The World Needs Noisebridge
We must change our behavior to address this crisis and minimize loss of life. We must take extreme precautions.
But many of my young, able-minded, able-bodied cohorts see what’s happening as a call to “Netflix and Chill”.
I believe this is the wrong response.
Most buildings are built to keep the energy, the heat, in. But some places like Lighthouses operate on the opposite paradigm. There purpose is to shine light outward. I believe Noisebridge is one such place. We Make Noise.
If we can run Hackathons, ship software and 3D print toys we can take action to save lives.
With great power comes great responsibility. We are exceptionally skilled. Those skills need to be put to work. Noisebridge has supernormal resources— now is not the time for them to lie fallow.
Now is the time for the hacker brain trust to kick into action to lead in stymieing the crisis and preparing to put things back together again once the crisis subsides.
I do not know about building codes. I do know that Noisebridge has operated safely, successfully, fruitfully in its current location for more than a decade.
Some examples of Noisebridge’s capacities:
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We are literally growing food at Noisebridge right now. We can make this available to the hungry in a safe way. This is not the thing we want to cut off while people are clearing out grocery stores, global supply chains have been disrupted, people are worried about food security. This is the sort of thing we need to double up on.
We need to keep the solutions flowing! -
Essential Communications infrastructure.
Now would be the worse time for an outage of essential communication infrastructure. Noisebridge has exceptional capacity to run essential and back up communications infrastructure. Members of the NB community are captaining connectivity response around the world. Not at NB of all places? -
Emergency Production capacity:
Requests have already come in for Noisebridge to produce emergency medical supplies to abate shortages. Some people are like “Oh no! there’s not enough life saving equipment.” Other people the world over are collaborating on responding to shortages. What do you think the appropriate response for Noisebridge with its toolset and Maven Makers? Noisebridge has exceptional capacity to respond and abate shortages.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/670932227050506/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dm4mb/people-are-trying-to-make-diy-ventilators-to-meet-coronavirus-demand
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/03/14/814121891/why-even-a-huge-medical-stockpile-will-be-of-limited-use-against-covid-19 -
Computational Resources
@pyconaut set up computers to contribute to COVID protein folding research. All of Noisbridge’s available computational resources should be put to work. -
Essential Repairs
Many essential infrastructure workers—and doctors—and poor people commute to work and grocery stores via bike. If you don’t have a car, biking is ideal compared to public transit and lyft/uber for social distancing. This is not theoretical: Almost all the bike shops in the City are closed. People can repair bikes for free at Noisebridge. By contrast I spoke to an SF bikeshop owner: Healthcare company Kaiser requested that he tune up their entire fleet because of this crisis. Guess what? His bike shop is closed— he is in Tahoe. That’s one way to respond to a crisis. Few places have capacity like Noisebridge for people to make essential repairs. Especially for those who can’t afford a makerspace membership! -
Essential Civic Vigour
The crisis has extended far beyond the biological effects of the virus itself. US Primary Elections have been derailed. The General Election could be delayed. Is the country in tip-top health right now? Does it have enough civic vigor to resist blow after blow? Trump declaring martial law is a specter on the horizon. The economy is trembling, many are hurting.
“History teaches that our government is most prone to committing abuses in times of crisis.”
I believe as anarchists we provide an essential social function. We are small and few in number but like canaries in a coal mine, salt in a soup, we can make the determining difference for the whole. Now is the time to amp up civic vigilance to exceptional levels— not to dial it back.
"If there are 10 people in a room and nine agree, the role of the tenth is to disagree and point out flaws in whatever decision the group has reached."The 10th Man must disagree."
We are the 10th Man. We must not kill the 10th Man.
https://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2017/05/21/how-israeli-intelligence-failures-led-to-a-devils-advocate-role.html
https://twitter.com/gladstein/status/1239756950591561729?s=20
https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1238578958339379202?s=20
I believe now would be a catastrophic time to Consense on moving. Is now the time that Noisebridge can give due consideration to one of the most consequential decisions in its history?
Life on planet Earth is being disrupted. It’s the wrong time for the Noisebridge community to take what could be one of the most disruptive actions in its history.
A NB healthcare worker had to make an emergency run to Noisebridge in order to get something needed to do his job(COVID response) which was left in a locker at Noisebridge. Imagine if you were homeless and storing cash or your only vital asset in a locker at Noisebridge and you found that the space was abruptly closed.
We should be completely focused on crisis response until the dust settles. Evictions and foreclosures are being halted across the country.
I am researching getting official essential infrastructure designation.
This task is too big for me alone. I am coordinating crisis response in my neighborhood from the CryptoCastle. And across the crypto communities I run around the country.
We need to step up to serve the World, not couch out. We need to kick into action and lead in stymieing the crisis and preparing to put things back together again once the crisis subsides. We need to make noise.
