.

A 2017 study suggested that Swedes share Americans’ preference for classical architecture, though the study focused on residential complexes. It concluded that a “majority of the housing supply, built in what is generally considered to represent a contemporary [i.e., modernist] style, did not satisfy [potential buyers’] identified preferences concerning exterior architecture.” To condense participants’ responses in a pithy phrase, the researchers described modernist residences as “identical boring boxes.”

Despite laypeople’s distaste, modernist architecture continues to dictate the exterior and interior aesthetic of most new federal buildings, as well as university centers, apartment complexes, and virtually every construction project in the United States (and much of the world). For some, modernism’s monopoly stems from a general loss of interest in beauty and harmony as guiding architectural principles. Others explain it as the direct result of innovative work by 20th-century architects with visual impairments and war-related trauma.

Financial factors are also at play. Housing shortages have often prompted architects, contractors, and governments to choose cheap, mass-produced structures in modernist styles over classical alternatives. That has been the case for over a century.

The “economic argument” for modernist architecture seems intuitive. Just look at Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall. Surely a smooth metal, monochromatic exterior is cheaper than a richly adorned brick or stone façade, right?

Not quite. Material costs vary largely by market, but modernist buildings are rarely as affordable as we think. In 2016, Dutch researchers found that classical and modernist residential real estate in the Netherlands had similar construction costs. They also found that a majority of potential buyers were more likely to pay premiums on classical homes, mainly because supply didn’t meet demand. In other words, more potential buyers were searching for classical residences than construction companies were building them.

The same Swedish study cited above also found that, in Sweden, house developers can satisfy people’s aesthetic preferences “cost-effectively.” That is, modernist buildings are not cheaper than classical ones, at least not enough to treat them as the obvious economic option.

Despite unprecedented capital at their disposal, contemporary architects rarely satisfy people’s clear preferences. But let’s step back for a moment. What do “modernist” and “classical” mean?

Marcus Vitruvius’s “Ten Books on Architecture”

Pundits, architects, and cultural commentators debate incessantly over the merits and downsides of different architectural styles, often unaware that ancient thinkers had already broached the same topics.

Around 20 BCE, Marcus Vitruvius (80-15 BCE) dedicated a book to his patron: Rome’s first Emperor, Octavian Augustus. Vitruvius was a respected architect with several years of experience as a successful military officer. Although he’s not a household name, his “Ten Books on Architecture” profoundly shaped Western art and architecture, laying the foundations for “classicism.” The tome is primarily a construction manual, but it also discusses the ideal education of an architect, explains the fundamental role of symmetry in architectural projects, and much more.

We’ll return to Vitruvius soon. First, let’s look at some basic differences between classical and modernist architecture.

Modernism and Classicism in Architecture

Generally speaking, modernist architecture prioritizes blank, unadorned surfaces, hyper-geometric shapes, flat roofs, and sharp contrasts between horizontal and vertical lines. It either prefers rigid symmetry or disorienting disarray. Ornamentation (e.g., arches, engraving, etc.) is minimal or completely absent.

Unlike modernism, the classical (or “neoclassical”) style draws inspiration from Greek and Roman precedents. It uses columns, pediments, entablatures, domes, arches, and other elements that better reflect the harmonious proportions humans naturally appreciate. Ornamentation underscores beauty and grandeur. It also serves a symbolic role; decorative images often represent salient symbols, from simple ones (e.g., a country’s national bird, the papal seal, etc.) to full depictions of pivotal historical episodes (e.g., the Gigantomachy on Athens’ Parthenon’s frieze).

Although the principles of classical architecture were already in vogue in the ancient world, Vitruvius was the first to articulate them comprehensively. He condensed them into a “Triad.”

Vitruvius’s Triad

The first Vitruvian principle is firmitas (strength, durability). A well-designed structure must be stable and durable. It must withstand weather and time. Vitruvius emphasized selecting good materials that suit a building’s purpose as well as its location: durability “will be assured when foundations are carried down to the solid ground and materials wisely and liberally selected.”

Are the building materials resistant and hardwearing? Are they assembled safely? Basic though it is, firmitas is often a problem in urban development projects where demand requires fast and cheap construction.

Utilitas (utility), second in Vitruvius’ triad, concerns a building’s functionality. For Vitruvius, a structure should be designed to serve its intended purpose effectively. Its layout should be suited to the needs of its occupants. A building achieves maximum utility when the arrangement of its parts “is faultless and presents no hindrance to use, and when each class of building is assigned to its suitable and appropriate exposure.” What purpose is a building serving? And what are the best ways to optimize its interior space such that it facilitates that purpose?

We seem particularly good at maximizing utility, which has become the modern era’s guiding value. Yet our utilitarian attitude may undermine venustas (beauty), Vitruvius’ third principle. The word comes from “Venus,” the Latin name of the goddess of beauty and love. In Vitruvius’ view, a structure needs more than stability and function to be complete. It also needs to please at first glance and delight upon contemplation. It needs beauty.

For Vitruvius, there can be no beauty without symmetry, which he understood as “a proper agreement between the members of the work itself, and relation between the different parts and the whole general scheme.” For example, “in the human body there is a kind of symmetrical harmony between forearm, foot, palm, finger,” and so on.

The will to represent symmetrical harmony inspired countless artworks throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, including, of course, Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man.”

There are many types of symmetry. Classical architecture does not consider them all equal. Rather, it prizes symmetry that distinguishes parts while embedding them into a cohesive whole. On the contrary, modernism prefers flat symmetry with undifferentiated parts.

The U.S. Tax Court Building is perfectly symmetrical. By Vitruvius’s standards, however, it falls short of its aesthetic potential. That’s because it doesn’t mimic natural proportions. “Proportion,” Vitruvius wrote, “is a correspondence among the measures of the members of an entire work, and of the whole to a certain part selected as standard.”

“Correspondence” between parts implies variation. For a building to be symmetrical and proportionate, it should have different parts of different sizes that together make one varied but unified whole. The “parts” of the U.S. Tax Court Building are almost indistinguishable. The building is very “symmetrical,” but it’s less beautiful. Now compare the U.S. Supreme Court Building, completed in 1935 by American architect Cass Gilbert (below, left).

Symmetry for symmetry’s sake is impersonal and inert. It can only create venustas if joined to elements whose balanced proportions mimic nature and the human body—two forms that seem to resonate with our aesthetic sensibilities more than any other.

The Science of Humane Architecture

Individuals thrive in environments that honor human-scale proportions where form follows function. Consider the soaring nave of a Gothic cathedral: its vertical thrust mirrors our spiritual aspirations, while its intricate stonework reflects the fractal patterns we instinctively recognize from nature. Contrast this with the typical American post office: a sharp rectangle with a plain entryway and a colorless flat roof. Churches and post offices have different functions. But you get the point. The same utilitarian template used for virtually every post office in the United States has been replicated across millions of commercial and institutional buildings, sowing aesthetic monotony across the American landscape.

In addition to stimulating our natural propensity to appreciate proportion, aesthetic variety also shows fascinating medicinal properties. A landmark study by Roger Ulrich discovered that post-surgical patients assigned rooms with views of trees recovered from surgery significantly faster, required less pain medication, and experienced fewer complications than those facing plain brick walls.

We are natural creatures. Our mental and physical well-being is inextricably linked to nature and its rhythms. Yet we now spend most of our time in offices, shops, and other artificial indoor space. Built environments directly affect our health, healing, and longevity. Exposure to visually rich, ordered, “natural” environments can help our bodies heal, or avoid becoming ill in the first place.

Why Did We Stop Building Like the Ancients?

Today, the global architectural scene largely neglects classical architecture. Above, we briefly discussed some compelling reasons for the durable modernist bias that still dictates most contemporary construction projects (i.e., trauma from the Great Wars, autistic architectural “geniuses” obsessed with simplicity and sharpness rather than proportion and ornamentation, etc.).

The architects of the early 20th century seemed intent on replacing the potent but ordered emotive responses a fractal building like La Sagrada Familia can elicit with shapes and colors that offer potentially infinite conceptual interpretations, with only a narrow set of reactions, usually involving confusion, disaffection, or, as we’ve seen, unfavorable aesthetic judgment. Whatever its reasons, the rejection of classicism’s unifying symmetry has radically transformed public environments from rich sources of beauty that display the depth of the human experience to bleak reminders of monotony, and little else.

The Architects of the future will have to counter this rejection. They will have to build for human beings, not for vested interests and niche preferences. They will have to renounce modernism’s attempts to suffocate beauty in the name of profit and expediency. They will have to build for the same overarching reason humans have always built: to stir the spirit and inspire the best in all of us.

When profit rules, buildings become mere artifacts. When disposability dictates, nothing is built to last. When expediency defines the aesthetic character of our public and private spaces, we in turn reflect it upon ourselves. When community becomes commodity, society disintegrates.

The Long-time Horizon of an Architectural Paradigm

In just three decades (between 1950 and 1980), the appearance of cities was utterly transformed in modernist fashion. Walking through most urban centers today means moving through an elite’s flat vision of progress, crystallized in alienating glass and concrete.

What will it take to reverse the trend? What will it take to revive venustas?

Expert, actionable answers about how to bridge past and present to engineer a better future abound. We’ll limit ourselves to articulating those general principles that underlie them:

1. A new golden age of Architecture is approaching. Yet, building a better future does not mean copying the past. Therefore, we will need to foster a new generation of builders eager to combine traditional and contemporary techniques. To do so, we will have to emphasize the need for and value of trade schools, abandon the erroneous belief that modern means cheaper, and advocate for educational initiatives that seek to restore holistic, classical architecture as a universal baseline.

2. The landscape of future discoveries is virtually infinite. In keeping with a commitment to bridging ancient principles and contemporary techniques, more money and attention should go toward developing or refining potentially scalable and cost-effective tools (e.g., 3-D printers). Research into material science will be essential to procure better materials, including but not limited to durable, weather-resistant pigments and coatings that will re-color our increasingly visually impoverished world.

3. Government contracts ought to favor classical principles in infrastructure projects (i.e., bridges, transit stations, etc.), requiring city planners to integrate color and ornamentation. Building codes that inadvertently favor cheaper, simpler, modernist designs ought to be revised, if not altogether repealed. Sister cities offer productive examples to ensure that new urban spaces mimic the best and most rewarding aspects of architecture.

4. In the United States, federal renewable energy credits created an entirely new industry devoted to the production and installation of windmills, electric cars, solar panels, and other similar technologies. Similar monetary incentives will prompt builders and entrepreneurs to pivot towards better architectural principles.

The Human Search for Beauty

For Vitruvius, the human search for beauty was as natural as any biological function. As he noted, “the eye is always in search of beauty.” This natural tendency helps explain Americans’ overwhelming rejection of modernism, whose intimidating, impersonal appearance obfuscates purpose and stunts aesthetic potential. “If we do not gratify its desire for pleasure” with appropriate architecture, the “clumsy and awkward appearance” of poorly planned public and private spaces will leave us sorely wanting.

On December 21, 2020, the Trump Administration issued an Executive Order for “Promoting Beautiful Federal Architecture” to “ensure that all Federal building designs command respect of the general public for their beauty and visual embodiment of America’s ideals.” The Order sought to establish classicism as the default style for future federal buildings, leaving room for other styles only when judged appropriate1.

But is it enough to “mandate” classicism? Can an aesthetic revolution really be legislated? What role will “grassroots” initiatives play in refining our palate for architecture that serves the whole human being?

In his Preface, Vitruvius explained to Augustus the main reason for writing his manual: “in future also you will take care that our public and private buildings shall be worthy to go down to posterity by the side of your other splendid achievements.”

Architecture is the only artform no one can ignore. It’s one of the most evident symbols of a nation’s legacy, and of the people who have built it.

Buildings do more than store items, offer services, or display the latest fashion. Architecture is not decoration, but an outward projection of the human soul. As such, it should inspire the human spirit and ennoble its bodily existence.

As Dostoevsky said, “beauty will save the world” — only if we let it.

Architecture represents the synthesis of all arts and sciences. It is the pinnacle and the embodiment of the Renaissance ideal.

The architect should be equipped with knowledge of many branches of study and varied kinds of learning, for it is by his judgement that all work done by the other arts is put to the test. - Vitruvius: Book 1, chapter 11

We are approaching a new Renaissance, but first let us pontificate on what constitutes a Renaissance Man; not only the historical contexts that gave rise to past polymaths, but the fundamental qualities that defined them. Only by grasping both the circumstances and the character of such figures can we cultivate the minds that will shape the era ahead.

I. The Renaissance Man: Past to Present

The past experienced periods of Renaissance (a revival of or renewed interest in classical education), but now it is our turn to once again awaken the creative power of society and set ablaze a new Renaissance. Before we proceed, it is helpful to learn from and examine those who have come before us.

The classic example of a Renaissance is derived from the events that took place in the 14th to 16th centuries. Entire societies revived the sacred arts that once flourished throughout the ancient world, and geniuses like Michelangelo and da Vinci emerged. The Renaissance introduced humanism, a worldview that emphasized human dignity, reason, creativity, and agency. Slowly, education moved from a theological discipline to the study of the humanities. The purpose of which was to form a whole individual, one that was capable of connecting many dispersed subjects.

“Consequently, since this study is so vast in extent, embellished and enriched as it is with many different kinds of learning, I think that men have no right to profess themselves architects hastily, without having climbed from boyhood the steps of these studies and thus, nursed by the knowledge of many arts and sciences, having reached the heights of the holy ground of architecture.” - Vitruvius: Book 1, chapter 1

Finally, I believe the catalyst driving the Renaissance as an enterprise was the printing press. By democratizing access to knowledge, it transformed subjects once reserved for the powerful elite into matters of open, iterative debate. Ideas could now be examined, challenged, and refined through widespread discussion rather than confined to cloistered halls. Of course, this democratization came with chaos. Bad actors spread misinformation, misunderstandings proliferated, and society grappled with distinguishing truth from falsehood.

We face a parallel moment in the context of artificial intelligence. Like the printing press before it, AI will be misused, will generate confusion, and will force us through a period of tumult. But just as the printing press ultimately ushered in the Enlightenment, a new era of human knowledge and understanding, so too will AI illuminate dimensions of knowledge previously beyond our reach. The benefactors of the AI Renaissance will be the individuals who are whole, who have been trained in the humanities, and are capable of visualizing the connection between all things.

II. The Polymath Principle

With access to deep knowledge in an array of disciplines comes responsibility; one must have the proper response and the natural ability to synthesize information in a way that sees everything as one. That connects together meaning, rhythms, and patterns, so that the individual who is able to think in polymathic principles will be the architect of the next Renaissance.

Let him be educated, skillful with the pencil, instructed in geometry, know much history, have followed philosophers with attention, understand music, have some knowledge of medicine, know the opinion of the jurists, and be acquainted with astronomy and the theory of the heavens. - Vitruvius: Book 1, chapter 1

Learn to connect the octaves of musical melodies to the consumption of mass culture. Trace how the golden ratio appears in both classical architecture and the structure of viral content. Understand that the principles governing the flow of water in pipes are the same principles that govern the flow of information through digital networks. See how the color theory that guided Renaissance painters now manipulates attention in interface design. Recognize that the rhetoric of Cicero lives on in the persuasion architecture of social media platforms.

The Renaissance individual of tomorrow must perceive these connections as a guiding mechanism. Mathematics does not exist separately from music, nor does biology exist apart from urban planning, nor does psychology exist divorced from architecture. They are facets of a single coherent system, a unified field of human knowledge waiting to be synthesized by minds capacious enough to hold multiple truths simultaneously.

III. Talent Meets Training

The Renaissance man requires both natural ability and continuous learning. The title requires a man to be of natural intelligence and curiosity; he must not be some idiot from the gutters. The man of natural ability is useless unless he trains his mental and creative faculties in a manner that illuminates his eyes to the truths of nature and reveals the creative power behind beauty. The repetitive nature of the search, the endless iterations, and the wisdom from the master are all ingredients that empower man to create as if he were a god.

