Liberatory
Intelligence
Laboratories
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About LIL Co.
/ Venture Laboratory
Liberatory Intelligence Laboratories, Co. (LIL Co.) is the organizational body responsible for developing, applying, and stewarding the discipline of Post-Imperial Systems Intervention & Design (PSID).
It exists to design, build, and sustain systems that restore and extend human agency, institutionalize care, and produce contestable legitimacy, so domination is not structurally reproduced through infrastructure.
We work in two integrated modes:
Research
We develop and evolve PSID through systems analysis, theoretical inquiry, experimentation, and the study of existing and possible systems. Research helps us identify structural conditions, points of intervention, and new methods, architectures, and forms worth pursuing.
Development
We turn that research into practice by designing, prototyping, testing, and building real systems, be it infrastructure, platforms, protocols, organizational systems, or institutional architecture developed through internal initiatives or selective collaboration.
Research informs development, while what we learn through development returns to the laboratory as new knowledge, questions, and methods.
/ Domains
We work across:
- Systems research and experimentation
- Platform and protocol design
- Governance and incentive architecture
- Technical and organizational system design
- Institutional and ecosystem formation
Engagements are long-horizon, equity-aligned where appropriate, and require deep architectural involvement. Not all opportunities qualify.
Discipline
/ PSID
Post-Imperial Systems Intervention & Design (PSID) is an emerging discipline concerned with the design, intervention, governance, and stewardship of systems after and against imperial and techno-imperial domination. Socio-technical systems are one domain of application, not the boundary of the discipline.
The discipline integrates critical theory, systems thinking, political economy, and applied design: we diagnose how power operates through systems, then determine whether the structures reproducing domination should be reformed, rebuilt, or replaced.
The point is not symbolic resistance. The work is durable reconstruction: changing systems so human agency can be restored and extended, care can be institutionalized, legitimate coordination can be sustained, and domination is not structurally reproduced.
Liberatory Reconstruction is the method. It is not surface reform, and it is not rupture without replacement. It is the work of carrying out a prescribed Reform, Rebuild, or Replace — installing the structural conditions under which those commitments can actually hold.
Core commitments
Under PSID, every system we design, build, and sustain is held to four structural commitments:
Agency
Systems must restore and extend people's ability to understand, contest, and exit the conditions that govern them.
Care
Care must be institutionalized, encoded into governance, incentives, and capital flows as a structural obligation, not a stated value.
Legitimacy
Legitimacy must be earned through contestable authority and enforceable repair, not claimed through procedure, efficiency, or self-description.
Non-Domination
Systems must resist the structural reproduction of domination, extraction, and capture, especially under scale, capital pressure, and institutional force.
Work
/ What we're building
Core Practice
/ Discipline & field
PSID
Post-Imperial Systems Intervention & Design
ALI
Applied Liberatory Intelligence
Originated Systems
/ Protocol & software
UPND
Universal Protocol for Non-Domination
Spatial thinking environment for expanding ideas.
Sovereign Technology
/ Hardware & Infrastructure
STEDI
Sovereign Technology for Every Day Infrastructure
Team
/ People & Partners
M.J. Zilla
/ Founder + Chief Architect
M.J. Zilla is the founder of Liberatory Intelligence Laboratories, Co., a founding practitioner of Post-Imperial Systems Intervention & Design (PSID), and the originator of Applied Liberatory Intelligence (ALI).
With over 15 years of experience across advertising design, product design engineering, and systems work, M.J.'s practice at LIL Co. centers Liberatory Reconstruction: the method of making legitimate alternatives structural while ensuring that agency, care, and contestable legitimacy can resist domination and hold.
As Chief Architect, M.J. maintains the integrity of the canon, guides how PSID and ALI evolve in laboratory practice, and oversees the design of technologies, protocols, systems, and hardware developed through internal lab initiatives and selective collaboration. The company develops from the discipline; it does not own it.
MoCADA
/ Strategic Partner + Fiscal Sponsor
In partnership with The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), a trusted and community-anchored institution in Central Brooklyn, Liberatory Intelligence Laboratories, Co. develops tools, publications, and programs that translate liberatory theory into applied infrastructure.
Together, this partnership supports applied research, public-facing publications, workshops, and AI-enabled workforce pathways for low-income and underrepresented communities. The work directly addresses systemic barriers to economic mobility by establishing a community-rooted pipeline into the technology sector grounded in education, accountability, and long-term institutional trust.
Join LIL Co.
/ A Pathway to Liberatory Reconstruction
We are building a discipline-led collective of practitioners committed to designing, implementing, and stewarding systems aligned with Post-Imperial Systems Intervention & Design (PSID).
Joining LIL Co. is not employment in the traditional sense. It is entry into a practice grounded in restoring and extending human agency, institutionalizing care, producing contestable legitimacy, and resisting the structural reproduction of domination.
We are looking for individuals who can operate across systems, not just within roles. Designers, engineers, researchers, and strategists who are capable of working at the level of infrastructure, governance, and coordination.
NOTE: Advancement within the Liberatory Intelligentsia is earned through demonstrated alignment, contribution, and disciplined application of PSID and Applied Liberatory Intelligence over time.
Modes of Contribution
Distinct ways practitioners engage in building, shaping, and sustaining discipline-aligned systems:
Engineering & Infrastructure
Developers, systems architects, DevOps engineers, and security specialists responsible for building the technical foundations of systems, including protocols, platforms, and infrastructure that enable reliable, scalable, and secure operation.
Design & Experience
Product designers, UX researchers, visual designers, and design strategists responsible for shaping how systems are understood, navigated, and experienced, ensuring clarity, usability, and alignment between system behavior and human interaction.
Systems & Coordination
Product managers, researchers, and coordination designers responsible for structuring governance, incentives, and participation, shaping how systems align actors, distribute power, and enable legitimate, effective coordination.
Stewardship & Operations
System operators, program leads, and institutional stewards responsible for deploying, maintaining, and evolving systems under real-world conditions, ensuring durability, continuity, and alignment over time.
Let's
Connect
/ Get in touch
New York, NY