Sebastian's Cosmic Visions
Welcome to my website! I wanted to create a space where I could summarize all the projects that I'm currently working on, as well as the ones I want to create in the future. If anything catches your interest, please contact me with comments, questions, interest in collaboration, or if you would like to support my work in any way.
BIG IDEAS
Standard Species Development Model
This is the largest idea I've ever had! It's a framework for understanding the evolutionary journey of intelligent life anywhere in the Universe. The seven-stage model maps the psychological, social, and technological milestones that any advanced species must navigate as it develops. I came up with it when working on a futuristic sci-fi novel a few years ago. But then, as I thought more about it, this fictional world-building device became something of a manifesto for our own species’ potential. I'm obviously not the first person to construct such a framework, but when I looked at other attempts, I realized that my model had some crucial elements that others seemed to lack. Most importantly, my model is very specific about the transitional moment in which we currently find ourselves as a species, and offers comprehensive and useful advice about how to navigate this moment and how to move to the next stage of our development.
BIG IDEAS
Stages of Human Development
This project grew out of the Standard Species Development Model. When I started thinking about how we can effectively navigate our current developmental level as a species, I looked at the best ideas we've already created for understanding ourselves and our mental development. I was most impressed with Spiral Dynamics and the Stages model. These, to me, offer the clearest models for how our minds work, and they offer a clear path forward. These are very practical blueprints for the ways our minds are confirmed, and how to make them better and better. Once we understand how our minds develop, so much of politics, economics, and even culture and art makes so much more sense. Most crucially, these systems provide us with the best recipes for growing as a species and as individuals.
FOOD AND COOKING
Cooking Very Simply
I've always thought of cooking as stressful, complicated, and mysterious. And none of the cookbooks and cooking shows out there seemed to help. So I decided to create something better myself. I'm envisioning a series of online videos where I start with a single ingredient, prepare it in a variety of ways, then hone in on two or three of the most promising results, and then keep iterating those until I get results that I'm truly delighted with. Then I share these results in the easiest terms possible. The goal is to create a repertoire of dishes that are very simple, very delicious, very nutritious, and also versatile. I want them to be so simple to make that a complete novice will feel comfortable in trying them in their own kitchen. The next step will be to turn all of this content into an online course, which would use the videos as a backbone, but then add structure, accountability, community, and lots of encouragement and support.
ART PROJECT
Labyrinths Project
I've always been fascinated by labyrinths, and recently I've had this growing desire to create some in real life. The idea is to construct a series of labyrinths in gallery settings but also various community settings, using a variety of materials and forms. These would be interactive art installations that would play with issues of translucency and opacity, finding and losing our way, ephemerality, complexity, etc. However, at the moment, I don't have any experience with creating elaborate art installations, so I'm looking for collaborators to make these projects a reality.
ART PROJECT
Inflatable Architecture
I love inflatable art. I also love the history of architecture. Not surprisingly, at some point I got the idea of creating a series of inflatable models of various famous monuments of world architecture, scaled for museum galleries. The project plays with issues of ephemerality, translucence, inflation and deflation, sound, audience participation, and so much more. These would be very complicated to construct, but it would be so much fun to figure out how to create them! So here too I'm looking for collaborators who have experience with working with museums and galleries to create large elaborate interactive art installations.
RETHINKING THE CLASSICS
The Bhagavad Gita
I've been fascinated with the Bhagavad Gita for a long time, but a recent re-reading made me start thinking about it differently. So I started talking about it with ChatGPT, and the conversations were so fascinating! I started thinking about how this sacred text might be rewritten and rethought to incorporate Spiral Dynamics, the Stages model, and my own Standard Species Development Model. The results so far have been fascinating, and I'm just getting started...
REWRITING THE CLASSICS
The Star Wars Saga
As for countless others, the Star Wars saga was one of the central mythologies of my childhood and early adulthood. But at a certain point, I started to realize that the way the story was told was very limited, especially when I started thinking in terms of Spiral Dynamics and the Stages model. So I started talking with ChatGPT about rethinking the story in such a way that watching it, the audience actually moves through the various stages of mental development along with the characters. The story could be made to be an actual hero's journey, moving us from the stages of mental development. Again, I'm just starting out with this project, but already the results are fascinating...
REWRITING THE CLASSICS
Rewriting Superhero Movies
This project grew out of the Star Wars and Bhagavad Gita projects above. As I was re-thinking both of these texts, I realized that I could do the same with other superhero and sci-fi comics and movies. The results so far are already staggering and fascinating and broader than I initially anticipated, and I've just barely scratched the surface...
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