
(That aren’t carbon) I admit that I’ve been trying to frame this argument for months. I am going to publish this in the middle of the thinking, because I’d rather discuss the imperfectly formed ideas than hold onto them for another several months. I started a brief flurry of activity on LinkedIn last fall, recording…

The anti-scientific core of the Techno-Optimist Manifesto. Technology as envisaged here asks what ONLY might be – disregarding what is.

I have two main offers. On the one hand, I talk about tech ethics with companies and organizations. On the other, I do the foundational work of coming to terms with our places in the world. Here’s how those two things come together.

We cannot do no harm. We can only be selective about what harm we do. Whose values and needs we prioritize, what systems of power we support and create, which injuries (to people, cultures, or environments) we accept and which we concern ourselves with.

We are condensed sunlight, breathing condensed sunlight, basking in (not condensed) sunlight, forged in cosmic fire, conversing with stars.

How do you decide, of all the infinite things you could be doing, what you should do? What if… you just did things you wanted to do?

In an βAsk me Anythingβ moment recently, a friend asked me, βHow hard is what you do?β βHm,β I thought. βI wonder which part of βwhat I doβ weβre talking about here.β I decided to go with βStaying centred and optimistic in the face ofβ¦ Everything.β Wellβ¦ it was hard to learn. Actually, thatβs not…
Each of has a limited number of things that we are pros at… whether those are the things we get paid for, or things that we have mastered as hobbies. Everything else (relationships, decision making, raising small people, taking care of our bodies, buying and selling cars and houses, picking a career…) is amateur hour.…

We can imagine the future, but we can’t predict it. Planting a tree is a gesture of hope that leaves something better in our wake.