Who are we?
We are a mission-driven non-profit research institute
In a complex and changing world, how can we build a society in which all people and communities can flourish? We believe technology can play a pivotal role, but only if well crafted to be responsive to the values, care, and meaning we each hold.
We research, build, and serve others through new technologies that enable cooperation across difference. We seek to both advance humanity’s capacity for knowledge and compassion, and to help address the pressing, systemic challenges of our time, including risks from emerging technologies, public and global health, and the climate crisis.
What is our approach?
We focus on technologies of collective sense-making
Sense-making is the process of turning raw experience and data into narratives and understanding. To even begin to form common goals, we must first share a sense of what the world is like, attendant to its subtlety, unknowability, and the inevitability of disagreement between distinct perspectives.
We research new technologies that increase capacity for collective sense-making, while also creating a culture of use that is mindful of where technology cannot substitute for what must be done by people.
We view technologies as socio-technical systems
Technology presents itself through new apps, platforms, devices, and tools. Its roots, however, run deep, weaving together questions of who imagined them, what problems they address, who owns them, how they are financed, and how they evolve. We believe carefully and responsibly crafted technologies must fully attend to this complex picture.
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