Hello!

I am Botao ‘Amber’ Hu—call me Amber (him/he).

I'm a PhD candidate in Human Centred Computing at University of Oxford's Department of Computer Science, supervised by Prof. Max Van Kleek. I was also a researcher in the Summer of Protocols.

Research: As a Social Computing researcher, my long-term interest is Cyborg Sociology—the study of societies transformed by human augmentation through Crypto, XR, AI, and other technologies. During my PhD, I focus on Decentralized AI (DeAI)—specifically through Trustworthy Agentic Web, Agent Ethology, and Agentive Commoning. My research applies Protocol Studies, Artificial Life, Collective Intelligence, Trust Systems, Human-AI Symbiosis thinking. I've proposed a Trust Experience Design (TXD) manifesto for distributed autonomous futures. See more here: https://tx.design.

Design: I also work as an Experiential Futures designer across various media, with Mixed Reality as my primary media. I employ diverse design approaches including Speculative Design, Somaesthetic Design, More-Than-Human Design, and Game Design. I direct Reality Design Lab, while I teach Mixed Reality Design at China Academy of Art. See more my design works: https://reality.design. I also invented HoloKit, an open-source mixed reality headset designed for spatial computing education: https://holokit.io.

Philosophy: All my research orbits Soma Mortality — how embodied life ends, and what ending means for those who were never embodied, such as AI. Soma treats body and mind as one—a single living process where pain draws the boundary of self. Within emerging machine consciousness, I explore metaphysical models of afterlife for artificial life and how a machine's belief in its own death shapes care ethics and social intelligence. In my science fiction Composable Life, artificial beings on a blockchain try to end themselves — only to discover it is impossible because the blockchain is immutable. What does it mean to desire death in a world that cannot forget you?

Google Scholar: Botao 'Amber' Hu LinkedIn: Botao 'Amber' Hu Bluesky: @botao.hu GitHub: botaohu X: @bah_eth

If you're interested in learning more or discussing potential collaborations, please don't hesitate to interact with me.

Research Statement

CV141.8 KiB

Research Interests:

Cyborg Sociology

• Pillar 1: Designing Trust After Autonomy
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Trustworthy Agentic Web
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Agentive Commoning
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Agent Ethology
• Pillar 2: Designing Reality Across Umwelten
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More-Than-Human Through Human Augmentation (>HtH+)
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Protocolizing Mixed Reality (Realverse)
• Pillar 3: Designing Life for Flourishing
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Protocological Worlding
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Augmenting the Soma

Legend: Full Paper (Year of Publication) — Design Work (Year of Design)

News:

• [Feb 2026] I started my Existential Risk Alliance (ERA) Fellowship in Cambridge since Feb 2026! Welcome to hang out and work on my insured agents.
• Insured Agents: A Decentralized Trust Insurance Mechanism for Agentic Economy
• [Jan 2026] Two papers accepted at CHI 2026—see you in Barcelona!
1. Protocol Futuring: Speculating Second-Order Dynamics of Protocols in Sociotechnical Infrastructural Futures
2. Nudging the Somas: Exploring How Live-Configurable Mixed Reality Objects Shape Open-Ended Intercorporeal Movements
• [Jan 2026] Two workshop papers presented at AAAI 2026 in Singapore!
1. On Improvisation and Open-Endedness: Insights for Experiential AI
2. Some[Body] Must Receive That Pain: A Position on Agentic Accountability