# Event Details - **Event Name**: Civilizational Optioneering - **Event Start and End Date**: Tue, 27 Jan, 2026 at 07:00 pm – Tue, 27 Jan, 2026 at 08:30 pm - **Event Description**: Indy Johar proposes that the primary metric for a civilization’s longevity is not its stability or efficiency, but its optionality.About this EventThe Long Now Foundation welcomesIndy JoharAttend the in-person or via our Mix & mingle over drinks & small bites with other attendees at our pre & post-show gathering in the re-imagined Cowell Theater Lobby!In this talk, Indy Johar proposes that civilization’s longevity depends less on stability or efficiency, and more on optionality.Entropy drives systems toward homogenization and exhaustion, but life acts as a counterforce, generating new pathways for becoming. Johar argues that our current economic system collapses value into singular metrics like price, which renders our systems brittle and less capable of adaptation and optionality.To survive the long now, we must transition to an "optioneering" architecture. Our institutions and economic grammar must be redesigned to increase the surface area of future freedom, not foreclose on it. We do this by shifting away from "closed projects" with finite ends, to "open gardens" where success is measured by the system's ability to evolve and surprise us. By valuing adaptation over control, we can build a civilization capable of coherence in motion.The Q&A for this talk will be hosted by Denise Hearn, Long Now's Director of Strategic Initiatives.Why This Talk Matters NowAt a moment of climate breakdown and economic fragility, we find our institutions are optimized for short-term efficiency instead of long-term viability. Johar’s work offers a systems-level framework for escaping this trap. By exploring new legal and economic pathways, Johar imagines a world outside of the extractive, rivalrous logic of capitalism. His talk addresses the urgent task of rebuilding civilization-scale systems that can evolve, rather than collapse, over the long now.The Long ViewAs an architect of planetary governance, Johar’s work asks a core Long Now question: how can we design institutions that preserve possibilities across generations? Through experiments in contracts, land governance, and collective “ledgers,” Johar interrogates how civilization can make generational responsibility more enforceable and relevant in our present moment.About Indy JoharIndy Johar is co-founder of Dark Matter Labs and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00. He is also a founding director of Open Systems Lab, seeded WikiHouse (open source housing) and Open Desk (open source furniture company). Indy is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub, the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization. He is on the advisory board for the Future Observatory and is part of the committee for the London Festival of Architecture. He is also a fellow of the London Interdisciplinary School.Indy was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University. He was Studio Master at the Architectural Association - 2019-2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member 2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20. He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. He is currently a professor at RMIT University.Learn MoreLISTEN to Johar in conversation with forthcoming Long Now speaker and Council member .EXPLORE the mission of Dark Matter LabsREAD about self-sovereign land in the paper https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events3/banners/cd60c920-de44-11f0-aec4-e7ee26325b71-rimg-w1200-h441-dcffffff-gmir.jpg Indy Johar is co-founder of Dark Matter Labs and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00. He is also a founding director of Open Systems Lab, seeded WikiHouse (open source housing) and Open Desk (open source furniture company). Indy is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub, the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization. He is on the advisory board for the Future Observatory and is part of the committee for the London Festival of Architecture. He is also a fellow of the London Interdisciplinary School.Indy was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University. He was Studio Master at the Architectural Association - 2019-2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member 2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20. He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. He is currently a professor at RMIT University. https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events6/banners/d07f9550-de44-11f0-aec4-e7ee26325b71-rimg-w1200-h85-dcffffff-gmir.jpg Our mission at is to foster long-term thinking and responsibility. Through