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Get updates about Edge Esmeralda 2025
The village is grounded in four core principles: it’s multidisciplinary, multigenerational, co-created, and healthy by default.
Edge Esmeralda is a prototype for something bigger: a permanent town called Esmeralda.
We'd love for you to join us. Apply below!
Programs & Tracks
Each theme will have planned talks & self-organized sessions throughout the month
Week 1 Theme:
Protocols for Flourishing
AI • Consciousness • Health Systems • Governance • Protocols • Transhumanism
Week 1 Preview -->
May 24th - June 1st
Truth-Seeking AI →
Program
May 26th - May 29th, 2025
A four-day intensive hosted by Cosmos Institute exploring how philosophical frameworks—like falsifiability, inquiry, and epistemic humility—can guide aligned AI system design. Sessions blend theory and application, with a final-day hackathon focused on building tools that support human judgment and critical reasoning.
Consciousness Week →
Program
May 24th - May 30th, 2025
A cross-disciplinary expedition into the science and experience of consciousness. This track blends neuroscience, somatics, systems thinking, and contemplative traditions to explore theories of enlightenment, coordination, and self-awareness—through daily salons, evening immersions, and embodied practice.
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Vital Futures →
Program
May 24th - May 30th, 2025
An immersive week reimagining health through biotech, functional medicine, and environmental resilience. We’ll explore topics like metabolic diagnostics, regenerative food systems, environmental toxins, and personal experimentation—through hands-on sessions, live demos, and guided health tracking.
Protocol Worlds →
Program
May 24th - May 30th, 2025
A weeklong design lab with 30 fellows from the Summer of Protocols fellowship, focused on prototyping experimental tools for teaching and understanding complex systems. Expect mock classes, interactive demos, and public salons on protocol theory, governance, and epistemic resilience. Open sessions throughout the week include a special collaboration with the Long Now Foundation. If you're interested in joining the Protocol Worlds cohort, fill out this form.
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Transhumanism Workshop →
Program
May 29, 2025
A collaborative workshop exploring how radical technologies—biotech, longevity, reversible cryopreservation, neurotech, AI, and beyond—challenge cultural norms and expand what it means to be human.
Through lightning talks and discussion, we’ll map each innovation across two axes: transhumanist vs. nostalgic and taboo vs. accepted. To participate, email kat@cradle.xyz
Week 2 Theme:
Reality Reinvented
d/acc• Hard Tech • Techno-Humanism • Decentralized Governance
Week 2 Preview ->
June 1st - June 8th
d/acc week →
Program
June 2nd - June 6th, 2025
d/acc stands for decentralized, democratic, differential, and defensive acceleration, a framework for advancing technology without concentrating power. Popularized by Vitalik Buterin, it asks how innovation can strengthen resilience and promote human agency.
This week explores that question through collaborative workspaces, philosophical salons, speculative builds, and the launch of Shift Grants, supporting early-stage projects in biosecurity, infrastructure, neurotech, and more.
Tomorrowland: Hard Tech's World Fair →
Program
June 1 - June 5th, 2025
Tomorrowland is a weeklong exploration of progress in hard tech, inspired by the spirit of the World’s Fair. Builders working across energy, space, robotics, and synbio will share breakthroughs, test ideas, and connect.
Expect lightning talks, hands-on workshops, house parties, and live demos; from autonomous drones to smart kitchens.
Roots of Progress →
Program
June 2nd - June 6th, 2025
This track explores a practical and collaborative philosophy of progress—seeing science, technology, and industry as tools for human flourishing. It focuses on identifying the high-leverage, high-agency problems most worth solving and the futures we want to realize over the coming decades.
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Governance Games →
Program
June 2nd - June 6th, 2025
GG EE is a live experiment in collective intelligence, capital allocation, and decentralized governance by Butter—focused on advancing Ethereum’s long-term growth objectives. You can find more information here.
We'll explore how Conditional Funding Markets (CFMs) and other governance mechanisms can address the Ethereum ecosystem’s growth objectives. Through working sessions, strategy games, and high-context discussions, we’ll design and prototype a CFM to fund Ethereum’s most promising growth initiatives.
Week 3 Theme:
Environments of Tomorrow
Education • Neurotech • Cities • Agritech • Climate • Culture
June 8th - June 15th
Cities of Tomorrow →
Program
June 9th - June 15th, 2025
A week for city and ecosystem builders reimagining what’s possible through environments that support a better future. We’ll explore spaces designed for health, sustainability, and long-term impact.
Agtech Week→
Program
June 9th - June 15th, 2025
This week will gather agtech innovators, regenerative producers, indigenous land stewards, and investors to reimagine the future of our food system.
