What we’re about
This is a group for those in the Sacramento area who like to discuss politics and philosophy. We have all had different experiences in life, but we always find that political issues are very relevant to our lives and we want to discuss these issues with others. These days, political discussions are sometimes constructive, but unfortunately they often become hostile when people with differing views are in the same room. It is important for us all to hear views other than our own from time to time, and there has to be a way to have honest, thoughtful discussions on issues important to our lives while keeping the discussion calm and polite. In this discussion group, we try to avoid being overly biased when presenting opinions and we will also work to avoid use of fallacies in making points. We expect that there will be differences of opinion, but as long as we keep a philosophical mindset these discussions should not descend into hostility. Many of us also like to discuss philosophical topics and we will have time for this as well and we will probably find that most philosophical concepts have real-world applications, including political. So this discussion group will hover between these two subjects, and we might even at times focus on other subjects as well.
Upcoming events
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Ontological Design
Ettores European Bakery, 2376 Fair Oaks Blvd., Sacramento, CA, USThe urgency of learning to design technology ontologically cannot be overstated in our current moment. Building on Willis's foundational insight that design is ontological—that we design our tools and they in turn design us—we face a critical juncture where this reciprocal relationship has intensified exponentially. As Fraga argues, the degree and depth of technological influence on human being today is unprecedented, fundamentally reconstituting not just how we live but what we are. Flores's work on language and human understanding further illuminates how our technological systems reshape the very possibilities of human existence. The techno-feudalist trend emerging globally—where platform monopolies, algorithmic governance, and data extraction increasingly determine the conditions of possibility for human life—represents not merely economic exploitation but ontological colonization. We are being designed by systems optimized for capital accumulation rather than human flourishing.
The feedback loop Willis and Fraga describe has accelerated beyond recognition: AI systems, social media platforms, and digital infrastructures now shape consciousness, attention, relationships, and selfhood with unprecedented speed and scale. Flores's emphasis on the constitutive role of technological practices in human understanding reveals that these are not neutral tools we simply use, but world-disclosing systems that fundamentally alter what it means to be human. When algorithms curate our information environments, when platforms mediate our social bonds, when AI systems make decisions about our lives, we are not simply being served by technology—we are being constituted by it. The techno-feudal lords of Silicon Valley and their governmental partners understand ontological design perfectly; they simply deploy it for their own purposes.
Fraga's rallying cry—"design or be designed"—is thus not hyperbole but a survival imperative. If we do not consciously engage in designing ourselves and our technological worlds, we surrender our ontological autonomy to those who will design us according to their interests. This is not a call to reject technology but to reclaim it as a practice of freedom and self-determination. Following Flores, we must learn to design systems that open rather than foreclose human possibilities, that enhance rather than diminish our capacity for meaningful action. The stakes could not be higher: our very being as humans capable of self-authorship hangs in the balance.
https://open.substack.com/pub/ogrose/p/call-of-design3 attendees
Past events
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