Nick Hedlund

IAM Research Forum | Metatheory, Metacrisis, Mission youtu.be/2LcvH_0SQFM?si… via @YouTube

1/8 The Institute of Applied Metatheory’s Year in Review — a chance to catch up on the exciting things we’ve been working on, and a glimpse of what’s beginning to cohere as we move into 2026.

@AlanFroggatt @IAMetatheory Thanks, Alan! Yeah, we are pumped.

@IAMetatheory This is pretty damn exciting.

1/6 🚨 Introducing ‘Integration: The Journal of Big Picture Theory and Practice.’ A new peer-reviewed journal advancing integrative metatheory, systems thinking, and big-picture approaches to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

6/6 🔎 Working in this space — or know someone who is? 👉 Submissions for Issue 1 of 'Integration: The Journal of Big Picture Theory and Practice' are now open (deadline: Feb 15, 2026): bit.ly/4ovvgWv

5/6 We especially welcome bridges between post-postmodern intellectual lineages such as metamodernism, integral philosophy, critical realism, complexity science, and process thought — provided perspectives are critically analyzed, negated, and/or coordinated, not just aggregated.

4/6 📖 Topics of interest include: - Integrative frameworks for knowledge - Complexity and systems approaches - Technology, AI & collective intelligence - Cultural/worldview transformations - Responses to the global metacrisis + more

3/6 💡Why now? Because when worldviews fracture, philosophy and integrative thinking are essential. 'Integration' is a home for scholars and practitioners weaving insights across philosophy, science, culture, and practice — helping us meet the metacrisis with coherence and wisdom

2/6 Joined by @nickhedlund (Editor-in-Chief) and @BrendanGrahamD1 (Managing Editor), submissions are now open for the inaugural issue (deadline: Feb 15, 2026): bit.ly/4ovvgWv

1/ Beyond the limits of modern and postmodern thinking, an integrative ecology of responses to the #metacrisis is emerging. And @IAMetatheory is mapping it ⬇️ appliedmetatheory.org/mapping-ecolog…

22/ Here is the full presentation if you're interested. We'll be doing the second discussion of the Big Picture Mind @integrallife soon. And thank you to @CoreyWdeVos for helping with the video breakdown. youtube.com/watch?v=FosarF…

13/ Five tsunamis = One Metacrisis. These five forces combine to describe a global, deep, interpenetrating "Metacrisis" that is profoundly impacting all aspects of human life. This will continue. These five forces— 1. Ecological Anthropocene 2. Cultural-sensemaking Hyperreality 3. Spiritual Meaning Crisis 4. Techno-economic Singularity 5. Geopolitical Great Release —will be the most important background context of every aspect of human life over the next several decades. The metacrisis and its five tsunami-level forces since 2007 have and will continue to define the shape of the Transformation Age. youtube.com/watch?v=NfdWqr…

1/ The Big Picture Mind: What Every Elite is Missing Big Pictures are holistic, integrative, self-consistent systems of thought that when combined represent the broadest and deepest philosophical worldview available to humanity today. Big Pictures liberate. By building a mind capable of seeing what’s really happening, you have more freedom, more understanding, and feel at home in the world no matter how chaotic it seems. I recently did a live event to provide what I hope will be one of the Biggest Picture views of what’s happening in 2025 available anywhere in the world. This thread clips the video for easily digestible chunks and explains each piece along the way.

Does culture evolve? We started an initiative to find out, and the first results are in.

@RobbSmith @Liv_Boeree The basis of a third attractor that can address the root causes of the metacrisis is, indeed, a new worldview that transfigures the core contradictions and absences of the late modern worldview. Everything else is a 'patch' that fails to get at the deeper structural causes.

@RobbSmith @Liv_Boeree Yes. Exactly, Robb! While exterior systems certainly exert causal influence on the cultural lifeworld - even to the point of colonizing the lifeworld, as Habermas puts it - exterior social and technological systems are generated by consciousness and culture.

Here is my conversation with Foresight Institute's Allison Duettmann. She's about as brilliant as it gets; one of those rare polymath futurist Moloch-slaying goddess types, as you'll see. So if you want to solve coordination problems, I highly recommend a listen. Chapters below, and give her a follow at @allisondman 2:18 - Existential Hope 5:45 - Utopian vs Dystopian Art 11:00 - The Story Circle 16:03 - Naturalistic Arguments vs Transhumanism 25:29 - Foresight Institute 27:46 - World-building Hackathons 33:20 - Pareto-topia 35:24 - How to make win-wins more obvious? 41:02 - Building Cooperation in Society 45:38 - Avoiding 1984 50:58 - Building the Third Attractor 1:11:00 - Crypto Solutions to Tragedy of Commons 1:15:56 - Prediction markets 1:21:00 - AGI & the Cooperation Game 1:28:00 - Super Rationality 1:32:48 -Advice to Listeners 1:41:31 - Favorite Games 1:44:14 - Rapid fire Predictions