Welcome to “City of Yes, And…,” my monthly bonus essay for paid subscribers. These pieces are a bit more personal and exploratory, where I think out loud about ideas that don’t always fit into the weeklies. This month, I’ve been thinking about progress: what it means, how we’ve lost faith in it, and what California—and the Democratic Party—can tell us about the future. Enjoy!
In rural Rwanda, a medical emergency was once a death sentence dictated by distance. Blood needed for urgent transfusions might have to travel two hours over rutted roads, determining whether a woman survived childbirth or a child survived anemia. Today, Zipline’s delivery drones bring blood and medicine in less than forty-five minutes—a literal lifeline.
I recently toured Zipline’s South San Francisco headquarters, where young engineers were testing and building the same aircraft which continue to save lives in Africa and now also perform package and food deliveries in Japan and the United States. More than a thriving startup, it was a reminder that Silicon Valley began with hardware—and that the Bay Area still sits at the bleeding edge of technological progress.
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