Search Results for: Hewlett Foundation

This is the eleventh installment in the Synthetic Pretenders series examining the proposed CaliforniaTrust Framework within the context of synthetic biology, eugenics, and the Spanish mission system.  Part One: Scientific Management, Robo-Bees, and Digital Babies Part Two: Apocalypse, Mind Files, and Interplanetary Promises Part Three: The “Magic” of Radio-Eugenics and Holographic Twins Part Four: Ritual […]

There’s much discussion of central bank digital currency these days, of its future implications and its technological origins. I’ve noticed, however, there are not many examining its roots in social policy. The concept of programmed money didn’t show up center stage in time for the Fourth Industrial Revolution without considerable advance planning. Social scientists and […]

Apologies for that batch of emails that went out earlier in the week. Jason was updating the blog templates and somehow it triggered a wave of notifications with Latin placeholder text. Livestream discussion of Andreessen’s interview on the Joe Rogan experience we did yesterday. Here’s the link to the Spotify interview on which we’re commenting. […]

It was time to say good-bye to the chinstrap penguin. The paper mache model had kept watch over a corner of my sewing room for years, but with our child moving on to college and evidence of flour-beetles impossible to ignore, its time had come. It was an endearing second-grade project, now a decade old. […]

Hewlett Packard: The Tech Titan Few Education Activists Talk About Increasingly people are casting a wary eye in the direction of Silicon Valley, concerned about the power its billionaires wield over public education and society generally. While Gates, Zuckerberg, Hastings and Bezos have grabbed much of the spotlight, there is another tech influencer with a […]

I spent quite a few hours over winter break exploring various aspects of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation’s (SVCF) operations and have prepared a series of posts documenting what I have found thus far. This series is intended to provide context for my previous research on Pay for Success pilot programs being rolled out in […]

Omidyar Network in Brazil When I was a naive, new activist, I watched documentaries like Laura Poitras’s Citizenfour about Edward Snowden. I believed what was portrayed without really questioning it. I thought I’d found a few “good guys” in a rotten system. Snowden gathered intelligence as a Dell Corporation contract employee to the NSA. Watching […]

Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Part One Here for the introduction and parts two, three, four and five. Feature image is from this New York Times article. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) has been a key player in outcomes-based contracting test cases emerging in the Bay Area over the past five years (here for more […]

We are living through desperate times: populations dislocated by climate catastrophe and dispossessed by state violence. Many are attempting, unsuccessfully, to navigate economic systems grounded in low-wage, disposable labor and insurmountable debt. The cost of living continues to rise, especially in cities where wealth is concentrated in the hands of speculative investors. Stable housing is […]

I remember it well, a casual conversation with a neighbor on the sidewalk. It was a brief exchange, the kind that should’ve been quickly forgotten. At the time I knew nothing of Marc Tucker’s “Dear Hillary Letter” or the National Center on Education and the Economy. I hadn’t yet started mapping IBM and Digital On-Ramps, […]