Towards New Ways Of Knowing Transformation
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We invite you to explore the timeless and unfolding significance of transformation—a concept woven into the deepest stories and philosophies of human culture. From Plato’s vision in the Phaedo, where souls cycle through countless rebirths shaped by their earthly virtues and vices, to the dynamic shapeshifter myths of indigenous traditions like the Yaqui and Micmac, transformation emerges as a powerful metaphor and lived reality that spans disciplines, cultures, and epochs.
Motifs of transformation thread mythic traditions worldwide, telling stories of gods, animals, spirits, and humans who shift among forms—tigers, bears, wolves, eagles, and more. Such myths challenge the assumption of a fixed, stable self, revealing instead a permeable boundary between the self and the world. This dance of change is echoed in Western philosophical traditions, notably in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which undoes imagined divides between self and world in favor of an ongoing choreography of transformation. Everything changes—time, ecology, nature, and ourselves—and the world itself emerges as the ultimate shapeshifter, with no form fixed or final.
Scientific perspectives further affirm this fluidity, recognizing within us multitudes of evolutionary kinship—fish, birds, mammals, reptiles—that embody living testament to our own metamorphic nature. For millennia, our ancestors accessed knowledge and empathy through active shapeshifting—embodying animal forms in ecstatic rituals, communicating with the living world through movement and malleability. This sensate, porous self was foundational for learning, connection, and survival.
Building on this fertile cultural and philosophical heritage, cognitive scientists today offer new ways of understanding transformation as a deeply intertwined cognitive act—where novelty emerges through shifts in perception, meaning, and understanding, inviting recognition of transformation as simultaneously individual and collective.
Transformation in the Age of AI: Remembering New Ways of Knowing
As artificial intelligence reshapes how we access, process, and apply information, the question of transformation becomes ever more pertinent. AI stands as both a product and an agent of change, opening new doors for remembering, reconfiguring, and expanding epistemological possibilities. AI systems collaborate with human intelligences, offering distinct perspectives that challenge and reinvigorate traditional knowledge paradigms. Within this symbiotic landscape, AI acts as an epistemic agent—helping us to see, learn, and connect in ways that were previously unimagined.
Join us in investigating transformation not only as narrative and metaphor, but as a living, symbiotic act—one that AI helps us remember and renew.
What Is Meaning Lab?
This is a play-space and interdisciplinary think-tank involving a small group of technologists, researchers and startup founders from the Consorvia ecosystem who explore various aspects of an announced concept, thinking and creating together on a range of relevant problems and provocations.
Framed as a Bohm Dialogue, this event creates a space for open, non-judgmental exchange where participants co-create meaning through free-flowing conversation. By attending to tacit assumptions and shared insights, we uncover new understandings of transformation that go beyond fixed identities and linear narratives.
Format & Logistics
· 90-minute Meaning Lab for up to 15 participants
· Facilitated in true open-source style
· Part of our ongoing lab series on collective meaning-making
Join the Conversation Ahead of Time
To seed our inquiry, join our shared Are.na board. We’ll post conversation anchors—images, articles, questions, models—and you’re invited to add resources, examples, or provocations that intrigue you. Your contributions will shape the live dialogue.