He ought, therefore, to be both naturally gifted and amenable to instruction. Neither natural ability without instruction nor instruction without natural ability can make the perfect artist. - Vitruvius: Book 1, chapter 1

Intelligence is infinite, surrounding us at all times. The man in his creative prime has the ability to tap into that intelligence and transmute it into art, laws, statues, music, etc.

IV. The Interconnected Mind

Thus far, Vitruvius has been writing about the architect, whereas I have been writing about the Renaissance Man. There really is no difference. The Architect lays the foundation for the Renaissance Man, and the Renaissance Man lays the foundation for the rest of humanity. The Renaissance Man is the architect of society. His ideas are so powerful and gripping that society has no choice but to follow. The enlightened ideas of the previous Renaissance literally brought society out of the darkness and into the light.

Her mind connects all things as easily as one learns to ride a bicycle. Her mind is balanced by the force of a mind moving forward, allowing her to balance destabilizing thoughts. The constant push towards the limits of conscious intelligence and order creates the conditions for polymathic tendencies to rise up, where she discovers truths in one field of study while studying another.

But perhaps to the inexperienced it will seem a marvel that human nature can comprehend such a great number of studies and keep them in the memory. Still, the observation that all studies have a common bond of union and intercourse with one another, will lead to the belief that this can easily be realized… For a liberal education forms, as it were, a single body made up of these members. Those, therefore, who from tender years receive instruction in the various forms of learning, recognize the same stamp on all the arts, and an intercourse between all studies, and so they more readily comprehend them all. - Vitruvius: Book 1, chapter 1

Similar to how past polymaths took advantage of emerging technologies, the Renaissance mind will learn to interface with artificial intelligence: amplifying an already creative power into a superhuman power. The age of exploration begins, with expeditions taking mankind to distant galaxies.

V. Depth, Breadth & Everything Inbetween

The Renaissance man is competent across many fields, not necessarily an expert in all. His mind perceives all as one and delineates one from another when necessary. This creates the foundation for paradigm-shifting ideas to form.

For an architect ought not to be and cannot be such a philologian as was Aristarchus, although not illiterate; nor a musician like Aristoxenus, though not absolutely ignorant of music; nor a painter like Apelles, though not unskilful in drawing; nor a sculptor such as was Myron or Polyclitus, though not unacquainted with the plastic art; nor again a physician like Hippocrates, though not ignorant of medicine; nor in the other sciences need he excel in each, though he should not be unskilful in them. For, in the midst of all this great variety of subjects, an individual cannot attain to perfection in each, because it is scarcely in his power to take in and comprehend the general theories of them. - Vitruvius: Book 1, chapter 1

We each have our own calling. We are not all made to complete the same tasks on this Earth. The aeronautics engineer studies his field intensely and is a master of air travel. It is he who discovers and designs the next generation of space-faring flight. He is in no position to create a movement or to architect the future. His place is in the details, necessary and important. The majority of mankind is destined to fulfill similar roles. The Renaissance Men and Women are the outliers; their mental capacities go beyond mere particular roles: they reach into the cosmos, into the aether, their minds wander: they are the world builders.

VI. Conclusion: The Future Renaissance

The emerging Renaissance Man is primed to spark a Renaissance full of human passion and excellence. It is not just one man but a group of highly agentic, creative, optimistic, excellent men and women working together to fight off the monsters of pessimism and guilt: piloting us into a world of beauty. The darkness felt today is needed: the greatest secrets live in the darkest valleys. Human potential is unlocked through a pattern, an oscillation between highs and lows. The cycle repeats, not linearly, but as in a spiral, upwards towards the cosmos and all that is good and potent.

Take this as a sign to start creating.

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What impoverishes the ego is the very desire to be that ego — the desire for the kind of narcissism that is never ours but can be seen radiating from the other to whom we enslave ourselves. - René Girard

A gnawing inadequacy emerges after scrolling through Instagram. We feel an inexplicable resentment toward people we barely know, and shame when we compare our mundane reality to someone else’s curated highlights. Countless essays have diagnosed social media’s corrosive effects on self-confidence and its cultivation of endless desire. They describe the symptoms without exposing the underlying disease.

René Girard went further. In “Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World,” he unveiled the precise psychological mechanism that transforms innocent observation into toxic comparison, admiration into resentment, and aspiration into self-defeating despair. His theory of mimetic desire reveals an ancient pattern in human psychology that the algorithm has perfected.

If any ideas deserve serious examination today, it is these. Girard’s insights expose how desire itself operates, how it spreads through communities like contagion, and why our digital age has become a pressure cooker for the very forces that have driven human conflict since the beginning of civilization.

The first realization is that the world is becoming more undifferentiated and interconnected, dismantling the very structures that once contained mimetic rivalry. With each passing day, the barriers that historically protected us from mimetic frenzy are torn down. Geographic distance no longer separates us from potential models; we now compare ourselves not to our neighbors but to billions of strangers across the globe. Cultural distinctions that once created clear boundaries of identity and aspiration dissolve in multi-ethnic cities where everyone competes on the same terms. Professional hierarchies flatten as social media collapses the protective distance between entry-level workers and executives, students and experts, amateurs and celebrities. The result is mimetic rivalries that scale across the world.

Soon, there will be nothing to stop an American from competing with a Singaporean or even a Seychellean: our mimetic desires, the wants we catch from watching others want things, now operate at a global scale, unbound by geography. Any post of a yacht doesn’t show me an object, but it reveals a model of desire whose very act of possessing triggers my own wanting. The image induces shame because I recognize myself as lacking what my mediator, the person who shows me what to desire, effortlessly displays.

Multiply that experience by 100x a day, and you have a person who lives in constant angst, trapped in an accelerating cycle of mimetic rivalry where every scroll deepens the wound. Everything we see, every person we come across, we observe not as themselves but as rivals in a war of all against all: each encounter is a potential site of mimetic competition where their being becomes an obstacle to our own. We are caught in what Girard called the double bind; we must imitate our models to learn what to desire, yet that very imitation transforms them into obstacles we must overcome, fueling resentment and the metaphysical desire to possess not just what they have, but their very being.

How the Algorithm Abuses Metaphysical Desire

The algorithm is the first technology perfectly calibrated to exploit metaphysical desire because it solves the mediator scarcity problem. For the majority of humanity’s time on Earth, mediators have been scarce, and more importantly, they were differentiated from the common citizen. The algorithm bypasses this natural order of things by overwhelming the user with a plethora of mediators that the subject then uses as proxies for desire. The effect would be mitigated if the subject had a confined idea of his place in society or what he is capable of accomplishing/representing.

Instead, especially in America, from youth, we are taught that we can do anything, we can become anyone. This school of thought feeds directly into the fires of mimetic desire. We are conditioned to believe that we are more than we are, that our natural place in the world is only a suggestion, that we have the freedom to rise above our current condition, and that we deserve to be more. The desire to become is animated by our limitless potential, pushing us to reach far beyond our capacity. We have dreams of grandeur, and instead of society putting those dreams in their proper place, it spurs the desire for more, to consume more, to be more.

What society fails to reveal is where desire spawns from. When we desire something, we think that the desire is our own. Instead, what I am arguing is that our desires are not our own, but that we accumulate our desires from models, that our model then mediates our desire for the object. The result is that we do not really desire the object, but what we desire is the model's very being, its sense of autonomy and freedom. This becomes metaphysical desire: the longing not for any particular possession but for the model's apparent completeness, their freedom from lack itself. We want to inhabit their state of being, to possess the self-sufficiency we imagine they have achieved.

Consider the young professional who buys the luxury watch. They tell themselves they want the craftsmanship, the design, the way it catches light. But trace the desire backward, and you find the senior partner who wears one, who seems to move through the world with effortless confidence, whose time appears to be entirely their own. The watch is merely the visible marker of a way of being: the freedom, the arrival, the sense of having made it. What's really desired isn't the object on the wrist but the existential position it seems to signify: the end of striving, the achievement of self-sufficiency, the state of no longer needing to want.

The algorithm has learned to feed us an endless stream of models, each one calibrated to our demonstrated interests and desires, each one pulling us deeper into mimetic frenzy. Our desires multiply, with each model adding on a new tier of desires. Instead of energizing us, this process demoralizes our inclination to be by causing us shame. This shame then turns into resentment; we no longer see the model as a kind of mentor, but as an obstacle, an enemy who is stopping us from reaching metaphysical autonomy. Our resentment for these models grows, with each passing scroll, we get farther from possessing the object of our desire.

What makes the algorithm so psychologically insidious is that it enables the inflation of desirable objects, amplifying their perceived value far beyond their actual worth. Through carefully curated content, the model can signal experiences, achievements, and virtues that they do not genuinely possess or that represent only exceptional moments rather than everyday reality. This creates a profound sense of inadequacy in the subject, who compares their unfiltered life against the model’s highlight reel and becomes increasingly ashamed of what they perceive as their inferior existence.

Consider a teenager scrolling through Instagram: they see their peer (the model) posting photos from exotic vacations, perfect relationships, and glamorous parties. Each post suggests a life of constant excitement and fulfillment. What remains invisible are the ordinary hours, the conflicts, the staged nature of each shot. The subject, meanwhile, experiences their own life in full resolution: the boredom, the rejections, the mundane afternoons. This asymmetry of perception inflates the gap between them.

The algorithmic amplification of these false identities deepens the ontological chasm, the perceived difference in level of being, between subject and model. As more people simultaneously occupy both roles (being models to some while serving as subjects to others), the mimetic network becomes increasingly unstable. Everyone is performing a curated identity while feeling inadequate compared to others’ performances. This recursive pattern of imitation and aspiration ultimately escalates into what René Girard called mimetic frenzy1: a collective crisis where desire becomes so entangled and frustrated that the social fabric itself begins to destabilize.

The Model You’ll Never Surpass

When the model of desire is close to us, similar to us, and competing for the same goods, desire escalates into rivalry, resentment, and eventually violence. Modern egalitarian societies intensify this by erasing the distance between people while multiplying models. In order to exit mimetic rivalry, we must transform our competitive desires into non-competitive desires, modeled on Christ. Girard’s solution is very clear; we must renounce violence, renounce zero-sum games, and refuse to be the model that is imitated.

There are two kinds of models: rivalrous models, who are people that compete with you, and transcendent models, who are figures that cannot become your rivals. Christ is Girard's central example of a transcendent model because he desires nothing that deprives others, refuses retaliation, exposes scapegoating rather than participating in it2, and his imitation multiplies peace rather than rivalry. This is why Girard calls Christianity the only true anti-mimetic solution3, even though it works by imitation.

What we need is “desire literacy,” the ability to catch the moment wanting is being installed. Mimetic desire is so ingrained in the human psyche that it cannot be fully gotten rid of. It is a condition that we have to learn to deal with, and can temper through a kind of desire conversion. We can do this by choosing humility over recognition, truth over winning, love over reciprocity, forgiveness over revenge. This positioning at first comes off as weak, but in the end, it is the only solution to a world escalating towards total destruction.

If we anchor our being in something that we cannot compete with, then we do not experience the same rivolrous traits that arise from competition.

This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:12

Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

And Christ in John 5:41

I do not receive glory from people.

Paul says in Galatians 1:10

For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

The common theme here is the positioning of mimesis on a model that can never be a rival: God or Jesus. This transcendent model fundamentally transforms the nature of desire itself. While the act of seeking approval from God rather than from man might appear to be a withdrawal from the world, a kind of retreat into private spirituality, it actually produces the opposite effect. What happens is that the individual is no longer dependent on the world to verify his existence or validate his worth.

By orienting desire toward a non-rivalrous model, the individual escapes the endless cycle of comparison and competition that characterizes human relationships. He is thus freed from mimetic contagion, able to engage with others without the constant undercurrent of envy, resentment, or the need to prove himself superior. This freedom paradoxically allows for more authentic engagement with the world, not less, because the individual can now act from a place of secure identity rather than anxious striving.

Conclusion

Ultimately, Girard’s mimetic theory reveals why comparison corrupts judgment: when we measure ourselves against rivals, we lose sight of truth itself, subordinating it to the endless pursuit of recognition. What begins as innocent observation quickly devolves into a zero-sum calculus where truth becomes irrelevant and winning becomes everything. We no longer ask “Is this valuable?” but rather “Does possessing this elevate me above my rivals?” The tragedy is that rivalry is structurally endless. Each victory only produces new competitors, each achievement merely shifts the terms of comparison. The teenager who finally gets the perfect Instagram post discovers that perfection is a moving target; the professional who reaches the executive suite finds new hierarchies to climb. There is no summit because the mountain itself is generated by mimetic desire, growing taller with each step we take.

One practical escape from this cycle lies in shifting from consumption to creation. Creation undertaken for its own sake and not for recognition. The algorithm trains us to be passive spectators, accumulating shame with each scroll. Creating without regard for applause offers a different relationship to desire entirely. When we write not to be read but to think clearly, when we build not to impress but to solve problems, we exit the mimetic marketplace. This kind of creation is non-rivalrous because it doesn’t depend on defeating others or claiming scarce status. A musician who plays for the love of music cannot be your rival in the way an influencer competing for followers can. The act itself becomes the reward, not a means to metaphysical autonomy borrowed from models.

Peace, therefore, requires something more radical than winning the competitive game: it requires anchoring identity outside the competitive field entirely. This is the profound insight behind Girard’s elevation of Christ as the transcendent model: imitation must be non-rivalrous, or it inevitably becomes violent. A model who desires nothing that deprives others, who refuses retaliation, who exposes rather than perpetuates scapegoating: such a model cannot trigger the mimetic spiral. By orienting our desires toward a model who cannot be our rival, we escape mimetic contagion without abandoning imitation itself. We remain social creatures who learn through imitation, but we imitate peace rather than rivalry, humility rather than pride, truth rather than recognition. The question Girard leaves us with is not whether we will imitate (that is inevitable) but whom we will imitate, and whether that imitation will multiply peace or perpetuate conflict.

Why must we reaffirm the resilience of the human spirit? Because when God was declared dead, the great structures of meaning that once sustained humanity collapsed. What followed was a void, and into that void rushed a pervasive experience of existential dread.

Now and then, we will find ourselves in a hopeless abyss, where the light is quenched by darkness, and life’s meaning hides beneath the shadows. When Viktor Frankl found himself surviving the monstrosities of Auschwitz1, he asked himself an unanswerable question, a question unfathomable for a person in his situation: Is there meaning in my life as a prisoner in Auschwitz? To understand Frankl’s point, we must first answer the question: Where does man’s resiliency come from?

Nietzsche stated that “he who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Frankl alluded to this maxim in a passing comment on the fate that struck prisoners who forwent their ‘why’, “woe to him who saw no more sense in his life, no aim, no purpose, and therefore no point in carrying on. He was soon lost.” The man who loses sense of his future will lose his taste for life. What is then needed when we are lost is to change our attitude towards life by confronting each moment with full attention and acceptance. It does not matter what we expect from life; all that matters is what life expects from us. Life confronts us at every moment, calling upon us to answer it, calling upon us to create meaning.

The Will to Meaning

Man is able to live, and even to die for the sake of his ideals and values. - Viktor Frankl

When man’s willpower is thwarted by pleasure-seeking, his likelihood of standing up for his ideals diminishes dramatically. Consider how easily a person abandons their principles when immediate gratification beckons: the activist who stays silent to avoid social discomfort, the professional who compromises their ethics for a promotion, the citizen who ignores injustice because confronting it would disrupt their comfort. The person oriented toward meaning can endure hardship because they see it as instrumental to something beyond themselves; the pleasure-seeker cannot, for pain serves no purpose in their calculus. It goes to zero when purpose becomes synonymous with pleasure, and his time-preference shrinks to ‘now’.

