Kei Kreutler

Newsletter at keikreutler.substack.com 🗝


My work explores how cultural narratives of technology shape what worlds we can build.

Writing

My writing connects historical research with emerging technologies. I’ve written on internet native organizations, identity, and governance, as well as fiction. I share when I publish writing on my newsletter, and some selected non-fiction essays are below.


Artificial Memory and Orienting Infinity, 2024
A Prehistory of DAOs: Cooperatives, gaming guilds, and the networks to come, 2021
Inventories, Not Identities: Why multisigs are the future of online accounts, 2021
The Byzantine Generalization Problem: Subtle strategy in the context of blockchain governance, 2018

Research

My research centers on philosophy of technology, and recent fellowship work explored the concept of memory in relation to protocols, in particular, how the concept of memory changed with the advent of computing.1 This came together in my upcoming book Artificial Memory, which will be announced in more detail soon.

Some things about me

I grew up in the northeastern United States, and for the last ten years, I lived in Europe. From 2017 to 2022 in Berlin, Germany, I worked at Gnosis, building decentralized software infrastructure. While there, I co-created Gnosis Guild, a small team that established an open standard to support composable, modular software for organizations.2 In 2023, I participated as a Core Researcher in the Summer of Protocols program.3


At present, I'm working on a mountainside land regeneration project involving mutualism, wilderness, and wellness traditions in the northeastern United States. I also advise organizations, contribute to Other Internet Research Institute, and sit on the Board of Regen Foundation.4, 5, 6 Write to contact@keikreutler.net to get in touch.


When I’m away, you’ll often find me hiking Franconia Ridge or the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with family.



“If men were able to be convinced that art is precise advance knowledge of how to cope with the psychic and social consequences of the next technology, would they all become artists? Or would they begin a careful translation of new art forms into social navigation charts? I am curious to know what would happen if art were suddenly seen for what it is, namely, exact information of how to rearrange one’s psyche in order to anticipate the next blow from our own extended faculties.” Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, 1964