This Long Now Lab seeks an individual or team to investigate historical epistemic cycles — patterns of technological disruption that result in the breakdown of a society's shared ability to discern truth. Through a series of events and convenings, along with content development and publishing, this Lab will analyze analogous historical ruptures (from papyrus to the printing press, from medieval court rituals to social media) to provide insight for navigating the current epistemic crisis brought on by synthetic intelligence and generative media content.

Challenge

Generative models have crossed the uncanny valley. Synthetic videos and images saturate the internet, profoundly altering our sense of reality. This is a threat to our epistemic commons — the often unconscious set of shared protocols we use to verify what we see, hear, and feel. Who has the authority to establish fact in an agentic internet? What corroborative evidence is required to harden our commons against threats like counterfeiting, misinformation, disinformation, identity spoofing, and manufactured consensus?

Like economic bubbles, epistemic cycles of disruption and crisis are recurring. This Lab aims to look deeply into the long now to see how earlier civilizations dealt with similar crises to find repeatable patterns for hardening our own epistemic commons.

Inspiration

This Lab will produce a theory of information technology — one that reframes how we understand the relationship between innovation, collective sensemaking, and resilient civilizations. The project should take inspiration from leading philosophers of technology and political economists: thinkers who reveal hidden cycles in how new technologies get created and adopted, and how they restructure key societal and institutional relationships. Seminal reference works might include Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital by Carlota Perez, Propaganda by Jacques Ellul, Private Truths, Public Lies by Timur Kuran, and Invisible Rulers by Renée DiResta.

Scope of Work and Deliverables

This Lab seeks an interdisciplinary individual or team who will analyze historical information technologies that disrupted common knowledge production and sensemaking to provide deep contextualization for our current challenges. You will create a typology of epistemic failures (e.g., counterfeiting, attention hijacking) as well as historical repair and recovery mechanisms following periods of epistemic collapse, capture, and disruption. You may also examine how infrastructure and technical protocols — not just social norms — restored trust in the past.

The scope of this Lab may expand as needed, but will likely include a long-form essay; a practitioner-ready typology that could be used by platform designers, standards bodies, and content moderators; and facilitated sessions or workshops with participants from the Long Now and the Protocol Institute communities, as well as your own network.

A stipend commensurate with Lab scope and experience will be provided. Candidates will have a profile that includes:

• Deep Research Expertise: A background in comparative historical sociology, philosophy of science, or political economy is a plus.
• Domain Knowledge: A deep understanding of the current technology (LLMs, cryptography, content moderation, or digital auditing).
• Synthesis Skills: A rare ability to communicate complex ideas to a public-facing audience.
• Collaborative Spirit: A willingness to pull in collaborators from diverse fields to act as coauthors, reviewers, industry partners, or project advisors.

Project Milestones

• June 5, 02026: Application Deadline
• July 02026: Lab Launch & Initial Research Phase
• Fall 02026: Internal Sessions with Long Now/Protocol Institute teams
• Spring 02027: Submission of Final Report and Framework
• Spring 02027: Potential Public Presentation to Long Now Community