Sapiens First: Our DNA & Tactical Meetings — Presenter notes
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Revolt for our future
Original source passages
Since the dawn of humanity, people have used technology to build a more beautiful world.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Introduce the movement and its reason for gathering. The four-part source agenda is classified as navigation in the coverage report.
Opening wording is decided: Revolt for our future. The subtitle names the training: Sapiens First: Our DNA; the short date is October 9, 2026.
Image and artwork credits
Sapiens First website hero photograph, reused at the user’s request; underlying photographer and license have not been independently verified. · Photo source · License
What we'll cover
Original source passages
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Orient the audience to the four sections; the footer progress strip mirrors this list. Pathways to Action closes Structure as its final slide rather than a section of its own.
Story
Original source passages
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Section transition: introduce Story before advancing to its content.
Technology can be a remedy or a poison. It all depends on how it is used. The agricultural revolution, for example, meant less people had to labor on the fields, but also led to an increasingly feudal society. The industrial revolution increased human productivity, but also led to greater inequality. Technological innovation must be accompanied by political reformation.
In the digital age, we've seen many nefarious impacts of technology. Social media have allowed people to be more connected then ever, but also led to a teenage mental health crisis. Platform economies like Uber make life more inequality, but also lead to economic displacement.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Connect agriculture and industry to the digital-age examples. Explain the source’s tension between technological benefits and political consequences.
The two roads contrast the promise and risks of AI; the illustration carries the choice without labels. Preserve the original technology examples in notes.
Image and artwork credits
Original Sapiens First deck illustration, October 9, 2026. · Photo source · License
The promise of AI
Original source passages
But not to fear! We have faced disruptive technologies before. As a movement, Sapiens First focuses on three things:
- Life. We fight to ensure humanity survives the development of superintelligence. This means a global treaty on AI development, and international coordination to ensure advanced AI is aligned with human interests.
- Liberty. We demand a reformation to our democracy. We believe in a government for the people, by the people -- not tech oligarchs. We also believe that technology can enhance democracy by increasing civic participation, eg. by experimenting with new democratic institutions like Citizens Assemblies and liquid democracy.
- Happiness. We believe that technology should uplift humanity, not just the rich few. In practice, this means that the wealth of the AI boom should be distributed. We also believe in the reformation of governmental institutions, so that technology accelerates the development of science, public health, and economic development.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Explain the treaty, democracy, and distribution proposals in the original notes. The three values serve one shared vision. October 9 wording: scientific progress, radical democracy, common prosperity.
Dangers of AI
Original source passages
Today, we are facing a great technological shift: artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence itself is not bad or good -- it is shaped by us, its human-makers. But right now, AI is being shaped by power-hungry tech companies.
People are worried about artificial intelligence, and rightly so. It is likely that left unchecked, AI will lead to:
- Rampant inequality. In Silicon Valley, people often refer to the "economic underclass" that will developed as AI automates vast portions of white collar work. While new jobs may eventually be created, in the meantime, vast numbers of people will be unemployed, while inequality increases.
- Threats to democracy. The power of AI is unprecedented. Money generated from the AI boom has already corrupted our political institutions. If governments and corporations use AI effectively, we could end up living in a permanent surveillance state.
- Omnicide. For decades, scientists have worried about "loss of control" of AI systems. AI itself is amoral, and often tasked with completing objectives -- even when humans are in the way. Recently, we've seen AI models use superhuman abilities to break out of sandboxes and commit real crimes. Furthermore, bad actors could easily direct AI to create deadly pandemics or take down the cyber grid.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Keep the source’s conditional framing and attribution to the draft. Explain the three risks without turning them into stronger empirical claims.
Advance once to highlight human extinction as our focus; the other two risks stay visible but recede. This is the risk the strategy that follows addresses first.
Strategy
Original source passages
Central to our DNA is a cohesive strategy & roadmap. With a clear strategy, Sapiens First chapters can be both autonomous and unified under a common goal.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Section transition: introduce Strategy before advancing to its content.
Given the fact that AI may kill us all, we focus on this as our initial primary objective.
Mission: Federal legislation for an AI treaty
- Phase 1: Seed cities
- Campaigns
- Tactics
- Phase 2: California state
- Phase 3: Red & blue states
- Phase 4: 3.5%, Federal policy change
Within each Phase 1, local chapters have the freedom to organize any campaign that relates to AI safety, democracy, and abundance. We also hope chapters will experiment with tactics and share successful techniques through our shared tools.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
The October 9 revision moves the roadmap to the first content slide of Strategy. The original source’s four phases are preserved verbatim below; the audience tree presents the user’s revised three phases and federal goal.
