☀️ Rites of Passage for Embodied Ethics

Spring recap, summer happenings, fall visions

Hello relatives,

Whew, what a year it has been so far. I’m trying to take a bit of a breather right now after an extremely full spring. But the whole aligning-with-the-seasons thing is a real work in progress.

Hence why I keep revisiting the temporal technology Circular Time around this time of year to re-align. Join me if you’re feeling burnt out and interested in shifting your relationship with time ⏳

Three main things I want to share today: Course Recap, Embodied Ethics Retreat, and my general flow for the rest of the year.

Handmade lino by course participant Erin MacAirt

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📚 Course Highlights

In case you were wondering, the Embodied Ethics Course was an A+ 🥲 We convened 130 people across the planet, from the heart of the major companies like OpenAI, Meta, Apple & Google; to the far edges of culture where much wisdom lies.

We explored a range of topics, from how traditionally ethics is embodied, to who and what we are ultimately accountable to. We slowed down to give thanks to the relationships that sustain us, and we felt into the difference between something forged in the spirit of agitation, versus the energy of an organic pace and intention to make something beautiful that lasts.

Here are some key slides if you’d like a taste, a couple guest talks we’ve made public, and a recent podcast I recorded about the experience. The full set of recordings is also available for purchase.

Key slides from course

In a mid-course twist, fellow co-conspirators Mara Zepeda and Amelia Rose Barlow invited three extraordinary indigenous grandmothers: Chief Beverly Kiohawiton Cook, Katsi Cook, & Loretta Afraid of Bear Cook to speak about how power is earned in their communities and how they balance ancient and modern tools. It was a real privilege to experience the presence of true elders and oral tradition, while learning about the relational and spiritual technologies that have long nourished their communities. By invitation from Loretta, several of us were then able to support one of their sacred ceremonies in-person in South Dakota, where the course lessons came to life hard and fast.

On a personal level, I found the experience of producing the course challenging and rewarding. I have plenty of muscle memory to make operations flow smoothly. The hard pieces were more relational, which shouldn’t come as a surprise in trying to straddle such disparate worlds. I’ve never received so many positive acknowledgements, and without fail I teared up at least once in each session, upon hearing Truth spoken so elegantly on a subject that I’ve dedicated much of my adult life to advancing. And wow, simply being aware of all the new relationships woven because of this experience brings me so much joy 🥲

tldr: it’s all quite simple. Traditional cultures tend to orient around being in right relationship with all the parts and the whole of the web of life (whereas modernity tends to orient around analytical thinking to separate out parts and optimize their extraction, without regard for impact on other parts or the whole). And through regular ritual enactment and storytelling and practice, they celebrated and honored and reaffirmed that relationship. Such that individuals and families and communities and societies would instinctively make choices out of greater care and understanding and love for that relationship. So that culture and life would survive and thrive and perpetuate for the coming generations…

As the story of the modernity loses credibility in the face of mounting and interconnected crises, thank god we have access to some guidance on remembering right relationship, and a new challenge to integrate it with the technological wonders that we have received through analytical thinking, logic and reason. This is what we learned about in the course, and now are metabolizing and exploring how to bring into the tech world.

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🏔️ Embodied Ethics Retreat: Mt. Shasta

With each new offering, there’s a way in which it feels like my entire life and career has culminated to this moment. And at the same time it is clearly only the beginning.

From throwing frat parties in my teens, to participating in a full rainbow of transformational retreats in my twenties, to experimenting at the forefront of education in my thirties.

This particular retreat stands on the shoulder of all those experiences, including several that stem from the same little mountain town in Northern California: co-conspirator

Julia Plevin Oliansky

’s Nature Accelerator in 2018, Hestia’s Winter Incubator in 2021 (where I wrote The Path of The Humane Technologist), Headwaters vision fast in 2023 and the subsequent proudest moment of my career.

There’s something special about the land up in Shasta. I learn a lot about myself and the world every time I’m up there, which has been for eight years now, with increasing frequency and duration. Probably because it’s the land that I have developed the most intimiate relationship with in my adult life. When I’m there, I’m usually focused on different things.

