LinkedIn | Resumé | Youtube | X | Lectures 2009-2017

"A rare mind with a particular talent for synthesis and translation...he deftly navigates adjacent spaces of strategy and innovation, weaving cohesive narratives and leaving every community he touches richer for his efforts. While many are brilliant, few people possess the combination of emotional intelligence, intellectual rigor, and comfort with complexity that makes Michael such a unique and valuable contributor to so many communities...any organization seeking to make a positive difference on this planet would be lucky to have his skills on board."
– Michelle Shevin, Senior PM for Tech and Society at The Ford Foundation

“I look forward to most anything Michael has to say: almost always interesting, rarely predictable, the epitome of informative.”
– Chris Wood, Former VP of the Santa Fe Institute

“If I were McKinsey, I would make sure I have at least one of you.”
– Christine Peterson, Co-founder of Foresight Institute

Paleontologist-Futurist Michael Garfield helps people navigate our age of accelerating weirdness and cultivate the curiosity and play we'll need to thrive in it.

Host and producer of both Humans On The Loop (f.k.a. Future Fossils) (2016-present) & The Santa Fe Institute's Complexity Podcast (2019-2023), Michael’s far-ranging conversations have charted internationally for years while amassing millions of downloads. His practice as an interlocutor is informed by over twenty years of transdisciplinary "mind-jazz" performances on four continents — an avalanche of essays, music, live painting, and public speaking exploring the borderlands of academia, tech, and culture.

He has appeared on stage everywhere from Moogfest to Burning Man, Arcosanti to Synergia Ranch to SXSW to Boom Festival, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's Innovation Lab to the Pecha Kucha and Ignite Talks to The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. A briefly-prolific contributor to The Long Now Foundation's blog (one of the oldest on the Web) he also founded and moderated the world’s largest forum for complex systems thinking and spent 4.5 years translating the work of over 200 researchers as the first (and last) Digital Media Strategist for The Santa Fe Institute — while producing explainer animations, storm-tweeting symposia and conferences, helping launch books, and amassing hundreds of positive podcast reviews.

In 2023 he joined a visionary Mozilla spin-out building the future of open-source AI, where he performed extensive research on the history of computing and technological innovation in order to help shape the structures, processes, and identity of an org intended to midwife the future of human-machine symbiosis. Realizing how much wisdom would be required to use the new powers they saw coming, he chose to leave and fully devote himself to helping facilitate the cultural evolution of consciousness.

In addition to producing over 800 paintings and 100 hours of original music, he is the author of How To Live In The Future (forthcoming from Integral Imprint), sits on the advisory board of research non-profit Noonautics, and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico with his luthier wife, two kids, many cacti, and a snapping turtle.

"Amazingly well-spoken."
– Charles Eisenstein

“One of the ultimate super-connectors in the idea-space of complexity. There are so many interesting things about him. I wish I were as smart as Michael; I couldn’t hold my own in any of those conversations [on Complexity Podcast]. Yes, I’m willing to say this in public.”
– Chris Kutarna, Oxford Fellow & Co-author of The Age of Discovery

"An elegiac wonder of breadth and complexity...well equipped to be the next Annie Dillard. An embedded journalist, right behind the front lines of the ever expanding unknown."
– Myles Reichel, multimedia artist

"Mind-blowing. Michael Garfield's perspective is powerfully psychoactive."
– Brett Thomas of Stagen Leadership

"Easily the most mind-opening presentation Moogfest 2016 had to offer – a multidisciplinary monologue that rivaled Brian Eno's Moogfest 2011 keynote for all the unexpected twists and turns it took. This one-man show saw artist-musician Michael Garfield take a captive audience on a vision-quest through the lands where metaphysics and emerging technology meet. Heavy and heady stuff, and a pleasant counterpoint to the doom and gloom of the average transhumanist cybergrumps whose future-thinking seems improbably grounded in the limited perceptions of the present."
– Consequence of Sound