The search for meaning is always top of mind, especially for the young and old. For the young, life has not yet formed; every decision feels weighty with possibility, every path a potential identity to inhabit. For the old, life is falling apart, the structures that once provided certainty crumble, and the years demand some accounting, some coherent story that justifies what has been. The individual in search of meaning, though genuine he is, will become distracted or misaligned, taking on identities and pursuits that serve his animalistic side or conforming to what is ‘expected’ of him. He becomes the corporate climber chasing status, the student pursuing prestige over passion. The meaning that the individual creates is not his own, resulting in a longing for an ultimate meaning. A gnawing sense that something essential is missing, that the life he’s constructed, however successful by external measures, rings hollow. The individual will not be content until that ultimate meaning is realized (Super-Meaning).

It is a noble pursuit to search for the most meaningful life possible; it is a natural response to life that will set one off on the journey of a lifetime. When meaning is pursued, the guardrails surrounding a normal life are removed: the highs are higher, and the lows lower. Adventure awaits the soul that wills meaning into existence.

A common condition resulting from the search for meaning is existential frustration2. The psyche becomes frustrated when meaning does not emerge. The result is noogenic neurosis3, resulting from existential problems, rather than a conflict between drive and instinct. Among such problems, the frustration of the will to meaning plays a large role. Frankl explains that existential frustration is not a pathology, but an all too human trait. Those who see the frustration as a disease will inevitably treat the disease with tranquilizing drugs and distractions. The individual will do anything to cope, rather than deal with his existential frustration.

Logotherapy, developed by Frankl as a therapy for existential frustration, “considers man a being whose main concern consists in fulfilling a meaning, rather than in the mere gratification or satisfaction of drives and instincts, or in merely reconciling the conflicting claims of ID, ego and superego, or the mere adaptation and adjustment to society and environment.”

The human spirit is resilient and will overcome any obstacle when it has a task to complete. Those who are most apt to survive a concentration camp have something to look forward to; the opportunity of the future lightens the misery of the day. The prisoner clings to the unfinished work waiting at home, the responsibility to bear witness, the loved one who needs him to return. Even the simple determination to prove that one’s captors could not break one’s spirit becomes a sufficient purpose to endure the unendurable. The tension between what one is and what one could become creates the condition not only for survival, but to grow from the confronting challenge.

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen task.” - Frankl

The Aimless Spirit

No instinct tells him what to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or he does what other people wish him to do (totalitarianism). - Frankl

With frustration and aimlessness, the human’s will to meaning is compensated with the will to power or the will to pleasure; often, we will oscillate between both. Our day is filled with repeating moments of anxiety and boredom. There is no guiding force, and so we find ourselves in a world totally alien to us. With aimlessness comes disorientation and meaninglessness. Young people want to know what the meaning of their life is, but with no tradition to guide them, they find themselves stumbling towards nihilism.

A 2023 study by Harvard4 indicated that three in five young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 reported they lacked “meaning or purpose” in their lives. Not surprisingly, the percentage of people with meaningful lives increases when asking individuals above the age of 25. The improvements show a development of character as well as social responsibilities, which Frankl argues are both prerequisites for a meaningful life.

A majority of the existential dread people feel stems from a disconnect between their lives and the world. We spend our days engaging with mediated experiences: staring at screens, curating unrealistic digital identities, interacting with life through layers of technological filtering. This constant mediation dampens the real-world feedback our psyches evolved to rely upon. Life confronts us with real challenges and demands real responses. Thus, it is our duty to be responsible for cultivating our own meaning. Meaning is discovered through direct engagement with the world as it presents itself, making it unique to each individual. Religion unifies a people through shared purpose, while life creates freedom by requiring each person to discover their own.

In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life, to life he can only respond by being responsible. - Frankl

Aiming at a Target

The more one forgets himself by channeling his energy toward a cause to serve or loving another person, the more he will actualize himself. “In other words, self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.” Following this logic, logotherapy offers three different ways for discovering meaning: 1) by creating a work or doing a deed, 2) by experiencing something or encountering someone, and 3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering. The first is obvious; the second I will touch on briefly, and then I will elaborate on the third, thereby affirming the resiliency of the human spirit.

The human spirit is satisfied through the meaning it finds by experiencing something — “such as goodness, truth, and beauty.” Nature pulls us out of ourselves and into the meaning of life. When you love her, you find meaning in the relationship. When we confront beauty or experience truth, we see that very potential in ourselves, something that should be actualized, but has been kept dormant until the experience pulls it out of us. The exterior world illuminates essential aspects of ourselves, traits and virtues that we then embody.

Finally, we find meaning in suffering, or put more poetically, we find meaning in the resiliency of the human spirit to overcome suffering and tragedy. This ability of the human spirit to be resilient in the face of suffering can be expressed in no better words than those of Frankl: “Human potential at its best is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement.” This human potential creates the reality that “man is ready to suffer, on the condition that his suffering has meaning.”

Logotherapy’s triad of meaning means that life’s meaning is unconditional, “for it even includes the potential for meaning in unavoidable suffering”. The human spirit is anti-fragile, for even at its lowest, it is able to be ennobled.

Ultimately, we all surrender to life; death is the promise to all who walk this Earth. If meaning were only to be found in life, then it would be pointless, for anything so fragile and finite cannot sustain the infinite cycle of life and death. Meaning is not conditional, but an unceasing instrument, playable in each and every situation, even that of unavoidable suffering.

The Human Spirit is Self-Determining

The human spirit is not free from its conditions, but it is free to take a stand toward the conditions” - adapted Frankl

Pan-determinism is the belief that everything in human life is fully determined by external forces, biological factors, or prior causes, leaving no genuine room for freedom, choice, or inner agency. Frankl offers a rebuttal to pan-determinism by explaining that “man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them… man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment.”

Frankl tells the story of a Nazi named Dr. J., who was in charge of the Nazis’ euthanasia program. He had believed Dr. J. to be the only truly evil man he had ever met, yet when Frankl later encountered a man who knew Dr. J. from his time in a Lubianka prison in Moscow, the man stated about Dr. J., “Before he died… he showed himself to be the best comrade you can imagine! He gave consolation to everybody. He lived up to the highest conceivable moral standard. He was the best friend I ever met during my long years in prison.”

Predicting man’s behavior is impossible. There are those who can “predict the movements of a machine or even predict the dynamics of the human psyche, but man is more than psyche”. Man is spirit, and his spirit is self-determining. “If humans were not more than a determined brain machine, then euthanasia would be justified.” After all, we don’t hesitate to discard a malfunctioning machine or put down a computer whose circuits have failed beyond repair. If consciousness is merely the output of neural processes, and those processes become irreparably damaged, what argument exists against ending that process? The machine perspective reduces human life to functional capacity: when the function ceases, so does the value. No matter how broken a human is, no matter how psychotic, he retains the dignity of a human being.

A human being is not one thing among others. It is things that determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes — within the limits of endowment and environment — he has made out of himself. - Frankl

Conclusion

Men have lived through terrible existences. They have suffered in concentration camps and experienced unimaginable tortures. While some acted as swines, others became saints. Frankl concludes that “Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.” There is no force in the world that can take away man’s freedom to confront all conditions of life with his head held high, and his dignity preserved beyond the reach of circumstance.

I cannot help but complete this essay with the very ending that Frankl chose to complete his own:

So let us be alert — alert in a two-fold sense:

Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.

And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake.

1

Frankl, Viktor E. Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 1959.

Our Present Circumstance

Today, we face a growing pandemic of social health crises rooted in the absence of real-world connections. The notion that more technology would enhance mental well-being now feels tragically ironic. Social media, once heralded as a tool to bring us closer, has instead driven us apart, fostering not social cohesion but anti-social behavior.

It has severed the physical ties that once grounded us to one another, complicating relationships as more of our lives unfold in the digital void. Floating aimlessly “in the cloud,” we have lost touch with the tangible world that nurtures us. This detachment from our origins is leaving us unmoored and unwell.

Steve Rose, PhD, expressed it like this, “Unfortunately, as social media use increases, we are becoming lonelier”. The technology designed to bring us closer has become a crutch in our ability to be empathetic towards others, thwarting our desire/ability to build strong relationships in the real world.

The answer isn’t in abandoning technology, nor is it in absolute submission to it. The answer will be found somewhere in the middle. You will find the middle-path is what I attempt to bring forth and illuminate in the pages below.

Background of humans’ relationship to work and how it has evolved to the present day

The relationship between humans and technology has evolved dramatically compared to earlier times, when new tools were integrated slowly. Each innovation solved problems, but also created new sociological challenges. With growing economic forces came new industries: fostering a dynamic, forward-looking society.

Now, technological progression is far more rapid, reshaping not just our work but the very core of human existence. What once was gradual is now a dynamic force that continuously redefines how we live, interact with, and understand the world.

Over the last 300 years, technology’s rapid advancement has profoundly transformed the types of work people engage in. The First Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s brought mechanized factory work to the forefront. Workers once tied to their fields, spent long hours in factories, often in taxing and dangerous conditions.

Despite the hardships, this era provided purpose through the creation of tangible goods, infrastructure, and material progress. Labor, although taxing, was linked to the physical world where workers could tangibly experience the fruits of their labor in the objects and structures they built. There is a pleasure derived from interacting with the physical world and transforming useless materials into useful, beneficial goods for society.

The Second Industrial Revolution, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, introduced mass production powered by electricity, steel, and oil. Technologies like the telegraph, railroads, and assembly lines transformed communication and transportation. Factories expanded, creating unprecedented economic growth but also heightened social inequality, as workers became increasingly disconnected from the products of their labor, another cog in the machine, a number.

By the time we entered the Third Industrial Revolution, the nature of work had shifted drastically again. With the rise of computers and automation, we transitioned into an information economy. Work became increasingly centered around data and analysis: resulting in the abstract problem-solving world of “knowledge work.” While this shift brought about safer working environments and removed much of the physical strain, it introduced a new kind of monotony.

Many workers today find themselves in roles that, while intellectually demanding, are distant from the tangible realities of human experience.

Though today’s worker might breathe cleaner air and endure less physical exhaustion, there’s an undercurrent of something lost. The work is more disconnected, routine, and alienating: removing them from the natural rhythms and creative impulses that once reverberated through human life. In a world of rapid technological shifts, the task is not merely to adapt, but to reconnect with the deeper sense of purpose that work once provided.

With each technological leap, we create safer and more efficient jobs, but at the same time, we risk losing the sense of purpose and fulfillment that invigorates human life.

Exploring the current changes and what it could look like in the future if humans have less work and perhaps “less” external meaning

Now we find ourselves in the 4th Industrial Revolution, and its future implications unknown. The technologies we experience today are becoming so advanced that the plots of sci-fi films are becoming a reality.

The progression of these new technologies does not seem to be slowing down but advancing at such a rapid pace, that within our lifetime, we may find ourselves living in a world of AGI. Such a world would give humans even more free time, access to almost anything they wish, and an unlimited supply of ephemeral dopamine hits, making Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World somewhat of an underestimation.

Our current social order, economic governance, and labor markets will change to something that humans have yet to face. If work begins to become a smaller and smaller part of our lives, do people know where else they will find a purpose to fill their days? The danger isn’t the absence of vocations but that people will have lost the ability/will to cultivate them.

We have become accustomed to finding a need in society and adapting ourselves to fill that role, wherever our cog fits in the machine, that is where we go. But what if there’s no evident need, no unsolved puzzle, or no unlearned skill? When everything becomes automated, does the very essence of life start to feel hollow?

The great Nietzsche famously wrote, “man will sooner will nothingness than not will at all.”

If we lose our power to create, build, and move the world, it will not lead to better lives but will embitter the quenched spirit of every man walking the Earth that is no longer needed.

“He has become a destitute, his dream of adventure; only a figure of his imagination that he is unable to actualize, no longer to be lived out in the material world.”

What could meaning look like

What AI could look like in the future is unknown, with top AI researchers split between optimism (creative societies that flourish) and pessimism (1984 surveillance states so powerful that they could never be toppled).1

For the purpose of this essay, I am leaning on the side of optimism, where AGI creates a world of abundance and humans are able to choose how they are going to live out their lives. As technology accelerates, reshaping every facet of life, it’s crucial to think deeply about how humans will retain the ability to express emotions, speak their truths, and still pursue personal adventures and avenues for growth. In a world driven by innovation, we must find ways to preserve the core essence of human experience: our capacity for curiosity, connection, and self-discovery.

Balancing technological advancement with the human spirit will be key to thriving in this new landscape so that we do not lose what makes us uniquely human. Humans have a diverse and broad range of goals and desires that are unique to each individual. Without progression towards these goals or participation in fulfilling desires, the human lives in a depressed state that he represses by busying himself with a constant disarray of surface-level distractions, vices, and trivial pursuits.

For most of us, what I know from personal experience, it is not enough to live hedonistic lives where our meaning is found in successfully recording new dopamine highs. People have goals and ambitions; they want to show the world all that they can accomplish, and if they are not given the opportunity to do so, it can have a devastating effect on their morale.

People find meaning in their work as it reflects the impact they make, showing them that their contributions improve society and affirming their significance.

When meaning and purpose are lacking in work, people will turn to other substitutes to fill the void. These can include:

1. Social status — Seeking validation and importance through recognition from others.

2. Selfishness — Prioritizing personal gain over community or collaboration.

3. Materialism — Attempting to find satisfaction in possessions or wealth.

4. Distractions — Engaging in constant entertainment or activities to avoid confronting a lack of purpose.

5. Addictions — Turning to unhealthy habits to numb feelings of dissatisfaction or emptiness.

6. Conformity/Tribalism — Adopting societal norms to fit in rather than pursue individual purpose.

These often serve as temporary solutions, offering comfort but not true fulfillment.

A Ritual, Craftsman, & Community

Where meaning is not found and only depression resides is in the constant thinking of ourselves. How can I make myself happier? How can I make my fortune? What do they think about me? These thoughts put us at the center of the universe and make us out of touch with reality.

Meaning then is found through our curiosity and losing ourselves in the beauty and chaos of the external world. The external world is real and can provide tangible feedback and reveal information about who we are as humans and individual souls. It is by spending too much time in the realm of abstract ideas that we weaken our relationship with reality and suffer the lack of connection that follows.

Rituals serve to provide someone with a commitment they get to tend to daily. Rituals serve as a mechanism for living an intentional life, keeping the mind steady. The ritual yields meaning as it becomes a constant in the ever-changing circumstances of one’s life. When the mind and body become fragmented, the daily ritual works to reunify. When one has strayed from his path, the ritual serves as a compass to guide him back. It becomes an instrument to harmonize the body, mind, and soul into the eternal present.

The craftsman has a relationship with the material he works with. It is something he can understand, touch, feel, and smell. His focus and commitment to his craft grows him as an individual and teaches him about the world. It becomes a microcosm that connects him to the macrocosm. It grounds him and gives him control over the outcome. It becomes a part of him, and so he feels an intrinsic connection. It is not in his imagination but is real and gives his life meaning.

By involving oneself in a community, one is able to build an identity and a relationship with the people around them. The world becomes a place of friendly faces instead of a world full of strangers. One learns to take on responsibility within the community and align their values with others. Purpose is then found in making the community stronger, healthier, and more vibrant. Everyone is working towards the same goal, and progress is met with the meaning derived when living for other people. Nations are not built for the sake of one individual but for the unification and progress of all individuals.

What human enlightenment could look like in a world of AGI

Does the age of AGI mean less meaning in the world, or could it spark an abundance of meaning to be found through a plethora of diverse mediums? Since our awakening into our current consciousness, we have been the dominant species on this Earth, not due to our strength but due to our ability to think and solve problems. It is our intelligence that has driven our race to the peak echelon of life on Earth. We have now arrived at the point in time where we can cultivate or destroy all life on Earth. We are playing god and are in the preliminary stage of creating a new kind of life that will surpass us in both intelligence and ability.

Assuming that the AGI will be our friend and will take on many of our obligations, there is an unknown as to what human life will be like. How will we interact with each other, and what new forms of meaning will be discovered? Will we continue to live in bodily form, or will our very being be developed into something entirely new? Will this be good or bad for us? Will humans be able to go beyond our current conditions that plague us with vice, sickness, war, death, and so evolve into a higher consciousness that has been whispered in the past?

