Professionally, I focus on creating social benefit startups. In my Saturday morning emails I share what I’m learning and thinking. Topics range from better living and parenting to business and philosophy.
Watermarking and Timestamping. Knowing the origin of information can help protect against AI flooding our information landscape and inappropriate ghostwriting. Watermarking—embedding a detectable but invisible signature in AI-generated text or images—could help. Should governments require it? Are the solutions good enough? Regardless, I do think the solutions for timestamping content creation using the blockchain are strong enough to be useful. Major media companies, important content creators and public figures should digitally sign and timestamp their words, images and video. Certain deepfakes and falsified histories could be flagged if a digital fingerprint is missing or altered on the blockchain. Hardware companies could help by automating the process.
Governance Plus Digital. We are gaining power through wealth and technology faster than we are gaining the wisdom to use that power. Our collective wisdom has a way to go yet governance tools are evolving and we can continue to improve them. What are the new technologies for governance that help and should be scaled up?
Hybrid public hearings are common now with written, zoom or live testimony.
Zoom makes it more common to have verbal and written conversations going simultaneously. You see this also with real-time messaging during larger meetings.
Prediction markets (aka futarchy)
Rank choice voting
AI-enabled policy conversations at scale or deliberative democracy
In a class I taught, any student could propose a written question which was projected on a screen. Then others could vote. We addressed the most popular questions first.
SeeClickFix style public tickets
Online petitions
Voting from your smartphone or via blockchain
Liquid democracy where you can delegate votes on specific subjects to different people / groups
Your Family Operating System. What are the tools, processes and meetings you use to run your household? I talked to one founder who uses EOS at home (kinda like this). Perhaps too much business talk isn’t romantic for you. I would argue clarity and sharing work can promote positive vibes and leave room for romance. Here’s what we’re using. What about you?
Values & Expectations: A family motto posted in the kitchen codifies our long-term vision. We’re also drafting our expectations of our children as they move towards adulthood.
Task Management: Chore rotation charts and checklists at the door streamline daily life for the kids. And we have a chore chart for the grownups, too. I like being explicit about who is responsible for meals, kids birthday parties, paying bills, healthcare appointments, etc.
Calendars & Meetings: Weekly logistics meetings, a shared digital grocery list, and family calendars (Google, Skylight) keep everyone aligned.
Reference Lists: We keep reference lists like financial account listing and emergency contact sheets posted.
Until next time,
Miles