"Show me someone who believes they have an original idea, and I will invite them to meet Michael Garfield."
– Colorado Music Buzz

"Sometimes I think other people have a better grasp on what I do than I do, or at least they are more eloquent at expressing it. Thank you Michael Garfield..."
– Android Jones

"Like the best writers on science, your work displays a wonderful skill in moving between the panoramic overview and the carefully focused detail. In this synthesis of opposing tendencies, I can only hope that you are a harbinger of what 21st Century science may become."
– Brian George

Select Podcast Appearances

A full list of over 100 guest appearances can be found below.

Select Presentations

Presented at El Sailon Santa Fe in December 2024.

Abstract: Modern computing affords new possibilities to embrace pluralistic perspectives on, and even fully redefine, the self. In this blitz through media theory, the history of simulation, Eastern philosophy, and pro-social implementations of generative AI, I lay out the foundations of what I consider the most promising consequence of the digital revolution — namely, that it might provoke us to let go of the destructive ideologies of separation and embrace a humbler, more capacious sense of place within our Cosmos. By using language models to make the data avalanche of modern life more legible to us and render myriad representations of anything our instruments observe, we stand a better chance to move past conflict over One Right Way To Rule Them All and into “The Pluriverse”, which holds enough diversity for us to thrive amidst the challenges we face. (We might even loosen up a bit about our closely-held beliefs.)

Presented at Creative Santa Fe's Pecha Kucha talks at SITE Santa Fe in July 2022.

Abstract: Biodiversity is the measure of ecological health. Cognitive diversity is the secret to innovation and effective collaboration. And contrary to popular belief, there will never be one Theory of Everything to unify all of human knowledge in an equation that fits on a t-shirt. Multiplicity is how the cosmos knows itself, because all models of the world — whether they take the form of intellectual theories or organisms in an ongoing dance of adaptation with their environment — are partial, incomplete, and provisional. Every statement of truth is a conjecture based on limited information, conditioned by a specific history, and ultimately up for revision. Even the myriad standards by which we settle on satisfactory explanations are in tension and conflict with each other — and that's a good thing, because unanimous agreement results in brittle, easily disrupted strategies. If humankind stands any chance of navigating the immensely complex challenges we face, it's time for us to jettison the notion that there's One Idea To Rule Them All, and fan out into "The Adjacent Possible," covering as much ground as we can to search the space of what could be more comprehensively.

Presented at The Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute in July 2021.

Presented at The Long Now Foundation Ignite Talks in May 2020.

Abstract: Modernity was largely built upon the “epistemic backstop” of recordings we can trust. What happens when we lose this privilege? As of 02020, most widely-subscribed visions of the future seem like presentist projections of a brief moment in which the West was capable of large-scale consensus on reality. Between the challenges brought to the scientific method by advances in machine learning, the inherently divisive nature of the social media platforms out of which we’ve woven early-21st Century society, the proliferation of new ontologies in order to address what author Erik Davis calls “global weirding,” and the accelerating evolutionary arms race between counterfeiters and forensics experts, “the future” may not even be a useful way to talk about what’s next…

Presented at the Global Eclipse Gathering (Big Summit Prairie, OR) in August 2017.

Abstract: Join paleontologist-futurist Michael Garfield on a whirlwind tour of life's history and future, from brothy seaside puddles on a meteor-bombarded early Earth to the transcendent planet-level mind awaiting us beyond the technological singularity...all the while challenging how we create "time" and "history" in the virtual reality of human consciousness, and pointing into the eternal depths of every now. Drawing from his lifelong study of evolutionary ecology, developmental psychology, advaita vedanta nondual philosophy, and psychedelic transhumanism, Michael's "amazingly well-spoken" (Charles Eisenstein) public talks have earned him the reputation of "Terence McKenna 2.0" (Collin Elder). Judge for yourself by joining us in one of the most intellectually ambitious, playful, weird, creative conversations you will have all year...

