The Zurich Institute envisions a high-agency society with the knowledge and technology to pursue prosperity, meaning, and abundance.

PredictProjectProvoke

In building mode. First essays, a gathering in Zurich, and a few provocations are on the way.

The six founders standing together on a viewing platform above the Limmat river in Zurich, under a cloudy sky.
The founders, Zurich.

A provocation

Can a community of thousands hold real agency without central control?

Writing

  1. theory

    When Scarcity Inverts

    Property, Agency, and the Post-Scarcity Economy

    Intellectual property was a machine for manufacturing scarcity. As AI and robotics collapse the cost of production, the scarce thing becomes the human power to choose, and it needs a new kind of protection.

    Brandon S. Byers · 14 August 2026 · Version 4 · Working draft · 25 min read

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