OSE Curriculum

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OSE Curriculum

The curriculum in the OSE Future Builders Academy (FBA) apprenticeship and immersion learning programs revolves around Architectures of Civilization, Learning How to Learn, and Learning How to Be a Human.

Architectures of Civilization is like studying the periodic table but for the greater world. We study the entire technosphere as well as human institutions. What are the key working principles of each - and how do we evolve them to more benign forms? This is effectively a study of human evolution as stewards of the planet, and as contributors to an intergalactic order. In practical terms, we start with the core aspects of the technosphere, as embodied in the Global Village Construction Set. This core kernel of technology is responsible for 10% of the entire material economy. We get into the building blocks of these - to understrand how to build civilization like with legos. This includes mechanisms, algorithms, and first priniciples that make the world work - both in nature and technology. We start with housing - as a critical need, global crisis, and a revenue model for production.

Learning How to Learn (LtL) involves awareness of Literacies writ large. There is even learning-to-learn literacy - but awareness of all literacies must be embodied in order to learn 'everything about everything.' Did you know that there are about 100 different key literacies? We will explore and hack each. Our approach is to understand that many previously unheard-of literacies 'are a thing' - and thus you can study it for significant improvement. Metalearning involves starting with the premise of ignorance - becoming aware of the full index of possibilities - and then making disciplined effort to learn the possible literacies. This is a lifelong journey.

Then there are multiple Intelligences, which are aptitudes for learning. But note that one can have a high intelligence in an area, without having developed that intelligence - and thus performing poorly in it. It takes practice. Then there could be people with a high literacy in an area - but poor or avarage intelligence in that area. It just means that they got a lot of practice.

We do not believe in born genius. We believe in genius that is made by practice. One could have a tendency for genius or degeneration - but whether one becomes genius or tart is completely negotiable. Ideally, we develop all intelligences and literacies. There may be people with off the chart performance in one area if they are terrible in another. There is a place for everyone in a world of abundance.

By principles of Neuroplasticity and Neuroplastic Sublimation - intelligence, literacy, and all kind of skill can be developed. Run if you hear somebody say that you can't do something. The question is - do you want to learn it? If you do, you will get better. You can get off the charts - if that is your intent and commitment.

Learning How to Be a Human (LtH) is a subset of learning how to learn. LtH involves the human, social, organizational, psychological, spiritual, civic, and other literacies related more to relations between people rather than relations of people with the technosphere. In the list of Intelligences, number 5,6, 7 and 9 apply heavily to LtH, and in the Literacies list - the elements of LtH are concentrated in items 7-9 and 11.

Skill, aptitute, attitude, mindset, intelligence, and literacy acquisition in our program follow the principles of Integrated Design, Integrated Learning, and Integrated Enterprise - as part of what it means to be an Integrated Human. Our tactical approach revolves around the creation of material, and therefore spiritual - abundance - by means of Extreme Enterprise and Extreme Education, Extreme Design, and Extreme Manufacturing. The goal of our 4 year program is to cultivate an abundance mindset.

Our experiment - the Future Builders Academy - is an experiment in documenting how effectively or quickly genius can be made.

Goals

One goal is deliver of the GVCS at commercial product release level yet open source by 2028 at a $50M budget, followed by opensourcing the entire technosphere by 2032. This in on the timeline of the Singularity, and is a contender to potential negative outcomes. Our risk-mitigation stretegy consists of the Collaborative Singularity: teaching open collaboration techniques for of win-win creativity towards abundance - or prosperity at scale. This is not about technology, but about transforming mindsets into those of abundance.

Rough rollouts on the technology front are shown at Roadmaps. Our Status of Completion is about 30% or 2% depending on whether we are counting product or enterprise release. Our rollout on abundance mindset creation starts with the Future Builders Academy - started in earnest in 2025 with its 4 year apprenticeships and shorter-term programs.

To get there, we are pursuing Collaborative Literacy towards swarm collaboration on the scale of thousands, accompanied by reification on a square mile with population of 10000 as a prototype experimental community of tomorrow. The Future Builders Academy is the prerequisite education program to get there.

