https://resonantcomputing.org/ Updated Nov 18, 2025 The Resonant Computing Manifesto Resonant Computing Artwork There's a feeling you get in the presence of beautiful buildings and bustling courtyards. A sense that these spaces are inviting you to slow down, deepen your attention, and be a bit more human. What if our software could do the same? --------------------------------------------------------------------- We shape our environments, and thereafter they shape us. Great technology does more than solve problems. It weaves itself into the world we inhabit. At its best, it can expand our capacity, our connectedness, our sense of what's possible. Technology can bring out the best in us. Our current technological landscape, however, does the opposite. Feeds engineered to hijack attention and keep us scrolling, leaving a trail of anxiety and atomization in their wake. Digital platforms that increasingly mediate our access to transportation, work, food, dating, commerce, entertainment--while routinely draining the depth and warmth from everything they touch. For all its grandiose promises, modern tech often leaves us feeling alienated, ever more distant from who we want to be. The people who build these products aren't bad or evil. Most of us got into tech with an earnest desire to leave the world better than we found it. But the incentives and cultural norms of the tech industry have coalesced around the logic of hyper-scale. It's become monolithic, magnetic, all-encompassing--an environment that shapes all who step foot there. While the business results are undeniable, so too are the downstream effects on humanity. With the emergence of artificial intelligence, we stand at a crossroads. This technology holds genuine promise. It could just as easily pour gasoline on existing problems. If we continue to sleepwalk down the path of hyper-scale and centralization, future generations are sure to inherit a world far more dystopian than our own. But there is another path opening before us. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Christopher Alexander spent his career exploring why some built environments deaden us, while others leave us feeling more human, more at home in the world. His work centered around the "quality without a name," this intuitive knowing that a place or an architectural element is in tune with life. By learning to recognize this quality, he argued, and constructing a building in dialogue with it, we could reliably create environments that enliven us. We call this quality resonance. It's the experience of encountering something that speaks to our deeper values. It's a spark of recognition, a sense that we're being invited to lean in, to participate. Unlike the digital junk food of the day, the more we engage with what resonates, the more we're left feeling nourished, grateful, alive. As individuals, following the breadcrumbs of resonance helps us build meaningful lives. As communities, companies, and societies, cultivating shared resonance helps us break away from perverse incentives, and play positive-sum infinite games together. For decades, technology has required standardized solutions to complex human problems. In order to scale software, you had to build for the average user, sanding away the edge cases. In many ways, this is why our digital world has come to resemble the sterile, deadening architecture that Alexander spent his career pushing back against. This is where AI provides a missing puzzle piece. Software can now respond fluidly to the context and particularity of each human--at scale. One-size-fits-all is no longer a technological or economic necessity. Where once our digital environments inevitably shaped us against our will, we can now build technology that adaptively shapes itself in service of our individual and collective aspirations. We can build resonant environments that bring out the best in every human who inhabits them. --------------------------------------------------------------------- And so, we find ourselves at this crossroads. Regardless of which path we choose, the future of computing will be hyper-personalized. The question is whether that personalization will be in service of keeping us passively glued to screens--wading around in the shallows, stripped of agency--or whether it will enable us to direct more attention to what matters. In order to build the resonant technological future we want for ourselves, we will have to resist the seductive logic of hyper-scale, and challenge the