There are a few background questions you aren’t addressing here:
What is the value of joining a tribe? How difficult is it to create positive change as a solo operator vs as part of a group?
How easy is it to change a tribe from the inside? If you had a blueprint for fixing the flaws you see with the Society of Friends, how much effort would it take to shift Quaker culture?
How easy is it to create a new tribe from scratch? Does it get easier if you try to create a subculture within an existing tribe, e.g. a “Transhumanist Quakers” subculture?
The main nice thing about it—by reputation, I haven’t gone—is that it brings engineers and hippies together *at all*.
This doesn’t seem super remarkable to me. There’s a lot of hippie/engineer crossover in the Bay Area. Caltech undergrad culture is also strongly at the intersection of hippie+nerd. These are just the examples I’m personally familiar with.
You should check out noisebridge, I’ve met one of the founders Mitch Altman and he fits the bill. I’ve not been to San Fran so I can’t comment on the hippie-ness of the other hackerspaces,
Can attest that noisebridge, and the hacker culture in general, is quite strongly in that intersection. I’ve spent a good chunk of my early and late teens in that community and benefited a lot from it (in my case the german hacker community, but the culture seems to be quite similar across country boundaries)
There are a few background questions you aren’t addressing here:
What is the value of joining a tribe? How difficult is it to create positive change as a solo operator vs as part of a group?
How easy is it to change a tribe from the inside? If you had a blueprint for fixing the flaws you see with the Society of Friends, how much effort would it take to shift Quaker culture?
How easy is it to create a new tribe from scratch? Does it get easier if you try to create a subculture within an existing tribe, e.g. a “Transhumanist Quakers” subculture?
This doesn’t seem super remarkable to me. There’s a lot of hippie/engineer crossover in the Bay Area. Caltech undergrad culture is also strongly at the intersection of hippie+nerd. These are just the examples I’m personally familiar with.
What are three examples of this?
You should check out noisebridge, I’ve met one of the founders Mitch Altman and he fits the bill. I’ve not been to San Fran so I can’t comment on the hippie-ness of the other hackerspaces,
Can attest that noisebridge, and the hacker culture in general, is quite strongly in that intersection. I’ve spent a good chunk of my early and late teens in that community and benefited a lot from it (in my case the german hacker community, but the culture seems to be quite similar across country boundaries)