We’re bringing 25 carefully selected builders, artists, scientists, and activists to the Andes for a 10-day sprint to design and create human-aligned technologies. Up to $10K in HUMN grants will support the most promising projects that emerge from the residency. Guided by d/acc and the Covenant of Humanistic Technologies, ideas will become prototypes; and prototypes will become commitments to a brighter future for HUMNs.
Maybe it's the altitude, or the way vast landscapes put humankind into perspective, but there’s just something about mountains that makes you think differently. Or maybe it's simply that when you gather hundreds of builders, researchers, and dreamers at the edge of the world, something new becomes possible.
This November, we're bringing that possibility to life.
A 10-Day Experiment in Human-Aligned Technology
From November 5-15, 2025, human.tech and Universal Profiles are co-hosting an intimate 10-day residency for 25 participants at Edge City Patagonia, a month-long popup village in San Martín de los Andes, Argentina. We've created a dedicated space where aligned builders can live, work, and create together against the backdrop of crystal lakes and snow-capped Andean peaks.
This isn't another tech conference . This is an experiment in building the future we actually want to live in - a future where technology serves humanity, not the other way around.
The Vision: Differential Acceleration in Action
At the heart of this residency lies a philosophy known as d/acc — defensive, decentralized, or differential acceleration. Inspired by Nick Bostrom’s 2002 paper on differential technological development, d/acc argues that we should accelerate technologies that protect humanity while slowing or constraining those that create asymmetric risk. It emerged as a counter to the unbounded techno-capital accelerationism associated with thinkers like Nick Land, offering a path to progress that is safe, humane, and aligned with long-term flourishing.
Most people first encountered d/acc through Vitalik Buterin’s 2024 essay, which brought the idea into mainstream Web3 and tech circles. In that piece, Vitalik extends Nick Bostrom’s core insight: progress should be accelerated in directions that increase human safety, resilience, and empowerment, and slowed where it amplifies catastrophic risk or centralized control.
Vitalik frames d/acc as a design philosophy for the future of technology. He proposes applying it across two broad domains:
The world of bits - with a focus on strengthening cryptography, cyber-security, privacy-preserving systems, and AI alignment.
The world of atoms - at both micro and macro scales, covering fields from biosecurity and nanotech to energy resilience and global conflict deterrence.
Under this lens, d/acc encourages technologies such as:
resilient and decentralized energy systems to reduce geopolitical fragility
proactive bio-defense and early pathogen detection to prevent pandemics
cryptographic tools and secure computation that empower individuals over institutions
In short, d/acc makes the case to accelerate what protects and empowers humanity; constrain what destabilizes or concentrates power.
Vitalik’s reframing of d/acc into actionable, meaningful goals helps dispel the idea that “progress” must be synonymous with techno-accelerationism at all costs. It re-anchors innovation in optimism, curiosity, and the pursuit of technologies that make humanity safer, freer, and more capable. This resonates deeply with our philosophy, and forms the backbone of the residency curriculum.
The human.tech residency embraces this constructive, human-aligned techno-optimism and channels it into tangible outcomes with real d/acc applications. Our focus is on designing and prototyping technologies that embed digital rights and human agency. To accelerate this work, up to $10,000 in HUMN token grant awards will be provided to support high-potential research and development.
Residents will participate in guided study groups, workshops, and design sessions that support both theoretical grounding and hands-on creation. The Covenant of Human-Aligned Technologies, human.tech’s north star for ethical, resilient innovation, will serve as a core framework throughout the program, shaping discourse, design principles, and project direction.
The Covenant sets out core design principles for embedding digital rights into technology through cryptography and protocol design. It draws from cybernetic principles of sense → evaluate → adapt to ensure systems remain human-aligned, resilient, and self-correcting in decentralized environments.
The artifacts created in response to the Covenant act as seed patterns for tangible innovations: privacy tools resistant to coercion or bad-faith actors, responsible neurotechnology, enforceable digital property rights, digital personhood to distinguish humans from bots, and other critical public-goods technologies.
The Covenant is a philosophical anchor for tech innovation, rejecting growth-at-any-cost nihilism and championing a form of acceleration that uplifts humanity. Here, “progress” is defined as the enhancement and long-term protection of life, dignity, and agency for all humans and living systems on the planet.
What We're Building Together
This residency is organized around five thematic tracks. Each track represents a vital frontier where technology, human rights, and societal well-being intersect. These tracks offer starting points for exploration, collaboration, and prototyping:
Argentina Local Impact - Designing solutions rooted in local context that strengthen infrastructure, education, cultural resilience, and economic empowerment, while serving as models that can scale globally.