It feels like a natural next step to offer the gifts I’ve received back to the village. Especially to those who are learning alongside me. We just learned a bunch of good stuff online. Now let’s get together in person and practice.

It is a joy to announce

Wise Innovation Project

’s next major offering: The 2024 Embodied Ethics Retreat in Mt. Shasta, CA.

A more mature tech culture must include regular time for stillness and nourishment, reconnecting with the relationships that sustain us, and clarifying and consecrating a path forward in service to the web of life.

This retreat is for those who feel ready to take the next step forward on their journey. We’re convening an exceptional group of humane founders and funders, responsible AI and trust/safety professionals, Chief Philosophy Officers, wise innovation advocates/practitioners, prosocial engineers, bridge-building coaches and healers serving at the intersection of tech & wisdom. Leaders in adjacent fields (climate, finance, politics, health, etc) are encouraged to apply too!

Please consider helping us spread the word to friends and colleagues, especially those who could really use, or have been searching for, something like this. Sponsors welcomed who can help make the experience more accessible for participants of all backgrounds. I’d be delighted to hop on a quick call to share more and answer any questions.

This retreat is part of a broader initiative to establish initiation in the tech world.

We envision a world in which innovators and their innovations exist in right relationship with the web of life. A world in which those with power have earned it.

Traditionally this is done by opening oneself to the teachings of nature and wisdom keepers, crossing a threshold between the old world and the new, and returning with a gift and a task – a renewed sense of relationality and service.

And so we endeavour to create containers for learning and practice. In person, in nature, in community, in service, and in a way that embodies the values we aspire to because #ProcessIsProduct. Perhaps one of my greatest recurring lessons is that HOW we do something is just as important, if not more important, than WHAT we do.

We are inviting financial support to begin researching and designing rights of passage experiences, beginning with our pilot Embodied Ethics Retreat. A modest amount of funding will bring higher quality and rigor to designing the experience, engaging the right stakeholders, and reporting on what we learn. So that this pilot serves as a stepping stone towards expanding access to initiatory containers, in service of wise innovation, to create a more beautiful world for you and those you love.

Please reach out if you would like to get involved 🙏

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🛣️ Wanderings

In other news, I’m moving on from Berkeley, CA at the end of the month. The 1.5 years I spent here reconnecting with the Bay Area have been full spectrum: working with Center for Humane Technology during the AI explosion, dancing with local Jewish community during a time of great turmoil, witnessing pregnancy and babyhood up close.

It has been helpful to have a home base, and it feels like a natural time to move on for a bit. I have lots of travel planned for the rest of the year, so will ease into a nomadic flow, with eyes towards landing somewhere new in the new year. Likely my own place, perhaps another part of the Bay, perhaps Sebastapol / Occidental area?

Aug: UK - planning a multi-week adventure, including speaking about embodied ethics at Medicine Festival. Welcoming recommendations!

Sept/Oct: NYC / Hudson Valley - this multi-week NY trip is solidly annual at this point

Oct / Nov: California (Northern and Southern)

Nov: South Florida - also solidly annual

Jan: It is very clear to me that those involved in teaching, healing and spiritual guidance need breaks at all time cycles to rest, connect, practice, learn, grow, re-align. Inspired by last year’s 42 day retreat in India, I’m interested in hosting a ~month-long retreat somewhere in California, for the brilliant folks in the growing wise innovation ecosystem to do just that. Please let me know if you might be interested in participating in some form (attending, organizing, funding) or know of a special ~8-10 bedroom home in a beautiful place!

This fall I’m heading into fundraising mode for several interconnected projects. If you know anybody who is interested in supporting the work you see I care about, esepcially in the locations I’m traveling to, please consider connecting us. It has been a long and arduous uphill journey to keep walking towards a vision that very few care about, let alone are able and willing to resource. Thankfully it feels like the cultural mood is starting to shift around some of these things.

With lots of love in what can often seem like a hopeless place,

Andrew