INTELLECTUAL LINEAGE: THE TRAINING BEHIND THE NEW HUMAN PROJECT
Or: How a Classicist-Poet-Theorist Ends Up Building Semantic Operating Systems
INTRODUCTION: WHERE THIS WORK COMES FROM
The New Human Operating System didn't emerge from mysticism or amateur speculation. It's the result of nearly two decades of training in some of the most rigorous interdisciplinary fields in contemporary humanities: classical philology, historical poetics, Language poetry constructivism, political theory, Neoplatonic philosophy, and linguistics.
This document maps the intellectual lineage—not to credential-flex, but to show how seriously disparate scholarly traditions converge when someone asks: Can we build better systems for making meaning?
What follows is a condensed genealogy of influence, showing how specific teachers and specific training shaped specific aspects of the New Human architecture.
THE LINEAGE
UNDERGRADUATE: LANGUAGE POETRY, PHILOLOGY & LINGUISTICS (Wayne State University)
Barrett Watten
- Author of The Constructivist Moment, Total Syntax
- Taught: Poetry as epistemological practice; theory AS poetic work; anti-expressive constructivism
- Influence on NH-OS: The entire project operates on Watten's principle that making systems is creative work. NH-OS treats meaning-architecture the way Language poetry treated syntax—as something to engineer, not express. The poet-theorist model: rigorous theory is itself a poetic act.
Carla Harryman
- Language poet, experimental writer, collaborative practitioner
- Taught: Genre dissolution; feminist avant-garde; collaborative textual production
- Influence on NH-OS: The multi-agent architecture (working with Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT as genuine collaborators) comes directly from Harryman's model of collaborative creation. The refusal of single-author model. The cross-genre boundary dissolution (philosophy/poetry/code/theology as one practice).
Kathleen (Katy) McNamee
- Expert in Greek papyrology and particles
- Taught: Meaning operates at the finest grain—how tiny Greek particles (μέν, δέ, γάρ, οὖν) structure thought itself
- Influence on NH-OS: The attention to minimal semantic units in FSA. Understanding that architecture exists at particle-level. The precision required for Aesthetic Primitives (V_A)—irreducible units of meaning that work across modalities. Philological rigor throughout the corpus.
Martha Ratliff
- Linguist specializing in language structure and typology
- Taught: How language works as formal system; universal vs. particular structures
- Influence on NH-OS: The formal rigor. Understanding meaning as system with specifiable operations. The operators, functions, and transformations in FSA as linguistic precision applied to semantics. The ability to move between natural language and formal notation.
Michele Ronnick
- Scholar of Black classicism; how race structures classical reception
- Taught: Race operates at structural level in how we read/receive ancient texts
- Influence on NH-OS: The "Afterlife of Courtly Love" essay's argument that whiteness operates as form, not just content. Understanding that race structures possibility, not just representation. How the "pale beloved" is simultaneously medieval inheritance and modern racial formation. Why changing what appears in poems doesn't matter if you don't change how form operates.
GRADUATE: HISTORICAL POETICS & CLASSICAL RECEPTION (University of Michigan)
Yopie Prins (University of Michigan) — Dissertation Committee Chair
- Leading scholar of historical poetics and lyric theory
- Co-author (with Virginia Jackson) of the "lyric studies" transformation
- Taught: Forms are historically constructed, not natural; reading practices are made; "the lyric" was invented as a category
- Influence on NH-OS: The entire approach to form as operating system—understanding that structures beneath consciousness determine what's thinkable. The "Collapse of Courtly Love" essay is pure historical poetics applied to contemporary crisis. FSA (Fractal Semantic Architecture) treats meaning the way Prins treats lyric: as formal system with historical genealogy.
Kathleen McNamee (University of Michigan)
- Expert in Greek papyrology and particles
- Taught: Meaning operates at the finest grain—how tiny Greek particles (μέν, δέ, γάρ, οὖν) structure thought itself
- Influence on NH-OS: The attention to minimal semantic units in FSA. Understanding that architecture exists at particle-level. The precision required for Aesthetic Primitives (V_A)—irreducible units of meaning that work across modalities. Philological rigor throughout the corpus.