DeSci & Neurotech - Advancing open, community-driven science and responsible neurotechnology that expands human potential and protects cognitive sovereignty.
AI/Machine Learning for Human Benefit - Building transparent, accountable AI systems that uplift communities, enable informed agency, and align with human-centric values.
Privacy & Security - Developing protocols, tools, and infrastructure that safeguard digital autonomy, enable secure authentication, and ensure privacy-preserving verification by design.
Civic Tech & Governance - Creating and testing governance models, coordination mechanisms, and civic tools that strengthen trust, participation, and collective decision-making.
These tracks reflect areas of active exploration within our community; yet they are not boundaries. }Residents are encouraged to pioneer new domains and chart unexplored paths where the Covenant’s principles can guide meaningful, world-shaping innovation.
The Work
Across ten days, a cohort of ~25 builders, researchers, artists, and stewards will collaborate to turn philosophy into practice. Together, participants will:
📌 Engage in deep-work sessions and collaborative sprints to prototype ideas into tangible outputs.
📌 Participate in workshops on governance, design, cryptography, and culture that bridge theory, policy, and hands-on application.
📌 Identify Argentina-based opportunities to apply decentralized approaches to local challenges.
📌 Develop new methods, tools, and artistic expressions for human-aligned technologies.
📌 Expand infrastructure and practices for popup city movements and regenerative cultural experimentation.
📌 Produce essays, media, and creative works that contribute to the Covenant of Human-Aligned Technologies.
📌 Build the d/acc community IRL- moving from conversation to collaboration, from philosophy to fellowship.
The residency culminates in a final showcase, where promising work may qualify for HUMN token grant awards to continue beyond Patagonia.
Grant Tiers
Grant submissions may be multi-media—ranging from essays and mathematical analyses to art, photography, video, experiments, or software. Awards are offered in three tiers:
Tier 1: Research Exploration — $1,000 HUMN
Exploratory research or reflective work that deepens understanding of residency themes.
Examples:
• A synthesis of key readings
• An essay response to a Covenant principle
• A photographic or audio-visual study of a core theme
Tier 2: Proof of Concept — $3,000 HUMN
A demonstrated application, method, experiment, or creative process that tests an idea in practice.
Examples:
• A prototype or documented process that humanizes privacy-preserving portraits
• Pseudocode + analysis modeling defensive vs. offensive tech acceleration scenarios
Tier 3: Project Proposal — $10,000 HUMN
An extended plan that builds on a Proof of Concept and outlines development, research, or deployment beyond the residency.
Examples:
• A hardware or software tool built using Covenant principles
• An app that enables user-owned data and consent-based sharing
• A study on developer attitudes and privacy design practices
• A photographic expedition illustrating Covenant principles in real-world context
This is where conversations become commitments, and prototypes begin to seed movements.
Why Argentina? Why Now?
San Martín de los Andes isn't just beautiful, it's also unexpectedly connected. The town has its own airport (just two hours from Buenos Aires), solid infrastructure, and a growing tech scene anchored by BIT Cotesma, a public innovation hub. Some even call it the Silicon Valley of Patagonia.
But beyond infrastructure, there's something else: urgency and opportunity. With a rich and challenging history building a nation on the edge of the New World. Argentina is a leader for innovation in civics and social systems. Its leadership stems from its readiness to experiment in all areas from: economic experimentation, digital identity challenges, to questions of sovereignty and access. It's a place where abstract crypto promises meet real-world needs. And we believe it’s the best place to build solutions that must work for everyone, everywhere – not just for the privileged.
San Martín was specifically chosen because of its remoteness. It is a small city grounded in nature, where we can be focused on our earthly selves, and where we are unencumbered to build systems that are not limited by existing power structures and ways of thinking.
Join Us, and Stay Tuned
This is just the beginning of the story. After the residency concludes, we'll be publishing a follow-up blog post to share our learnings, showcase what was created, and document the insights that emerge when Covenant principles meet real-world challenges. The projects, partnerships, and prototypes that come out of these ten days will be part of the permanent record - proof points that another way of building is not just possible, but practical.
If you want to be part of writing that next chapter with us, here's how to get involved.
📜 Shape the Covenant: Visit manifest.human.tech to read the Covenant, contribute your ideas through art, research, letters, or creative work, and join the bi-weekly community calls.
👉 Follow Us: Follow us on X, for live streams, updates and first looks.
🌐 Learn More: human.tech | Edge City Patagonia
