flâneur

Edge Esmeralda, a summer camp for techies, invades Sonoma town

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Last week, at an ice cream social for tech founders in Healdsburg, a small, sticky child interrupted a group discussion to make a request. While the adults were talking about inducing lucid dreaming via electroencephalography headsets, the child tugged on one of the attendees, Lawrence Wang, asking him to play a jumping game. Wang smiled, shrugged, and hopped from foot to foot, to the child’s delight. Wang, the Oakland-based CEO of Thyself.ai, an AI-voice coach for self-reflection, enjoyed the moment—kids are a novelty at tech events. Plus, after a long day spent brainstorming visions of machine consciousness and human-AI cooperation, some human-to-human interaction was welcome. The collision of serious tech ideas and unserious family camp moments is exactly what the creators of Edge Esmeralda were hoping for. The month-long pop-up city designed “for people building the future” has descended on the bougie wine country town this June, playing host to roughly 700 adults—and a good number

ADVERTISEMENT Skip to main content Culture Hackers on holiday: They’re building the city of the future from a summer camp in Sonoma At the monthlong Edge Esmeralda in Healdsburg, biotech meets blockchains meets blood draws. Attendees sunbathe after enjoying a cold plunge during Edge Esmeralda in Healdsburg. | Source: Courtesy Telamon Ardavanis By Zara Stone Tech Culture Reporter Published Jun. 19, 2024 at 5:00am Share Share Copy link to this article Email (opens in new tab) Twitter (opens in new tab) Bluesky (opens in new tab) Facebook (opens in new tab) LinkedIn (opens in new tab) Telegram (o

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