The Future of Alchemy

An exploration of evolutionary dynamics and potential futures

Matthew Pirkowski experiments at the intersection of software, behavioral / evolutionary psychology, and complex adaptive systems. These interests first took root while observing and modeling the collective behavioral psychology of capuchin monkeys at Yale’s Comparative Cognition Laboratory, with the goal of understanding why–and to what extent–our conceptions of “rational action” fail to describe what we observe beyond the domain of analytic abstraction. Such experiences catalyzed an interest in designing and building the interfaces through which human perception and purpose contacts the computational processes that have thoroughly saturated our lives and minds.

Matthew is presently building a platform for modeling purpose-aligned human networks as naturally emergent organisms. He also consults on system architecture, advises nascent companies and communities, and writes about topics related to the evolution of human socioeconomic, technological, and representational systems–in particular the emergence and impact of cryptoeconomic protocols, as outlined in his Crypto Beyond Capitalism essay series. He spends most of his free time maintaining, regenerating, and growing food on a bit of land in the Cascade Range.

He can be found as @MattPirkowski on twitter