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 biggest idea I've ever come up with. 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 an advanced species must navigate as it develops. I came up with it while sketching out a 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 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 SSDM above. Specifically, I started thinking about the metacrisis we find ourselves in, and what we can do to move forward. What are the most useful approaches and strategies that could help us get through this transition? After searching far and wide, the best approaches I've found are Spiral Dynamics developed by Clare Graves and the Stages model developed by Terri O'Fallon. So naturally I decided to integrate these models with the SSDM, and the results have been fascinating! Politics, economics, culture, religion, and even the visual arts all make much more sense when seen through this lens. Click below for a detailed discussion of my work in this area.
ART HISTORY
New Approaches to Works of Art
I'm fascinated with museums and the ways they present and explain works of art. This is an ongoing project about exploring new ways of approaching and making sense of works of art.
Using works of art to teach us new skills
Interpretations of works of art from higher levels of Spiral Dynamics
Rashid Johnson at the Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art
SHAMANISM
Topics in Shamanic Research
This is another of my interests. This will be an ongoing exploration of topics relating to shamanic work, both in traditional societies and in the Western world.
Dreams and Spirit Animals as inner reorganizing...
FOOD AND COOKING
Cooking Very Simply
Cooking, in my mind, has always occurred as stressful, complicated, and mysterious. And neither cookbooks nor cooking shows were any help to me. So I decided to create something more useful 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 that a complete novice feels comfortable trying them out. 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.
A second related project is a series of videos that explore the relationship between mindfulness and cooking. This is a project that I've started developing with a friend already, and it has been more complicated that I had anticipated, but I'm learning so much while developing it.
ART PROJECT
Labyrinths Project
I've always been fascinated by the concept of a labyrinth, 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 or other 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. Since I don't have experience creating elaborate art installations, I'm looking for collaborators to create these installations.
ART PROJECT
Inflatable Architecture
Another art project I want to create is a series of inflatable versions of famous historical buildings. These would be scaled to fit comfortably into museum gallery spaces or other community spaces. It would be fascinating to experiment with various types of plastic to achieve different effects of translucency and colors. I'm also interested in making these structures interactive, with motion detectors connected to pumps that would inflate or deflate the structures in relation to the presence and movement of visitors in the space. These would be very complicated to construct, but it would be so much fun to figure them out! Here too I'm looking for collaborators who have experience working with museums and galleries and create large interactive art installations.
RETHINKING THE CLASSICS
Updating 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...
RETHINKING THE CLASSICS
Updating
Science Fiction Classics
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...
Rethinking and updating Star Wars
Rethinking and updating Star Trek
Rethinking and updating the Dune Series
Rethinking and updating the Tron Series
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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