01
Agency
How systems decide under constraint. Research into agency theory, AI alignment, and sovereign choice at Axionic Agency Lab.
CHOICE / ALIGNMENT / ETHICSEngineer. Architect. Cypherpunk.
David
McFadzean.
Building systems.
Preserving agency.
From surgical navigation to decentralized identity. I build the infrastructure that puts people in control.
SYSTEMS IN RELATIONFIG. 001
TORONTO, CANADA 43.65° N / 79.38° WSCROLL TO EXPLORE ↓
CURRENTLY Director of Technology Archetech ↗
Executive Director Axionic Agency Lab ↗
01 / ABOUT
Deep experience.
First-principles thinking.
I'm a principal engineer, architect, and engineering leader with 35+ years building large-scale, safety-critical, and distributed systems.
My work spans medical devices, remote-access platforms, and open identity infrastructure. The throughline: making complex systems dependable, and giving the people who use them more control.
I’m interested in the relationship between intelligence, rationality, and ethics. There is great beauty in logic, expressed through mathematics and algorithms. And I think life is best lived as a game.
35+YEARS BUILDING SYSTEMS
EDUCATION
B.Sc. Electrical Engineering
M.Sc. Computer Science (AI)
ENGINEERING
Professional Engineers Ontario
Formerly Synaptive Medical02 / PRACTICE
Four lenses.
One connected practice.
Engineering at the intersection of
autonomy, trust, and intelligence.
02
Identity
Portable personhood without a platform. Peer-to-peer identity across Bitcoin, Lightning, Zcash, and Nostr with Archon and Archetech.
CRYPTOGRAPHY / TRUST / OWNERSHIP03
Safety-critical
Surgical navigation, robotic positioning, and live overlay interfaces. Dependable systems where the cost of being wrong is real.
PRECISION / RELIABILITY / CARE04
Collective mind
Technology that lets groups become more intelligent. Adaptive processes, the Software Development Game, and mentorship as engineering practice.
COORDINATION / LEARNING / PLAY03 / SELECTED WORK
Ideas into infrastructure.
On GitHub ↗
01 / OPEN SOURCE
02 / RESEARCH
03 / EXPERIMENT
04 / PLAY · 2012
Archon / Archetech
Decentralized identity. Infrastructure for identity you control, built across open networks.
Axionic Agency Lab
Agency, alignment, and rationality. Exploring the foundations of intelligent choice.
Phylum
Cinematic 2D evolving creatures. An exploration of emergence, adaptation, and lineage.
The Software Development Game
Adaptive process as a game of private policy. A different way to think about building better software.