business and cultural assumptions that hold it in place. We will have to make deliberate decisions that stand in the face of accepted best practices--rethinking the system architectures, design patterns, and business models that have undergirded the tech industry for decades. We suggest these five principles as a starting place: 1. Private: In the era of AI, whoever controls the context holds the power. While data often involves multiple stakeholders, people must serve as primary stewards of their own context, determining how it's used. 2. Dedicated: Software should work exclusively for you, ensuring contextual integrity where data use aligns with your expectations. You must be able to trust there are no hidden agendas or conflicting interests. 3. Plural: No single entity should control the digital spaces we inhabit. Healthy ecosystems require distributed power, interoperability, and meaningful choice for participants. 4. Adaptable: Software should be open-ended, able to meet the specific, context-dependent needs of each person who uses it. 5. Prosocial: Technology should enable connection and coordination, helping us become better neighbors, collaborators, and stewards of shared spaces, both online and off. We, the signatories of this manifesto, are committed to building, funding, and championing products and companies that embed these principles at their core. For us, this isn't a theoretical treatise. We're already building tooling and infrastructure that will enable resonant products and ecosystems. But we cannot do it alone. None of us holds all the answers, and this movement cannot succeed in isolation. That's why, alongside this manifesto, we're sharing an evolving list of principles and theses. These are specific assertions about the implementation details and tradeoffs required to make resonant computing a reality. Some of these stem from our experiences, while others will be crowdsourced from practitioners across the industry. This conversation is only just beginning. If this vision resonates, we invite you to join us. Not just as a signatory, but as a contributor. Add your expertise, your critiques, your own theses. By harnessing the collective intelligence of people who earnestly care, we can chart a path towards technology that enables individual growth and collective flourishing. Sign the manifesto Explore & contribute to the theses of resonant computing --------------------------------------------------------------------- Contributors The following individuals drafted and released this manifesto: Maggie Appleton Samuel Arbesman Daniel Barcay Rob Hardy Aishwarya Khanduja Alex Komoroske Geoffrey Litt Michael Masnick Brendan McCord Bernhard Seefeld Ivan Vendrov Amelia Wattenberger Zoe Weinberg Simon Willison with illustrations by Forest Stearns Signatories The following individuals have signed in support: Tim O'Reilly Kevin Kelly Bruce Schneier Alan Kay Hank Green Hiten Shah Eric Ries Joel Lehman Packy McCormick Danielle Perszyk Jim Rutt Peter Wang Brad Burnham Kent Beck Eugene Wei Gary William Flake Lenny Rachitsky John Seely Brown Roy Bahat Jonathan Zittrain Max Read Harper Reed Lawrence Lessig Evan Henshaw-Plath Anjan Katta Yancey Strickler Uri Bram Rohit Krishnan Simon Taylor David A Smith Peter van Hardenberg E. Glen Weyl Linda Liukas Adam Davidson Mark A. Lemley Matt Beane Anil Dash Brooklyn Zelenka Karen Wickre Alex Russell Rebecca MacKinnon Audrey Tang Ryan Carson Ben Guo Kim Scott Scott Jenson Esther Dyson Richard Sambrook Gilad Bracha Matt Mullenweg David P. Reed Andrew Stone Eric Migicovsky Chris Messina Vaughn Tan Daphne Keller Chad Kohalyk James Edward Dillard Ben mathes Goblin Oats Chris Lunt Curran Dwyer Ben Follington Stuart Buck Bridget Harris Chad Fowler Kyle Morris Sean Thielen-Esparza Janfj Yatu Espinosa Alex Zhang Anna Mitchell `Steve Kirkham Scott Moore Jason Zhao Jad Esber Joel Dietz Lola Agabalogun Tony Espinoza Arjun Khoosal Tony Curzon Price Maximilian Eusterbrock Beth Anderson Anastasia Uglova Jordan Erlends Samuel Robson Andrew Conner Menno Schaap Philipp Banhardt Berlynn Bai Arun Louis Barclay Gabriel Raubenheimer Roman Leventov Corey James Ben Mayhew Kyle Cox Pierre Chuzeville Lucabrando Sanfilippo Jai Gandhi Carsten Peters Raghuvir Kasturi B. Scot Rousse Ilan Strauss Yash Sharma Sean McKeon Gurupanguji Zoe Chazen John Luther Blain Smith Menelaos Mazarakis Konstantinos Komaitis Eddy Abraham Justin Mares Aastha JS Marisa Rama Seb Agertoft Christina Kirsch Peter Voss Shoumik Dabir Mike McCormick Riley