our Long Now Talks series which began in 02003 and features speakers from around the world, we hope to ignite cultural imagination around long-term thinking. The talks are filmed live in San Francisco, and we release podcasts and videos from them which are publicly available online. - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/san-francisco/civilizational-optioneering/100001977517606394 - **Event Categories**: it, festivals, art, theatre - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 ## Ticket Details - **Ticket URL**: https://consumer.pxf.io/c/1339408/3151484/39691?partnerpropertyid=1191892&MediaPartnerPropertyId=1191892&svlink=14105511&level=1&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eventbrite.com%2Fe%2Fcivilizational-optioneering-tickets-1977517606394 - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 0, max: 108.55, currency: USD ## Event venue details - **city**: San Francisco - **state**: CA - **country**: United States - **location**: Cowell Theater - **lat**: 37.8094834 - **long**: -122.4218196 - **full address**: Cowell Theater, Pier 2, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, United States ## Event Organizer details - **affiliate_id**: 10 - **organizer**: The Long Now Foundation (https://allevents.in/org/the-long-now-foundation/22757949) ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: banner - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/d81a1624c8efa6a18ba4565806b84184022f99bc5285b36fdbc7fd84177b1be0-rimg-w1200-h675-dc000101-gmir.jpg?v=1766306774 - **Alt text**: thumbnail - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/1cb270dda79d885aae170db0985d9f7c062191d3a42564391459b5b87e20cbad-rimg-w400-h400-dc484848-gmir.jpg?v=1766306769 ## FAQs - **Q**: When is the event happening? - **A:** Tue, 27 Jan, 2026 at 07:00 pm - **Q**: Where is the event happening? - **A:** Cowell Theater, Pier 2, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, United States - **Q**: What is the ticket price? - **A:** starting from 0 up to 108.55 USD - **Q**: Who is organizing the event? - **A:** The Long Now Foundation - **Q**: What type of event is this? - **A:** it, festivals, art, theatre - **Q**: Where can I find ticket details about Civilizational Optioneering ? - **A:** You can find ticket details about this event on AllEvents. ## Structured Data (JSON-LD) ```json [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Event", "name": "Civilizational Optioneering", "image": "https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/d81a1624c8efa6a18ba4565806b84184022f99bc5285b36fdbc7fd84177b1be0-rimg-w1200-h675-dc000101-gmir.jpg?v=1766306774", "startDate": "2026-01-27", "endDate": "2026-01-27", "url": "https://allevents.in/san-francisco/civilizational-optioneering/100001977517606394", "location": { "@type": "Place", "name": "Cowell Theater", "address": { "@type": "PostalAddress", "streetAddress": "Pier 2, Fort Mason Center", "postalCode": "94123", "addressLocality": "San Francisco", "addressRegion": "CA", "addressCountry": "US" }, "geo": { "@type": "GeoCoordinates", "latitude": "37.8094834", "longitude": "-122.4218196" } }, "eventAttendanceMode": "https://schema.org/OfflineEventAttendanceMode", "description": "Indy Johar proposes that the primary metric for a civilization’s longevity is not its stability or efficiency, but its optionality.", "offers": [ { "@type": "AggregateOffer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-03", "availabilityEnds": "2026-01-27", "validFrom": "2026-04-03", "lowPrice": "0.00", "highPrice": "108.55", "price": "0.00", "url": "https://allevents.in/san-francisco/civilizational-optioneering/100001977517606394" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-03", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-03", "url": "https://allevents.in/san-francisco/civilizational-optioneering/100001977517606394", "price": "28.52", "name": "General Public" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-03", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-03", "url": "https://allevents.in/san-francisco/civilizational-optioneering/100001977517606394", "price": "108.55", "name": "Patron Ticket" }, { "@type": "Offer", "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock", "priceCurrency": "USD", "availabilityStarts": "2026-04-03", "availabilityEnds": "", "validFrom": "2026-04-03", "url": "https://allevents.in/san-francisco/civilizational-optioneering/100001977517606394", "price": 0, "name": "At-the-door Comp" } ], "organizer": [ { "@type": "Organization", "name": "The Long Now Foundation", "url": "https://allevents.in/org/the-long-now-foundation/22757949", "description": "Our mission atThe Long Now Foundationis to foster long-term thinking and responsibility. 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