REL 296 / REL 396 · Learning Studio
AI and the Making of Metaphysics
Vibe Coding the World You Want to Live In
We are living through a Value Crisis for the human. Never before has humanity been closer to the concepts we once called God, Heaven, Immortality, and Transcendence — and never before have the activities we thought made us valuable (writing, summarizing, analyzing, reasoning) been so thoroughly absorbed into machines. This seminar answers that crisis in two voices at once.
In one voice, it is an academic metaphysics course that reads projection theories of religion (Feuerbach, Freud, Niebuhr), philosophies of technology (Benjamin, Arendt, Heidegger, Foucault), contemporary AI thought (Kurzweil, Fei-Fei Li, Singler, Yudkowsky, O'Neil), and the current technical ground floor (the Attention Is All You Need paper; Russell & Norvig; the transformer).
In the other voice, it is a "build a business in a box" venture studio. You will not write a final paper. Working solo or in a small group of up to four, you will ship a real product or service to real users by the end of the term. The metaphysics readings are not obstacles between you and the build — they are the guideposts and motivation that keep your venture from becoming a forgettable app.
What you leave with
The Intellectual Stack
Twelve primary thinkers and frameworks named in the syllabus spine:
- Ludwig Feuerbach
- Sigmund Freud
- H. Richard Niebuhr
- Walter Benjamin
- Hannah Arendt
- Martin Heidegger
- Michel Foucault
- Ray Kurzweil
- Fei-Fei Li
- Beth Singler
- Eliezer Yudkowsky
- Cathy O'Neil
Plus technical grounding (Russell & Norvig; Vaswani et al., "Attention Is All You Need").
The Venture Build
Four Benchmark Gates (B1–B4) paired with graded Office Visits, a shipped product or service by term end, customer discovery at scale, MVP scope freeze, traction proof, and launch readiness — per the syllabus assessment model (module completion + benchmarks + visits + final pitch).
The Agent Roster
Fourteen specialized agents — one per module — from Syllabus Reader through Pitch Coach + Slidedeck Generator. Each performs real venture work while you preserve human judgment as the accountable layer.
Mindfulness preview
Each module opens with a 3-minute grounding practice, drawn from That's Deep — student-authored mindfulness assignments with audio hosted externally.
Open mindfulness audio hub →Fourteen modules
| # | Short title | Agent | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 🔥 | The God in the Server Room: The Value Crisis | #1 Syllabus Reader |
| 02 | 🪞 | Feuerbach's Blueprint: Theology Is Anthropology | #2 Feuerbach Auditor |
| 03 | 💡 | Attention Is All You Need: Tool Stack, Transformer Literacy, Six Hats | #3 Hat-Switcher |
| 04 | 🌱 | Customer Discovery Sprint + LinkedIn Foundation → B1 | #4 Scalable Customer-Discovery Coach |
| 05 | 🚀 | Technological Optimism as a Metaphysics of Salvation | #5 Optimism Auditor |
| 06 | 🕊️ | The Sacred Canopy of Markets + The Brand Guardian | #6 Brand Guardian |
| 07 | 🎯 | Venture Concept v1 + Positioning → B2 | #7 Aha-Moment Distiller |
| 08 | 🧠 | Belief, Trust, and Adoption: Freud + Niebuhr | #8 Ultimate-Concern Interviewer |
| 09 | ✨ | Aura, Scale, and Social Proof: Benjamin in the Age of the Bot | #9 Credibility Editor |
| 10 | 🏗️ | The Human Condition + MVP Prototyping (Fullstack-Developer Agent) | #10 Fullstack Developer |
| 11 | 🛡️ | Technologies of the Self + The Question Concerning Technology → B3 | #11 Ethics Auditor |
| 12 | 🌿 | Founder Formation: Fei-Fei Li's Worlds | #12 Founder's Sparring Partner |
| 13 | ⚠️ | Risk Translation: Yudkowsky + O'Neil | #13 Risk Translator |
| 14 | 🌟 | Launch Readiness + Final Pitch + Career Narrative → B4 | #14 Pitch Coach + Slidedeck Generator |
ProvenanceAI Tracking System
This course uses the ProvenanceAI Tracking System to help you see how your AI use develops across the term. Installation link and instructions are provided in Module 1.