The Radical Papers: METANOIA
AW25

Backstory. 1994.

Erich Bon Brugal, a 29-year-old Dominican-Swiss physicist, was pursuing his PhD at the prestigious University of Zurich when he received an anonymous invitation to the Santa Fe Institute. The letter came through a mysterious subdivision called the “Gnostic Visionary Cell.” It spoke of a revolution in physics—something akin to the rise of jazz in New Orleans, the surrealist prose in Parisian cafés, or hip-hop in the Bronx. A movement young physicists were calling The Radical Papers, which promised to outline a Radical Metaphysics.

On December 15, 1994, Bon Brugal arrived at 410 S. Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe, New Mexico, clutching an essay that had earned him some recognition. He was picked up by an unmarked vehicle and taken to Los Alamos. No one heard from him again.

A local sculptor claimed to have spotted a man who resembled Bon Brugal at El Parasol. The man was unnervingly pale, dressed entirely in black, and had a “123” stamped on the back of his crewneck. The server who served him a carnitas burrito with Christmas chile asked.