Week 3 Recap
A closer look at urban systems, alternative education, regenerative farming, and neurotech
It’s not too late to join us for Week 4! Day and weeklong passes are available here.
We’re hosting a closing ceremony on Friday, June 20th at Hoot Owl Vineyards. RSVP here.
Week 3 brought together builders of cities, schools, tools, and food systems to explore how we live and grow together.
Across four tracks: Cities of Tomorrow, Edgeucation, AgTech, & the Neurotech Summit, we explored questions of sustainability, pedagogy, food systems, and emerging interfaces between brains and machines.
Here’s a closer look into what’s unfolded:
Programming Highlights
Audrey Tang joined us for a fireside chat on digital democracy, plurality, and the civic potential of communities like Edge City.
Arielle Zuckerberg, Avichal Garg, and Tiago Forte hosted a panel on the trade-offs, dreams, and decisions behind alternative education today.
Protocol Labs hosted a pitch day with leaders in BCI, neural augmentation, and neuro-AI exploring new frontiers of human experience, funding three projects on the spot.
Austin Tunnell offered a roadmap for building human-scaled neighborhoods, drawing from history, policy, and craft to imagine the next Florence.
Alex Zhang shared lessons from Powder Mountain on how real estate, hospitality, and art can shape long-term community life.
Stella Delp screened Abundance: The Farmlink Story and led a Q&A on Gen Z organizing and the future of food justice.
Occidental Arts & Ecology Center welcomed us for a hands-on field trip into 30 years of regenerative agriculture and land stewardship.
Experiment Highlights
Harmonica tested a new format for structured, async dialogue using AI facilitation and tools like Polis, sparking a conversation on what multigenerational flourishing really means.
Muse AI is building a memory bank to capture conversations, people, and moments from the village, exploring how shared memory can support deeper connection and continuity.
Ante launched an onchain crowdfunding experiment to support our next popup village in Patagonia, inviting residents to stake crypto behind collective commitments.
Community Highlights
Orbing has taken off across the village after the World Foundation brought an ORB (a shiny sphere that scans your face to create a unique digital ID), culminating in a live fireside chat with Timour and the team.
10-Year Old Billy’s Minecraft internship recruited adult residents to become his interns for an hour, helping him build whatever he wanted to build in Minecraft (it was epic).
The Clearwater Ranch picnic brought together future neighbors of Esmeralda of all ages and abilities for a sunny afternoon of food and fun.
Marcus Shelby, director of the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, dropped by for a blues jam in the Loft and shared his knowledge on the history, theory and roots of the Blues.
Village Life
The Jenner beach adventure brought a crew out to the coast for live music, beach volleyball, and an impromptu jam session by the sea.
Pomodoros have become a daily ritual, with residents gathering in clusters to cowork in 25-minute sprints with 5-minute breaks.
Village DJs are multiplying fast, this week saw spontaneous sets in the yoga studio, the garage, kitchens, and even the theater.
What’s Next
Week 4: Emergent Futures (June 15–22) is the final chapter of Edge Esmeralda 2025. Demo Days begin tomorrow and continue all week, with residents showcasing projects across neurotech, AI, hard tech, governance, and more.
We’ll close it all out on Friday, June 20 with a Closing Ceremony at Hoot Owl Creek Vineyards, featuring music, installations, and reflections from the month.
We’d love to see you here!
—The Edge Esmeralda Team ☀️