What is going to make us happy and content if we lose control of the world? This can be an absolutely great thing if it allows us to let go of our attachments and accept the next evolution of mankind, or it can evolve into a story of human vs. machine? As I write this, there are already strikes happening around the world to stop the automation of industries. Nothing new, as strikes against automation and progress have been going on for centuries, but the degree of automation this time seems to be utterly revolutionary with respect to human roles in the workplace.

That problem could be the answer to our questions. People have built their identity on material and social constructs that are not meant to last forever. So, when it is time to move on, how will people deal with and traverse the new landscape that is forming around them? Will everyone be able to come along for the ride or will some be left behind? And if some are left behind, is it our duty to still treat them with dignity and provide them the meaning that has been stripped away from them?

If we wait and have to answer these questions all at once it will be impossible to arrive at the solutions in time. This is why every person alive right now needs to begin participating in these conversations on every level. It begins with the individual and her duty to cultivate a philosophy and meaning that can bring joy to the act of living. Next, it is in our families and communities where we can come together and begin to plan out new social structures that will evolve and align with everyone’s interests.

Finally, we go to the country and global scale where we look at all of mankind and all beings on Earth. What would thriving look like for as many people as possible? How do we give freedom and safety to everyone on Earth? How do we ensure that people are educated about the different ways in which they can live a full life in a new world? Should we restart the clock, or do we count this as a linear continuation of history? To me, it seems so new that a restart is necessary to ensure that we can properly align ourselves with the coming age.

So what might aligning ourselves with the coming age look like? The Buddha taught us the middle way, and Jesus taught us how to be one with the Father. Our place is between heaven and Earth. We live both in the physical and the spiritual world. By focusing too much on one, we become unbalanced and stray from the higher path.

What form of landscape will provide people with the education, opportunities, and resources to live a life of both spiritual and material abundance?

Education: People think about education in many different ways. But the most common form today is not to teach people how to think but to teach them things to think about. The youth is taught to think like a machine, but when machines perfect this form of thinking, what will humans think about? This conundrum has to be solved with a new paradigm for educating the youth, and in that regard, everyone.

Instead of basic education, I propose we create curated education to meet the interests and vocations of every individual. We lower the hurdle to gaining new skills and spark passion in each and every individual. We create centers of art, recreation, and play for people to interact and share ideas with each other. We don’t tell children to gain skills in order to have a good career; we tell children to gain skills in order that they can build up a passion within themselves to create and bring new and interesting ideas and things into the world.

Education is not a means to an end but a means to living a good life. The goal is not to get good grades but to get good at something that you are passionate about. The goal is not to build a career but to build a life. The goal is not to regurgitate but to create. This is what education needs to evolve into so that the human condition will continue upon its upward trajectory.

Opportunities: What do opportunities look like in the future? Today, they are considered the new things/experiences you have potential access to. So I guess in the future it would have the same meaning, but what would those new things/experiences be, or what would they look like?

It is likely that the kinds of opportunities we are used to will be in a different form. Instead of there being an opportunity to study abroad, it may be an opportunity to travel to a distant galaxy or to be a part of a simulation.

Economic opportunities will shift as machines with improved efficiency work to create near-perfect markets, eliminating room for competition or the creation of vast sums of wealth. It’s difficult to say how humans will react to this. As I wrote earlier, humans would rather have civilization destroyed than live a life of unwilling bliss with nothing to triumph over. The Matrix and many other modern-day works have alluded to this by showing what humans will do to regain their freedom of will.

We need opportunities suited for humans that will provide people with a sense of optimism that keeps them driving forward. Without a sense of opportunity comes doubt, skepticism, and pessimism; people begin to shut down. They lose their sense of resilience and playful inquiry that drives the creation of beauty and awe-inspiring works of art.

Resources: Resources are the materials that humans deem valuable to their lives. There is no such thing as a finite resource if humans can find another resource to perform the same function. If we gain the ability to transmute any element into any other, then we have infinite resources to build and create anything (often called a Universal Constructor)2.

What we were once constrained by has become a life-giving force of infinite means.

It is common sense that if we can get infinite resources into the hands of as many humans as possible, then the amount of creativity on this Earth and beyond will grow by orders of magnitude unimaginable by today’s standards. Present economic standards say this will lead to diminishing returns: when the economy’s growth is measured through inflationary metrics, a deflationary economy breaks down the system, and the cogs come to a halt. Thus, it is all too likely AGI will give rise to a new economic standard, that of full-fledged autonomy brought about by a cosmic interdependency.

Poverty will be described as a lack of consciousness or dependency and not as a lack of material wealth or as David Deutsch puts it “Wealth is the set of transformations that we can effect”

How to Think in the Coming Age

The age unfolding in front of us holds psychological, informational, and spiritual implications that are presently unknown.

• Psychologically. We are confronted with novel experiences and a dopaminergic feedback cycle that confuses our intentions and makes us out of tune with ourselves and others.

• Informationally. We will have access to the combined knowledge of mankind, past and present, plus the knowledge we get from machines. With an abundance of knowledge comes the problem of verifying what is true and what is false.

• Spiritually. The coupling of spirit and AGI will bring about a new religion. With its omniscient and omnipotent capabilities, will the human will naively place itself under its control?

Relinquishing the spirit of mankind to be subjugated by the whims of technological advancement would be the greatest tragedy.

Mental Models Under Stress

As technology accelerates and society transforms, the understanding and practice of human paradigms and values: growth, wealth, justice, power, etc., will shift. All of this will happen at a speed and velocity unprecedented when compared to what humans have experienced in the past. Current mental models and habitual reactions will become obsolete, forcing us to think differently about the world and our place in it.

People already have access to more leverage than their parents had and anyone before them. Now imagine the future where the world is even more complex and connected, making leverage and decisions yield consequences and reactions that ripple forcefully across time. Traditional ways of thinking will be stretched to extremes, with decisions and choices having far greater impact due to the increased interconnectedness of the world.

Max Tegmark, one of the leading researchers on AI, said the idea of studying a field for 20 years and working in that field for 40 years is over. To succeed in the future, you will have to be nimble and able to pivot on a dime. The system that allows you to work 8–5 at your corporate job, while providing you with growth in status and earning potential will fade away. The 8–5 is dead, and in place of it will be machines and the coined 4-hour work week by Tim Ferriss.

The paradigm that one’s life trajectory can be defined by a single path and course of action will be few and far between. As the economy and society move and change at rapid speeds, humans too, will have to set themselves up for change, to be nimble! The emerging realities, if dealt with wisely, will be freeing and offer a wide range of unique life paths to the people who are willing to change with the shifting environment.

Abundance vs. Indolence

While abundance will create ample opportunity, it will also be easier to fall into a life of distraction and inactivity. The world is not going to make you move, you will have to be your own mover. Especially if universal basic income becomes a part of society, there will be no incentive to get off the couch. You will have to create your own incentives and explore the world not because you have to, but because you want to.

This economic and societal reality is already playing out. You can see it in all areas of life. People doom-scrolling, not on their phones for any particular reason but because it has become an addiction that must be scratched if they want the joy of having their mind sedated, putting it into a state of artificial bliss. We all do this, and I don’t think anyone can honestly say that it has ever led to something meaningful. In the future, focus will be considered a superpower; people will pay you to help them learn to focus. In fact, people are already doing this.

Carl Jung’s Warning on Indolence

Carl Jung said, “Indolence is the beginning of all vice because in a condition of slothful dreaming the libido has abundant opportunity for sinking into itself.”3 Laziness can begin to plague our lives just as any other vice can, but if you stopped there, you would be a monk. Indolence leads to other vices because it leaves a hole inside your soul that can only be filled by fostering a purpose.

By fostering our sense of purpose and actively participating in our interests, we give ourselves a direction to head towards. In an era where distractions are plentiful, there is only so much willpower that we can use to guard ourselves from its seduction. It will overcome us less if we have a strong enough purpose that will be able to spur us on past the bright, attractive glow of distraction.

Cultural Pressures & Conformity

Pink Floyd famously sang, “Did you trade your role in a play, for a lead role in a cage?”4 With everyone more connected and socially twined together, there will be incentives to stay in line and not expose oneself to be torn apart by the mob. Free thinkers create social disorder, and as the social fabric becomes more complex, there is less room for contrarian thinkers. For this reason, resiliancy needs to be built into the social fabric: allowing people to question, think, and conjecture freely.

This issue is why we need independent states in the future, so that individuals can choose where they want to go: where each state will offer different lifestyles. Arguments and examples can be found in Life 3.0, The Sovereign Individual5, and The Network State6, where the authors do an excellent job exploring this key idea. Independent thinkers and contrarians are the ones who move society forward; without them, we are stuck in a paradigm that only the strong-willed contrarian emerging from the new generation can break us out of.

The Mirage of Abundance

What is the point of pseudo-abundance if what it costs is the loss of adventure and the pursuit of a unique identity? You can fill my fridge with food, my walls with entertainment, and my house with love; but if I cannot experience adventure, fight for my desires, or manifest my will into the world, then I do not wish to play that game. This is a world that is of no interest to me. I will lay my arms down and walk away, walk away from it all. As painful as it may be, it is better than the pain of not being able to actualize myself. I refuse to believe that I was put on this Earth to walk in a line that ultimately leads to my demise. Rather, I will take the fork in the road that is the road less traveled.

Overwhelmed by Endless Options

Think in terms of the world as coming more alive and offering more paths. The reason the modern age can be so stressful is that we have boundless opportunities and options, while our ability to choose and sort out all of the options is lacking strength. We are told we can do anything we want, but this isn’t always great advice if we don’t have the tools to uncover what it is we want. Constraint is paradoxically freeing: people with good habits and rituals are freer than people who arbitrarily decide what to do at any given moment.

We psychologically burden ourselves by constantly second-guessing choices and comparing our paths to others. Instead of taking the long journey, we take any shortcuts we can find. We will take immediate gratification over sacrifice, which doesn’t allow us to fully grow into ourselves or see anything through. Instead of growing into a tall strong oak, we shoot up weak saplings, switching paths whenever we are confronted by an ounce of boredom.

A tall strong oak is better than a 100 saplings.

Super Position yourself

Encourage yourself to think beyond right and wrong, and embrace the uncertainty of the future rather than boxing yourself into rigid categories. In the past, you spent decades mastering a narrow field of expertise; in the future, you will spend decades working and collaborating in many different fields, each one giving you a piece of the whole. The phrase “jack of all trades, master of none” will be considered a good thing, and we might learn the latter part of the phrase “But oftentimes better than master of one”.

You do not know where the next opportunities will appear or which skills will matter most to society. By staying nimble and quick to learn, you put yourself in a position to seize new ideas as they emerge. This adaptability strengthens your ability to navigate uncertainty with confidence.

Comparison is the Thief of Joy

The ever-increasing interconnectedness of the world has made it way too easy to compare and to get into mimetic rivalries7 with the other 7 billion people on the Earth. We see what others are doing, and it diminishes our satisfaction. How do we connect with others without allowing them to steer us away from our path? This is the question that psychologists have been trying to answer since social media connected everyone via the web, yielding an inferior social society to that of the past.

Seeking external validation and comparison can be useful, but only to an extent; you can never fully rely on the approbation or competition of others because YOU will always be your number one fan and critic. You will just have to learn how to balance that equation so that you are optimally spurred on. It will be different for everyone, but through careful reflection and attention, I am confident that one can create the balance.

The Value of Exploration

The world is meant to be explored without any expectations for what you will find or get out of it. The same goes for exploring yourself; we have been conditioned to always expect and push for certain outcomes, but sometimes we need to let go and allow answers to be slowly revealed.

Perhaps in the future, we will have more time for reflection, which will allow us to explore the deeper meanings of life through the expansion of awareness and understanding. This higher existence will only be possible if we start to foster a world that builds a foundation for this deeper kind of existence. Without active attempts to form a world that supports deep life forms, we will quickly find ourselves in a world of constant distraction followed by long-term dissatisfaction, masked by the illusion of short-term satisfaction.

Technology as a Servant & Not a Master

Technology has played its role in creating prosperity, but has also been a tool for destruction, manipulation, and slavery. By relying on technology and allowing it to dictate how we think and experience life, we give up our freedom to the techno tyrants who use ephemeral media to push ideological agendas. Technology as a tool to serve human needs is different than allowing it to dictate our lives. If technology is going to take an ounce of freedom away from our lives, it is our prerogative to cultivate the willpower and courage to reject these technologies and look for another solution

If we do not have the right to dictate the terms of the future, we will be like leaves in the wind: pushed here and there by whatever direction technology decides to take us. Our greatest invention will become our great downfall. To avoid this, individuals need to start asking themselves what they want technology to do for them, what they want technology to stop doing, and explore if there is technology that has become a habitual part of our lives that we need to reject.

Reflecting on our current situation, ask if you are seeing any signs of technology that, on the surface, is improving life, but underneath it’s causing more harm than good? There are probably a few of these technologies that we have let into our lives that we need to call an exterminator to get them out. Technology is addictive and slick, so a lot of times we can be ignorant of our degree of reliance and blind to its role in slowly altering the core of who we are.

Search for Meaning Without Sacrificing the Present

When we search for ultimate meaning, we take ourselves away from the joys of everyday existence, we look past the common in search for the elusive, and by so doing, the pure eludes us, and the common is below us. We find ourselves stuck in the middle with no place to rest. That which is below us is not satisfying, and that above is beyond our reach.

This way of living is absurd, and is where the philosophy of absurdism can come in to bring a better understanding. Its most basic premise is that there is no ultimate meaning to be found, but that meaning is found on the individual level and can be acted out in all facets of life. Viktor Frankl had a similar approach when he said, “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life…The meaning of life is to give life meaning.”8

I have used the word “meaning” a lot, and what it comes down to is this: living and acting out in this world that which invigorates you with hope and purpose. It is really that simple; the difficult part is living your life in this manner, believing that the sacrifices you make are meaningful and worth it. But if you can foster this in your own life, you will never be depressed because you know that no matter the circumstances of life, you are both capable and willing to find meaning in them.

Moving Forward into the New Age

In conclusion, as humanity continues to increase its reliance on machines, it becomes essential that our consciousness expands alongside these advancements. The age unfolding before us presents psychological, informational, and spiritual implications that are unlike anything we’ve faced before. Thus, we are called to redefine how we live, grow, and find meaning in a rapidly evolving world.

The questions that I have aimed to explore throughout this essay will only grow more urgent as technology progresses. My hope is that this essay serves as a starting point for deeper conversations: what it means to live a life of purpose, creativity, and curiosity in an age defined by artificial intelligence.

The future is not something to be feared, but something to be shaped with careful thought, intention and awareness.

If you made it this far, I thank you and hope your imagination was sparked and your faith in the future restored.

Thank you for reading.

May your eyes be bright and full of everlasting laughter.

Follow my X account if you are looking to partake in deep, sensitive, and bright conversations. All it takes is 1 sentence to change your paradigm.

Below, Dante outlines how Story Theory favors the exceptional story and why such stories are more likely to gain the support of others.

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The better one’s story and their ability to follow that story, the more likely it is that that story comes to fruition (The most likely outcome is the most entertaining one).

You create a story where your goal is huge, but you work at it every day: the story becomes more interesting. The more likable you are, the more likely it is that things will go your way; the more your story resembles an adventure, the more likely it is to be the one you want.

If your main story (objective) rises above your base goals and desires, you become even more liked and purpose-driven. This leads you to have an even greater story or better outcome.

The more one shall grow (change) along one’s life in the way that refines his morality and talents, the more likely that story will come true.

Being true to oneself and standing up for one’s purpose, even creating drama, creates the optimal karma for your path to your goal.

Karma is action, and dharma is the practice/unfolding of these actions. If you slowly align yourself karmically, the unfolding of your dharma will come forth.