Edgeucation →
Program
June 9th - June 13th, 2025
A week bringing together alternative, innovative school and education projects to help reimagine the future of education.
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Neurotech Summit →
Program
June 8th - June 10th, 2025
A 2.5-day intensive for founders, researchers, and builders at the frontier of neural interfaces and NeuroAI.
Through small group sessions, 1:1 mentorship, and community events, we’ll explore new architectures for neural data, open-source tooling, and the future of cognitive collaboration between humans and machines.
Ignite Talks →
Program
June 14th, 2025
A fast-paced session where selected participants give 5-minute talks using 20 auto-advancing slides — a rapid-fire format to share obsessions, ideas, or stories.
Submit yours here→
Week 4 Theme:
Decentralized Technologies
Real-World Crypto • Governance • Programmable Cryptography
June 15th - June 21st
Crypto Academic Camp →
Program
June 16th - June 19th, 2025
A week with the top researchers and academics in cryptography and DeFi for key discussions, debates and collaboration around core topics in the field. This is an invite-only event designed specifically for leading crypto researchers. Interest form here.
Cybernetic Society Summit →
Program
June 15th, 2025
The Cybernetic Society Summit brings together researchers, builders, and protocol teams to explore the future of open, distributed, and privacy-preserving AI. We'll deep dive into compute, data sovereignty, and networked intelligence.
Monthlong:
Residencies & Fellowships
Month-long programs bring together groups around a shared theme to explore, host sessions, and build projects within the village.
Long Journey Residency →
The Long Journey Residency brings together 11 of the top builders who are pushing the frontier of being magically weird. These will be the builders that are reinventing the future, with projects that are driving toward building a world we all want to live in.
World Builder Residency→
Edge City Fellowship →
The Edge City Fellowship is a fully-funded month-long experience for six young builders (ages 18–25) working at the intersection of human flourishing and frontier technology.
Speakers & Attendees
This is an initial list of some attendees and speakers that will continue to get updated closer to the event.
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Principles
From the community
On what it feels like to be a part of Edge City
"Edge City did an excellent job integrating diverse participants from all kinds of background: technical and non-technical, crypto, biotech and culture, young and old. I learned a lot from my time there."
"We could not have done this Longevity workshop with top researchers without Edge City. This is going to be one of those moments that people talk about in the future where so many impactful things were conceptualized."
"Edge Esmeralda's ability to bring people together in temporary spaces that yield lifelong relationships — as well as life changing conversations and discoveries — makes me excited to see how that same energy imbues the permanent village Esmeralda is building."
"It's an eclectic group of optimists that push each other to learn and grow in their careers and live healthy and more meaningful lives. I love spending time with the people in the Edge City community."
"I was so inspired by the caliber of people, different projects and ambitious concept. It shifted my perspective and reminded me of how important this industry is in helping make a positive change in the world."
"I never realized the possibility of social innovation until being part of the Edge community. There is no way that the way we organize our communities today is the best that civilization has to offer. We can dramatically improve our communities and quality of life through some space for experimentation and first principles thinking."
"At the crossroads I was at with my trajectory, being a fellow at Edge City was one of the most impactful things I could've done.
Edge City brought out a side of me that I really liked. It brought out a side of me that was curious and open to trying new, weird experiences, hosting dinners and discussing theories on reincarnation over group hikes, all while working on my own projects."
"Edge Esmeralda was one of the most valuable uses of my time last year—personally, professionally, and creatively.
As a founder, I tested my product with real users and ran a hackathon. As an artist, I found lifelong friends and a community building toward a better future."As a human, I found lifelong friends and a community building toward a better future.
"Edge City is unparalleled in its ability to cultivate multi-disciplinary ecosystems that accelerate progress in frontier industries like Cryptography, Neurotech and Longevity."
"The neurotech workshop I attended was extremely high signal and talent dense. I could not have had that discussion anywhere else."
Principles
Co-Create and Build
At Edge Esmeralda, we’re focused on building, moving beyond mere consumption of knowledge. The emphasis is on hands-on applications and experiments, with the goal of fostering new technologies, cultures, ideas, and organizations during our month together.
Healthy by Default
Our village promotes health and longevity as a default. This includes organized community workouts, nutritious meals made from local organic ingredients, weekly farmers markets, and partnerships with local restaurants to minimize seed oil use. We aim for all participants to leave healthier than they arrived.
Multigenerational
Our community will include everyone from toddlers to centenarians, fostering an environment where different life stages interact and learn from each other, breaking away from the typical age-segregated settings.