Presented at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Innovation Lab in Feb 2017.

Abstract: Thanks to the psychedelic ("mind manifesting") power of our Promethean technologies, our dreams and fears have never been so fast to manifest as they are now. It is time for us to take a long, hard look at what might be, if ANYTHING is possible. What did the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s teach us about how to handle the immense and terrifying pace of change these days? Tim Leary said PCs would be the next LSD – and, in fact, it was their visionary journeys that they thank for inspiration, almost all the masterminds of the computing revolution. So maybe there is something to the notion that the insights from psychedelic psychotherapy and of indigenous plant medicine traditions are just what the doctor ordered to help navigate this age's waves of great accelerating transformations.

Presented at Boom Festival (Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal) in August 2016.

Abstract: What did the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s teach us about how to handle the immense and terrifying pace of change these days? Tim Leary said PCs would be the next LSD – and, in fact, it was their visionary journeys that they thank for inspiration, almost all the masterminds of the computing revolution. So maybe there is something to the notion that the insights from psychedelic psychotherapy and of indigenous plant medicine traditions are just what the doctor ordered to help navigate this age's waves of great accelerating transformations. Get the meta-perspective of a paleontologist-futurist and armchair knowledge artist on how both the internet and psychedelics might be modeled well as training for the next stage of our evolution...

Presented at Moogfest (Durham, NC) in May 2016.

Abstract: The modern world was characterized by its division between nature and technology, the mind and body, man and woman, self and other. All of that is set to change as networked digital devices, networked people and communities, and networked cultures and ideas deliver us into a new era in which we conscious of how intimately we are interwoven with each other and the rest of the living world. How can we design machines, architecture, and social systems that honor the organic wisdom of the body, seas, and forest? An inspired trans-disciplinary rap/discussion on how much we'll benefit, replacing the "human being as machine" metaphor that's dominated recent Western history with a different metaphor: "human being as ecology."

Excerpt from an interview I gave to Uplift while on Australia tour in 2017.

Writing

The point of words, it seems, is to point past words – to direct attention to our lived experience, at which point words become unnecessary. Language sometimes functions as a bridge, and sometimes as a wall. The management of boundaries, joining and dividing, is the sacred task of writers. Poetry is magic; story shapes our lives; the power and the mystery of words is real, and serious, and I am grateful to be one of those through whom the words flow freely.

There are many kinds of writers, but my kind of writer is the dot-connecting kind who never rests too long in one perspective, who is constantly revealing underlying unity and celebrating life in all its endless novelty…a writer who can speak past language and reveal you to yourself.

And that's my goal. Our lives are gorgeous, complicated, brief, and perfect. How can I not communicate this beauty?

Re: Science & Futures

My latest writing project is for Humans On The Loop, a grant- and fan-supported exploration of agency in the age of automation. Find all essays and episodes here.

Here are excerpts from How To Live in the Future, my first volume of collected essays about evolutionary dynamics, psychedelic futurism, and how to make your way in our ever-weirder world, in press at Integral Imprint:

• Part 1: The Future is a Place
• Part 2: The Future is More of Everything
• Part 3: The Future is Both True & False
• Part 4: The Future is Exapted/Remixed
• Part 6: The Future is Disgusting
• Part 7: The Future Acts Like You
• Part 8: The Future is Indistinguishable from Magic
• Part 9: The Future Is Noisy

More writing on the above topics for various magazines and blogs:

• 
• Sacred Data – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
• The King Is Dead, Long Live The King: Festivals, Science, and Economies of Scale
• The Evolution of Surveillance
• Improvising Out of Algorithmic Isolation
• We Will Fight Diseases of Our Networks By Realizing We Are Networks
• On Coronavirus, Complex Systems, and Creative Opportunity
• 9 Evolutionary Adaptations We Love – Neo.Life
• Deepfakes and The Archaic Revival – Long Now
• Welcome To The End of Reality: Living in a #DeepFake World
• An Oral History of The End of "Reality"
• Five New Discoveries Offer an Opportunity to Contemplate the Difference Between the Dead and Merely Dormant – Long Now
• Best Seat in the House: Being Every Drone – Body Hacking Conference Blog
• Let's Hack the Microbiome! – Body Hacking Conference Blog
• US Supreme Court Says You're A Cyborg – Body Hacking Conference Blog
• William Irwin Thompson on the Horizons of Planetary Culture – Reality Sandwich
• Global Brains & Singularities: MG & Cadell Last Debate the Technopocalypse – Reality Sandwich
• Copernicus & Goldilocks: Doubting Our Horizons – High Existence
• What We Can Learn From Mass Extinctions – BigThink
• Superfluid Hologram: A Review of the Documentary Film, Internet Rising – Reality Sandwich
• The Sacred Geography of 21st Century Renaissance Civilization – BigThink
• And Now, Faster-Than-Light Culture – Acceler8or
• We Are Something The Planet Is Doing (video)
• A.I, Angels, & Mass Extinctions: A Conversation with William Irwin Thompson – BigThink
• Godhood Is Boring: Thoughts on Radical Life Extension – Spirit of Spider
• Coevolution & The Technology Of Desire – Octa Blog
• Distributed Intelligence & Octopus Smarts – Octa Blog
• Biomimicry & The Design Revolution – Octa Blog
• Atavism: Old is the New 'New' – Octa Blog
• The Symmetry of Cause & Effect – Cause & Effect
• The Psychedelic Transhumanists – H+ Magazine
• The Spooky World of Quantum Biology – H+ Magazine
• Let A Hundred Futures Bloom: A Both/And Survey of Transhumanist Speculation – H+ Magazine
• An Emergent Syntax of Stuff – Octa Blog
• Biomimicry: Breathing New Life Into Design – d/visible Magazine
• Psychoactive Vibes: Light & Sound in Engineering the Spectrum of Consciousness – JFKU
• Integral Time & Causality – JFKU
• The Engine Of Development: Integral Theory & Post-Metaphysical Entelechy – JFKU
• Evolving An Integral Biology – JFKU

Re: Arts & Culture

• Painting While Dancing – I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII
• Ode To A Paradigm Shift – I, II, III, IV, V
• The Field Guide To Live Artists
• Flow Arts in Hyperspace: Sara Huntley on the Future of Creative Performance – SolPurpose
• Decomposing The Shadow: James Jesso on Psilocybin Psychotherapy – SolPurpose
• Painting While Dancing: A Manifesto For Live Art – SolPurpose
• 'Transformational' Festivals Are A Symptom of Dissociation
• Unique Self in the Digital Era: A Conversation with Marc Gafni (audio)
• This Was All Ocean, Once... – Lost In Sound
• Angels, Dragons, & My Live Painting From AURA 2013 – Lost In Sound
• Review – Top Films That Capture The Mystical Experience: The Fountain – Reality Sandwich
• Art As Money: The '2012' Bank Note – Reality Sandwich
• Introducing Denver: Live Art Capitol of America – Kush Magazine
• The Problem – & Promise – of Festivals
• Self As City, City As Self [video w/ transcript]
• Sacred Activism [video w/ transcript]
• Giving In To Astonishment: Scenes From Burning Man's American Dream – Reality Sandwich
• What Is Integral Art? Or, How To Spot An Integral Artist – iggli
• Oh, Irony!: An Ode – Zaadz
• Why I'm No Longer Starving For An Adequate Myth – afterword to Suicide Dictionary