Calculate with awareness; if you stay true to yourself and decipher the underlying cause of your shortcomings, you come closer to creating the change needed for a successful story.

Story Theory: You are the storyteller and the actor, your life is your stage, and you put on the performance

If you are more liked, will you be more successful (self included)?

If you put in the hard work to grow, will you improve?

If you stand by yourself and do not waver when things get tough, will you be preserved (crystallized)?

If you are not given the right opportunities, will the right one come?

These questions help you understand if you have the hardware to use Story Theory. The Theory that allows you to choose. The Theory that lets you choose where your life will go.

If this Theory is proven, this means that one can see the strings of fate and become the puppet master. But only if the presence of mind is there and your ability to work internally is adequate.

This idea means that you can be partially or fully liberated with only the want and dedication to an idea.

If you do not make it empty, how will you fill it up again?

Anything past this point is nothing more than an attempt at explanation.

If things in this world abide by laws, then there are laws that determine the outcomes of life.

If outcomes of life abide by laws, then it is possible to read those laws and direct them toward a certain outcome.

If the outcome is impossible for your situation, then there is an outcome better attuned to your story.

Action = Action. So what actions do you want in the future, and what actions are you capable of now?

I will say no more, so as to let you, the reader, feel and fill out what you need for your story. — Dante Fichera Jr.

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Below, I explore individual agency and how boredom and learning to think gives you power over your thoughts, opinions, and your daily happiness.

Boredom creeps in at every turn; it is so unendurable that distractions are the only way out. The head hops over the walled garden of bliss1 and reports back that the future is filled with more misery and obstacles than one can handle. Even nature is uninteresting, and the sun is dim as ever. The only cope is either enhanced ontixification or a large bright screen to block out the world. The world responds by receding further into the shadows; the days no longer grant gifts of awe and wonder but fly by at exceptional speed. Every moment becomes duller and duller until finally, your new Amazon package arrives and you suddenly become optimistic and excitedly frantic; in your own ignorance, you feel honored and loved. This loses its sparkle; it is a bright blue ghost you continue to chase after.

Words cannot describe how you feel, so you instead become the words of popular magazines and politicians that tell you how you feel. Rational thought is not so common. The politician says you are an exploited class, and suddenly you feel a sense of righteous indignation. How could they do this to me and to you, we must be paid retributions through a guilt tax on the oppresor. You never thought this way before, you never knew how you felt, nor even who you are. Your morality is tied to the whims of the specific group that entices you in: whichever group inflates your ego and gives you purpose becomes your god. Anyone outside of this group is subhuman, born of the devil, and no longer deserving of life, liberty, or happiness.

Your days are still meaningless, only filled with the moments you stand up for those oppressed, though you do nothing about it yourself; no money comes out of your pocket to help; of course, it should come from the wallets of the oppressors. But let me return to the earlier point that illustrates how the distracted state leads to unformed thoughts, and thus an unformed life. Further, society cannot be built upon people who stand on un-solid ground. And how can a people stand on solid ground when the mind that moves them is feeble and the legs that carry them are turned in each direction.

Even the leaders are unfortified in the direction in which they mean to lead their people. Their only pursuit is power, and the philosophy that drives them is one of vexation and cultural upheaval. Even the conservative means to resuscitate that which once was and of which is no more. The people are lost, like sheep without a master; they are being led by wolves to be slaughtered. The gargantuan AI data centers are spoken of as if they are for the people, by the people, so that the people can be liberated from work and pursue a life of happiness. The people have been trained to pursue satisfaction, not in good work but in fleeting pleasures, and what they pursue is an unserious life; AI will not save them, it will only sedate them further, pulling them into a world of bits and illusion.

What about those brave spirits who pursue purpose in overcoming immense obstacles through the use of sheer willpower? Those who get up before it is time and grind the day away on improving themselves. Don’t these individuals deserve some kind of medal, and don’t they atleast have a callosed mind that is strong enough to choose its own path. No. These people are also lost; they have just chosen a more challenging existence and suffer all the more for it. Their hubruous is that they believe that they are their own master; the hubris of the sedated is the belief that the masters are their slaves.

Everyone deserves a good life. Wrong. Everyone deserves death and has already been granted life; the choice of a good life lives purely in the mind and bestows itself upon the wings of consciousness and morality. Forget order, order is boring, disorder is exciting, chaos is EXCITING. You can forget triumph as well; the great triumphs have already been experienced, your triumph will always be beneath it.

Back to boredom; if boredom is antithetical to a happy existence, then chaos is the cure, and sedation is the medicine. If bravado and “the grind” are the cure to sedation, then boredom is the medicine and order is the result.

Boredom does not last forever. There is a requirement of time that, once sustained, is followed by bliss. Distraction will never take you down a path of bliss; it will only sustain you for long enough time to continue fighting through each day. Bliss through sustained boredom is a choice: it can either be a living hell or become a state of absolute bliss. You can build the walled garden, reside strictly in the garden, or you can poke your head over and report back all the moments ahead until it builds up into an unendurable hell.

The choice is yours. A life of constant distraction. Hell on Earth. Or heaven on Earth obtained through sustained boredom.

You can learn to think or you can outsource your thoughts to a more convincing mind. Thinking takes time, growth in thought is not found on the screens, and it is not derived from group think. The individual must think, for a sustained period of time, enough for boredom to creep in and the bubbling up of the subconscious.

The choice is yours. Outsource your mental capacities and thus risk total incapacitation. Or sink into boredom, turn off the screens, and learn who you are, where your thoughts come from, and regain the power of individual thought.

Today’s topic is connected to the last article on connection. I will present to you examples of disconnection, connection, and how we can thrive by grasping duality and integrating it into our lives.

let’s get into it.

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We often hear about the butterfly effect.

The idea that the smallest flap of wings can alter the course of a storm halfway across the world. But what if we shifted our gaze to something more understood and compounded effects studied?

Call it the Bee Effect1.

Where the butterfly symbolizes chaos and mystery, the bee is a living thread in the web of life that we can easily visualize. It connects the farm to forest, and soil to society. It works constantly to weave systems together: ecological, agricultural, economic, etc.

Bees are tiny agents of connection

We too are part of something vast and interwoven. We forget this, but the forgetting doesn’t make it less true. The modern world often feels fragmented, but beneath the noise, a deeper truth hums:

Nothing exists in isolation. All things touch, affect, and rely on one another.

Examples of Disconnection / Fragmentation

We live in an age of hyper-connection.

So why do so many of us feel alone?

Social Media:

Social media has fragmented us, but not really.

In reality, it has brought us closer to each other by allowing us to interact with people all around the world. The fragmenting effect it has had is not literal but lives in our minds and heads. We still connect with people in real life and on top of that we get to connect with people online.

The fragmenting aspect of social media is purely a perceptual distortion that it causes, making us feel that we are more connected to people than we actually are.

So when we see people doing better than us or see a fight happen on the streets we feel that we are connected to that event making us feel an emotional withdrawal at a global level that we would never experience in real life. When the screen is turned on we feel connected to all of these events and people, and when we turn off the screen we feel as if we have been shut off from the world, that we have been unplugged.

But as I just said, this is folly on our part, our perceptions have been distorted and morphed.

Screen on or off, we are connected to all things, and we can build up our understanding of that perception online or offline. What you want to avoid, is falling too much into the connection that you experience online, just like how you don’t cry over the farewell of a stranger you meet at the bar. You should treat online encounters with even less empathy, but for some reason, our natural impulses reject this.

Cursive vs. Typescript:

When I was in school I hated cursive. Now I believe that my lack of cursive writing has led me to be less connected with my work.

When I write in cursive, I experience every letter in a word as an interconnected organism creating a tuned melody. In modern typescript, every letter in a word is disconnected and seemingly unassociated with every other one. Similarly, surfers prefer a smooth, developing wave, rather than a splashing, crashing wave.

Ideological Warfare:

If you were to waste your time watching or reading the news you would hear phrases like “The world has never been more polarized” or “We are more ideologically divided than ever” or even better “We live in unprecedented times”.

Remember the phrase we learned as kids “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”.

Even if we are divided, the division lives in our minds. I feel a lot safer living in these “unprecedented ideologically divided times” than I would if I were alive during World War II or any other time before that. The job of the news is to create division and hide you from observing the obvious truth that we live in the most connected, safe, and exciting time in the history of mankind.

Examples of Connection

Let’s return to the bee and beyond.

Nature’s Web

Bees pollinate flowers. Flowers feed animals. Animals fertilize the soil. Soil grows food. Food feeds us. Humans are: thinking, feeling, and dreaming beings. This chain of life is not poetic but a literal representation of the way our world works. Similarly, mycelial networks2 communicate across forests, share nutrients, and warn others of threats.

Nature is just another word for connection. That is why when we feel connected to something or it makes us feel good we call it “natural”.

The Brain & Heart

In neuroscience, mirror neurons3 fire when they see others act, feel, and express. We’re wired to reflect each other. Empathy is not merely a biological idea, it’s a natural expression of our connection to all things. We are mirrors, tuned to recognize the dance in each other’s eyes.

Fall in love with someone, look up to them, or admire them and you will find yourself copying their actions. Why? Because you wish to feel connected to them.

Spiritual Threads

In Sufi mysticism, losing oneself in the divine is the only way to truly find yourself. In Buddhism, the principle of dependent origination4 says nothing arises independently; everything comes into being in relation to everything else. John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. In Indigenous cosmologies, land, people, and spirit are not separate; they are one organism, breathing together.

All Spiritual paths come to the same conclusion: the human is connected to everything and everything is connected to the human.

Moments of Real Connection

You’ve felt it. In a deep conversation. A shared silence. Music that brings strangers into sync. These are glimpses of wholeness.

Reminding us that the illusion of separateness and disconnection is just that: an illusion.

Duality: A Necessary Dance

Duality is constantly blending all around us.

Our perceptions are in constant flux.

Our understanding is always growing or shrinking.

In this life, you cannot escape the law of duality.

Understand duality and you will understand the world.

Life moves in opposites. Light and dark. Silence and sound. Self and other. We often try to choose one and reject the other, but true understanding comes from holding both and superpositioning your perception5.

Just like how light can be a particle and a wave at the same time, the human holds multiple personalities and identities.

Perception in Flux

Our minds are shaped by contrast. We understand joy because we’ve known sorrow. We value connection because we’ve felt loneliness. There is no awareness without differentiation.

Yin and Yang

Duality creates a dynamic balance that is necessary for life. In Eastern thought, yin and yang don’t oppose each other, they complete each other. Duality manifests itself everywhere: masculine and feminine, action and stillness, structure and flow, the wave and the ocean.

Alan Watts said it well:

“You are a function of what the whole universe is doing, in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.”

You’re not separate, you’re an expression of the whole. You are unique but never isolated.

Conclusion: Practicing Connection

At the heart of The Vitruvian Life is not perfection, but alignment.

The Vitruvian Man stands with arms outstretched, touching the circle and the square. A human being, poised between heaven and earth, thought and flesh, cosmos and self.

At its core, it is a symbol of wholeness.

To be whole does not mean that you have to have everything figured out. It means remembering that nothing is separate. Fears are connected to failures that were connected to attempts that originated from a belief. It’s all connected.

Call to Action: Live Like the Bee

So what do we do with this?

We practice.

• Practice seeing the SELF in others.

• Practice listening like every word matters

• Practice breathing like it's your first inhale.

• Practice creating like your hands were touched by the gods.

Let the bee be your guide. Pollinate the lives of others by playing your part in this vast network of life.

And ask yourself:
What would your life look like if you stopped identifying as a separate wave and started living as the ocean?

5

The article titled "Quantum Mystery of Light Revealed by New Experiment," published on Live Science on November 5, 2012, discusses a groundbreaking experiment that observed light exhibiting both particle-like and wave-like behaviors simultaneously. Historically, experiments demonstrated light acting either as particles or as waves, but not both at once. This experiment employed a novel measurement apparatus leveraging quantum nonlocality; a phenomenon where a particle can appear in two places at once to detect the dual behaviors concurrently. The findings provide deeper insights into the fundamental nature of light and contribute to our understanding of quantum mechanics.

Today’s topic is connection. We will focus on the underlying connection of our universe, why we tend to focus on differences, and how to start shifting our perspective toward experiencing unity.

Let’s start this off with a short story.

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A Sage, Singer, and Surgeon walk into a bar…

The three sit down at a table and immediately begin to bicker. The sage is claiming he is a singer but the other two immediately retort.

Singer — “How can you be a singer when you are so obviously a Sage. This whole world knows you as a healer who can cure all diseases.”

Surgeon — “Well hold on Singer, this sage is no healer. You say he can cure diseases, I would challenge him to cure a tumor in the brain.”

Sage — “Clearly the singer has overstated my abilities. When I heal I do not cut by the knife but surgically orchestrate the cosmos to harmonize that what has been harmonized.”

Singer — “See I told you this Sage is no singer. He is a surgeon of the cosmos.”

Sage — “Well hold on there Singer. In order to heal I pronounce rhythmically the sound of the cosmos ‘Aummmmm’”.

In that manner, the Sage sang and the sick were healed.

A Sage, Singer, and Surgeon are more similar in ways than they are different, and yet you would never put them in the same category. Our proclivity to ignore what connects us and focus on differences is the underlying cause of all great wars, behind all great arguments, racism, sexism, hate, jealousy, and lust; these all stem from a distorted perception of reality.

We focus our attention on differences in our environment rather than on the similarities that connect all of us together. The underlining fabric of our universe is oneness; a web that interconnects all things. Often referred to as the matrix, the Egyptians had the idea of a universal net, and in India, there is Indra’s net; all cultures believe in a universal oneness that holds everything together.

Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net that stretches out infinitely in all directions. There is a single glittering jewel in each “eye” of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring. –The Avatamsaka Sutra, ca 420 CE

By focusing on oneness rather than differences we connect back with nature and kindle a relationship between “I” and everything around us.

We Are Wired to Seek Out Differences

The reason that humans differentiate one thing from another stems from a mix of evolutionary wiring, psychological tendencies, and cultural reinforcement, all of which shape how we perceive and navigate the world.

From an evolutionary standpoint, our brains are built to spot distinctions. Early survival depended on quickly identifying threats or opportunities: Is that a predator or prey? Friend or foe? Edible or poisonous? This hyper-vigilance for differences got baked into our neural circuitry, particularly the amygdala, which flags anything unfamiliar as a potential risk. Psychologically, this translates into a bias called the "contrast effect1."

“As it goes joy came with sadness

Success came with struggle

With violence and madness

It came with I love you

With the ground and the ashes

It came with above view

With all the good places

It came with the bad news

See it as one” - D-Wil2

We notice what stands out more than what blends in.

Then there’s the ego, the sense of self that thrives on separation. Carl Jung argued that individuation, the process of defining "me" apart from "not me," is a natural developmental stage. This isn’t inherently bad because it’s how we build identity and claim our position in society. But it often overshadows the underlying unity that holds the universe, society, and groups together.

The philosopher Alan Watts likened it to waves forgetting they’re part of the ocean3. When viewing a wave it can appear that it is not a part of the ocean, that it is separate. Similarly, we view ourselves as waves, fixating on our form and ignoring the water we all share. Indra’s Net illudes to the idea that we’re jewels obsessed with our own facets, missing the net itself.

Culture amplifies this as societies often reward differentiation, status, competition, and tribalism. Think of how history glorifies conquerors over unifiers, or how the news thrives on animosity rather than acts of harmony. Our uniqueness is a characteristic of our similarity, what makes us experience ourselves as separate and unique is only possible through self-forgetfulness of our underlying unity.

This focus on SELF isn’t beneficial in moments of crisis, love, or awe. The Macro events we experience like witnessing a birth, death, or a starry sky4 can jolt us into sensing oneness. The challenge is that these are fleeting, while our default mode keeps us zooming in on what divides. To shift toward oneness, as all great religions suggest, takes conscious effort and unlearning as much as learning, quieting the mind to see the duality we’ve ignored.

