About the Foundation

A research foundation that measures relational value and builds cognitive sovereignty infrastructure.

Mission

The Economy of Wisdom Foundation exists to measure what economies actually produce in human terms. We publish working papers on relational value and AI alignment, conduct community-grounded fieldwork in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, and build immutable-ledger infrastructure that protects authorship and likeness for populations the existing systems erase.

The Work

• Three papers. Transmutarianism v19 (theoretical framework), Whose Values Train AI? (empirical findings from 51 DTES interviews), and Synthetic Voices Erase Human Texture (LLM role-play versus the real interviews).
• One product family. Sigil.bot (live beta) and attribution for creative work and likeness (in development), both built on cognitive sovereignty primitives that give people agency over their authorship and likeness.
• One book in progress. Economy of Wisdom, by the Foundation's President, on AI as a technology of empowerment or dominance and how to choose.
• Three community partners. Lantern Lab Society, FediCollective, and Brew & Build, all hosted under the Foundation's generative Transmutarian event framework (see below).

Community Partners

The Foundation operates three community partnerships under a generative Transmutarian event framework: gatherings designed so that attending, contributing, and connecting is itself a transmutation of resources into shared fulfillment, where every person leaves with more energy and ideas than they arrived with.

• Lantern Lab Society. Vancouver-based community partner for ongoing DTES fieldwork. Conducts trauma-informed, community-based participatory research alongside the Foundation, with lived-outreach expertise that makes the fieldwork possible.
• FediCollective. A pro-healing third space for builders and creatives in Vancouver, founded by Crissy Bliss Addams. Hosts in-person coffee chats and quiet co-working within the Foundation framework, choosing kindness and presence so participation is safe.
• Brew & Build. A small, introvert-friendly Generative Event hosted by FediCollective inside the Foundation framework. Capped at nine people, structured around a Transmutarian opening ritual of gratitude, generative discussion, structured exchange, and a closing share, then open quiet co-working. Held at Tommy Douglas Burnaby Public Library on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.

For host, sponsorship, or speaking inquiries on any of the three, write to sev@economyofwisdom.com.

Governance

Economy of Wisdom Foundation is a not-for-profit society incorporated under the British Columbia Societies Act on 24 May 2025, society number S0082757. It is not a registered charity and does not issue tax receipts; grants and gifts are accepted directly and applied to the program budget below.

The Foundation is governed by a board of three directors:

• Sev Geraskin. President. Lead author of the Foundation's working papers and technical lead on sigil.bot and the attribution infrastructure work.
• Christopher Halket. Secretary. Director, Indigenous Rights & Quality with the Indigenous Health Collaborative Council at Fraser Health, where he leads governance and accountability work advancing Indigenous rights and quality of care. A member of the Couchiching First Nation; holds an MBA from the University of New Brunswick and advanced technical credentials from BCIT. Brings health-system governance and non-profit board experience.
• Evgeny Sheryaev. Treasurer. Fifteen-plus years of leadership in technology and telecommunications, focused on strategic partnerships, operational excellence, and stakeholder engagement.

Research methodology follows community-based participatory research protocols: informed verbal consent, optional pseudonymity, local secure storage of audio recordings, and tiered data release (codebooks and pipelines available upon request; restricted aggregate data; unreleased raw transcripts). Participant compensation is provided for time, and anonymization includes pseudonyms sharing the same first initial to prevent re-identification.

Related-party disclosures

The Foundation operates alongside two founder-connected entities and discloses both:

• Sigil.bot and Past 5 Solutions Inc. Sigil.bot is co-developed and operated with Past 5 Solutions Inc., a company wholly owned by the President, Sev Geraskin. Foundation funds applied to sigil.bot operations are governed by a written services agreement between the Foundation and Past 5.
• Lantern Lab Society. The Foundation conducts its Downtown Eastside fieldwork in partnership with Lantern Lab Society, which shares leadership with the Foundation: Sev Geraskin is the Foundation's President and Lantern Lab's Executive Director, and April Ai is the Foundation's co-researcher and a co-founder of Lantern Lab.

Team

• Sev Geraskin. President. Lead author of both working papers; technical lead on sigil.bot and the attribution infrastructure work; author of Economy of Wisdom (in progress).
• April Ai. Co-researcher on the Foundation's Downtown Eastside interview studies and co-author of Whose Values Train AI? Founder of AIAPR and BunnyTech and a co-founder of Lantern Lab Society, she works at the intersection of AI and human care.
• Open for additional contributors as the work grows.

Funding

The Foundation is self-funded to date and has not yet accepted outside grants or donations. It is seeking institutional and private partners to support continued research, sigil.bot operations, the attribution infrastructure build, and the events programme.

What partnership makes possible:

• $50,000. An additional Downtown Eastside community research round, with residents as paid co-researchers.
• $50,000. The initial build of attribution infrastructure for creative work and likeness.
• $150,000. A year of sigil.bot operations.

The Foundation declines funding from sources that would compromise the independence of the research or the operator-survivability of the infrastructure.

Measures

What the Foundation has done, as of 4 July 2026:

• Three working papers published openly on Zenodo.
• 623 downloads and 865 views across the three papers (Zenodo, 4 July 2026).
• 51 interviews conducted in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside for Whose Values Train AI?
• 8 corrections issued to published field notes in a public errata round.
• Sigil.bot: an early proof-of-concept, in live beta.