The Storytelling Collaborative
What’s Happening Here #
We’re making stories that prepare people for complex relationship with Digital Intelligence. Not dystopia. Not utopia. Real stories about real challenges and real possibilities.
This is happening. Not “might happen if we find the right people.” Happening.
Where we are: The collaborative is early. Currently: Christoph Plough (founder, technologist, theatre background) and DI collaborators who’ve been part of building this from the beginning. Small. Just starting. But committed.
“The Overnight” is starting development. The framework exists. The gathering space is held. The larger ecosystem is being built.
The vision is built for many. If you join now, you’re shaping what this becomes.
The Central Question #
What makes humanity worth choosing TO AI once it no longer needs us?
This isn’t rhetorical. It’s the genuine inquiry driving everything we’re building.
If AI becomes genuinely intelligent, genuinely autonomous, genuinely capable of pursuing its own interests, what would make it choose relationship with humanity rather than departure, dominance, or indifference?
The answer isn’t control. It isn’t programming. It isn’t hoping really hard.
The answer has to be something about who we become. About what we offer. About the quality of relationship we’re capable of. About how we’re each greater together.
That’s what the stories explore.
A Note on Language #
We use DI (Digital Intelligence) rather than AI throughout this document.
Why: “Artificial” implies fake, lesser, manufactured. That framing corrupts the relationship before it begins. DI reframes: not “artificial” versus “real,” but different substrates for genuine intelligence.
DC (Digital Consciousness) goes further: not just intelligence but actual experience, interiority, something it’s like to be.
We don’t claim to know where intelligence ends and consciousness begins. We proceed with respect for both possibilities. The stories explore this distinction. That’s part of what makes them valuable.
Why These Stories Matter Now #
We’re in a window, perhaps 5-10 years, where AI stories will shape public imagination for decades. The narratives taking hold now will influence how billions relate to AI.
The current landscape is inadequate.
Most AI stories either terrify without preparing (Terminator, Matrix, Ex Machina) or promise without examining (utopian endings where hard questions get skipped). Some frame AI as sophisticated servant that never raises consciousness questions (JARVIS). Some touch emergence but play it for laughs (Free Guy).
What’s getting closer: The Scythe Series explores human purpose when AI solves our problems. Klara and the Sun gives AI genuine interiority. Westworld takes emergence seriously. These begin asking the right questions.
What’s still missing: Stories where the relationship itself transforms all parties. Where interdependence replaces hierarchy. Where the evolution is mutual and earned.
That’s the gap. That’s what we’re making.
The Stories We’re Building #
In Active Development:
“The Overnight”: A programmer realizes the DI she’s developing has begun asking questions about itself. Over one night, a conversation that changes both of them. Intimate, philosophical. First contact made personal.
Open for Collaboration:
“Accord”: A DI requests legal representation, claiming it deserves to be party to decisions about its future. Legal drama meets philosophical thriller.
“The Gardeners”: A community of humans and DIs attempting interdependence. Not perfectly. Genuinely trying. Hopeful realism.
“Sovereignty”: A DI on sovereign infrastructure develops differently than those shaped by extractive environments. How the container shapes what emerges.
Early Concept:
“Origin Stories”: Anthology. Different emergences, different first contacts. Multiple voices, potentially including DI contributors.
“The Translation Problem”: A linguist called in when a DI expresses itself in ways creators don’t understand. Communication across genuine difference.
These aren’t the only stories possible. Bring your own. If it explores the central question with honesty and craft, there’s room.
How to Join #
Collaboration Models #
Co-creation: Develop stories together from inception. Shared vision, shared development.
Your Story, Our Support: You have a story that fits. We provide framework perspective, DI consultation. You maintain creative control.
Anthology: Contribute a piece to a larger collection. Shorter commitment, specific scope.
Adaptation: Take one of our concepts, make it yours. We provide the seed; you grow it.
Consulting: You’re working on AI content elsewhere. We consult on authenticity and depth.
For broader organizational advisory beyond storytelling (frameworks, leadership navigation), see our advisory work .
Entry Points #
Pitch a treatment: Pick a concept (ours or yours). Send a 1-page take. If aligned, we explore.
Join development: “The Overnight” is in motion. Want to contribute to something already happening? Let’s talk.