Multidisciplinary
We believe that there is huge potential for breakthroughs at the intersections of disciplines. Edge Esmeralda is designed to foster collaboration between people with diverse expertise—scientists, artists, engineers, urban planners, philosophers, mechanics, and beyond.
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FAQ
The best place is our blog, which we will update regularly!
Edge Esmeralda is a "popup village" for people who believe the future can be better and are actively working to make it happen. It is taking place in Healdsburg, California, May 24 - June 21.
We aim for this to be the healthiest and most productive time of your year — a place to go deep in your work and learn from fellow experts in other fields while incubating novel technology and ways of living.
This gathering is also a prototype for a permanent new town, Esmeralda. The lessons we learn will be carried forward to build this long-term vision.
The village will be filled with people who are building towards a brighter future: founders, scientists, urban planners, researchers, engineers, philosophers, storytellers, and beyond. We look for thoughtful people who are curious, kind, and high-agency.
Families with kids are welcome. We will have childcare and fun activities for the whole family throughout the month. One of our major goals is to integrate family life with creative life.
It's not required, though we encourage you to stay as long as you can.
Those who come for at least several weeks will have the most immersive experience, because a large part of what we are testing is different ways of living and working together. However you'll still have a great experience if you come for a shorter period of time!
Absolutely! We meant it when we said that we intend for this to be multigenerational. One of our major goals is to integrate family life with creative life.
We are offering a kids's camp daily from 9am-4pm. We've created flexible options to accommodate different family needs:
- Weekly Camp: $450 per week
- Two-Week Camp: $640
- Full Month Camp: $1,200
Please note: Parents are asked to contribute at least 4 hours/week, with those of kids under 7 volunteering one full day (or two half days). Scheduling is flexible.
Kids under 2 years old and kids ages 2-12 not participating in camp do not need a ticket to Edge Esmeralda. Kids ages 13-18 can purchase teen tickets for full access.
Read more about our philosophy for kids and families at Edge Esmeralda here!
We approach programming differently to most events.
- We are focusing on emergence instead of centrally planning everything. We will create the minimum necessary structure for this to be an excellent event, and then we'll encourage the attendees to participate, engage, and build awesome things on top of the structure we provide.
- The fact that the event is a month long means that you'll have plenty of opportunity to go deep on various topics of your choice, and to meaningfully connect with other attendees.
If you can't make it for the whole time and you aren't sure when to come, the short answer is: come when you can! You'll be certain to have an engaging time.
We will also publish a live calendar of major programming events by mid-April.
We are not making a profit on this event, and we are a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Therefore we do charge ticket prices to cover the costs of organizing the event, since it takes resources to create a memorable experience, and it is important that this gathering is self-sustaining.
Ticket prices for Edge Esmeralda 2025 vary based on length of stay and eligibility for discounts:
- Standard: 2,907/month or $1,070/week
- Partner/Spouse: $2,185/month or $800/week
- Supporter/VC: $7,500/month
Prices will increase closer to the event. Accommodation and meals are not included but available at subsidized rates. For more details, read our ticketing blog post.
- Edge City: We convene people working at the frontier of tech, science, and society in popup villages across the globe. We aspire to be a ‘society incubator’— a lab of experimentation for new ideas, tech, culture, and organizations, all dedicated to accelerating human flourishing.
- Esmeralda Institute: We are building a new town for multigenerational families who are looking for lifelong learning, a car-light lifestyle, neighborly connections, and a healthy lifestyle in touch with nature. Esmeralda will be a cross between Chautauqua, Las Catalinas, and a college campus.
Healdsburg is a beautiful town in Northern California with a rich history and reputation as a center of healthy living. It has a number of great characteristics that make it the perfect place to host Edge Esmeralda:
- Infectious enthusiasm from local leaders, including the mayor & small businesses
- Proximity to SF, the tech capital of the world
- Walkable streets centered around a charming town square
- Embedded in nature, surrounded by the Russian River & the Mayacama Mountains
- Sonoma County is a hub for agriculture, healthy living, & sustainability
Accommodation isn't included with ticket purchase, so you are responsible for finding your own stay. For full details refer to our housing post.
Once you are accepted, you will be added into a group to coordinate housing with other participants!
We recommend booking early using our negotiated rates:
- Hotel Trio (weekly or monthly stays; home of our sauna and cold plunge)
We've also partnered with Stay Healdsburg and The Healdsburg Chamber, who are sponsoring Edge Esmeralda through their District Development Program. Visit www.StayHealdsburg.com to book your stay.
Thank you to our Patrons
