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Information : The Prima Materia The foundation of my research and the fundamental substrate of our reality, worlds & practice.

Our Reality, In Formation
A brief introduction to information, cybernetics & social programming, augmented reality & spatial computing. (ca.2022)

Information, Identity & the probability of possible worlds.

“Our identity is fictional, written by parents, relatives, education, society.”
- Genesis P-Orridge

Are we fated to exist in an infinite loop of oppression, extraction and inequality or is it possible to create a protopian
world free from unnecessary hunger, poverty, homelessness, warfare, ecological degeneration, unwanted disease and coercive labor?

“The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Possible worlds and modal reasoning have made "counterfactual" arguments extremely popular in current philosophy.
Possible worlds, especially the idea of "nearby worlds" that differ only slightly from the actual world, are used to examine
the validity of modal notions such as necessity and contingency, possibility and impossibility, truth and falsity.
Scientists use models to represent and explain the world, and to make predictions.
Models can be physical objects, diagrams, equations, or computer programs.

Information can quantify the information in different possible worlds
and thus establish the relative possibilities or "information distance" from our actual world.

Our stories, our worlds.

I’m currently working with individuals and a newtwork of creative teams to co-create world models to explore the potential beneficial and harmful outcomes of exponential technologies like AI, Robotics, Mixed Reality, Spatial Computing, Biotech and more. All underpinned by deep research & historical context, delivered through immersive narratives, interactive media and storytelling where the past, present and future meet. We’re connecting art & science of worldbuilding.

Throughout history, there are countless examples of the feedback loop between storytelling and the evolution of technology & culture. Stories create worlds that help us imagine and simulate the complex challenges and new realities brought about by emerging technologies. They also help us put into context repeating patterns that reemerge through time. The act of creating storyworlds (storytelling + worldbuilding) continues a lineage of technologies as old as human culture itself, enabling us to imagine and create new realities together.

Under Construction...

XR Radio

Akupara

El Malo

Barton Hood

Beloved

Biosphere 3

Cosmosapiens

Uglyworld

Another World is Possible

In the fall of 2024, I brought together several teams of peers and collaborators to create an experimental model that integrated years of research and development across these domeains. The culmination of a vision set out in 2019 - A new physical/digital model for collective experimentation in service of building toward shared, protopian futures. Inspired by my previous work with Snap AR, Comic-Con International, International CES (Consumer Electronics Show), Dolby Laboratories, Adult Swim, Licensing International Genies, Meta, Impossible Foods, Sight Unseen, Everytable and many more, Another World is Possible invites us to imagine a new way to bring emerging tech to the public and share vital information about technological transformations happening in the world around us. The experience was also deeply inspired by my independent research and work in information science, regenerative economics, intentional communities and social systems theory.

Some of what we created:
4 interactive vignettes
4 original games
A new single from multidisciplinary artist Ellex Swavoni
Dozens of pieces of content
An original comic book
AR experiences
Countless pages of carefully curated research
Presentations, performance
And the first functional prototype of a regenerative economic model originally conceived in 2019.
All in a playable, choose your own adventure experience.

Another World is Possible was an incredibly significant footnote for everyone involved, in a continuum of collective imagining that extends beyond our own time and space.
Infinite gratitude for all who were critical in bringing Another World is Possible to life. Learn more about this experience here.

Special Thanks :
ZOO AS ZOO
Sienna Brown
My T. Nguyen
Mario Fernando
Austin Presley
Cortney Pizzarelli
Sonali Gupta
Vivian Chavez
The Bardo
Allie Bashuk
Derek Holguin
Ellex Swavoni
Abi Lambert
Lyly Hoang
Alisa Khieu
Anand Pal

Another World is Possible : Simulating a Universal Quantum System

Identity, Information and the Probability of Possible Worlds : A Social Relativity Theory of Quantum Gravity

The Another World is Possible experience also functioned as a room-scaled , modern update to the famous EPR experiment. A kind of mathematical, computational playground which leverages the network dynamics of social relativity to demonstrate a new approach to quantum computing and explore the very foundations of integrated information theory.