Wong Matt Hawes Michele Canzi Matt Jones Jonathan Lebensold Francisco Javier Arceo Noah Ringler Simone Cicero Lex Sokolin Erika Rice Scherpelz Sahar Mor max bittker Avni Patel Thompson Chaim Gingold Matt Ziegler Daniel Hatkoff Kamran Hakima Rupert Manfredi Mark Moriarty Jordan Rubin Rebecca Mqamelo Chenoe Hart Rob Flickenger Michael Lapadula Dan Garon Sean Lynch Michael Tanzillo Reggie James Sam Barton Anthea Roberts Andrew Rose Kevin Roark Matt Holden Leon Markham Sam Weston Rudolf Laine Mark Whiting Christine Gibson Vivian Chong Florian Weber Luke Chatelain Dan Bornstein (@danfuzz) Marcus Estes Kasra Kyanzadeh Rishi Ishairzay Nicholas Chirls Lola Wajskop William Kelly Michael Greig Jasnam Sidhu dougfort Lev Eliezer Israel Mathilde Grant Nathaniel Evans Jessica Johnston Benoit Pimpaud Ross Matican Natalie Breitkopf Nirit Weiss-Blatt James Sinka Grace Kantrow Robinson Eaton Tom Rielly Jason Shellen EdZ Juan Suarez Selipso Toto Tvalavadze Brian "Beej Jorgensen" Hall Hiraeth Wax Dave Sanford Rida Al Barazi Baba Buehler Will Henderson Johannes Ernst Gernot Poetsch Ian Mulvany Xavi Duran Steve Della Valentina Gabriel Cubbage Marcel Goethals Ashish Uppala Ted Wood Al Mithani Carlos Pinto Joel Gombin Jassi Singh Patrick Farrell Steven Feuerstein Alexia Petrakos Quentin Hardy Daniel Muller Jorge Arango Tom Usher Jake Simonds Luke Hubbard Oren Maximov Arun krishnasamy Kingsley Uyi Idehen Christopher David mig Giedrius Jaloveckas Yuval Yeret Mario Zechner Alex Reynish William Philpott Sireesh Gururaja Stephen Band Peergos Joey Tyson Ankesh Bharti Tommy Falkowski Ruthvik Reddy SL Raymond Zhong Ramin Firoozye Jeff Smith David M. 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Galvan Vicki Tan M. Z. Mitchell Zheng Madison Hsieh Kyle Welch Max Weese Elisa Beshero-Bondar Damashe Thomas Alex Morisse Greg Witt Brian Karlak Gabriel Krieshok David Fox Brian Hill Randy Vane Nick Sedlet Manuviraj Godara Gimena del Rio Riande Brendan O'Brien Kory Kilpatrick Ben Munat Melanie Kahl Jimmy Lindsey Clay Shentrup Dongyuan Liu Gaurav Ramesh Irem Kucukali Ankur Kumar paul dariye Sara Lindey svitlana midianko Denis Sosnovtsev Jaxx Brown Dr Aaron Breidenbach James Uther Damir Kombikov Jahed Momand Dai Griffiths John Carosella Gardner Mike McCue Seyed Danesh Daveed Benjamin Andreas Ringman Uggla Tor Guttorm Simon H. Balazs Buzas Lamine BARRO Trung Nguyen Howard Stearns Sean Leow Vlad Cealicu Cole Bittel Brian Rinaldi Rosalma Zubizarreta-Ada Marcel Neuhausler Thanh-Mai Phan Pavle Matic David Kunin Jack Crawford Jonathan Chomko Nick Hagar Craig Mod Mike Elgan Bartus Csongor Shreyan Jain David Critics Seth Etter Tim Jarratt D. Ben Knoble Edan Krolewicz Laura S Justin Manley Brandon Lee Egor Andreevich Matt Baxter Noah Van Loen Chad O Abhinav Ramachandran Enrique Dans mukesh agrawal ConanXin Varun Shijo Phillip Traulsen Juan Calero Ashley Rolfmore Pasquale Di Maria ed Ropple Thomas Moll Last NPC Alex Eric Boersma Bronte Sihan Li Moto Ishizawa David Schmudde John Lardee Sarah Hack Sipho Langa Rob Reagan Shreenath Regunathan David Stern Alex Marquez Perez Saskia Keskpaik Chuck Donaldson Vasilis Giannoulis Marco Cesati Rikard Linde Jose David Carbajo Wolfgang Miller Peter Bartr Reiner Joel Hall Helene Goldberg glhein Anupam Goel Erica Schumacher Gabrielle Pelletier Sander McComiskey Ishan Ghorela Michael Garfield Bodhi Hill Sarah Andrabi Ben Meneses-Sosa Jonathan Masters Steve Arvedson Chad Walker Georgia Pears Stefan Werner Nick Brody David P. Oscar Smith Paul Bauer Paul Tibbits Jurgen Hohe Andrew Sorcini Sreedhar K Warren Stringer Katie braund Ryan Hodgman Ernst Hafen John Knox Alberto Medina Wei Zhou Samuel Ratnam Vivek Dhami Daniel Gillis Richard Newman Nico Ward Osarumen Osamuyi Ovidiu Matan David Congour Andie Bandie Justin Irabor Eddy Lee Sandeep M Sergey Votyagov Gina Biernacki Felipe Chor Kevin George Dan Cayer --------------------------------------------------------------------- Changelog Substantive changes that have been made to this manifesto: 11/18/25 - Changed several instances of the word "user," to "people" or other humanistic alternatives. The word user carries heavy connotations of addiction. 10/28/25 - Updated the first principle (private) to include more nuanced language around the ownership of data. People must be the primary stewards of their context, but every system has multiple stakeholders. 10/28/25 - Updated the second principle (dedicated) to include the "contextual integrity" privacy model. 10/27/25 - Added header artwork and poetic introduction.