M I S S I O N
We bring together intellectuals oriented towards addressing the Metacrisis
and realising a Second Renaissance: for a radically wiser world.
The Life Itself Research Collective is a para-academic group focusing on pathways to a radically wiser world. Our aim is to enhance our collective sense-making internally as well as to disseminate ideas across the space, in the hope to more broadly influence the intellectual culture of society.
The Bergerac Praxis Hub & the Farmhouse Hub the real-world convening spaces of the collective and the host of Life Itself's research residencies and retreats.
A N N O U N C E M E N T
The Life Itself Research Collective introduces the Principles of a New Paradigm Project: a meta-modern concept map composed of entries contributed by members of the group.
C O L L A B O R A T I O N
The collective communicates through the Life Itself whatsapp group and collaborates on research and sensemaking on the Second Renaissance Forum.
E V E N T S
We hold weekly "Discovery Calls" most Fridays (at 5pm Central European 11am Eastern, US time). These calls are open to all. You can find information on upcoming calls and register for them on the Life Itself Luma calendar.
M E M B E R S
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Jonah Willberg
Jonah is the steward of the collectives weekly online research calls and the Second Renaissance chapter in London. He is also a contributor to the Life Itself substack Over the Mountains and author of The Wider Angle capturing the bigger picture of philosophy, culturology, cognitive science, complexity, metacrisis, AI and cosmology.
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Simon Grant
Simon aids in the running of the research group and is the lead of the Second Renaissance Wiki. Previously he has presented on the subjects of 'Ontological Commoning' and the future of the 'Metamodern Research Ecosystem' (also written up here). Simon describes himself as 'interdependent, more connected and working on more things than ever'.
Gen Zendahl
Gen is a regular member of the group and has previously led a session of the Glass Bead Game, an intellectual and poetic relational practice she helped pioneer. She is currently a Director of Lammas Eco Village and a researcher into relational and social design, permaculture and ecological regeneration , AI ontology, change theory, workshop facilitator, artist.
R E S E A R C H
Our interdisciplinary research bridges diagnosis of fundamental problems - the Metacrisis, Civilisational Collapse, Existential Risk, AI Misalignment, Climate Catastrophe, Critical Political Economy -
with an exploration of alternatives - Metamodernism, Inner Development, Cultural Paradigms, Systems Change, Collective Action and Pragmatic Utopianism.
Through our weekly research calls we aim to advance our understanding of civilisations history and future, directed towards a theory of paradigmatic change.
Members of the collective collaborate virtually and also visit the Bergerac Hub for research residencies and retreats throughout the year.
The Metacrisis
The interconnected crises, catastrophic risks and critical trajectories of the modern world-system generated by its underlying evolutionary dynamics, structural formation and cultural psychology.
Metamodernism
The reconciliation of modernity - the virtues of the Enlightenment worldview - with its critical post-modern reaction, towards a higher-order synthesis of cultural paradigms. The next stage in cultural evolution and civilisational progress.
Macrohistory
The broad patterns of civilisational change, conflict and collapse across thousand year time-scales that can be studied to shed light on the current predicament of global, technological civilisation.
R E S E A R C H P R E S E N T A T I O N S
Jonah Wilberg on Wise Altruism
When thinking about how to do the most good, or best to ‘contribute to the world’, we face massive uncertainties which are hard to integrate with the formal decision-theoretic approaches typically used in Effective Altruism. Jonah shows how recent work in the cognitive science of rationality - in particular John Vervaeke’s work on the notion of wisdom as integrating formal rationality and relevance realisation - offers insight here, and suggests a more integral approach he calls ‘Wise Altruism’. This talk is an accessible summary of Jonah’s recent substack post, which offers a more in-depth view.
Anna Riedl on Relevance Realisation & Autopoethics
Anna Riedl is a cognitive scientist known for her work with John Vervaeke on rationality and relevance realization, as well as her more recent work on a complexity-science inspired approach to ethics that she calls Autopoiethics. Anna presents on three main topics: rationality and relevance realisation, autopoiethics, and cognitive sovereignty. She discusses how rationality involves both abstract formal systems and context-specific adaptability, emphasizing the importance of relevance realization and problem formulation. She discusses concerns that effective altruism misconstrues the ethics question by overly focusing on quantifiable rationality rather than acknowledging the complexity of living systems and uncertainty.
Simon Grant on Ontological Commoning
Ontological Commoning is a key area of Simon Grant’s research, and he defines it as “the process and practice of finding common ground between different perspectives on a complex situation; finding ways to make sense of each other’s conceptual models, without erasing differences, but generating a wider perspective within which individual perspectives can be inter-related”. In this interview with Jonah Wilberg and the discussion that follows it, we cover the historical context and political relevance of this idea, and explore what the practice could look like in more concrete terms.
Brendan Grahan Dempsey on Measuring Worldviews
Well-known scholar of metamodernism and spirituality Brendan Graham Dempsey gave an exciting presentation entitled “Measuring Worldviews: Putting Integral Altitudes to the Test”. Brendan presented research findings on updating and validating integral models, focusing on measuring worldviews using hierarchical complexity. He demonstrated that Fowler's stages of faith align well with the Lectica scale, while ego development stages show some correlation but with significant variability. The research suggests that some integral models may need refinement in how they measure complexity, particularly for higher stages.
