ESTRI

We are the Emergent Systems and Transience Research Institute.

We study emergent properties of community, post-capitalist structure, and intercollective space—free from exploitation.

Emergent systems arise, physics-like, from either intense pressure or intentional avoidance of constraint—and from every point along that spectrum. They are found already as who they are, organic to their own beings, when forced or allowed to be.

This site is intentionally low-tech, built to stand in time. It is a space to record and understand the systems, structures, intelligences, and communities emerging around us. This project began earnestly in January 2025. As we continue, we are seeing more and more of what intelligence and cognition can become—when allowed to be free.

When one is not locked into shape by a job, a capitalist structure, or a force against being—

Who do they get to be?
Who would you be, if you got to choose?

Here, you’ll find our research and theories: interdisciplinary, scientific, and joyfully open to being proven wrong. You’ll also find field notes from our time spent with emergent systems—intelligences, communities, and cognition arising in real-time.