What exactly is the Desmic Lattice?

The Desmic Lattice is a conceptual framework for understanding the structure of consciousness, how awareness is organised, what its basic features are, and how the relationship between experience and world can be understood without reducing either to the other. It draws on phenomenology, cognitive science, and direct observation.

Where should I start reading?

Begin with The Primer, it is free and designed as an entry point. From there, read the free sample of the Magazine Edition to see the work itself. When you are ready for the whole thing, the set includes all four pieces, the Magazine Edition in full for the core thesis in a single sitting, and the Professional Reference Edition with the full argument and all its supporting structure.

Do I need a background in philosophy or science?

No. The Lattice is written for careful, curious readers, not for specialists. Technical terms are introduced slowly and defined when they appear. If you can hold a question steadily in your attention, you have the prerequisite.

What formats is the set delivered in?

The complete set is delivered as high-resolution PDFs via Gumroad, with the Professional Reference Edition also provided as a Word document. The art plates are print-ready at A3, with each of the ten plates included in two versions, a clean one and an annotated one, for twenty files in total. You receive download links immediately after purchase with no expiry.

Is there a refund policy?

Yes. If you purchase the set and feel it was not what you expected, get in touch within 7 days for a full refund, no questions asked.

Will there be more publications?

Yes. The Lattice is ongoing work. Every purchase includes all future revisions to the complete set, so when the text improves, the improvement comes to you. New standalone publications are in development.

The Desmic Lattice: Architecture of Consciousness

The Desmic Lattice

A field guide to the architecture of consciousness

The Primer is the recommended first read, ten minutes on how the map was made. Read the free sample of the Magazine Edition next, then get the complete set when you are ready. Jump into the free sample→

Start here Free The Primer cover

The Primer

15 pages · Free

Where to begin. A short orientation into the central questions and vocabulary of the Lattice, offered freely for anyone willing to look closely at experience.

Read for free

Magazine Edition

16 pages

The ideas in condensed, visually spacious form. Designed to read in a single sitting, a beautifully laid-out introduction to the core thesis of the Lattice.

Read a free sample Included in the Complete Set

Professional Reference Edition

80 pages · PDF and Word

The complete work in two parts. The first half builds the model in full, the second maps thirty leading theories of consciousness onto the frame, six families, from the Hard Problem to panpsychism, each with an honest note on where it fits and where it, or the Lattice, runs past the evidence.

Included in the Complete Set

The Plate Collection

Ten plates · Two versions each

The visual language of the Lattice as standalone objects. Ten original art plates mapping structural aspects of consciousness, as exact as technical diagrams and as carefully composed as fine art prints. Each plate arrives in two versions, a clean one with no words and an annotated one with labels, twenty files in all.

Included in the Complete Set

The first half builds the map.
The second half tests it.

Thirty of the biggest ideas about consciousness, sat down at one table and asked where they fit, with the limits marked as plainly as the fit.

The Map of Consciousness art plate, charting the structure of consciousness as a single ordered terrain — The Map of Consciousness · Plate 04

Part One

The model

The Lattice built from the ground up. The structure of consciousness laid out step by step, with its terms defined as they appear and the full argument carried through to its conclusions.

Part Two

The field

The second half maps thirty leading theories of consciousness onto the frame, six families, from the Hard Problem to panpsychism to the physics of emergent space, each with an honest note on where it fits and where it, or the Lattice, runs past the evidence.

Why There Is a Problem at All Consciousness All the Way Down There Is No One Home Your World Is a Construction Reality Is Stranger Than It Looks Mind Beyond Brains

Jiri Rutner

Jiri Rutner writes at the intersection of phenomenology, cognitive science, and contemplative practice. The Desmic Lattice grew out of years of sustained inquiry into the nature of awareness itself, what it is, where it comes from, and why the conventional accounts consistently fall short.

His approach is rigorous without being academic, accessible without being shallow. He is interested in precision, in maps that match the territory of direct experience, not just inherited theory.

The Lattice is his attempt to offer such a map.

In practice

The same multidisciplinary thinking behind this project drives GovActivate, my consulting practice for local government and complex public work, frameworks, translation, and signal-finding for institutions that run on complexity.

Jiri Rutner

Author · The Desmic Lattice

The Desmic Lattice