The Multiverse School · Pathway edition📊 The AI CitizenOne of nine paths
Next in this pathSaturday 29 AugustThe Interactive Fiction Intensive, live
For people who want to know whether it is actually true
Somebody is going to hand you a number that is true and still wrong.
This is a liberal-arts education rebuilt around AI, organized around one stubborn habit:
go and look at where the claim came from. You will take somebody else's chart apart in
public and not get it wrong yourself — and then build one of your own you can defend when
somebody does the same to you.
Four classes, all of them live, and all four already on the calendar.
34 capabilities the school will name for you, one at a time.
38 pieces of working software you keep, 2 of them guided from
a blank page to a finished thing.
All four sit behind one door, and there are two keys to it.
$250 a month for the recordings and the written curriculum, at
whatever hour you actually have;
$500 a month for the same thing plus a seat in every class
here that runs this month.
Both renew monthly and you can cancel any time.
What you leave able to do
Locate a claim in its primary source
Produce an explanation that survives a hostile reading
Falsify a blended voice by looking for its sources
Measure whether an explanation changed what people did
Four of the 34 capabilities on this path, in the school's own words. You are
taught all 34; the full list is printed further down this page.
Every one of these runs live · all of them included
Saturday29 AugThe Interactive Fiction Intensive
Friday11 SepCritical Thinking and Creativity with AI
Monday14 SepData Activism: Turn Data Into Power
Saturday19 SepPractical Propaganda
In betweenEvery weekResearch & Activism and Mutual Aid Hour — the standing hours where
your own work gets read by people who will argue with it.
The data desk · interactive
How a true number gets spun
Press one of the three buttons. The table underneath does not move and nobody falsifies
anything — every headline it produces is arithmetically correct — and the story changes
completely anyway. Ten years, two districts, invented for teaching. It is a pocket-sized
version of the workbench you work in during Data Activism.
Start here — press one
Or make the choices yourself
District
Measure
Y axis
Years shown
Baseline (% only)
The illustrative gazette · district safety desk
Incidents in Northgate more than double since 2020
Every word of that is true.
The axis starts at 174, not zero. On screen the 2025 mark stands 17.7× as tall as the
2020 mark. In the data it is 2.4× as large. It also pins 2020 to the floor of the chart,
so 190 incidents reads as nothing at all. You are looking at 6 of the 10 years in the
table.
What the whole table contains: between 2016 and 2025 Northgate went from 412
incidents to 462, while its population went from 84,000 to 121,000. Per 1,000 residents
that is 4.90 → 3.82. The count went up. The rate went down.
Illustrative dataset — invented for teaching
Reported incidents and resident population, two neighboring districts, 2016–2025.
These are not real districts and not real figures. Every headline above is computed
from exactly these rows.
Year
Northgate incidents
Northgate residents
Riverside incidents
Riverside residents
2016
412
84,000
168
62,000
2017
398
88,200
175
62,300
2018
421
92,600
171
62,600
2019
405
97,300
190
62,900
2020
190
101,900
96
63,100
2021
268
106,400
128
63,400
2022
341
110,700
158
63,700
2023
402
114,600
176
64,000
2024
447
118,000
190
64,300
2025
462
121,000
214
64,500
The trick is not that somebody lied. The trick is that four defensible choices —
which years, which denominator, which baseline, where the axis starts — each licenses a
different true sentence, and only one of them is the one you would have written if you had
no stake in the answer.
Data Activism: Turn Data Into Power — live on
Monday 14 September — teaches you to run this in reverse
on somebody else's chart, and then to build one of your own that holds up when they run it on
you. It hands you the full campaign workbench — claim, to evidence, to the ask you make of
somebody — and a method picker that makes you choose the method before you choose the
picture. The capability behind all of it has a name:
locate a claim in its primary source.
What you take, and what each one leaves you able to do
Four classes, and each one hands the next a sharper reader: you start on style and voice, you
build persuasion yourself so you can see it coming, you learn to check it against the source,
and you finish by building a machine that stress-tests your own logic. This is the order they
are best taken in; the dates are the order they come round in, and you can walk into whichever
one lands first.
01
Next sittingFri 11 Sep
Critical Thinking and Creativity with AI
17 capabilities
21 exercises
10 recordings · 22.4h
2 apps you keep
live
≈29.6h of work
$100 on its own
Where the reading habits get built. You work on style, voice and the gap between what an
institution says it values and what it actually optimizes for — then you make something and
have to say out loud which parts of it are defensibly yours.