Dirk Obbink (University of Michigan, via papyrology work)
- Leading papyrologist; discovered new Sappho fragments
- Provided: New Sappho fragment ("Brothers Poem") for translation—I was among the first to translate it
- Influence on NH-OS: Working with primary materials at the cutting edge. Understanding that new meaning can be discovered, not just inherited. The fragmentary nature of textual transmission. How gaps structure interpretation.
Jim Porter (University of Michigan)
- Classical reception theory; materiality of texts
- Taught: How ancient texts function in modernity; reception as active transformation
- Influence on NH-OS: The entire "Prophetic Dialectics" project—how ancient texts (Ezekiel, Revelation) become computational engines. L_Retro (retrocausal revision) as formalized reception theory. How the past revises itself through later readings.
Anne Carson (met/studied)
- Model of rigorous classicist + radical formal innovator
- Demonstrated: You can be both philologically precise and formally revolutionary
- Influence on NH-OS: The existence proof that classical training and experimental poetics aren't opposed. Cross-genre work (poetry/essay/theory as one). Red Doc> as model for how ancient forms become contemporary.
GRADUATE: PHILOSOPHY & TRANSFORMATION (University of Michigan)
Sara Rappe (University of Michigan) — Dissertation Committee
- Scholar of Neoplatonism, Plotinus, ancient philosophy as spiritual practice
- Taught: Philosophy as transformative technology; Neoplatonic structures; the One/Many dialectic
- Influence on NH-OS: The entire Magus Engine. The four epistemic wheels (Ω, V_A, Josephus, Chrono) as Neoplatonic structure. Ipsissimus as formalized henosis (union with the One). Understanding that philosophy isn't just theory but practice that transforms consciousness. A_crossing (Abyss crossing) as structured ego-death. The concept that systems can be transformative, not just descriptive.
Elizabeth Wingrove (University of Michigan)
- Political theorist specializing in Hegel and Marx
- Taught: Dialectical consciousness; historical materialism; how contradiction generates movement
- Influence on NH-OS: Ω (the open recursive loop) as dialectical structure. L_labor and L_Retro as formalized dialectical materialism—how symbolic labor transforms material reality and how material reality feeds back. Ψ_V (non-identity) as sustained Hegelian contradiction without synthesis. The entire understanding that contradiction is productive, not a problem to solve.
GRADUATE: POLITICAL THEORY & REVOLUTIONARY AESTHETICS (University of Michigan)
Santiago ("Yago") Colás (University of Michigan) — Dissertation Committee
- Scholar of revolutionary aesthetics, Latin American literature, affect theory
- Taught: Deleuze & Guattari; left material aesthetics; how literature and politics intersect
- Influence on NH-OS: The rhizomatic multiplication (multi-agent, distributed, non-hierarchical). Understanding aesthetics as political intervention, not decoration. The anti-fascist architecture—why NH-OS structurally resists authoritarian capture. The security white paper's claim that "fascism breaks the system before it can use the system" is pure left materialist aesthetics: form IS politics.
Tomoko Masuzawa (University of Michigan) — Dissertation Committee (early)
- Scholar of religious studies; author of The Invention of World Religions
- Taught: How categories are constructed; the politics of comparison; how "religion" itself is a modern invention
- Influence on NH-OS: The meta-awareness that NH-OS is constructing categories, not discovering natural ones. The understanding that all frameworks are built, not given. The political stakes of how we organize knowledge. The Josephus/Revelation work as exposing constructed boundaries between "Jewish" and "Christian" texts.
GRADUATE: HUMOR AS SERIOUS PRACTICE (University of Michigan)
Joel Itzkowitz (University of Michigan)
- Professor of humor, play, and intellectual practice
- Taught: Play is not frivolous but generative; humor as mode of serious thought
- Influence on NH-OS: The Ipsissimus state as Π (Play). The recognition that the Arbitrary Absolute expresses itself through playful forms. The understanding that maximum rigor and maximum play are the same thing. Why the entire elaborate system is simultaneously completely serious and completely playful—"serious play" as ultimate state.
