Michele Riva

Abstract: Beauty is not something we explain, but something that wounds, reveals, and teaches us how to find salvation in ordinary life.

Abstract: Personal interpretation of Heidegger's account of anxiety in Being and Time that explores how anxiety discloses not a simple emptiness, but our condition as Dasein: beings thrown into a world whose meanings can suddenly lose their familiarity. Through nothingness, das Man, and being-toward-death, anxiety reveals both our finitude and our responsibility to take up our existence as our own. Anxiety, then, is not merely despair or fear, but the unsettling clearing in which the question of who we are can become audible.

Abstract: Personal interpretation of The Myth of Sisyphus that explores how Albert Camus rejects both transcendent meaning and nihilistic despair in favor of “revolt”: the conscious acceptance of life's absurdity without surrendering to it. Through Sisyphus's endless struggle, I argue that Camus presents freedom not as escape from suffering, but as the ability to embrace one's condition fully and find meaning in the struggle itself. Happiness, then, emerges not from hope or purpose imposed from outside, but from lucid rebellion against an indifferent universe.

Abstract: After three years building Orama from a conference demo to half a million weekly downloads, today is my last day. This is a thank you letter to the people who made it possible, a request to the community, and a few thoughts on what comes next.

Abstract: An exploration of reality as something not passively perceived but actively created through the act of observation—yet without a controlling agent behind it. Time, selfhood, and agency are illusions within a cyclic, present-bound existence, where liberation lies not in detachment from the self but in recognizing there was never a self to detach from—only a single, undivided act of creation in an absolute present.

Abstract: An examination of the epistemological implications of psychedelic experience, arguing that the profound sense of revelation these substances produce does not necessarily constitute access to objective truths about reality or consciousness. Drawing on current neurochemical research, I contend that epistemic humility—neither dismissive reductionism nor uncritical metaphysical acceptance—is the appropriate orientation for both therapeutic practice and cultural frameworks surrounding psychedelics. Particular attention is given to the power dynamics of the therapeutic relationship and the risks of normative expectations around psychedelic experience.

Abstract: From personal travel experiences to a critical analysis of Italy's reliance on tradition over technological advancement.