We are living in systems our instincts were never designed to navigate.

Walking a Strange Savanna is a field guide to modern life—where ancient human pressures collide with digital speed, institutional power, and global consequence.

Start with Reader Promise or Introduction.

WHAT IS THE “SAVANNA?”

Humans evolved in small groups, with slow feedback, visible consequences, and limited reach. Our instincts—fear, loyalty, dominance, trust—were shaped for that world.

Modern life operates on entirely different terrain: abstract systems, invisible power, algorithmic speed, and decisions that ripple far beyond our perception.

The savanna didn’t disappear.
It went indoors—into institutions, technologies, and global systems that amplify ancient pressures in unfamiliar ways.

Walking a Strange Savanna is about learning to recognize that terrain before it overwhelms us.

WHAT THIS FIELD GUIDE GIVES YOU

LANGUAGE
Words for pressures you feel but couldn’t previously name.

PATTERN RECOGNITON
How to spot predictable failure modes in systems before they cascade.

CONTROLS THINKING
Why safeguards, limits, and constraints aren’t bureaucracy—they’re survival adaptations.

ORIENTATION
A way to stay grounded and human inside fast-moving, high-stakes systems.

WHO THIS IS FOR

• Leaders & decision-makers navigating power, risk, and unintended consequences
• Builders & technologists creating systems that shape human behavior
• Educators & sense-makers helping others navigate complexity
• Citizens trying to remain human inside institutional and digital pressure

You don’t need to work in technology to feel its effects.

FROM INSIGHT TO INFRASTRUCTURE

Some people stop at understanding the savanna.
We build tools for surviving it.

This field guide informs two applied efforts:

The Daily Brief
Ongoing analysis of real-world pressure points as they emerge across technology, behavior, and governance.

SpiralWatch
A fail-closed assurance system that tests whether AI and institutional systems behave safely when humans are under pressure.

Understanding comes first. Safeguards follow.

ABOUT THE FIELD GUIDE

A practical lens for leaders, builders, educators, and citizens.

This is not a manifesto.
It is not a prediction.
It is not a technical manual.

Walking a Strange Savanna is a practical orientation guide—designed to help readers recognize pressures, understand why systems fail, and think clearly about what holds when stress is high.

The tone is calm, grounded, and non-alarmist. The aim is clarity, not certainty.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chuck Metz Jr. works at the intersection of technology, human behavior, and governance. This work exists to reduce the gap between what our systems can do and what humans can safely absorb.

CLOSE

The savanna is already here.
The only question is whether we learn to navigate it.

• Read Walking a Strange Savanna (Click below to preview)
• Explore the Daily Brief
• See how SpiralWatch works

Begin the Field Guide

If you only read one thig, start with the Reader Promise.