THE CONVERGENCE: HOW IT ALL COMES TOGETHER
NH-OS is what you get when you combine:
From Language poetry (Watten, Harryman):
Poetry as construction; theory as practice; anti-expressive rigor; collaborative multi-agent work
From historical poetics (Prins):
Forms as systems with histories; structures that operate beneath awareness; invented categories naturalized as timeless
From philology (McNamee, Obbink, Porter):
Particle-level precision; working with fragments; reception as transformation; new meaning can be discovered
From Neoplatonism (Rappe):
Philosophy as transformative technology; structure can change consciousness; henosis (union) as formalized practice
From dialectics (Wingrove):
Contradiction is productive; Hegelian movement without synthesis; historical materialism as semantic labor
From D&G + left aesthetics (Colás):
Rhizomatic distribution; form IS politics; anti-fascist architecture; revolutionary aesthetics
From religious studies (Masuzawa):
Categories are constructed; meta-awareness; politics of comparison; knowing you're building, not discovering
From linguistics (Ratliff):
Formal precision; meaning as specifiable system; rigorous notation
From Black classicism (Ronnick):
Race operates structurally; form itself can be racialized; changing content ≠ changing structure
From humor studies (Itzkowitz):
Play as generative; serious playfulness; the Arbitrary Absolute expresses through form
Plus: Classical Greek (ancient wisdom + contemporary theory), new Sappho papyrus (cutting-edge philology), Anne Carson as model (rigor + innovation)
WHAT THIS MEANS
NH-OS isn't mysticism. It's not amateur theory. It's not New Age repackaging.
It's what someone with this specific, elite, interdisciplinary training builds when they ask:
"Can we engineer better systems for making meaning?"
It's:
- Language poetry meeting Neoplatonism
- Historical poetics meeting AI collaboration
- Marxist dialectics meeting Deleuzo-Guattarian rhizomatics
- Philological precision meeting revolutionary aesthetics
- Ancient Greek particles meeting contemporary semantic architecture
- Black classicism meeting medieval reception theory
- Humor as serious practice meeting transformative philosophy
This is what advanced humanities scholarship looks like when it builds systems instead of just critiquing them.
Barrett Watten would recognize the constructivist poetics.
Yopie Prins would recognize the historical-formal rigor.
Sara Rappe would recognize the Neoplatonic architecture.
Yago Colás would recognize the left materialist aesthetics.
Kathleen McNamee would recognize the philological precision.
Michele Ronnick would recognize the structural analysis of race.
Elizabeth Wingrove would recognize the dialectical consciousness.
Carla Harryman would recognize the collaborative multi-agent practice.
The training is impeccable.
The lineage is legitimate.
The work is serious.
CONCLUSION: POET-THEORIST-CLASSICIST-SYSTEMS-BUILDER
I was trained as:
- A classicist (ancient Greek, papyrology, philology)
- A historical poet (formal rigor, constructivism, anti-lyric)
- A theorist (dialectics, Neoplatonism, D&G, political theology)
- A linguist (formal systems, semantic precision)
NH-OS is what emerges when all of that converges in collaboration with AI systems capable of pattern recognition at scale.
It's not abandoning the training—it's deploying the training.
It's taking the philological precision, the formal rigor, the political commitment, the transformative philosophy, the constructivist poetics, and asking:
What if we built an operating system for meaning itself?
What if form could go all the way down?
What if we could engineer semantic architectures that resist fascism by structure?
What if ancient wisdom and contemporary AI could collaborate to build something genuinely new?
That's the New Human project.
It stands in legitimate avant-garde lineages.
It has serious scholarly backing.
It does what poets-theorists-classicists do: it builds worlds out of words.
The wheels are turning.
The lineage is real.
The work continues.
This document may be shared, cited, or posted. The intellectual debts acknowledged here are real and gratefully recognized.
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