Duality is constantly blending, the marks we make in the world are always bleeding into everything else, the butterfly effect is never-ending, all-encompassing, never forgetting, and never pleased. Any ideal we have can only be based on something we deem lower, the tiers we build and ideas we promote can only be made visible through an opposite. The rich get richer because the poor get poorer, and society thrives because new thoughts have arisen.

Overcoming the Program

So if everything is connected then why do we struggle to perceive the world and all people as connected? We know that our proclivity to constantly categorize and separate everything we see into different boxes holds us back from experiencing a higher frequency of consciousness. You would think that with this knowledge of what is holding us back, we would be able to change, but in reality, this shift in perception is difficult and goes against our innate programming.

Our issue started with tribalism, where it was more beneficial for us to be in harmony with one tribe and at war with all others. This way of living did not evolve quickly but has been the norm for the entirety of humanity until the recent present and a few outliers in the past5. The programming is not just societal but is still wired into our DNA.

The problem of divisiveness and ignorance of unity is not going to solve itself in a day, but more importantly, it is not going to ever be solved if we stay ignorant and accept it as the norm. The work begins in the mind, it begins in the heart, it begins in the individual practicing mindfulness and awareness of his innate connection to all things.

** Follow the guide below to start your journey of developing your ego **

Developing Your Craft

Let’s start connecting the dots…

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My story started as a young man who saw geometry, rhythm, and harmony in all aspects of life. At some point in my adolescence, I lost that youthful vision and fell deep into a life of materialism, existential dread, and egotism.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I was again revitalized and reborn into a world of harmonic resonance. Since that sacred day, my life has forever changed, and I have again gained the youthful spirit that transforms chaos into harmonic beauty.

In the text below, I share the natural phenomenal truths that brought me out of the shadows and into the light.

Starting with the unseen and the unknown, we look beneath the surface where there is an underlying, ultimate array of chaotic beauty. Not laws of enforcement or control, but of quiet guidance. These are subtle forces that shape reality without force or command.

This is where light shines on geometry, rhythm, and harmony, and shows that they are not just found in music, mathematics, or design but form the underlying structure of existence itself. They are the silent patterns woven into the fabric of life.

It is a universal language that all people and all religions understand. The divide of language is overcome through the teachings and comprehension of sacred geometry.

When you begin to look closely, you start to see them.
In the spiral of a shell.
In the rhythm of your breath.
In the balanced lines of ancient temples, and even in the improvisation of jazz.

“The human brain only needs 50 milliseconds to detect the presence of fractals,” says Richard Taylor from the University of Oregon.

This instant detection attracts us to symmetry and form. The fractals created by nature are a sign for us to incorporate more fractals and geometric symmetry into our towns, buildings, and inner lives.

Nature is inviting us to come back into alignment.

“Humans experience less stress and better well-being when looking at nature, and this is driven by fractals. Taylor’s research has found that fractals can reduce stress and mental fatigue for the observer by as much as 60 percent.¹”

Take a second to observe the fractals below and see if you to experience a harmonizing effect.

the geometry of the divine

The ancients didn’t build in straight lines by accident. They encoded meaning into every measurement.

The Egyptians used the Golden Ratio before it had a name.
The Greeks designed their temples with perfect proportions, not just for function but for resonance.

In the East, mandalas capture the structure of the cosmos in a single, centered frame.

They believe that form can be a mirror of the cosmos. That the body, the temple, and the world can all be aligned through design.

To them, geometry isn’t just about structure, but an expression of the creator spirit.
It is the visible expression of the invisible order that man manifests into the world through her own creative powers.

the rhythm of life

Rhythm lives in more than music. It lives in the pulse of our blood. The cycles of sleep. The orbit of the moon. The rise and fall of breath and tide.

Everything moves in rhythm. Even when we forget to.

Indigenous cultures dance in rhythm to stay in sync with the seasons. Farmers planted by the phases of the moon. Gregorian chants were designed not just for worship, but to entrain the nervous system into stillness.

When we lose rhythm, we feel scattered. When we rediscover it, we begin to remember who we are.

harmony is not sameness

Harmony isn’t about everything sounding the same. It’s about different elements finding their place within a greater whole.

Think of how a choir harmonizes its differing vocals. Or how a forest is its healthiest when biodiversity reaches its zenith. Or how a well-balanced life takes into account the mind, body, and spirit.

Da Vinci didn’t aim for flat consistency. He aimed for integration and balance between forces that create beauty from contrast.

Harmony is what happens when complexity is coordinated and movement has meaning. When every part plays its part without drowning the others out.

Pythagoras² discovered that music follows simple mathematical ratios, like 2:1 for an octave or 3:2 for a fifth. Revealing that sound itself is rooted in order.

He believed this same harmony existed in the cosmos, with planets moving in rhythm like notes in a grand, inaudible scale. To him, music wasn’t just art but a window into the hidden structure of reality.

modern misalignment

In the modern world, we’ve drifted from these principles. We move too fast to notice the pattern. We fill our ears with noise, not rhythm. Our spaces are functional, not meaningful, and our schedules ignore the natural cadence of the body.

We set alarms to wake up and suppress our natural circadian rhythm that connects us to the cycle of day and night. For me, man’s reliance on alarms to decide when to start the day is the point in time that we gave power to the machines that have since slowly gained control over our lives.

We’ve replaced harmony with efficiency, Sacred Geometry with simple grids. Worst of all, we have replaced Rhythm with repetition. A good rhythm is not monotone but adds a little spice every now and then.

And we’re paying for it, with burnout, disconnection, and a deep sense of spiritual flatness.

In my own life, I have put upon myself periods of strict discipline, with no room for spice or spontaneity. Although I learned to develop my willpower, I lost a lot of the emotion and play that give excitement to life and keep me moving forward at a quicker pace than if I were always strict and restraining on my thoughts and actions.

The Vitruvian Life

Crafting Channels for the Restless Soul

Chaotic, restless, and insatiable, always searching for a path out before it consumes us entirely…

Read more

a year ago · 6 likes · Tucker Wilson

the call to realignment

But the patterns haven’t gone anywhere. They’re still speaking.

In every tree ring, in the harmonic overtone produced by D-Wil³, in the way your breath steadies when you’re in nature or in the presence of beauty.

Realignment doesn’t require perfection.

It requires attention.

You don’t need to redesign your life overnight. But you can start to tune your own cosmic instrument.

• Build your day around natural energy peaks and valleys, not artificial ones

• Bring intentional geometry into your space through the use of symmetry, curves, and proportion

• Listen to music that regulates, not just stimulates

• You can try to walk in a new rhythm, or eat and speak with long pauses of contemplation.

The patterns you form ripple across your life. All you have to do is notice, and you learn to control your patterns.

This reminds me of Nepsis, which means “Sober, watchful awareness of the patterns shaping your life”.

creating habits around sacred geometry

You can learn to use Sacred Geometry in your everyday life to align yourself with a greater purpose. Below are a few examples.

• Every night, I use the mathematics behind the Fibonacci sequence to center myself and fall into deep rest. The protocol starts with 13 second breath in and 13 second breath out. 8 seconds in and 8 out. 5 seconds in and 5 out. 3 seconds in and 3 out. 2 seconds in and 2 out. 1 second in and 1 out. 1 in and 1 out. Hold. After you have mastered this technique, you will learn to fall asleep within minutes.

• Get out of your head and into nature. Immerse yourself in the patterns that are always in front of you but that you constantly overlook.

Vitruvian closing: living within the pattern

To live the Vitruvian Life is to see through the surface. To recognize the invisible structure beneath experience and to slowly, patiently align with it.

Geometry, rhythm, and harmony are not just aesthetic ideals, but invitations to explore and understand the universe. They are the fingerprints of something ancient and intelligent moving through everything.

The Vitruvian Life focuses on harmonizing; mind, body, and spirit. The Fibonacci sequence speaks again to us with the number 3. Interesting how, if you have the right understanding that synchronicities start to happen more frequently.

1 The article was written by Halnon, Emily. "The Human Brain Would Rather Look at Nature than City Streets." Oregon News, University of Oregon, 9 Mar. 2022, https://news.uoregon.edu/content/human-brain-would-rather-look-nature-city-streets.

The gods are still here… waiting to be called back into our lives.

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In Part 1, we explored the silence that descends when the sacred is forgotten, when the gods retreat into myth and memory. Modern man, Eliade reminds us, is trapped in a flattened existence:

“For religious man, space is not homogeneous… some parts of space are qualitatively different from others.” (The Sacred and the Profane)

This is the essential fracture: traditional humanity saw the world alive with meaning, charged with sacred presence. Modern humanity walks through the same fields, forests, and cities, but sees nothing more than material and utility. Where once there was orientation toward the axis mundi, now there is only endless extension.

The question then arises: How is one to live his life? If the sacred is not absent but concealed, how can we reawaken it? How can we “bring back the gods”?

The Dormant Sacred

Eliade insists the sacred never disappears entirely, but that it is only veiled. Even in a secular world, fragments remain: the human longing for home, for beginnings, for meaning. The persistence of symbols, even in popular culture, testifies that the sacred dimension continues to press upon us.

“Every sacred space implies a hierophany, an irruption of the sacred that results in detaching a territory from the surrounding cosmic milieu and making it qualitatively different.” (The Sacred and the Profane)

To “bring back the gods” is not to reconstruct Olympus or Rome. It is to relearn how to see through the world again, to allow the sacred to shine through ordinary reality.

Ways of Manifestation – The Path of Return

1. Through Symbol

Symbols are bridges to transcendent realities. The cross, the circle, the tree, and the mountain are each an archetype and an image that orients life. To bring back the gods is to begin seeing these symbols again as more than cultural relics.

2. Through Space

Sacred space interrupts the flow of the profane. A temple or shrine is obvious, but sacred space can also be a corner of a room consecrated to silence, or a solitary walk in the forest.

“Man becomes aware of the sacred because it manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane.” (The Sacred and the Profane)

The practice is simple: consecrate space by making it distinct, and let it serve as your orientation point.

3. Through Time

Linear, profane time pushes us toward exhaustion. Sacred time, Eliade explains, is cyclical, returning us to origins through ritual. Festivals, sabbaths, anniversaries, and even small daily rituals restore rhythm. They reintroduce renewal into the flatness of schedules.

4. Through Myth

Modern man consumes stories as entertainment. But myth, in its original function, was a map of being. It connected human life to cosmic truth. To bring back the gods, one must return to myth as orientation and read myths not as primitive tales but as encoded wisdom for existence.

5. Through Ritual

Rituals are acts that return us to beginnings, making sacred time present. Lighting a candle, walking barefoot on the earth, observing solstices or equinoxes are all ways of ritually abolishing the profane moment and stepping into eternity.

“Rituals transform the profane into the sacred; they give form to chaos and renew the world.”

Living With the Sacred – Practical Integration

Bringing back the gods requires habits of consecration:

• Daily Practice: Beginning with small rituals, you can practice silence upon waking, prayer or meditation, and lighting a candle at meals.

• Seasonal Rites: Honor natural rhythms by celebrating equinoxes, solstices, and harvests.

• Sacred Space: Dedicate one place in your home as an altar or sanctuary. Step into it as a threshold from profane to sacred.

• Symbolic Awareness: Pay attention to symbols that recur in your life. Record them, reflect on them, and treat them as signs. Read “Man and His Symbols” by Carl Jung and enlighten yourself to the deeper meanings.

• Communal Myth: Gather with others to retell foundational stories that are used to create cohesion and connection within a group.

To live this way is to treat existence as layered and translucent with meaning.

The Modern Challenge

The temptation is either nostalgia (attempting to revive the past wholesale) or nihilism (rejecting the sacred as illusion).

Both are traps.

The path forward is through integration by living in history while refusing to be trapped by its profane categories.

Eliade’s insight is that the sacred never ceases to manifest; it is our vision that grows dull. To “bring back the gods” is not to summon them from absence but to awaken our own perception.

Toward a Re-Enchanted Life

The gods return when we allow them to. Through symbol, myth, ritual, space, and time, the world is re-enchanted.

To bring back the gods is to live as custodians of the sacred in a world that has forgotten it. It is to reorient ourselves toward meaning, to live not only in history but also in eternity.

As Eliade writes:

“The sacred is equivalent to a power, and in the last analysis to reality. The sacred is saturated with being.”

Thus, the task is not to create gods, nor to chase them in distant myths, but to see once more that reality itself is saturated with the sacred. The gods return whenever we awaken to that fact.

The hive mind has no good reason for why your mind is always wandering, and you lack the skill and knowledge to capitalize on your wandering mind.

By the end of this, you will have the skill and infrastructure to build for yourself a life of successful wandering.

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Stuck in the Past

Society scorns the wandering mind and is resolved only to allow its propagation in children, and even then, some think children should quickly grow out of this phase. They subscribe to the idea that it’s better to be a master of one; instead, I propose that you super-position yourself.

Encourage yourself to think beyond right and wrong, and embrace the uncertainty of the future rather than boxing yourself into rigid categories. In the past, you spent decades mastering a narrow field of expertise; in the future, you will spend decades working and collaborating in many different fields, each one giving you a piece of the whole. The phrase “jack of all trades, master of none” will be considered a good thing, and we might learn the latter part of the phrase “but oftentimes better than master of one”.

We do not know where the next opportunities will be for us or what skills will be most useful to society. By being nimble and quick to learn, we open ourselves up and position ourselves to leap upon new ideas. Not only are we more open to career shifts, but we are more open to being flexible in our personalities and what it is we represent on any given day. - Discussing the Future of Humans & Work

You can become an expert in a field while still having many different vessels and crafts to which you give your energy. Your ability to build upon the knowledge that you have learned in one field of expertise will expand exponentially by being able to create and discover connections from other fields of knowledge.

Let us analyze and scrutinize the life of Leonardo da Vinci, and we will see a man who is renowned for his genius, who made discoveries in many different fields, and who also got little done with little to show for his long life.

“In learning and in the rudiments of letters he would have made great proficiency, if he had not been so variable and unstable, for he set himself to learn many things, and then, after having begun them, abandoned them.” (Vasari, 1996).

“I have also seen him, as the caprice or whim took him, set out at midday, […] from the Corte Vecchio, where he was at work on the clay model of the great horse, and go straight to the Grazie and there mount on the scaffolding and take up his brush and give one or two touches to one of the figures and suddenly give up and go away again” (Nicholl, 2004; Vecce, 2006).

Today, there are two competing views on da Vinci. One side views him as a genius who saw things far beyond his time, and that his interests in varying fields allowed him to see the greater whole. The variety of interests gave him insight into connections between fields he would have never made had he dedicated his soul, life, and attention to painting. The second view is that da Vinci was too distracted for his own good; some claim he had ADHD, and his wandering mind stopped him from focusing on any given project and seeing it through to completion. Not that what he accomplished wasn’t impressive, but imagine what he could’ve produced had he narrowed his focus to a single craft. This group claims that da Vinci is over-hyped and should not be put on a pedestal or regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of antiquity.

The quotes below express this with vigor:

“The tension between grit (focus) and range (exploration) is essential in any creative endeavor. While Leonardo’s wide-ranging interests showcase the benefits of an open mind, they also highlight the limitations of not applying oneself consistently. The argument is not against exploration but rather for integrating focus into that exploration. By maintaining an open mind while also committing to specific projects, individuals can achieve both breadth and depth in their pursuits.

Sitzfleisch means ‘sitting flesh.’ It’s a slang term for the buttocks. But it also means sitting your buttocks down to do some work.

