XLE

30/09/2026

Yes the pyramids are great but please understand that Cairo is MAJOR in its own right. A megacity of 20+ million and one of the oldest urban areas in the world full of its own flavors. One of the coolest (and most exhausting) cities on Earth, if you can acclimate.

21/09/2026

04/09/2026

XLE.LIFE New Terms 2026
Lakshmi or Laxmi Maxxing?



Lakshmi or Laxmi is a Hindu deity encompassing the abundant, the beautiful, the fertile and feminine. She is synonmous with a certain kind of lush and generous energy—taking care of oneself and the others around you with a flowering, mothering nurturance.

She is also a reference to wealth, independence and good fortune. Like many deities she is a certain mindset, an avatar to both worship and embody.

In July 2026, an Ayurveda influencer named Lisa Power coined the term Laxmi-maxxing, continuing with the trend of adding “maxxing” to the end of every word, in succession of “looks maxxing” from a few years ago.

Laxmi maxxing involves embodying and worshipping the goddess through self-care, rituals and mindset, and essentially gets the right idea, in an Ayurvedic context. The deities are often referenced in meditation and wellness practices outside of the Indosphere. They are pop stars.

Some Indian influencers find this to be more de-contextualized Western appropriation in the wellness space, while others find it a continuing sign of Hindu and Vedic cultural allure and influence. Will more people find out about Laxmi with the popularization of this trend?

How much are people allowed to know these deities before developing a relationship with them?

17/08/2026

XLE.LIFE New Terms 2026: LiDAR



LiDAR is having a moment. In the past ten years it has been re-writing entire empires—discovering civilizational remnants in areas previously misunderstood.
Invented in the 1960s, LiDar stands for “light detection and radar” and has a range of uses.

In exploration and mapping, it is used to scan the surface of the earth with incredible accuracy, including underwater surfaces.

In archaeology, it has been useful for scanning surfaces underneath foliage and and layers of sediment, sometimes revealing entire structures that were previously hidden.

From the Amazon basin to Sudan and Uzbekistan, LiDAR has uncovered massive ancient earthworks, complex cities, elevated Silk Road settlements and burial mounds.

12/08/2026

What is the Craftocene?



The Craftocene is a speculative concept by the London-based design studio Superflux (Anab Jain and Jon Ardern).
It envisions a post-Anthropocene era grounded in care, repair, craftsmanship, and multispecies coexistence rather than resource extraction and excess.

In March 2026, Superflux put on an exhibition of the same name at Vienna’s Weltmuseum, bringing together several of their prior works and sculptures under the topic.

04/08/2026

What are Banyan Futurisms?



In response to a question posed by leading futurist Sohail Inayatullah about other forms of the “Futures Iceberg” which could apply to the Global South, Banyan Futurisms was proposed by artist & futurist Kai (Kari) Altmann as an obvious response, with a focus on South Asia.

The Futures Iceberg is a model for what Sohail calls Causal Layered Analysis—analyzing systems and their effects at deeper, wider and more interconnected levels through multiple lenses of knowing.

A Banyan is a tree native to South Asia that grows in muscly rhizomes, dissolving the boundary between roots and branches, ground and sky, and even from tree to tree. It feels wild, strong, and like it contains an ancient, generative intelligence full of effortless connection.

Its collective growth takes over scaffolding, buildings, sidewalks and streets. Multiple trees can merge together creating mega trees, and these zones are considered especially sacred.

Banyan Futurisms are still being defined, and Kai purposefully leaves it open and slowly evolving to encourage those from the Global South and especially South Asia to join in their definition and evolution.

It’s easy to see them as an extension of interconnected, holistic and “wild” futurisms, and as a symbol for reclaiming space with an ecological edge.
What are Banyan Futurisms? You tell us.

30/07/2026

What is the Aerocene?



Conceived in 2004 and officially launched in 2015 by artist Tomás Saraceno, Aerocene refers to an epoch of air-based mobility, cohabitation and survival with a Solarpunk ethos.

The aerocene project focuses on air, wind and solar powered modes of transportation, presented as floating sculptural art and future prototypes.

Aerocene aims to replace the destructive idea of the Anthropocene and eliminate fossil fuels while promoting a re-connection to Earth and its cosmic web of consciousness.

It is also a blossoming trend in future imaginaries like Floating, Skyworld and Vertical Futurisms along with Solarpunk, Skypunk, Cloudpunk and more.

21/07/2026

28/06/2026

Guess where?