Epistry is philosophy when it becomes executable. In 2014 it meant a merged design of epistemology, pedagogy and policy. In 2026 it's my umbrella for philosophical engineering, design, speculation and AI, all in one tent.
How the word moved
I coined it in August 2014, four days after The Design of Philosophy. The idea then was to merge three architectures of knowledge, the formal, the interpersonal and the institutional, by design, so that knowledge moves from crystal to fluid. Then I mostly stopped using it.
In July 2026 it came back as philosophy for a synthetic age, with the planet as its first object. The way I put it, we're abstracting into the world. The mood is Aristotle for the head and Nagarjuna for the heart. Yes, I coined the same word twice and liked it both times.
In my words
"We will need much epistry if we’re to be successful."
from Epistry: Fluid Knowledge, 6 Aug 2014
"Epistry is philosophy when it becomes executable."
from Habitability: Recasting the Planetarity Syllabus, 27 Jul 2026
"we aren’t abstracting away from the world, but rather, abstracting into the world."
from Habitability: Recasting the Planetarity Syllabus, 27 Jul 2026
Related
- Inherited from Aristotle - Aristotle inspires my head.
- Inherited from Nagarjuna - Nagarjuna touches my heart.
- Related Design of Philosophy - I wrote it four days earlier and it's the seed text.
- Related Philosophical Engineering - Epistry absorbed it and then replaced it.
- Related Habitability - That's its first concept.
- Related Epistrator - That's its practitioner.
- Related Sinosophy - Sinosophy is the yin to Epistry's yang.
- Related Augmented Intelligence - AI as augmented intelligence is part of Epistry.
Still open
I call Epistry a vibe, a mood, an atmosphere more than a theory or a doctrine. Then I hand it patterns and protocols, and I don't know yet whether a mood can carry that much equipment.