This Sewing Machine Powers AI

I am very for technological progress societally—yes, let’s cure the diseases and automate the cars and advance scientific understanding. But I am extremely dissatisfied with it personally—I think it’s eroded social life with the social media and the scrolling and the phones on every table, eyes flicking across the screens like cigarettes we can’t quit.

Our technological innovation should get us a more beautiful offline life, not a screen-addicted online one.

It is this juxtaposition that I explore in my new essay series and print pamphlet, titled “This Sewing Machine Powers AI.”

I’m grateful to the founding patron of this project, Mozilla Foundation, and their VP of Growth, Ziyaad Bhorat, who wrote the foreword to the series. The first piece, as well as one other, will be syndicated on their blog Nothing Personal. I am also grateful to Foresight Institute, who served as a patron with Beatrice Erkers penning a reflection for our digital and print pamphlet. A special thank you to Emiliano Raspante who designed our cover illustration and to Patricia Faggi who designed the print pamphlet. And my deep gratitude to Max Park, who served as my muse for this issue and designed the sewing machine that inspired my cover as well as the subject of my first essay.

And thank you, most of all, for reading and contributing to this media ecosystem imagining a better future.

Elle Griffin