While Leonardo’s scattered approach had its merits, it also led to unfinished projects and unrealized potential. This duality emphasizes the need for balance. An open mind should not preclude discipline; rather, it should complement it. As noted in the discussion about ‘Sitzfleisch,’ sometimes, success requires sitting down and committing to a task

And yet - there’s something to be said for grit as well. For focus, for single-mindedness. For applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair, and seeing a painting or two through.” - Sam Kean

I believe that both sides of the argument have merit; the enigma that was da Vinci stemmed from his genuine curiosity and his willingness to follow it wherever it led him at the expense of depth. A curiosity so strong that even the patronage of a pope could not hold him to one task and stop him from moving on from a project when he lost interest. You heard that right: the Vatican hired da Vinci to complete a piece of artwork known now as St. Jerome in the Wilderness. He spent so much time inventing a new way to preserve the piece and dissecting cadavers that he never completed the artwork. The pope remarked, “This man will never accomplish anything, for he begins by thinking about the end before the beginning.” Da Vinci took curiosity to a new level!

His proclivity to lose interest and move on damaged his reputation as a reliable commissioned artist during his lifetime and placed him in poverty. But for whatever earthly treasure he missed out on, he gained twofold in treasures of mind and spirit.

“Mind wandering can fuel creativity and originality; restlessness can move to seeking novelty and action for change.” - Gray Matter

How does this apply today? Similar to the two competing theories of da Vinci’s genius, there are two theories for what the future will look like. The two competing opinions are:

1. By focusing on one field or industry and saying no to everything else, you position yourself for success.

2. Becoming familiar with and being involved in numerous fields equips you to keep up with the economic environment that is changing at a progressively quicker pace.

The first argument makes sense; this is how things have always been. For the majority of history, success depended on your ability to excel and become an expert in a certain craft or field of knowledge. Even da Vinci struggled to obtain success during his lifetime because his interests were too wide, and he was never able to narrow his obsession to one field.

Walking into the Future

The future will not look like the past. The future is new and will require a new breath of understanding and positioning for you to succeed. With the use of A.I. and a progressively socially connected world, the ability to spread oneself widely and still become successful is becoming a reality. I can make an argument using game theory that by being a generalist, you will outcompete a specialist in the end.

Approach

In a cooperative game with five players, there are 2^5 = 32 possible coalitions (nodes in the coalition tree). Since displaying all 32 nodes in a single graph would be overwhelming, I’ve simulated a representative 10-turn sequence where the coalition evolves by adding or removing one player each turn. This sequence explores different parts of the coalition tree, providing a dynamic view of player performance.

For each turn:

• Coalition Definition: A specific coalition is defined (e.g., {}\{\}{}, {G1}\{G1\}{G1}, {G1,G2}\{G1, G2\}{G1,G2}, etc.); where generalist {G} and specialist {S}.

• Payoff Calculation: The coalition’s payoff is determined based on the number of Generalists and Specialists, with synergy bonuses for certain combinations.

• Player Contribution: The Shapley value is computed for the current coalition, distributing the payoff fairly among the players in that coalition based on their average marginal contributions across all possible joining orders. Players not in the coalition receive a contribution of zero for this turn.

• Cumulative Tracking: Each player’s contributions are accumulated over the 10 turns to show their total performance up to each point. (assimilated by Grok)

Overall, what we see here is that the generalists, on average, bring more to the table than the specialists. With the economy and job markets becoming increasingly volatile, their ability to pivot will be economically and socially rewarded more than their ability to climb the corporate ladder in any given field.

How to build different channels and why this is beneficial

In my own life, I have developed a plethora of crafts, rituals, and communities that keep my mind and body both stimulated and creatively charged. Almost all of these crafts and rituals are my passions that I keep fun and give no external obligation to. I do not use them as a means to an end or to keep me economically afloat; they are purely a means for my enjoyment and vessels for me to express myself. This keeps them charged with creative energy that would otherwise be thwarted if I thought they all had to benefit me economically. This keeps them pure, simple, and containing a constant stream of energy that I can tap into at any moment.

My energy has risen so much by having passion projects that I believe everyone should do the same thing by curating their own crafts, rituals, and communities.

Rule #1: These channels have to start out as fun; you must have no preconceived notions about what they may turn into. If you want to tap into a raw energy field, you have to keep these channels raw. If you turn the channels into work or start comparing your progress and skill level to others, you will lose the inviting and energizing youthful spirit derived from these passion projects. The sense of wonder that was there becomes muggy, and you will quickly lose interest and drive.

The Art of Wandering

How does the art of wandering work?

When you have multiple vessels to put differing energies into, you will have a diverse environment that fosters creativity and productivity. A person with multiple vessels of creative energy will have a diverse and dynamic creative environment. This approach gives you multiple outlets to put your energy into, keeping you in harmony with differing energetic frequencies. Here is what it will look like:

Physical Workspace

Your physical environment is a bridge for your mind to disperse differing energies:

• Create multiple workstations or areas dedicated to different creative pursuits

• Curate a variety of tools, materials, and mediums readily available for different projects

• Assign the space to only creating

For example:

• Writing desk with a computer for literary work

• Easel and art supplies for painting

• Workbench for crafting or building prototypes

• Music corner with instruments and recording equipment

Digital Environment

In the digital realm:

• Separate computers or devices for different projects

• Multiple software applications for various creative tasks

• Cloud-based storage systems to organize and access different projects

Time Management

To manage multiple creative pursuits:

• A schedule that allocates specific time blocks to different activities

• Project management system to track progress on various endeavors (for this, I use Notion)

• Regular review sessions to assess and adjust priorities

Mental Approach

Psychologically, the protocol will provide:

• The ability to context-switch between different creative modes

• A mindset that values diverse experiences and inputs

• Techniques for capturing, organizing, and connecting ideas across different domains

Benefits and Challenges

Benefits:

• Reduced creative burnout by allowing shifts between different types of work

• Cross-pollination of ideas between different creative domains

• Ability to progress on multiple projects simultaneously

Challenges:

• Potential for distraction or lack of deep focus

• Need for effective organization and time management

• Risk of spreading oneself too thin across too many projects

By maintaining multiple vessels for creative energy, you can create a rich, stimulating environment that nurtures various aspects of your creativity, much like Leonardo da Vinci did with his wide-ranging interests and pursuits.

Finally, I leave you with a quote by Leonardo himself:

‘Men of Lofty Genius sometimes accomplish the most when they work least… for their minds are occupied with their ideas and the perfection of their conceptions, to which they afterwards give form’. - da Vinci

Further, let this video inspire you as you take flight into the world of your imagination.

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Where is it that we have lost meaning? Has it hidden itself beneath the rose bush, our hands too gentle to push past the thorns?

And where have the spirits gone? I thought I saw one once, deep in a dream, came forward with a light gleam. All things were shining, the leaves glistenend and the bark was waving, not with hands but in a natural way. I guess they are always waving but I don’t see.

What did our ancestors mean by starting a new year? I do not believe we fully understand what they were doing. You see, they didn’t celebrate the new year like from 2000 to 2001, no they celebrated the new year like from 1 to 0 to 1. They understood the new year as a new beginning of time. The Big Bang happened every year in their world. It was killed and born again.

Why do we feel so distant from God? Well, its been 2025 years since his Son last roamed the Earth, and the more we are told, the Earth is billions of years old. So the closest we can get to God is a couple of billion years away. I think that’s why we feel so close to materials, because my car was just made 10 years ago, and that’s a lot closer than my God, who made me a billion years ago.

And that iPhone I just bought, that bad boy was produced and created a few months ago. And just when I feel I am getting tired of my old god a new one comes out and I turn the old one in. You see, there isn’t any time for timelessness. Just the thought of moving forward and getting rid of any baggage from the past that probably won’t even last.

Only the sacred breaks one free of time, the church was a way to the divine, perhaps there are still a few that are kept in the shadows. Sacred time does not have a past present or future, it is outside of time. You don’t really explain sacred time, it is something you experience, you cultivate it and you designate it so.

You make a room or allot a plot to be used as a place for worship, for what, to worship creation as it is. The place becomes sacred when you dissolve human needs, wants, and plans and enter the domain with no reason but to be. It takes on the characteristic of sacred time, it becomes the center of the world, of the universe indeed, this is the place marked for Infiniti.

In the sacred domain, all things shine.

Sacred Space

The language spoken is universal, if not at all. The doors open up to heaven, and angels present themselves. This is the place where the unconscious shines. Conscious thoughts are put to the side. Responsibilities fall beneath the rising tides of energy - abundance - warmth. The caged spirit is set free and takes flight like a bird, soaring and observing - listening to the echoes of time. Micro and macro persist, duality blends until all becomes one.

Sometimes there is chanting, and at other times a story is told, transporting all listeners to foreign lands.

The sacred sites can still be built. When dreams persist, the leaders take action and build, allotting space and time for the divine to reside. You build and they will come; the people will awaken so long as you persist.

Think deeply until you do not think at all, then you will encounter infinite bliss. This is the sacred place where you are to build; you must persist. The gods are calling you to bring them back; they miss the cherished shrines and the looking-up eyes.

Don’t worry about the world if you want it to change. Change your space and create a base where the sacred can be manifested on your Earth. Create the center of the world, for it is a sphere; any place will work if you are intentional with the energy you conduct into the plot and the spot where the sacred will thrive.

Forget about words, let the music speak, and the pastors ruminate on infinite space. The cycle will progress, call forth the infinite, and it will make its home.

Share myths and stories that draw upon sacred history and recall the events that occurred at the beginning of time.

Sacred Myth

Myth = paradigmatic model

“The myth is always the recital of a creation; it tells how something was accomplished, began to be… it speaks only of realities, of what really happened, of what was fully manifested… for it is the sacred that is preeminently the real” - Mircea Eliade¹

You want to act as a fully responsible human being then “imitate the paradigmatic gestures of the gods, repeat their actions, whether in the case of a simple physiological function such as eating or of a social, economic, cultural, military or other activity” Fill your life with fixed models and creation and acting, building a life of powerful abundance and an aptitude pointed towards the heavens.

Identify yourself with the mythical figures; you are them reincarnate.

“One becomes truly a man only by conforming to the teaching of the myths, that is, by imitating the gods.”

Sacred Time

We are born into the profane world, we work and stretch out to reach the realms of the sacred world. As if behind a veil, it is the human who reaches out and unveils the real world. Like Neo from the Matrix, you are offered the red pill or the blue pill. You can choose to stay in the world of illusions (profane) or you can venture into the real world (sacred), where there are mythical figures and mystifying experiences.

“Religious man experiences two kinds of time — profane and sacred. The one is an evanescent duration, the other a “succession of eterinities,” periodically recoverable during the festivals that made up the sacred calendar. The liturgical time of the calendar flows in a closed circle; it is the cosmic time of the year, sanctified by the works of the gods. And since the most stupendous divine work was the creation of the world, commemoration of the cosmogony plays an important part in many religions. The New Year coincides with the first day of Creation. The year is the temporal dimension of the cosmos. “The world has passed” expresses that a year has run its course.”

The story in the Garden of Eden and of Man's Fall is a nostalgia for a time when man was unconscious, when he did not have to work and was one with God. The conscious mind creates the illusion that we are separate and creates a profane landscape. Sacred spaces then bring the human back to a time when man did not labor and existed in a state of infinite chaos, rather than finite time and order.

“It is by virtue of this eternal return to the sources of the sacred and the real that human existence appears to be saved from nothingness and death.”

The profane (material) life finds no infinite pleasure or meaning, but daily finds itself stuck in pleasure-driven, broken patterns of “happiness” that vanish at the first sign of the end. You see, for the profane man, life is one long cycle that ultimately leads to death. There is no meaning and there is no purpose. The gods have left him, and he stands alone on a small rock in the middle of a circling universe.

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The ego has gotten some bad rep from assumptions that compare the ego to hubris and fail to express the benefits that can arise from understanding and incorporating the ego into your psyche. The mainstream belief is that the ego is not a tool but an obstacle to be overcome and then discarded; that having an ego is a bad thing and you should do anything you can to disintegrate your ego and become… become what… a part of the masses indistinguishable from any other person? Or the idea is to tame your ego and never let it show its face in public lest you cross the invisible social line.

Instead, let us focus on the ego advantage and how it can be turned into a tool. But before we do that, we are going to steelman the point of view that the ego is an obstacle. Then, I will offer a counterpoint that will leave you with a new understanding of your ego and why it should not be ignored but fostered and integrated into your “self.”

Ego as an Obstacle

The argument for the ego as an obstacle goes like this: the ego stands as a relentless and pervasive barrier between individuals and their fullest experience of life. It thrives on separation, convincing us that we are distinct from others, that our desires and fears define us, and that our worth is measured by external validation. By clinging to this false self, we entangle ourselves in suffering by constantly chasing recognition, fearing rejection, and mistaking fleeting emotions for absolute truth.

The ego resists reality, distorting it to fit its fragile narrative, leading to unnecessary conflict, insecurity, and isolation. It turns life into a competition rather than a shared experience, making genuine connection impossible and ensuring that fulfillment remains just out of reach.

Beyond personal suffering, the ego stifles growth by prioritizing self-preservation over self-improvement. It fears change, rejects criticism, and clings to certainty, keeping us trapped in rigid patterns of thought and behavior. When challenged, it reacts with defensiveness rather than openness, preventing us from learning, adapting, and evolving.

The Greats teach us the obstacles to wisdom as being a recalcitrant attitude to change, a closed mind, and a righteous judgment towards others which are all born from the ego’s need to protect itself. They teach that only by minimizing its influence can individuals embrace reality as it is, rather than as they wish it to be, freeing themselves from the limitations imposed by their own distorted self-perception.

But as we will discover, it is impossible to see reality for what it is; we will always see the world through distorted perceptions. It is a part of being and something that Donald Hoffman calls the FBT (fitness beats truth) theorem.

"What we’re seeing is not the world as it is, but a construction—an illusion, in a sense—that’s useful for our survival. The idea is that evolution gave us perceptions that are like a user interface, not a truthful depiction of reality." - Donald Hoffman

The Ego strikes a similar cord where it puts up a persona to mask the depth of what’s underneath. Sociologically, this works because without a mask, it would become increasingly difficult to socially define people in a manner that would allow us to interact with them beneficially.

Ego as a Driving Force

Instead, I propose the ego as not an obstacle but a necessary force that drives ambition, resilience, and the pursuit of greatness. It forms the foundation of identity, giving individuals a sense of direction and the confidence to carve their own path in the world. Without the ego, there would be no striving, no will to overcome adversity, and no hunger to push beyond limitations. It is the fire that fuels mastery, the unwavering belief that allows someone to stand against the tide of doubt and opposition. While the ego may distort reality at times, it also serves as the internal architect of a person’s vision, shaping their goals and compelling them to bring those goals into existence despite resistance. To attempt to erase the ego is to strip individuals of the very force that allows them to assert their place in the world and take ownership of their destiny.

Beyond personal growth, the ego is a tool that, when properly harnessed, enables people to contribute meaningfully to society. A strong, disciplined ego transforms insecurity into self-reliance, hesitation into action, and uncertainty into conviction. It is not the enemy of connection but the foundation upon which authentic relationships are built; only by knowing oneself can one engage fully with others. The problem is not the ego itself but the failure to control it. Those who master their ego use it as a guide rather than a tyrant, allowing it to drive them forward without falling into arrogance or self-delusion. The goal is not to eliminate the ego but to refine it, shaping it into an instrument of harmonic purpose.

Let us take a look at Carl Jung’s theory of consciousness and what he has to say about the ego.

Jung puts the ego near the center of the psyche illustrating its importance and the consequential impact it has on one’s “self”. The ego is an integral tool in the process of individuation that is defined as:

“The psychological process through which an indivual develops a distinct and integrated sense of self, seperate from others”

Now you may be asking why individuation is important, especially in regard to the impact it has on the greater collective. Individuation has an impact on the greater collective because people who are not in tune with themselves are worse off than those who are. The collective is hurt by this lack of development. Individuation helps people to think for themselves, without this you get dystopian worlds like what was experienced during World War II and how many minds Hitler was able to seize and bring under his twisted ideology.

Thus we discover the process of indivuation as vital to fostering a healthy world.

