Energy: entropy → chemistry → agriculture → fossil fuels → electricity

Information: DNA → neurons → language → writing → printing → computing → AI

A 3-month experiment in reverse-engineering civilization

The Creator's Stack

An engineer's 3-month journey through 9 layers of civilization — from atoms to AI — each layer built into an interactive experience.

3 months

9 layers

20+ interactive works

1 Creator's Sandbox

The Stack

7| Modern Complexity --- Networks, Fragility, Collapse

6| Knowledge & Institutions --- Emergent Order vs Designed Order

5| Agriculture & Cities --- Chain Reaction of Energy Surplus

4| Language --- The Phase Transition of Civilization

3| Cognition --- From Neurons to Cooperation

2| Life --- From Chemistry to Evolution

1| Physics --- Energy, Entropy, Time

The Layers

Apr – Jun 2026

NOW EXPLORING

Complexity

Apr 2026

Why do simple rules produce complex behavior?

0-0 Complicated vs. Complex 0-1 Emergence Lab 0-2 Self-Organization 0-3 Computational Irreducibility 0-4 Edge of Chaos 0-5 Phase Transition 0-6 Sandpile Model 0-7 Scaling Laws

NOW EXPLORING

Physics

Apr–May 2026

How does complexity arise in a universe of increasing entropy?

1-0 Entropy Arrow 1-1 Boltzmann's Dice 1-2 Maxwell's Demon 1-3 Energy Ledger 1-4 Carnot Ceiling 1-5 Dissipative Order 1-6 Bifurcation & Tipping 1-7 Time Illusion

NOW EXPLORING

Life

May 2026

How do dead molecules become living systems?

2-0 Life Ledger 2-1 Hydrothermal Cradle 2-2 Brownian Ratchet 2-3 ATP Spinner 2-4 Mitochondria Merger 2-5 Replicator Race 2-6 The Giraffe Riddle 2-7 Hawk-Dove Game 2-8 Kin Altruism 2-9 Why Can Strangers Cooperate?

NOW EXPLORING

Cognition

Jun 2026

What does the brain actually do?

3-0 Hebbian Playground 3-1 Body Map 3-2 Bouba-Kiki Effect 3-3 Octopus Mind 3-4 Unconscious Pilot 3-5 System One Trap 3-6 Loss Aversion 3-7 Ant Trail 3-8 Firefly Sync 3-9 Cultural Ratchet 3-10 Moral Elephant

NOW EXPLORING

Language

Jun–Jul 2026

Why is language the single biggest unlock?

4-0 Naming Game Arena 4-1 Creole Lab 4-2 Language-Thought Lab 4-3 Metaphor Engine 4-4 Language Archaeology 4-5 Drum Talk 4-6 Entropy Calculator 4-7 Code Evolution 4-8 Writing Brain 4-9 Gödel Machine 4-10 AI Is Us

NOW EXPLORING

Agriculture & Cities

Jul 2026

Why did agriculture trigger civilization?

5-1 Agricultural Origins 5-2 Forager vs. Farmer 5-3 Grain Politics 5-4 City Emergence 5-5 Agglomeration Engine 5-6 Urban Collapse

NOW EXPLORING

Knowledge & Institutions

Aug 2026

Is order emergent from below, or designed from above?

6-1 Commons Lab 6-2 Origins of Money 6-3 Wisdom of Crowds 6-4 Institution Lab 6-5 Critical Juncture 6-6 Paradigm Shift

NOW EXPLORING

Modern Complexity

Aug–Sep 2026

Why is our hyper-connected world so fragile? Is collapse fate, or can we design antifragility?

7-1 Network Resilience Lab 7-2 Scale-Free Networks 7-3 Black Swan 7-4 Complexity Collapse Simulator 7-5 Tainter's Law 7-6 Antifragility

∞

NOW EXPLORING

Synthesis

Sep 2026

To build a civilization from scratch: what conditions, what sequence, what mechanisms?

8-1 The Creator's Sandbox 8-2 The Civilization Mirror 8-3 Knowledge Atlas 8-4 The Creator's Toolkit

Follow the Journey

New layers unlock as the experiment progresses. Subscribe to get notified.

Twitter/X Substack GitHub

FINAL DESTINATION

The Creator's Sandbox

The final destination. Unlocks at the end of the journey. Play as the creator — build a civilization from a blank universe, one layer at a time.