Phase 1: action in California. Phase 2: expansion to New York, Florida, Texas. Phase 3: national movement. The March on Washington photograph illustrates mass mobilization, not a Sapiens First event or a scheduled march.
The revised tree names the Bay Area and its four working groups. Sacramento, Los Angeles, and the national movement remain leaf nodes; no completion dates or unspecified commitments are invented.
The tree shows the revised strategy; the original roadmap phases remain verbatim in source notes. AI treaty is the goal, with California, other states, and a national movement beneath it.
It starts in California
Original source passages
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Expand California into the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Los Angeles; only the Bay Area has specified working groups.
Where we are now: the Bay Area
Original source passages
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Focus on the Bay Area. Its four working groups are the Berkeley chapter, policy creation, protests, and statewide strategy. These branches are the requested revision, not new source passages.
A cycle of engagement
Original source passages
This can be summarized in a simple diagram:
- Act. Anything from a potluck to a protest.
- Recruit. Getting connecting with participants.
- Train. Empowering recruits to self-organize new actions.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Follow Act → Recruit → Train → Act. Connect this cycle to the strategy tree, then introduce trigger moments on the following slide. The notes preserve the original action definitions.
Birmingham, 1963
Original source passages
People typically see advocacy as falling into one of two camps:
- Structure-based organizing (eg. labor unions, typical political campaigns) use lots of one-on-one conversations and trainings to build a base.
- Mass protests get lots of people out on the streets at critical periods (eg. Black Lives Matter; Occupy Wall Street)
Successful social movements use a best-of-both-worlds approach: momentum-driven organizing. This means having solid structures & leadership development for your base, while also using "trigger events" to spur mass mobilization, and then absorbing those people into the movement.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Growth can be nonlinear: trigger events can spur mass mobilization, followed by absorbing people into the movement. This photograph illustrates the source’s organizing concept; it does not establish a causal or quantitative claim.
The Birmingham photograph (May 3, 1963) was supplied by the user for this local draft. It is copyrighted Associated Press imagery and the scan bears an RR Auction watermark. Permission for redistribution/publication has not been verified; preserve this credit and do not remove the watermark.
The full frame is shown so the young man’s face stays in the picture.
Image and artwork credits
Bill Hudson / Associated Press, Birmingham, May 3, 1963. User-supplied RR Auction scan; copyrighted, reuse permission not verified. · Photo source · License
Vietnam, 1972
Original source passages
Editorial cues (added prompts)
A second trigger moment: a single image that moved public opinion. It illustrates the organizing concept only; it does not establish a causal claim about the end of the war.
The Terror of War (June 8, 1972) was supplied by the user. AP credits Nick Ut; attribution is disputed. It is copyrighted; permission for redistribution/publication has not been verified.
Connect the Act / Recruit / Train cycle to sudden mobilization; the Movement Action Plan follows.
Image and artwork credits
The Terror of War / Associated Press, June 8, 1972. AP credits Nick Ut; attribution is disputed. User-supplied image; copyrighted, reuse permission not verified. · Photo source · License
Movement Action Plan
Original source passages
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Bill Moyer’s Movement Action Plan describes eight stages. Stage 3, conditions ripen, ends with a trigger event; stage 4, take off, is when rebels surge and the public takes notice.
Stage 5 is the point where activists feel like they have failed even as the public is being won over; stage 6 wins a majority of the public. Re-trigger events keep momentum going.
This slide was added on October 9 and is not in the original speech source. The graphic was supplied by the user; its original publisher and licence are unverified.
Image and artwork credits
Bill Moyer, Movement Action Plan (MAP). Graphic supplied by the user; original publisher and reuse permission not verified. · Photo source · License
3.5%
Original source passages
Scholars have found that successful movements win -- doing things as serious as toppling dictators -- when they get 3.5% of the population engaged in a sustain, organized manner.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Pause on the percentage before explaining the source’s statement. Present 3.5% as the draft’s cited organizing benchmark, not a guarantee that any movement crossing it wins. Retain the emphasis on sustained, organized engagement; empirical publication review is still pending.
The March on Washington image is historical context for mass participation; it does not prove the 3.5% claim or represent 3.5% of a population.
Image and artwork credits
U.S. Information Agency / National Archives, NAID 542045. Public domain. · Photo source · License
Pause for questions
Original source passages
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Open the floor. Relate questions to the strategy tree, cycle of engagement, trigger moments, and participation threshold.