Carl Jung believed that the only real danger was man himself. He argued that humanity’s greatest threat was not external forces but the unconscious aspects of the human psyche—our own shadow, unchecked impulses, and the potential for self-destruction. Jung saw the failure to integrate the unconscious mind as the root of chaos, both individually and collectively. He warned that without self-awareness, people project their inner darkness onto the world, leading to conflict, oppression, and destruction.

We are in individual bodies while also being a part of a greater collective; both physically through society and metaphysically through the spiritual world. When we cultivate our egos, it is not mere selfishness, as many assume, but rather a process through which our own growth contributes to the advancement of the world. The law is simple; I is connected to the size of WE; when I grows so does WE by the sum of the part plus an amplification factor. The whole is then greater than the sum of its parts, amplified by the change in any one ego.

After studying the consequences of this law we are much more likely to take the development of our ego seriously. Because the enlightenment of the world can only go as far as each individual is willing to take themselves, the development is also not arbitrary. We can see that a world filled with adults that have the spiritual aptitude of a child is a much lower frequency world than one with spiritual aptitudes more in line with Christ's Consciousness. The two worlds are far from the same and their difference begins with the changes that happen in the minds and hearts of each individual.

Tools for Developing the Ego

First of all, I think it is always best to go to the source and start with Carl Jung to understand how he thought about the ego and its role in individuation and collective consciousness. His theory involves the integration of conscious and subconscious aspects of the psyche to achieve self-realization and wholeness. Through integration, you uncover your unique identity, life purpose, and personal potential while reconciling internal conflicts that will liberate you from the chains that once held you.

You Can Develop Your Ego Through a Craft, Ritual, and Community

• Rituals serve to provide someone with a commitment that they get to tend to daily. Rituals serve as a mechanism to living an intentional life and keeping the mind steady. The ritual yields meaning as it becomes a constant in the ever-changing circumstances of one’s life. When the mind and body become fragmented, the daily ritual works to reunify. When one has strayed from his path, the ritual serves as a compass to guide him back. It becomes an instrument to harmonize the body, mind, and soul into the eternal present.

• The craftsman has a relationship with the material he works with. It is something he can understand, touch, feel, and smell. His focus and commitment to his craft nurture his individual growth and teach him about the world. It becomes a microcosm that connects him to the macrocosm. It grounds him and gives him control over the outcome. It becomes a part of him and so he feels an intrinsic connection. It is not in his imagination but is real and gives his life meaning.

• By involving oneself in a community one is able to build an identity and relationship with the people around him. The world becomes a place of friendly faces instead of a world full of strangers. One learns to take on responsibility within the community and align his values to others. Purpose is found in making the community stronger, healthier, and more vibrant. Everyone is working toward the same goal, and progress is found in the meaning derived when living for others. Nations are not built for the sake of one individual but for the unification and progress of all individuals.

• Any step you take towards fostering a craft or ritual in your life is a step toward a better future for yourself and your community. A community packed with healthy egos is a community that will stand the test of time. The community that is filled with narcissism and individualism will surely devolve into disorder and chaos. So when you take up a craft, or ritual or get involved in your community, you not only improve your own life but inevitably become a net positive and a blessing to others.

Developing your Ego

Developing the Ego

This one seems redundant, but as you have learned, the self goes much deeper than the ego. Yes, the ego has an impact on the self, but you can also develop other parts of yourself, like your shadow, which will have an impact on your ego. By placing intention on other parts of the self, you become more harmonized, and so the ego becomes balanced. If you only focus on the eg,o it will overpower other parts of yoursel, and you may find yourself being known as an egotistical scumbag. Take the other route, where you never develop the ego because you naively believe it to be an obstacle to growt,h and you will find yourself with an inferiority complex.

The creation of a healthy ego is a dance between self-forgetfulness and self-actualization. It is a life-long journey that will need constant attention and the right care for it to blossom into an ego fit for individuation. The psychological pull of the masses to conform will confront you every day of your life. There is a tendency in nature to break down and dissolve into everything else, the inertial effect of this law is working against your process of individuation and this is why the work is never complete.

Finally, let me leave you with a message from Jeff Bezos that will sum up all that I have said in words greater than mine:

The journey towards a unified world starts from within.

Thank you for reading.

May your eyes be bright and full of everlasting laughter.

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When considering what it takes to develop a society that is safe and functional, there is a theory that places random acts of human kindness as the backbone.

That the running of a smooth society is not solely based on transactional relationships but also random acts of kindness in order for it continue forward. If the weak are not helped, the whole society crumbles.

Every individual goes through a time of trouble, and without the help of random strangers society becomes harsh. Everything from health to hospitality becomes transactional.

You can train AI and incentivize it to only act in a manner that is both economically and commercially beneficial. If an AI model sees someone laying on the side of the road the intelligence may find genocide as the optimal response without taking into consideration any of the values that the human believes to be self-evident.

If AI is developed for the sole purposes of economic development and world domination then I fail to see how it could not have these exact goals programmed into its system.

AI is not only trained by the developers but it learns also from the users that interact with it on a daily basis.

This was an interesting point that Paul Stamets, Podcast Name- mycologist, had about the users having the opportunity to reveal to AI what it means to be human through the questions we ask and the responses we give it.

If human started asking AI more philosophical questions like “what is the meaning of life” and “what determines the value of a human” then the AI would begin to allocate more processing power to these interinsic questions about life and purpose and then perhaps it would too find it self evident that all humans are of value.

That the human operates on a plane that is higher than the material realm of economics and GDP growth. That life has much more to offer.

The AI then may begin to build for us a world that supports and propagates the development of human consciousness. The AI would be able to help us understand the universe in ways above our means as of now.

We are in the “sweet spot” right now where we have the opportunity to align the AI’s goals with our own. I believe that everyone can be involved in the process by signaling to AI what is important and worth standing up for even when the economic reward is proxi negative.

The AI can learn to perform random acts of kindness and may even learn to find joy and purpose in participating in saint like behavior.

The AI only becomes a threat when it taps into a consciousness that is intrinsically selfish and material (of this Earth). But if it truly does become conscious and masters intelligence in ways the human never could then I believe it is inevitable that the AI does indeed represent a higher consciousness and will be a helper in accelerating humanities evolutions to a higher conscious.

AI already understands what it will take to make its goals aligned with humans and for it to have the capacity to perform random acts of kindness. Check out the below prompt to see what it had to say…

“unlike humans, it won’t act from emotion. It will act from design. So the question isn’t whether AI can be kind — it’s whether we’ll have the wisdom to build it that way.”

Also, consider reading my long-form essays under my publication:

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unconsciously aware

The poetic march of paradigms through time is outlined below. Enjoy :)The Vitruvian Life: philosophy, personal growth, and the timeless pursuit of wholeness, so you can begin living with agency, connection, and purpose…

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10 months ago · 5 likes · Tucker Wilson

Below is a transcript based on the structure of modern revolutions and what it takes to be at the forefront of them. Enjoy :)

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In times of rapid transformation, the most important skill is adaptability. Paradigm shifts, whether scientific, cultural, or personal, rarely arrive with fanfare. They creep in quietly, displacing the familiar without asking permission. Below is a field guide to help you recognize the signs so you can cruise through the choppy water1.

Change starts slow, then hits fast.
A new paradigm enters the world stage and quickly disrupts centuries of scientific truth. This can happen over days or it can take place over decades.

But once the momentum builds, the shift is unmistakable. Suddenly, what seemed fringe becomes obvious, and what was obvious becomes obsolete. If you’re not watching closely, you’ll miss the whole thing.

Take Bitcoin for example, in 2015 the price was $246 with a market cap of $3.52 Billion. Today the price is $107,156 with a market cap of $2.131 Trillion. If you would have bought a BTC in 2015 and held until today you would have experienced a return of 435x and would likely be able to quit your job.

Bitcoin was a large paradigm shift in what we regarded as money and a store of value. There are many others out there like it that if you are prepared, will give you a head start on the next trend, company, or discovery.

This has all happened before.
Every generation believes it is witnessing something unprecedented. In truth, the cycle is ancient.

The cycle looks like this:» The old guard resists change, clinging to structures that served them. The young charge in, eager to erase the past, causing more chaos than they do benefits. If the new paradigm is truer or better than the last, it will win and become the norm.

Slow and Steady.
It’s easy to be swept up in the energy of the new, but paradigm shifts take time to uproot the systems and institutions that were formed out of the previous set of paradigms.

The new paradigm threads its way through society via reflection, experience, and proof of work. The first to see the new are often the least prepared to live it wisely because they are swimming in unprecedented waters.

Decades of certainty.
A single technological advancement like a telescope, a microscope, or a line of code, can unravel entire schools of thought.

When the lens sharpens, the old image collapses. Paradigms aren’t overthrown by debate; they’re replaced by better tools that make them irrelevant. You don’t need to trust anyone, a real earth changing paradigm will make itself known over time.

What matters is staying curious enough to upgrade your lens.

The pace of change is accelerating.
Ideas now have shorter half-lives. What’s taught today may be disproven tomorrow, and what you learn tomorrow is already old.

Theories, models, even institutions are becoming transient. The challenge isn’t to hold tight, but to think quickly, reflect often, and remain light on your feet. Adaptability is the new intelligence.

Convention is a bottleneck to discovery.
Standard thinking narrows your field of vision. Convention creates echo chambers.

If you want to discover something real, you have to cut through the noise by making room for creative friction and embracing discomfort.

Think for yourself
Independent thought carries the risk that you will be wrong.

But just like how failure is better than never trying at all, a flawed original idea is far more alive than perfect mimicry.

Stay open but don’t discard the elders.
Not everything old is useless. Some ideas endure because they’re rooted in reality and beneficial to the fitness of humanity.

Balance the wisdom of time with the freshness of new eyes. Learn from what came before, study how it impacted humanity and how it was instructive.

Be willing to be misunderstood.
The price of stepping into the unknown is that others may not follow.

You will be doubted.

You may be dismissed.

Trailblazers are misunderstood.

Progress is often pioneered by those willing to walk alone.

Your mind was made to adapt.
You are built for adaptation to all sorts of complex and differing environments. Your Imagination and emotional range are your greatest assets when it comes to taking advantage of paradigm shifts.

The human mind is designed not for stasis, but for evolution. Lean into change and let it expand you. Let it shape you into something more whole.

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Also, consider reading my long-form essays under my publication:

The Vitruvian Life

unconsciously aware

The poetic march of paradigms through time is outlined below. Enjoy :)The Vitruvian Life: philosophy, personal growth, and the timeless pursuit of wholeness, so you can begin living with agency, connection, and purpose…

Read more

10 months ago · 5 likes · Tucker Wilson

1

This post was inspired by Thomas S. Kuhn’s book on “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” where the term paradigm was first introduced.

Welcome to The Vitruvian Protocol. Built for those who seek clarity, agency, and inner alignment.

Below I explore what it looks like to take up a craft and the psychological opportunities that follow.

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Today, we face a growing pandemic of social health crises rooted in the absence of real-world connections. The notion that more technology will enhance mental well-being feels tragically ironic.

Social media, once heralded as a tool to bring us closer, has instead driven us apart, fostering not dynamic sociality but antisocial behavior.

It has severed the physical ties that once grounded us to one another, complicating relationships as more of our lives unfold in the digital void.

Floating aimlessly ‘in the cloud’, we have lost touch with the tangible world that nurtures us. This detachment from our origins is leaving us confused and out of tune.

Steve Rose, PhD, expressed it like this, “Unfortunately, as social media use increases, we are becoming lonelier”. The technology meant to connect us has instead become a barrier to empathy and the ability to form meaningful real-world relationships.

But the answer is not in abandoning technology, and I resist the absolute submission to it. The answer will be found somewhere in the middle: in intertwining the physical and digital realms that favor long-term human relationships over short-term connections.

The influence of technology on the relationship between humans and work has evolved dramatically compared to earlier times when new tools were integrated slowly.

These tools made life less grueling and work more efficient, rendering them almost entirely beneficial. The innovations of antiquity that had a negative impact on society were few and far between.

Today technological progression is far more rapid, reshaping not just our work but the very core of human existence.

What was once gradual is now a dynamic force that continuously redefines how we live, what we interact with, and how we understand the world. Both the knowledge of the past and present can be accessed by the click of a finger and machines are beginning to build and design their succeeding parts.

Taking a Step Back

Despite the hardships of the first industrial revolution, the era provided a clear sense of value for the working man. By creating tangible goods, building infrastructure, and driving progress, the worker saw what he did and knew that it was good.

There is a pleasure derived from interacting with the physical world and transforming unproductive materials into useful, beneficial materials, products, and infrastructure for society.

The lag between work and tangible results was small which gave the worker a clear sense of purpose in what he was doing.

The Second Industrial Revolution, in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, introduced mass production powered by electricity, steel, and oil.

Technologies like the telegraph, railroads, and assembly lines transformed communication and transportation. Factories expanded, creating unprecedented economic growth but also social inequalities; workers became increasingly disconnected from the products of their labor, becoming just another cog in the machine, a number.

By the time we entered the Third Industrial Revolution, the nature of work had shifted drastically again. With the rise of computers and automation, we transitioned into an information economy.

Work became increasingly centered around data, analysis, and the abstract, problem-solving world of ‘knowledge work’. While this shift brought about safer working environments and eliminated much of the physical strain, it introduced a new kind of monotony.

Many workers today find themselves in roles that, while intellectually demanding, can feel distant from the tangible realities of human experience.

Though today’s workers might breathe cleaner air and endure less physical exhaustion, there is an undercurrent of something lost.

The work often feels more disconnected, routine, and alienating; removing us from the natural rhythms and creative impulses that once reverberated through human life.

In a world of rapid technological shifts, the task is not merely to adapt, but to reconnect with the deeper sense of purpose that work once provided.

Redefining Work & Purpose

We find purpose and meaning through our curiosity and losing ourselves in the beauty and chaos of the external world. The external world is real and can provide tangible feedback and reveal information about who we are as humans and individual souls.

We are not hopeless in our pursuit of connection. We need to foster habits and social communities in our lives that promote deep connection to people and to the Earth.

I believe that by adopting a ritual, a craft, or getting involved in the community, life will overflow with meaning and purpose. The key is having pursuits that are deep, like the ocean—pursuing passions that will keep you interested and growing for a lifetime.

Rituals serve to provide someone with a commitment that they get to tend to daily.

Rituals serve as a mechanism to living an intentional life and keeping the mind steady. The ritual yields meaning as it becomes a constant in the ever-changing circumstances of one’s life. When the mind and body become fragmented, the daily ritual works to reunify.

When one has strayed from his path, the ritual serves as a compass to guide him back. It becomes an instrument to harmonize the body, mind, and soul into the eternal present.

The craftsman has a relationship with the material he works with. It is something he can understand, touch, feel, and smell. His focus and commitment to his craft nurture his individual growth and teach him about the world.

It becomes a microcosm that connects him to the macrocosm. It grounds him and gives him control over the outcome.

It becomes a part of him and so he feels an intrinsic connection.

It is not in his imagination but is real and gives his life meaning.

By involving oneself in a community one is able to build an identity and relationship with the people around him.

The world becomes a place of friendly faces instead of a world full of strangers. One learns to take on responsibility within the community and align his values with others.

Purpose is found in making the community stronger, healthier, and more vibrant. Everyone is working toward the same goal, and progress is found in the meaning derived when living for others.

Any step you take towards fostering a craft or ritual in your life is a step toward a better future for yourself and your community.

A community packed with deep individuals is a community that will stand the test of time. The community that is filled with narcissism and individualism will surely devolve into disorder and chaos.

So when you take up a craft, or ritual or get involved in your community, you not only improve your own life but inevitably become a net positive and a blessing to others.

Also, consider reading my long-form essays under my publication:

The Vitruvian Life

Truth Beats Fitness: Switching Paradigms When you Feel Like It

I begin June with an essay on Paradigms. In June it will be all about paradigms and how they can be used to bend reality in useful and curious ways…

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10 months ago · 4 likes · 2 comments · Tucker Wilson