Summer 2026
Models of Many-Worlds. Connected by Belts and Roads
Dates: June 02, 2026 – July 16, 2026Day/Time: Tuesday; Thursday 03:10 - 05:30 PM EDT
Level: 200-Level
Certificate: Global Humanities, Global Studies
Global Humanities certificate requirement: Global imagination (study of art and culture). Global story- and history-telling (stories and storytelling traditions).
Global Studies certificate requirement: Elective.
Instructor: Natalia Fedorova, Smolny Beyond Borders
A world model is a cognitive framework that helps one navigate the world; it also defines the borders of that world and limits what is possible within it. Buckminster Fuller proposed the seminal metaphor of "Spaceship Earth," formulating the possibility of a cybernetically governed world in which the needs of everyone can be met. This course reviews key world models, beginning with ancient concepts like the Mandala and concluding with the Chilean Project Cybersyn—a machine-governed state. Recent developments in spatial AI enable creating digital doubles of organisms, processes, and spaces. Will the digital simulation of the physical world by spatial AI be better at solving this world’s problems?
This is section 1 course. Deadline to register is May 29.
Credits: 3 US/ 6 ECTS