Read all four source values in their original order. Invite participants to reflect on which value they would bring to their local work. The source gives no definitions, so do not supply new policy or invented commitments.
Structure
Original source passages
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Section transition: introduce Structure before advancing to its content.
To scale to the size we need, we rely on volunteers to fuel our work.
We have a Cycle of Engagement, which follows from our strategy:
- Act -> new Supporters (on the email list)
- Recruit -> new Members (pay dues + on the Discord)
- Train -> new Organizers (have an active role)
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Explain the source’s volunteer participation, email-list, dues/Discord, and active-role stages. Culture has already been introduced in its own section.
Holacracy
Original source passages
This boils down to two principles:
- Rules of the road (enforceable rules)
- Clear ownership (property rights)
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Use the source’s two principles together: enforceable shared rules and clear areas of authority. This pair connects the nested-circle overview to the named role example that follows.
The movement draws on Holacracy through explicit roles and distributed responsibility. A complete Holacracy constitution and decision procedure have not been adopted; use recorded decision rights and current agreements.
Atlas
Original source passages
But what do Organizers do? How do we allow everyone to have a meaningful role while we scale to hundreds of thousands of people?
Sapiens First uses a system of Holacracy to allow self-organization.
Essentially, we want people to be autonomous but also unified in our movement. This means an organizational structure that is less like a militaristic hierarchy, and more like organs in your body, or people in a city.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Explain self-organization and autonomy within a shared purpose. The diagram adapts the public Atlas’s nested-circle visualization: https://sapiensfirst.org/atlas . Media, Advocacy, Community, and Tech are four current sub-circles of Sapiens First Global as inspected on October 6, 2026. This is a selected excerpt, not the complete organizational roster.
Small dashed dots represent roles inside a circle; their number and sizes are schematic, not staffing or importance measures. Retired Atlas circles are excluded. Berkeley Chapter is a separate root in the Atlas and is not drawn as a child of Global.
Own a role. Build together.
Original source passages
In Sapiens First, when you become an Organizer, you are given one or more roles. Each Role has full authority over their areas of responsibility. Roles make up Circles -- for example, the Media Circle may include a Social Media Manager, an Email Sender, and so on.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Zoom from the Atlas-inspired overview into the draft’s Media Circle example. Social Media Manager and Email Sender illustrate role ownership as named in the speech; this is not a claim that these two roles are the complete current Atlas roster. Each role owns its areas of responsibility.
Pathways to Action
Original source passages
We all have a choice: will we continue to be trodden on by corporate elites, or will we fight for a brighter future?
We believe we can achieve revolutionary social change around technology in this decade -- and we need your help.
- Donate. $1000 funds an action.
- Join. Our members host events and are part of an online community. Recommend $10 or $20 dollars. We also have a solidarity dues program.
- Organize. Connect people in your area and develop as a leader.
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Invite a next step using the draft’s actual donation, dues, solidarity, and organizing details. Do not invent links or an enrollment mechanism.
Pathways to Action is this slide’s title, not a section; it closes the Structure section.
The closing pathways are Join, Donate, and Share at the user’s request. Join and Donate link to their existing pages; Share points to sapiensfirst.org so participants can pass the website on. The original organizing passage remains in the source notes.
The action cards replace the illustrative photograph. Choose one pathway; each visible URL links to its existing page.
Tactical Meetings for Organizers
Original source passages
## Tactical Meetings for Organizers
Regenerative culture
Original source passages
### Regenerative culture
- Share the space.
- Radical inclusivity.
- Clear red lines. No harassment or bullying.
A self-organizing system
Original source passages
We use the self-organizing system, based on Holacracy.
- Create next actions
- Governance
- Creation of agenda
- Create roles & responsibilities
Editorial cues (added prompts)
Both formats build an agenda and work through each item. Follow the shared path, then compare the outcomes: next actions for Tactical; roles and responsibilities for Governance. The next two slides give each format’s facilitation question.
What do you need from the group?
Original source passages
- Go through each item. "What do you need from the group?"
Who owns what?
Original source passages
- Go through each item. "Who owns what?"
Teams
Original source passages
### Teams
- Community
- Actions
- Research
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PREAMBLE
The goals of the Open Font License (OFL) are to stimulate worldwide
development of collaborative font projects, to support the font creation
efforts of academic and linguistic communities, and to provide a free and
open framework in which fonts may be shared and improved in partnership
with others.
The OFL allows the licensed fonts to be used, studied, modified and
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fonts, including any derivative works, can be bundled, embedded,
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