Life Itself

Pragmatic utopians. We’re committed to practical action for a radically wiser, weller world.

Despite our wealth and technologies, we are struggling at both a personal and collective levels. Personally, we are are not truly happy, satisfied and at peace; collectively we are failing to act powerfully on issues ranging from climate change to health. We believe the roots of both of these lie in our culture – which is grounded in materialism, technology and individualism – and thus a breakthro

ugh requires a transformation in culture: the views, values, beliefs, practices that underlie our collective way of being.

28/05/2026

Who is asking the same questions?

If you've found your way to this page, chances are someone in your life is asking the same questions you are.

About what's actually going on. About what a different kind of future looks like. About how to live with integrity in a world that makes it very hard.

Send them this. We're building a community of people who take these questions seriously — and still manage to cook dinner together.

25/05/2026

We cannot become alone.

At the Life Itself Riverside Hub, this isn't a philosophy. It's something you live — in the rhythm of shared meals, morning practices, difficult conversations, and the quiet joy of doing things together.

We call it Praxis Ecology — a way of organising community life so that the living itself becomes the practice. Not a retreat from the world, but a different way of being in it. Together.

Inspired by Donna Haraway's idea of sympoiesis — making together — the Hub is a space where identity isn't fixed and private, but fluid and relational. Where everything you come into contact with reshapes you. Where the porosity to others that modern life teaches us to guard against becomes, instead, a source of depth.

People who've spent time here describe it as: learning to find peace in discomfort. Meeting people truly. A different sense of self. The joy of togetherness. Entering an organic reality.

This September, we're running a course for people who want to bring this home — to design their own conscious communities. Not just the values, but the actual practices. A sense-making structure for weaving values and daily life together.

Dates coming soon. Follow us to stay informed.

23/05/2026

Something we've been making is almost ready.

The second issue of Second Renaissance Magazine is called MYTHOS.

Myth is the symbolic architecture through which a culture understands who it is, what matters, and what is sacred.

The myths we inherited are fraying. And something new is trying to take shape.

MYTHOS gathers artists, writers, thinkers, and seekers exploring exactly that. What stories are we ready to leave behind? Which ones are ready to be born? And what does it feel like — in the body, in the work, in a life — to be living at this threshold?

Featuring essays, visual art, poetry, and intimate reflections from contributors like (photo credit).

Subscribe now — link in bio.

secondrenaissance.net/magazine

21/05/2026

What must be released for the unborn future to be born?

Sit with this today. You don't need to answer it. Sometimes the question itself does something.

18/05/2026

There's something many of us carry quietly.

A sense that the world is asking something of us that we haven't quite heard yet. That the ground under the old certainties is softer than it used to be. That something is ending — and something else is trembling at the edge of being born.

You might not have language for it. You might feel it most in the quiet moments, or the unexpected ones. A piece of music that breaks something open. A conversation that goes somewhere real. A piece of art that recognises you.

This is the edge we work from.

What do you sense that you can't yet name?

(You don't need to answer here. But it might be worth sitting with today.)

17/05/2026

Bringing artists, scientists, and philosophers into the same room.

Xavier Snelgrove talks about his new project Orbital Studies Magazine:
https://orbitalstudies.com/

Listen to the full podcast discussion about Xavier's journey in the tech industry, the stories we're told about innovation, and whether AI really is nearing a state of consciousness similar to humans':
https://overthemountains.substack.com/

16/05/2026

Mirrored on Buddhist philosophy, the Four Noble Beliefs of the Second Renaissance are the premisesat the heart of our work:

Real Risk — the interconnected ecological, political, social, and meaning crises of our time represent a genuine risk to civilisation, not a temporary rough patch.

Root Cause — the root of these crises lies in the cultural paradigm of Modernity: the worldviews and values that have shaped Western societies for 400 years, now running amok.

Radical Response — we cannot solve these crises with the same logic that created them. We need shifts that go to the roots: in how we think, feel, relate, and act.

Real Possibility — paradigm-level transformation has happened before in human history. It is possible. And it is already beginning.

This is the intellectual foundation of everything we do at Life Itself and Second Renaissance.

Read the full introduction: news.secondrenaissance.net/p/second-renaissance-a-very-short-introduction

13/05/2026

When someone tells you what AI will be in five years, remember that person doesn’t know.

We spoke to AI expert Xavier Snelgrove from about the future of innovation.

Listen to the full discussion on the Over The Mountains Substack (link in bio):
https://overthemountains.substack.com/

12/05/2026

A hilltop in Somerset. Midsummer. Twenty people. Five days.

This June, we're gathering at Roundhill Barn near Bath — a hilltop on the Cotswold Way between Bath and Bristol, with views across Somerset that feel like they belong to another century.

17–21 June 2026 · Kelston, Bath

What happens there? Open Space conversations on the things that matter. Walks along the ridge. A visit to the neighbouring cheese farm. And on Saturday evening — a ceilidh, a shared meal, live music.

Saturday's celebration is open to a wider circle. The rest is for the Life Itself community — past Hub residents, collaborators, newcomers who feel curious.

About 20 people. Families welcome.

Places are limited. Register: https://lifeitself.org/gatherings/2026-uk

12/05/2026

Myth is not the opposite of truth.
It's truth's oldest language.

Coming soon.
secondrenaissance.net/magazine

10/05/2026

Does consciousness emerge from computation?

Our new podcast episode coming out tomorrow is a discussion with tech and AI expert Xavier Snelgrove about the tech industry and the stories we're told about AI, as well as his explanation of why AI is not conscious.

Subscribe to the Over The Mountains substack to receive the full episode:
https://overthemountains.substack.com/

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