With the help of some of my favorite collaborators, friends, creators and minds of all kinds, I’m currently developing a Theory of Integrated Information which aims to connect the quantum and informational underpinnings of techology, culture, living systems, consciousness, time and the fundamental nature of reality. At its heart, a reclamation of both our embodied and immaterial ways of knowing the world. A reclamation that points to a paradigm shift in the ways we construct our models of the universe, our social systems, and our understanding of who and what can engage in the timeless pursuit of understanding we call science.

Technoculture : Culture as Living Technology
A research-driven practice, expanding the science of information and developing products, platforms & systems through the living technology of culture.

Technoculture : R&D for Self-Synth (2025)

Self-Synth is the first functional prototype of a technology that imagines an alternative evolutionary trajectory for wearables based on the Quipu, one of my favorite wearable computational tools historically used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire. The Quipu used a series of knots and threads to store and communicate vital information in these ancient societies.

In its current form, Self-Synth will be able to take in environmental and persona information to convert data into light-based communication. A future version of Self-Synth would integrate digital simulations, quantum computing, personalized Al and biological engineering, acting as an identity-as-software wearable device, allowing the wearer to adjust and manipulate their physiology on demand. This same ability is used by many of our nonhuman relatives like the octopus, who edits its genes in real time to change the shapes, colors and texture of their bodies. Self-Synth integrates indigenous human and nonhuman knowledge with contemporary technology to reclaim planetary intuition lost to centuries of colonization.

Concept, research & design by Branden Collins
Fabrication & co-designed by Anthromorph

I’m a Black, Queer, transdisciplinary artist, designer, builder, researcher, archivist, inventor, mathematician, physicist, philosopher, atheist, scientific pantheist, post-humanist, animist and lots of other things.

Many years ago, I started a blog on Tumblr called “Never Sleep”. It was my visual diary and occasional place to post my work. Eventually, that blog became The Young Never Sleep Studio, a fluid creative network, personal exploration space and collaborative conduit. The Young Never Sleep was born out of a desire to learn, and extend my own creative capacities by collaborating with friends and providing services to clients. At the core of it’s ethos, a commitment to never succumb to the slumber of apathy, conformity or conservatism, retaining our rebellious youth by always questioning and challenging the world around us through our work and lives. I started using the phrase Another World is Possible as a way to proclaim the driving philosophy of the studio, that we could intentionally shape a better world through creativity. While managing the studio and personal practice, I worked for a slew of notable companies across sectors like science & education, hospitality, entertainment, healtcare, and finally, tech. I’m currently continuing to grow the vision through collective worldbuilding & storytelling as a way to develop new frameworks, products and systems underpinned by my ongoing research in Integrated Information.

The studio and the people I’ve been able to connect and create with have shaped so much of who I am becoming. Just like you, I’m continuously evolving. In the meantime, get to know me and my work on Are.na or explore my worlds on Yoo.

Focus Areas:

AI/AGI
Color Theory
Consciousness
Emergent Spacetime
Fundamental Theories of Reality
Full Systems Health & Wellness
Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Information Bias
Knot Theory
Mixed/Augmented/Extended Reality
Nonhuman Culture
Psychophysics
Quantum Theory, Quantum Information, Quantum Computing, Quantum Cryptography
Regenerative Economics
(Soft) Robotics
Theoretical Cosmology
Turing Machines
Transhumanism / Posthumanism

Select Press & Features

Quantum Culture: Mapping an Emerging Logic
Symbiofutures NY Climate Week 2024
Living Technology: Toward a New Science of Integrated Information - Abstract Accepted - Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Western Australia
Revision Path: Information, Technology & the Evolving Internet
The Strength of Mind
What Does an Art Director Really Do?
Sight Unseen