In a talk with an historian of philanthropy the other day, he told me
how early 20th century philanthropy was driven by a metaphor derived
from the germ theory of disease, very new and exciting just then. Thus
the most forward-thinking philanthropists expressed ambitions to
"cure" evil at its source; to "cure social ills," to get at root
causes, to prevent the spread of social ills.
In the early 21st century, surely the right metaphor is complexity.
How would such a metaphor be applied? How would institutional
philanthropy organize itself to take advantage of what we now know
about complex systems?
Pamela
"To measure the abundance of positrons in cosmic rays, the team used
data from the instrument PAMELA (Payload for Antimatter Matter
Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics), which launched aboard a
Russian satellite in June 2006. Unlike previous antimatter-hunting
instruments, PAMELA can pinpoint not just the type of incoming
particle but also its energy."
WIRED Science
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