The work
Research
When can one AI check another? One finding: Claude Sonnet 5 spotted a planted instruction every time it was asked, and still followed it on 64 of 80 tries when the instruction was the last text in the prompt. Experiments run on one workstation, and every correction stays on the record beside the claim it changed.
Civic tools
Conscious Consuming, at valuescommons.org, ranks everyday products and services by a reader’s own values, on facts that carry their sources, with no ads and no tracking. It is one of the noncommercial projects around the Futurism Institute.
Film and land
A documentary series on established community models, filmed where people already live off-grid and in common. The first draft cut, from Living Energy Farm in Virginia, is below, with a second film, If Anyone Builds It.
Free, and open to collaborators
Every project is free and noncommercial. The mission needs collaborators: people to check the numbers, run the experiments one workstation cannot, and tell me how their own communities live and decide things together.
The films
If Anyone Builds It
Other footage
Rebirth: A Sound Bath in the Woods.
Interfusion, the last contact jam. A more action oriented shot
Potomac river ride. Drone footage over the Potomac in winter, with the river partly frozen.
Behind the work
I work on AI safety research and move where the work is, and I’m open to the right opportunity, anywhere. I’ve lived in intentional communities and stewarded community institutions like events and artist residencies: we filmed, developed the land, hosted festivals and researched human interface design with AI.
Before this I spent a decade in regenerative agriculture, education design, off-grid building and community facilitation. I’ve lived in other communities like Twin Oaks and managed AI systems over the last 3 years. I used to teach at home and abroad, and now facilitate workshops and design educational materials. I’m converging my film work and systems designs into accessible digital literacy material. The Futurism Institute digital ecosystem is still an idea compared to the fuller vision, but each site and its description can be found from Futurisminstitute.org.
Where to go from here
- The researchwhat was measured, and what was withdrawn
- In plain Englishthe same work without the jargon
- Collaboratewhere the work needs other people
- Futurism Institutethe whole family of projects