Program Structure

  • We run the FBA on 2 month cycles - so to say the quarter system.
  • Each quarter starts with a 2 week Future Builder Crash Course, up to the point that students choose to participate in leadership or other roles in lieu of direct crash course participation.
  • Each quarter continues with house builds, such as in the Hangar to accomodate a number of DIY house builds based on learnings from the Builder Crash Course.
  • Each quarter may include another track, such as building an automated Open Source Skid Steer in November - in a 2 month design sprint that starts in parallel with the Builder Crash Course.
  • Basic student program involves 2 days of work study building products for sale - earning while learning. The Seed Eco-Home is the first product we are building. This dovetails with the Builder Crash Course as a rapid-learning introduction to the overall house build process
  • One day is spent in the Rapid Learning Facility (RLF)- learning from modular education kits, documenting, collaborating, and otherwise building core Collaborative Literacy competency. This helps in skills acquisition for product builds. This day is an open lab, and may include creation, execution, and documentation of earning standards. Apprentices document their skill set over time, creating a build skill burndown over time. This skill data is the basis of pay, and is competency-based - so apprentices can spend as much time as they want practicing skills. The RLF focuses on the build aspects of Architectures of Civilization - where we add additional floors to the RLF for new topic of learning, to create the tower of wisdom. An important aspect of the RLF is transparent documentation of skill sets, the rate of their acquisition, and communicating the rapid learning possibility to the greater world to promote a culture of abundance.
  • The above involved 3 days of full on-site presence, and the 4th day is an intense day which can be accomplished remotely. We pack one full day of online presence for a focused 4 day schedule, where the rest of the week can be used for study, practice, and homework. The 4th day still focuses on global collaboration and acquisition of Collaborative Literacy. The focus is Learning How to Learn, and Learning How to Be a Human. This still revolves around the grand topic of civilization mid-course correction, and the overall campus experience is intended to be an earnest experiment of starting a prototype model community of tomorrow as in Disney's original EPCOT Center mission
  • Graduates will likely be invited to stick around as part of the civilization reboot experiment. As part of an integrated civilization experiment, we are also developing various social security programs including on-site medical facilities, retirement center, hospice, Universal Basic Assets infrastructures, bank, insurance company, and legal services infrastructure, among others.

Tracks

  • There are 3 tracks
  • Builder Track - people who focus on becoming builders. We can hire graduates, with expected starting pay in 4 years being $72k/year pending successful documentation of competency. Builders have the option to practice skills in the Rapid Learning Facility in order to document their competency level and pay. RLF involvement includes collaborative literacy skills in design, build, and documentation - which is approximately 6 credit hours equivalent when combined with on-the-job learning (3 on the job, 3 in the RLF). Builders participate in real production builds, either building modules in a controlled environment or working in the field on real builds. Work days can extend from 2 to 5 days per week. We do not have a minimum age requirement for apprenticeships, which are competency based, but there may be limitations on tool use. The cost of the Builder Track is $5023 per year.
  • The main track - Civilization Designer - is intended for those who do not expect to run larger crews, and involves 12 credit hours of curriculum. Work commitment is 2 days of work-study, and additional time in the RLF (6 credict hours spanning different technology topics). The cost is $15070
  • Enterprise Track - This track involve LtL and LtH in addition to the standard Program Structure above, with the explicit goal of learning to run swarm build crews in production or educational builds. This means extra effort to cultivate leadership and executive enterprise skills. Work-study involves 2 days throughout the duration of the program. The focus is on gaining the leadership skills and multiple literacies required to run 24 person crews. Expected starting pay is $95k/year pending successful documentation of competency. We do not have a minimum age requirement for the Enterprise Track, as we are competency-based - but there may be limitations on tool use. The Work Study counts for 3 credit hours, the RLF work is 3-6 credit hours depending on the amount of time spent practicing with build kits. The LtL and LtH day is 6 hours of class time. The cost of this program, with 12-15 credits hours equivalent - is $20,090.

Civilization Design Requires a Civilization-Scope Learning Method

In order to achieve OSE's mission of creating a collaborative, win-win world - we start with re-imagining what a benign civilization would look like. We keep the big picture in mind, in the sense that the failure to imaging how a civilization should be designed in order to prosper - may be the answer to the Fermi Paradox in that a civilization will exterminate itself due to various bad practices such as stupidity or nuclear annihilation. We don't know, but we sure do not want our current civilization to prove the Fermi Paradox by demonstrating that peak ignorance leads to the extinction of otherwise sentient life.

