Jonathon Keats

Experimental Philosopher and Conceptual Artist

Jonathon Keats is a San Francisco-based experimental philosopher who has, over the years, sold real estate in the extra dimensions of space-time proposed by string theory (he sold a hundred and seventy-two extra-dimensional lots in the Bay Area in a single day); made an attempt to genetically engineer God (God turns out to be related to the cyanobacterium); and copyrighted his own mind (in order to get a seventy-year post-life extension.

Keats's bold experiments raise serious questions and put into practice his conviction that the world needs more "curious amateurs," willing to explore publicly whatever intrigues them, in defiance of a culture that increasingly forecloses on wonder and siloes knowledge into narrowly defined areas of expertise.

Everything Videos Articles

Could the Solution to the World’s Biggest Problems Be…a Park?

Experimental philosopher Jonathan Keats dives into the work of Buckminster Fuller, an early 20th century oddball scientist whose visionary ideas we are only now catching up to.

Thousand Year Photo (Director’s Cut)

Nathan Broderick documents experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats' Millennium Camera Project

Culture & Religion

Using Experimental Philosophy to Shift Perspective, with Jonathon Keats

Using Experimental Philosophy to Shift Perspective, with Jonathon Keats Jonathon Keats introduces his workshop by listing the following five rules for looking at the world like an experimental philosopher: 1. […]

Pursue Paradox to Shift Perspective, with Jonathon Keats

Keats explains how he combined string theory with San Francisco real estate to explore the relationships between paradoxical concepts.

Remix Metaphors to Shift Perspective, with Jonathon Keats

Keats explains how marriage can be treated as a metaphor by explaining the process by which two people can become married not by government definition, but by a law of nature, thanks to advances in quantum physics.

Combine Incompatible Ideas to Shift Perspective, with Jonathon Keats

Keats explains how a thought experiment in which he attempts to genetically engineer God allowed him to create a situation in which science and religion became compatible.

“It’s Pretty Weird When You See a Plant Enjoying a Gourmet Meal.”

Keats explains an experiment in which he opened a restaurant for plants and how it helped spur an exploration of cuisine as cultural trademark.

Ask Naive Questions to Shift Perspective, with Jonathon Keats

The worth thing to ever happen to us, says Jonathon Keats, was when we stopped being children. Fortunately, he explains (by way of honeybees) that it's possible to re-enter that space of precociousness and wonder.

Using Experimental Philosophy to Shift Perspective, with Jonathon Keats

Jonathon Keats introduces his workshop on experimental philosophy by listing the rules and lessons he's developed over the years.

Adventures in Experimental Philosophy: Training Your Brain to Innovate

Where do new ideas come from? One tactic is to train your brain to innovate through the use of thought experiments.

How Can We Implement a Curiosity Curriculum?

If curiosity is your curriculum the best way in which that curriculum can be undertaken is for all of your students to cut school and that’s a great idea, but it really won’t work at an institutional level in most universities.

Taking on the Museum Industrial Complex

The art market is a market where commodification is the purpose even at the level of museums which effectively exist by virtue of the generosity of patrons.

Why Effective Time Management Needs Albert Einstein

Harnessing relativity, technology can even give us the time to live.

What a Thought Experiment is All About

My thought experiments don't happen in my mind. I undertake these experiments out in the world.

What Species is God?

I decided that I would attempt to scientifically figure out where on the phylogenetic tree, which is the master map of all the species on earth, where you might put God.

Go Ahead, Take the Guilty Pleasure of Thinking Like a Child!

We all every now and then have that guilty pleasure of thinking like a child.

Jonathon Keats and the Honeybee Ballet

Thought experiment: can we communicate across species in a way that might facilitate a greater deeper relationship between us.

Why I Founded the Microbial Academy of Sciences

The Microbial Academy of Sciences is an academy where microbes would be in a position to study the cosmos.

The Experimental Cinema of Jonathan Keats

Plants are able to perform photosynthesis and therefore, plants are in a position to enjoy cinematography, to enjoy films since the essence of film is light.

Why God Needs Pornography

For God little bangs might be stimulating, and might stimulate God to create other universes.

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