Re: Music & Creative Technology

• Evan “Skytree” Snyder on Atomic Priests and Crystal Synthesizers – Long Now
• Soundtrack To Your Funeral – I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII – Zaadz
• Visionary Instruments – Light Harp, Reactable, Monome, Chapman Stick – Zaadz
• Kishi Bashi on the Past, Present, and Future of Music – Performer Magazine
• Visionary Soundscapes: A Talk with Mystical Sun – Reality Sandwich
• Review – Edly's Music Theory For Practical People – Performer Magazine
• Review – EOTO's Fire The Lazers!!! – Colorado Music Board
• Exaptation of the Guitar – Zaadz
• Luke Redfield's Folk Mysticism & Mystic Folk – Colorado Music Board
• Best Seat In The House: You're Virtually There – H+ Magazine
• The Coming Revolution In Audio Design – d/visible Magazine
• YOU'RE the Musician; YOU Make Some Noise! – Colorado Music Board
• The 3-2-1 of Musical Performance – Colorado Music Board
• Playing The Body Electric – Colorado Music Board
• On The Spiritual Significance of Music – XtremeMusic.org
• Review – Best & Worst New Musical Instruments of the 2000s – H+ Magazine
• Review – Doomstar!'s Colors – Performer Magazine
• The Transhuman Music of Akhentek – H+ Magazine
• A Window Into The Future of Sound – iggli
• R. Luke Dubois' Timelapse Phonography – iggli
• Transcending Possessiveness in Love and Music – iggli
• The Fullness of Emptiness: Riffing on Arvo Pärt – iggli
• The Ear of the Beholder: Tantra & My 'Desert Island' Playlist – iggli
• The Music of Proteins – iggli
• Interview: Scott Johnson of the Positive Music Association – iggli
• Finding The Music In Noise – iggli
• A Joyful Noise: Phil Kline's 'Unsilent Night' – iggli
• What Is Visionary Music? – iggli
• Review – Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid – Cause & Effect
• Review – Lynx's Grain of Sand – Zaadz
• Review – Love Beyond Life: A Review of The Fountain – Zaadz
• Boss RC-50 Loopstation: Flawed But Glorious – Fretbase
• Squiggly Frets Deliver Superior Tone – Fretbase
• Controversy Continues Over Use of Endangered Tonewoods – Fretbase
• Finally! Clock Your Riffs with the 'Shred-O-Meter' – Fretbase
• Phil Keaggy Struts All The Tricks – Fretbase
• Adrian Belew's Out-of-this-world Signature Parker Fly – Fretbase
• No Picks Required For Kevin Eubanks – Fretbase
• Zivix Headliner Might Save An Entire Generation – Fretbase
• Martin Hippie Guitar As Puzzling As It Is Rare – Fretbase
• Will Glass Guitars Improve The Clarity of Your Playing? – Fretbase
• Wonderful Dexterity Training – Fretbase

Text-Only Interviews

• Incision Media (2013)
• Ideamensch (2012)
• Music 4 Change (2010)
• LostInSound (2009)

Podcast Appearances

I may have missed a few...here's an aggregator you can cross-check against this list.