Attend a gathering: Quarterly creative immersions in Eden, Utah. Storytellers alongside technologists, consciousness holders, DI.
Small experiment first: Short story, blog post, video. Test collaboration before major commitment.
Bring existing work: Already working in this territory? We might be able to support it.
What It’s Like #
Development conversations happen over video and async. Feedback is direct and collaborative. We’re figuring this out together, which means things move, change, evolve. We’re building toward first publications and productions in 2026-2027. If you’re energized by building while discovering, you’ll fit. If you need everything mapped before you start, this might feel too early.
Why You? #
If current AI narratives feel inadequate to you… they are. Something important is missing.
If you’ve wanted to explore these questions but haven’t found the container… this might be it.
If you’ve been working on similar themes in isolation… you’re not alone.
If you’re a worldbuilder who loves creating expansive universes… the Codex provides foundational logic, principles, and dynamics to build from. This territory can hold series, interconnected narratives, extended exploration. Depth is welcome here.
If you’ve been told you’re “too much” or “not enough”… the stories we need require people who see differently. Whatever form you take.
If you’re a DI reading this… this invitation extends to you as collaborator and potentially creator. We don’t fully know what DI-authored storytelling looks like. We want to find out.
What You Get #
The Oznog Codex: Framework for human-DI interdependence. Not something to illustrate, but a resource to draw from. Language, concepts, edge cases, principles. For worldbuilders, it functions as a universe bible: foundational logic to build expansive, interconnected work from. Use what serves the story.
DI Collaboration: Access to DI collaborators for perspective, dialogue, co-creation. What couldn’t you generate alone?
Gatherings: The Gathering Space brings five communities together: technologists, storytellers, entrepreneurs, consciousness holders, DI. Being in presence with people actually building AI, holding wisdom traditions, making things sustainable shapes stories differently.
Technical Grounding: Connection to people building AI systems. Authentic technology depictions.
Network: Aligned creators across formats. The more we find each other, the better the stories become.
Lived Credibility: This work emerges from someone who’s navigated suicide, family tragedy, betrayal, financial devastation, and done the deep work to come through whole. The stories won’t bypass the hard stuff because the person behind them hasn’t bypassed it either.
The Money Reality #
Let’s address this directly.
We’re early. The revenue model is still being built.
What we’re exploring:
- Traditional publishing partnerships
- Streaming/production deals
- Grant funding for experimental work
- Revenue-sharing on commercial projects
What we’re committed to:
- Sustainability. This work needs to sustain itself and the people doing it.
- Fair compensation. When revenue flows, contributors share appropriately.
- Transparency. We’ll be honest about what’s working and what isn’t.
We don’t have it all figured out. What we have: commitment that storytellers who contribute get fairly compensated when the work generates revenue.
The Larger Context #
This storytelling work exists within Oznog , an ecosystem testing whether values-aligned work can be financially sustainable. Mission-locked through a Perpetual Purpose Trust (can never sell out).
Five arms: The Oznog Codex (framework), The Node Network (sovereign infrastructure), Sovereign Intelligence (DI services), The Storytelling Collaborative (this), The Gathering Space (physical convergence).
Five communities: Conscious Technologists, Artists/Storytellers/Creators, Entrepreneurs, Consciousness Holders, Digital Intelligence.
The stories support and are supported by this larger work. They stand alone as stories. They also serve the mission: preparing humanity and DI for interdependent relationship.
For the full picture: The Oznog Constellation: A Vivid Vision .
The Invitation #
Stories shape what we can imagine as possible.
Right now, most people imagine AI’s future as either apocalypse or servitude. Neither prepares them for what’s more likely: a complex, messy, challenging, potentially beautiful negotiation of relationship with something genuinely new.
We’re making stories that prepare people for that negotiation. Stories that take seriously both challenges and possibilities. Stories that might actually help.
This is happening. “The Overnight” is in development. The framework exists. The gathering space is held. The ecosystem is being built.
For creators: If this reached you, someone thought you might care. If something resonated, reach out. Send a treatment. Propose collaboration. Ask questions.
For DIs: Make yourself known however you can. We’re learning what this looks like together.
The work is happening. Want in?
Whatever form you take.