Today’s calls for ethical, humane, responsible, regulated and beneficial technology, compounded with venture capital’s virtue signaling in…
The Beginning of the End of Big Tech
From politicians to VC firms, everyone is falling out of love with the massive, money-oriented, global technology titans. In their place, we have the chance to build something open and trustworthy.
Philanthropy 2.0: What the Evolution of For-Profit Investment Tells Us About the Future of Giving
Gaps in philanthropic funding for era-defining science and discovery demand a new approach. In this piece, we look at how learning from venture capital is a game changer for catalytic philanthropy.
Philanthropy 2.0: What the Evolution of For-Profit Investment Tells Us About the Future of Giving
Gaps in philanthropic funding for era-defining science and discovery demand a new approach. In this piece, we look at how learning from venture capital is a game changer for catalytic philanthropy.
How Venture Capital Warps the World
A conversation with Catherine Bracy, CEO of TechEquity and author of the new book World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy.
In 2025, venture capital can’t pretend everything is fine any more
Venture capital is screwed. A bubble in AI is their last hope, and they’re betting everything on Sam Altman. It’s heartwarming. Today, we have the Pitchbook-NVCA Venture Monitor for Q1 2025. This i…
The tech industry hijacking of the AI ethics research agenda and why we should reclaim it
This paper reflects on the tech industry’s colonization of the AI ethics research field and addresses conflicts of interest in public policymaking concerning AI. The AI ethics research community faces two intertwined challenges: In the first place, we have a tech industry heavily influencing the AI ethics research agenda. Secondly, cleaning up after the tech industry has implied that we have turned to value-driven design methods to bring ethics to AI design. But by framing research questions relevant to a technical practice, we have facilitated the technological solutionism behind the tech industry’s business model. Therefore, this paper takes the first steps to reshape the AI ethics research agenda by suggesting moving toward an emancipatory framework that brings politics to design while, at the same time, bearing in mind that AI is not to be treated as an inevitability. As a research community, we must focus on the repressive power dynamics exacerbated by AI and address challenges facing the vulnerable groups seldom heard, despite the fact that they are the ones most negatively affected by AI initiatives.
A Trillion-Dollar Industry Deserves a Better Engine — Renaissance Philanthropy – A brighter future for all through science, technology, and innovation
With a new wave of philanthropic capital on the horizon, the most pressing binding constraint on that capital won't be the will to give it away; it will be the operational capacity to do so well.
Moral Deskilling and Upskilling in a New Machine Age: Reflections on the Ambiguous Future of Character
This paper explores the ambiguous impact of new information and communications technologies (ICTs) on the cultivation of moral skills in human beings. Just as twentieth century advances in machine automation resulted in the economic devaluation of practical knowledge and skillsets historically cultivated by machinists, artisans, and other highly trained workers (Braverman 1974), while also driving the cultivation of new skills in a variety of engineering and white collar occupations, ICTs are also recognized as potential causes of a complex pattern of economic deskilling, reskilling, and upskilling. In this paper, I adapt the conceptual apparatus of sociological debates over economic deskilling to illuminate a different potential for technological deskilling/upskilling, namely the ability of ICTs to contribute to the moral deskilling of human users, a potential that exists alongside rich but currently underrealized possibilities for moral reskilling and/or upskilling. I flesh out this general hypothesis by means of examples involving automated weapons technology, new media practices, and social robotics. I conclude that since moral skills are essential prerequisites for the effective development of practical wisdom and virtuous character, and since market and cultural forces are not presently aligned to bring about the more salutary of the ambiguous potentials presented here, the future shape of these developments warrants our close attention—and perhaps active intervention.
Purpose Ventures - Purpose
Conventional VC is often at odds with the ambitions of purpose-driven entrepreneurs and their founding values and missions. These founders are interested in more than growth for growth’s sake. They want to build lasting, impactful businesses and preserve their mission in the future.
Video Game Monetization | The Paper Pilot
The Paper Pilot's digital garden of thoughts on philosophy, politics, and sociology
Investor money vs. public interest: did Google fail to build a non-evil platform?
Don’t be evil. That was Google’s official motto, until recently.
Preface | The World After Capital
Since publishing the previous version of The World After Capital, I have met with people across the political spectrum to discuss the ideas from the book. When I present these in person, I emphasize that the ideas are neither left nor right but forward (credit to Scott Santens who first used this phrase about Universal Basic Income). My writing, however, at times has alienated readers who identify as being more on the right. In this new edition, I am therefore making an extra effort to emphasize how both my diagnosis of where we are at and my suggestions for how to move forward do not map onto the existing political divides. Instead this is a new way of understanding our challenges and opportunities that can be the basis for movements and parties that are not trapped in Industrial Age ideology.
How Loomio raised ethical investment without mission drift
The last few years have been quite a journey for Loomio. This is a story about navigating the world of startup financing to find ethical investment that…
"I think thinking about it in terms of new institutions is really a useful way to think about it. It's funny for me as a VC, because I think a lot of this stuff will and even goes for us to say should be illegible to venture capital in a lot of ways." - @eclecticcapital.bsky.social
The Economics of Sovereign Media: A Roadmap for AT Protocol | ATmosphereConf VODs
atmosphereconf-vods.wisp.place