Leaves you able to
construct a multi agent conversation with turn taking · system-construction
falsify a blended voice by looking for its sources · distribution-and-influence
characterise a plans weaknesses with adversarial review · evidence-and-verification
characterise what of a generated artifact you can defend as yours · interaction-and-interface
characterise how a style works on a reader · distribution-and-influence
parameterise an agent persona · model-behavior
plus 11 more this class teaches by name, all of them indexed below
2 pieces of software come with it
CompanionThe critical thinking companion — sits beside the class and keeps you working on your own piece rather than the example
ReferenceStory arc braids — the shapes a long piece can take, so you can name the one you are writing
02
Next sittingSat 19 Sep
Practical Propaganda
5 capabilities
21 exercises
18 apps you keep
live
≈7.2h of work
$100 on its own
How persuasion is engineered, taught by making you engineer some. Name an audience and what
would count as success for it, build the campaign, then watch the claim degrade as it gets
retold by people who did not read it. You come out able to spot the same machinery running
on you.
Leaves you able to
design a channel that reaches people who are not looking for you · distribution-and-influence
measure whether an explanation changed what people did · distribution-and-influence
characterise how a claim degrades as it is retold · distribution-and-influence
produce an explanation that survives a hostile reading · distribution-and-influence
name an audience and its success criterion · audience-and-market
18 pieces of software come with it
Guided appThe propaganda bench — walks a whole campaign end to end: audience, claim, fuel, channel, measurement
ReferenceActivist security — what to lock down before you put your name on a campaign
DecksThe fuel hierarchy, the persona stack, the platform ecosystem, cross-aisle reframing, octalysis, campaign flow — the mechanics of a campaign, one idea per deck, in English and in Spanish
03
Next sittingMon 14 Sep
Data Activism: Turn Data Into Power
5 capabilities
25 exercises
11 apps you keep
live
≈8.2h of work
$300 on its own
The class this whole path leans on. A dataset and a grievance go in; something that moves
people comes out. You run a model's analysis against a hand check, write an explanation
built to survive a hostile reading, and — the habit that outlives the class — go and find
the primary source before you repeat the claim.
Leaves you able to
measure whether an explanation changed what people did · distribution-and-influence
produce an explanation that survives a hostile reading · distribution-and-influence
run a model analysis against a hand check · data-shaping
locate a claim in its primary source · evidence-and-verification
name an audience and its success criterion · audience-and-market
11 pieces of software come with it
Guided appThe campaign workbench — takes you from a claim, to the evidence for it, to the ask you make of somebody
ToolThe method picker — makes you choose the method before you choose the picture
CompanionThe data activism companion — the class in your hands while you work your own dataset
DecksThe numbers game, the rule of one, the scoping funnel, the three paths, the coalition map, the escalation ladder, the analysis workflow, the method selection map — each one a single move you can run on a real campaign
04
Next sittingSat 29 Aug
The Interactive Fiction Intensive
12 capabilities
15 exercises
7 apps you keep
live
≈5.8h of work
$200 on its own
A critical-thinking class wearing a craft class's clothes. Branching stories are a machine
for stress-testing your own logic: you find out what your program does on the paths you did
not plan for, and you have to decide, shape by shape, where a model may fill something in
and where it must not be the one choosing.
Leaves you able to
characterise how your program behaves on paths you did not plan for · system-construction
generalise a worked example into something you reuse · system-construction
parameterise an agent persona · model-behavior
classify where ai can fill a shape and where it must not choose one · interaction-and-interface
operate a recorded decision so a later branch depends on it · system-construction
operate concurrent strands that surface at the right time · system-construction
plus 6 more this class teaches by name, all of them indexed below
7 pieces of software come with it
WorkbookThe intensive workbook — the studio day in written form, so the work survives the day
CompanionThe interactive fiction companion — holds your state, your branches and your open questions while you build
ReferenceThe Ink shape catalog and the shape composition guide — the branching shapes, and what happens when you stack them
ToolsThe vibe authoring toolkit, the story reflection journal, the story structure atlas — drafting, reviewing and mapping what you made
Editor's note
The day you spend writing a story is the hardest thinking on this path
A branching story is a formal system you have to hold in your head, and the Interactive
Fiction Intensive exists to break yours on purpose: what does your logic do on the paths you
did not plan for, what happens when two strands surface at once, where does a decision you
recorded an hour ago stop mattering.
It is also the one place on this path where you answer the AI question by hand instead of
arguing about it. One of its capabilities is literally
classify where AI can fill a shape and where it must not
choose one. Here you make that call shape by shape, then play the result and see
what your call did to a reader.
It runs as one all-day studio, and you leave with the workbook, the shape catalog and a
story other people can play.
The ledger
Everything that comes with it
Every figure here is measured off the curriculum rather than estimated. Four classes carry all
of this between them, which is what makes the path dense rather than long.
4Live classes, every one dated
38Pieces of software you keep using
22.4Hours of recorded class as well
82Exercises on your own material
2Ways in — the material, or the material and the room
The room
Included with Live classes: every class on this path that runs in
the month you are paying for, and the four are open again the next time they come round.
The recordings and the written curriculum come either way.
Software you keep
38 pieces across the four classes, 2 of
them guided from a blank page to a finished thing: the campaign workbench and the
propaganda bench. Data Activism alone hands you eleven, including the coalition map, the
numbers game, the rule of one, the scoping funnel, the three paths, the analysis workflow,
the escalation ladder, the method selection map and the method picker.