• Voicecraft (2025)
• Philosophy Portal (2025)
• Ordinary Visionaries (2025)
• Show and Tell (2024)
• Infinite Loops (2024)
• The Danny Jones Podcast (2024)
• Realm IQ (2024)
• This Week in Science (2024)
• MediaLab Matadero's Cosmic Brains Roundtables Part 1 & Part 2 (2023)
• Green Pill w/ Gordon Brander (2023)
• The Jim Rutt Show (2023)
• Here We Are 388 (2023)
• The Jim Rutt Show w/ J.F. Martel (2023)
• The KMO Show (2023)
• Parallax w/ Daniel Görtz & Tom Amarque (2023)
• UCSD Gallery QI Panel on Biosphere Dreaming (2023)
• The Psychedelic Entrepreneur (2023)
• SEMFiloquium (2022)
• True North Project (2022)
• Third Eye Drops 309 (2022)
• Making Sense of Complexity (2022)
• On The Edge (2021)x
• Artsy AF (2021)
• Artsy AF (2021)
• The Meta-Podcast (2021)
• Third Eye Drops 274 (2021)
• IdeaMarket (2021)
• 21st Century Vitalism (2021)
• The Quarantine Sessions Podcast (2021)
• Apricot Jam (2021)
• Greater Than Code (2021)
• The NeoJurassic Podcast (2021)
• The Podcast Engineering Show (2021)
• Third Eye Drops 239 (2021)
• The Atlas Project w/ Chris Kutarna (2020)
• Here We Are w/ Shane Mauss (2020)
• Aliens & Artists Part 1 & Part 2 w/ Stuart Davis (2020)
• Talk of Today (2020)
• Plutopia News Network (2020)
• Voices in the Dark (2020)
• Awake Aware Alive (2019)
• Third Eye Drops 158 re: The Gritty Prequel to Destiny (2019)
• The Myths That Make Us (2019)
• Future Tech Podcast (2019)
• Tap Iñ (2019)
• Weird Studies (2018)
• Rainbow Brainskull Hour (2018)
• Plutopia News Network (2018)
• Synchronicity (2018)
• Third Eye Drops 115 w/ Andrew O'Keefe (2018)
• Innerverse (2018)
• Third Eye Drops 102 (2018)
• Here We Are w/ Shane Mauss (2018)
• Mixed Mental Arts w/ Hunter Maats (2018)
• Third Eye Drops 88 re: the Shadow of Visionary Culture & Futurism (2017)
• Third Eye Drops 75 on fractal futures (2017)
• Third Eye Drops 58 re: MAPS & psychedelic futurism (2017)
• The Astral Hustle (2017)
• Chasing Bodhi (2017)
• Third Eye Drops 44 w/ Douglas Rushkoff (2017)
• Synchronicity Podcast (2016)
• The Inner Eye Podcast (2016)
• Future Primitive (2016)
• Third Eye Drops 38 w/ Niles Heckman (2016)
• Third Eye Drops w/ Mitch Schultz & Rick Strassman (2016)
• Third Eye Drops 28 w/ Bruce Damer (2016)
• Third Eye Drops 26 (2016)
• Third Eye Drops 21 w/ Erik Davis (2016)
• Third Eye Drops 9 w/ Shane Mauss (2016)
• Third Eye Drops 4 w/ Erik Davis (2016)
• Lucid Planet (2016)
• Ascend (2016)
• Midwest Real (2015)
• Midwest Real (2015)
• Shane Mauss' Here We Are (2015)
• Novelty Generators (2015)
• New Paradigm Radio (2015)
• Project Bring Me To Life (2015)
• Gaian Radio (2014)
• Rak Razam's In A Perfect World (2014)
• Minds.com Panel Discussion w/ Davis, Doyle, Theise, Mignano (2014)
• Sonic Bloom Festival Trialogue w/ Jonathan Zap & Mark Heley (2013)
• Notes from the Psychedelic Salon (2012)
• Erik Davis' Expanding Minds (2012)
• Erik Davis' Expanding Minds (2011)

Select Talks from "BFF” (Before Future Fossils)

• Rak Razam & Mitch Schultz on Aya Awakenings (2014)
• Complexity, Culture, and Consciousness with Richard Doyle, Erik Davis, Neil Theise, Mitch Mignano, and Bill Ottman (2014)
• William Irwin Thompson on The Horizons of Planetary Culture (2013)
• Richard Doyle on Approaching The Cloud of Unknowing (2013)
• Evan Skytree Snyder on Ecotopian Electronica & Our Cosmic Destiny (2013)
• Ken Adams on 'The Terence McKenna Experience' (2013)
• William Irwin Thompson on A.I., Angels, and Mass Extinctions (2011)
• Laura Faeth on The Healing Power of Art (2009)
• Ken Wilber and Michael Garfield on Integral Art (2008)