To design a benign civilization, we must wrap our heads around a vast topic: the physical world, the human technosphere, institutions - literally everything on earth as informed by history and the cosmos. To this end - we study the design of known human enterprise and its institutions - and how they interact with the natural world - of which humans are a part.

Given this topic is of an impossible scope - it's a perfect question to solve. Just how can we understand everything - or how do we understand just enough - so that we can influence the course of civilization in the positive direction? This is an important question, and we take this question seriously.

To gain the most insight, we approach this problem from multiple angles to incentivize broad, multifaceted, rapid learning:

  1. We learn how to build things. And especially physical things. Learning this is perhaps the single most empowering skill that human can gain. Humans have exceeded all other animals in their ability to shape the environment to their will, through the use of tools. Gaining this skill provides immense insight into not only how things work, but also to affecting how things work - to deliver the agency that constitutes one of humanity's most compelling needs and features.
  2. We learn how to design things. Of a wide scope, from the technosphere, to terraforming, to institutions. If we want to build things, we need to understand how to design them.
  3. We learn how to solve problems, to think, and to form accurate mental models of reality.
  4. We learn how to learn. This is a topic I wish I learned in school.
  5. We learn by teaching. This is even more powerful than immersion, hands-on learning.
  6. We learn How to Be a Human
  7. We use an Integrated Learning Method.
  8. We appreciate complexity and emergent phenomena. Everything is connected to everything else, and the only constant is change. Integration leads to emergence, leads to transcendence of problems, leads to sublimation.
  9. Multilevel Learning - flat teams without glass ceilings, marked by humility of team members
  10. Multiple Intelligence Learning - present information in a way that can be understood in by people of different cognitive strengths/types or learning styles. See Multiple Intelligence
  11. Stoic Learning - in the sense that you willfully put yourself in difficult situations in order to learn from them. In other cases, necessity is the mother of all invention. It is a necessity-motivated version of problem-based learning. This has to do with developing Antifragility
  12. Service Learning - by serving other humans, you can build character. This happens during summer vacations and spring break trips.
  13. Enterprise Learning - working mostly on the economic enterprise aspect, a strong motivator for financial independence.
  14. Rapid Learning Facility
  15. Alpha Experimental Pad - the experimental area. Multipurpose space for learning where apprentices can take initiative on design-builds, with materials provided. Wild activity is encouraged, limited only by strict requirements for design, documentation, and skillset of those taking initiative. Certification of skillset is a prerequisite. Permission
  16. Competency-Based Learning - our curriculum is designed for a 4 year learning period, but can be done faster in case of exceptional individuals or those with significant skill sets. This is related to competency-based pay for work-study - where as soon as individuals document competency, their pay scale rises. We start everyone at minimum pay, but rise to professional grade pay - in a time period determined only by documented performance documentation which includes photos and time-lapse video of tasks and related quality control measures. Students will contribute to definining these tests, and will set standards for them. Because

OSE Curriculum#Graduation Standards

OSE Curriculum#Service Learning

Every year, we plan a service trip to a select location worldwide, to tackle an important issue of human progress. We teach character by service learning.

2024 - Executive Summary

The goal of the OSE curriculum is to motivate rapid learning by the goal of solving pressing world issues - and enable legions to increase their intelligence and solve problems faster than they are created. Such as war and peace, degeneration and prosperity, right down to the grand question of good vs evil.

The OSE approach covers the personal and political; all the sectors of civilization; a creative approach; the rigor of unlimited possibility, transcendence, and abundance; Integrated Design-Education-Enterprise; a comprehensive appraoch as in survey materials to learn something about everything; teleology of solving world issues; design-build techniques; admissible lists (curated content).

Topics Included in the Seed Eco-Home Enterprise - 2024

Classes

These classes may fall into any of the main topics above. The first 4 years include the 100 level, graduate work is at the 200 level, and the post-graduate work is at the 300 level course numbers. Mastery of the 300 level involves undisputable immortal powers of creation.

Labs

2 days of the week, we study and practice the build. Each day involves studying the design, and practicing in the Rapid Learning Facility or in the field.

Broad Topics

Links

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