The live hours
The Research & Activism hour, led by Thomas, and the weekly
Mutual Aid Hour, led by Megs. They keep running as long as you are here, and they
are where your own work gets read by people who will argue with it.
Exercises
82 across the path, the biggest single block being
Data Activism's 25.
Recorded class
22.4 hours in 10 sittings of Critical
Thinking and Creativity with AI, yours to work through on your own schedule and to go back
to when a piece of your own stalls.
Two languages
The Practical Propaganda decks — the fuel hierarchy, the persona stack, the
platform ecosystem, cross-aisle reframing — run in English and in Spanish, so a
campaign you build here can be handed to people who work in either.
Total work
About 51 hours end to end with your name on it: the
recordings, plus the exercises at a quarter of an hour each, plus the live hours.
The hardest of it
The two things this path asks that nothing else on it prepares you for:
design a channel that reaches people who are not looking for you, and
construct a multi-agent conversation with turn taking. Both are taught by name, and
both are worked in a room where somebody will argue with what you produce.
Subscriptions · two editions
Read it on your own time, or be in the room while it happens
Both cover this path and nothing but this path: the same four classes, the same
34 capabilities, the same 38 pieces of software. What separates them
is whether you are in the room on the day.
Recordings
$250a month
22.4 hours of recorded class
The written curriculum for all 4
38 pieces of software and 82 exercises on your own material
Both renew monthly and can be cancelled any time. A class you complete stays yours after the
subscription stops.
Single classes here run from $100 to
$300 on their own.
The index · 34 capabilities
All 34 capabilities, by name
Roughly in the order they get harder, easiest first. These are the school's own capability
names rather than marketing copy written afterwards — the same strings your work is assessed
against, so you can read every one of them before you spend anything.
→locate a claim in its primary sourceevidence-and-verification
→name an audience and its success criterionaudience-and-market
→locate the devices a passage uses on youdistribution-and-influence
→run a model analysis against a hand checkdata-shaping
→produce a playable story from a running skeletoninteraction-and-interface
→operate a model as a first pass editormodel-behavior
→produce a reusable system promptmodel-behavior
→segment text into tokens and cost itmodel-behavior
→produce an explanation that survives a hostile readingdistribution-and-influence
→produce combinations that clash on purposeinteraction-and-interface
→produce a rubric a model can applyevidence-and-verification
→configure an assistants memory and outside connectionsinteraction-and-interface
→operate state so a branching story neither explodes nor railsinteraction-and-interface
→operate named states instead of magic numberssystem-construction
→transform a linear story into chained diamondsinteraction-and-interface
→operate a recorded decision so a later branch depends on itsystem-construction
→produce a function whose result depends on program statesystem-construction
→elicit output from a modelmodel-behavior
→publish a story to a public shelf and get it playeddistribution-and-influence
→produce an account of the gap between ideals and operating valuesalignment
→operate concurrent strands that surface at the right timesystem-construction
→characterise how a style works on a readerdistribution-and-influence
→generalise a worked example into something you reusesystem-construction
→characterise a plans weaknesses with adversarial reviewevidence-and-verification
→generalise a reasoning prompt patternmodel-behavior
→characterise how a claim degrades as it is retolddistribution-and-influence
→parameterise an agent personamodel-behavior
→classify where ai can fill a shape and where it must not choose oneinteraction-and-interface
→characterise what of a generated artifact you can defend as yoursinteraction-and-interface
→characterise how your program behaves on paths you did not plan forsystem-construction
→falsify a blended voice by looking for its sourcesdistribution-and-influence
→measure whether an explanation changed what people diddistribution-and-influence
→construct a multi agent conversation with turn takingsystem-construction
→design a channel that reaches people who are not looking for youdistribution-and-influence
Highlighted: the one that defines the persona. Taught in Data Activism, and again in
Critical Thinking and Creativity with AI.
Disqualification
Who this is not for
Two people read this page, decide it is them, and are wrong. Here is how to tell.
You want to build the systems
If the interesting part of the chart above was "how would I write the thing that draws
it", you want the engineering sequence, not the citizenship one. This path teaches you to
interrogate a system; that one teaches you to ship one.
You want to run the campaign, not check the numbers
There is real overlap — Practical Propaganda and the Research & Activism hour serve
both — but if your instinct is to launch the thing and see what it does to people rather
than to go and verify what it claims, you will be happier one path over.
The Interactive Fiction Intensive is the one that comes round first. Then
Critical Thinking and Creativity with AI on 11 September, Data Activism: Turn Data Into Power on 14 September and Practical Propaganda on 19 September.
$250 a
month gets you the recordings, the written curriculum, all 38
apps and the exercises. $500 gets you all of that and
the seat: every class on this path that runs while you are paying, plus the recurring
hours.