# Hi, I'm [Seb the Canadian](https://sebthecanadian.ca). ![[IMG_1349.jpg]] > [!link]- Links [GitHub](https://github.com/Seb-the-Canadian) [My Homepage](https://sebthecanadian.ca) I live near [Toronto, ON](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto) with my partner, daughter, and two cats who were kind of named after a [Paul Simon song](https://open.spotify.com/track/0qxYx4F3vm1AOnfux6dDxP?si=42c5198c418c4468). I spend my days working in [[data culture]] and communications at a Canadian credit union, but the questions that really drive me reach beyond any single role: How do we preserve and share what matters? How do new technologies like AI reshape the fundamental ways we live and think together? And perhaps most importantly — how do we design systems that amplify human wisdom rather than replace it? This site is where those threads weave together. It's part professional workshop, part contemplative practice. It's space where I test emerging ideas, sketch frameworks for complex problems, and explore what I've come to call _[[Cognitive Architecture]]_: the intentional design of systems that help humans and machines think in partnership - amplifying, not replacing, human thought and cultivating the conditions for wisdom. Here you will find are honest reflections, working experiments, and tools still taking shape. There will often be fragments of a larger practice of making sense of a world accelerating beyond our familiar rhythms, while holding fast to what makes us distinctly, irreplaceably human. Some of the things I'll write here will look much more like [[The Shed|"corporate tools" or frameworks you might want to try yourself]]. Other things I write here will be about books, TV shows, music, and movies - the stuff that we all enjoy but I've always found connects to the ways that we talk, think, and relate to one another. More often than not, the things I write here will be interwoven bits of philosophy, meeting cultural commentary, meeting things I don't totally understand yet - and that's the point. ## How I Think about Technology (for now) --- I believe technology should amplify human capacity for wisdom, connection, and flourishing. My approach emphasizes: - **Systems thinking** over isolated solutions - **Ethical reflection** alongside technical implementation - **Knowledge** as a _means_ not an _end_ - **Community knowledge** over individual expertise - **Sustainable practices** over optimization for its own sake - **[[social infrastructure|Social Infrastructure]]** can be digital, too - **Centring humanity** in AI Collaboration: - The technology is powerful, but the most interesting questions are about how we work with it while staying ourselves. Where AI is concerned, this space explores questions like: - How do we maintain human judgment while leveraging artificial intelligence? - What does sustainable innovation actually look like? - How do we honour both technical possibility and the messy reality of how people work? ### What I like to Read --- I've always been a “reader”, but I went through a long stint where I didn’t do as much reading as I did when I was a kid. In a strange trick of fate, that shifted after I had a kid and now I’ve picked up the bug again in a real way. I'll occasionally put some updates here, or it will be obvious through my writing what's been on my mind, but the easiest way to see what I'm reading is to checkout my page on [The StoryGraph](https://is.gd/wEkTUl). *_The StoryGraph is an alternative to GoodReads (which is owned by [Jeffrey](https://open.spotify.com/track/5aszL9hl6SBzFNsOvw8u8w?si=c59d5f1b770b45c8)) and I love supporting cool data projects._ ## Some Bigger Questions --- In an attempt to practice my own [[Cognitive Architecture]] and build a foundation in curiosity these are themes and questions I'm beginning to curate a reading list around. If things go the way I expect (which they probably won't at least in some ways) these will also be questions that show up in [[The Grove]]. --- ![[Questions & Queries]] ### Site Inspiration --- ![[Digital Gardens of the interwebs (a very narrow cross-section).]] ---