TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION · DELIBERATE

The Technology Commission

A People's Commission on Technology and the American Future

Citizens shaping the technology that is shaping America.

​

First public inquiry: Work, Dignity, and the AI Transition

​

What would it mean to build an AI future in which technological progress increases human flourishing and strengthens democratic self-government?

 

An honest starting point

This is not an announcement of completed authority — it's an invitation to help build that authority honestly. The Technology Commission began with one citizen's conviction that democracy must develop the capacity to understand and govern the technologies reorganizing society. It is independent and non-governmental, with no regulatory or investigative authority, and it does not yet claim that a fully constituted body speaks for the public. Its legitimacy must be earned through who participates, how evidence is handled, how disagreement is protected, and how conclusions are reached.

Why begin with work?

Work is the Commission's doorway into the AI transition — not its boundary. Artificial intelligence may extend human capacity and return time to judgment, creativity, relationship, and care. It may also eliminate tasks and occupations, change career pathways, redistribute bargaining power, and leave people less secure. Work touches five things at once: income (material security), identity (who people understand themselves to be), community (the relationships work connects us to), citizenship (the independence that makes democratic participation possible), and meaning (the sense that effort and care matter to others).

Where should I begin?

You do not need to master artificial intelligence before participating.

If you have five minutes — Watch the overview: meet the Commission, understand why it exists, and see how a first-time visitor can participate.

If you want the larger story — Read the Orientation: the opportunities, uncertainties, choices, and possible futures created by the AI transition.

If one proposal concerns you — Choose a Citizen Brief: examine a practical response involving jobs, income, worker voice, shared gains, care, or civic contribution.

If you're ready to participate — Join a deliberation: consider a proposal, contribute experience, answer citizen questions, or take part in a Commission conversation.

How the Commission works

The Commission converts public concern into a repeatable civic process, organized as five connected workstreams:

• Understand — A common foundation without requiring technical specialization: the Civic Curriculum, Citizen Briefs, and explanatory maps.

• Deliberate — Structured encounters that require participants to consider tradeoffs, revise claims, and represent competing arguments fairly — public sessions, testimony, citizen panels, and People's Conferences.

• Evaluate — Public standards for judging whether responses actually advance human flourishing, using the Salutogenic Standard and the child-cohort test below.

• Act — Converting findings into candidate questions, accountability scorecards, and public tools.

• Build — Developing and testing the policies and institutions capable of producing better outcomes, including a Policy Lab and proposals like the American Humanity Trust (a proposal for deliberation, not an adopted position).

(On the Wix site specifically, these five map onto the sitewide Understand / Deliberate / Act structure — Evaluate and Build are elaborations within Act, not separate top-level sections, to stay consistent with how every other initiative is organized.)

The Salutogenic Standard

The Commission evaluates AI through a salutogenic framework — an inquiry into what creates health, resilience, and human flourishing, not only what prevents harm.

• Comprehensibility — Can people understand what's happening, how decisions are made, and who's responsible?

• Manageability — Do people have the resources, skills, security, and support to navigate the change?

• Meaningfulness — Does the change preserve or expand purpose, contribution, and belonging?

• Agency and fairness — Can affected people influence decisions, contest errors, and participate in the benefits?

• Democratic capacity — Does the response strengthen public knowledge, participation, and institutional accountability?

The standard is applied symmetrically: it should identify when AI weakens human capability, and recognize just as clearly when it strengthens it.

The National Moonshot Class: five children, five Americas

Public discussion about AI quickly becomes abstract. The Commission uses composite children — not predictions of individual lives, but a shared civic casebook — to keep a human scale: Liam in Somerset, Pennsylvania (post-industrial and rural opportunity); Amare in Chicago (algorithmic bias and urban inequality); Emma in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts (a well-supported community, and what it takes to extend that same support elsewhere); Eva in Tompkinsville, Kentucky (rural healthcare and connectivity); and Mateo in San Antonio (language access and mixed-status family life). Every major proposal should be able to answer: what conditions will this create for a child entering adulthood in the world we're building now?

(The National Moonshot Class covers general newborn and early-childhood topics across First 1,000 Days and Technology Commission alike. A separate, local Montgomery County Moonshot Class — Grace, Jaylen, Sofia, Aiden, Amara, and Riley — belongs specifically to Thrive in Montco PA.)

[Meet the National Moonshot Class →]

Follow the work as it develops

A proposal is not a public finding, and a prototype is not a finished tool. Every product is labeled honestly:

• In development — Civic Curriculum for the AI Age; Citizen Briefs on AI and Work; AI Policy and Representative Tracker

• Forming — Citizen Listening and Deliberation

• Proposed / Concept — People's Conference on AI and Work; Post-Labor Abundance Working Group

From Moonshot Press

• Founding essay: The People's Commission on Technology and the American Future →

• The first act: [If You Believed AI Could Remake American Life, What Would You Do? →]

• The larger project: Moonshot Press: An Introduction

Who belongs here?

Expertise is welcome. It is not required. A worker concerned about a livelihood. A worker discovering new possibilities through AI. A parent thinking about a child's future. An educator deciding what people need to learn. An employer introducing AI into a workplace. A technologist who wants innovation to serve more people. A community leader preparing for economic change. A citizen who believes democracy should help shape technology.

Built in public, accountable in public

Artificial intelligence may assist with research, synthesis, questioning, drafting, and design. Human beings remain responsible for evidence selection, editorial judgment, civic commitments, and final decisions. Funding sources, partnerships, and material conflicts of interest will be disclosed. No candidate endorsements. Public access to findings, dissent, and corrections.

Start with one hour

1. Read one Citizen Brief.

2. Describe one change you have observed.

3. Write one public question.

4. Share it with one person or institution.

5. Follow the response and what happens next.

[Join the Technology Commission →]