Augmented Agroforestry Communities

We are breaking down the barriers between the opportunities of accessibility and prosperity commonly found in cities yet denigrated and forsaken in rural areas. Technology today is reserved for the dwellers of centralized infrastructure leading to a major friction point in the holistic development of the common good. For countless ages, the "peasants" outside the walls have been disregarded and treated as subhuman, from slaves, to indigenous, to farmers there has historically always been a "top down" societal view. From the fortified gilded towers these differences have been made clearer over time, and have shown to be strategically and repeatedly unsustainable.

I call these, frontiers-people, the hand of prosperity. Those lost to time in the obscurity of the "mundane" on the edge of civilization. Yet, despite all our iPhones, quantum computers, airplanes, and financial derivatives we still cannot create food or water from the ether, from zero. They can. I speak of those with three inherited senses of the old world, who can plant a seed, toil and strife for years, and then reap the harvests that feed and nourish humanity as a whole.

Think of the biological processes observed and ecosystem services that where painstakingly cultivated by generations of humans in the Amazon, Sahara, Indus, the Great Plains... Most of this lost, not because of time, but because of so called "modern civilisation", that which was born far remote in the slient dead halls of an institution. We owe much to these "simpletons", and even more to nature's blessing that has been bestowed onto these frontiers-people, the ability to survive within nature's endless grasp.

We are bridging the gap, by eliminating the disparity and duality of these worlds. As both are beneficial, yet if separate unsustainable. We aim at the agroforestry systems of cacao and coffee, as these are widespread remnants of the food forests of old. Ironically, these also create some of the most important substances for modern civilisation to function that billions enjoy and consume. Our center point is Latin America, a region rich with biodiversity, natural resources, and millennia of fortified indigenous culture. The goal is simple, to raise the dead to tell their secrets, for that the living may breath. The soil itself, cries in desperation, weaping at the coming destruction, yet few listen. Why? Because we have become deaf in response to our own tune of self proclaimed grandiosity and invincibility. Those at the forest's edge, know otherwise and our goal is to amplify and codify that into something we can all appreciate and associate with, for the sake of future generations.

1. We have designed a series of modular and low cost sensor systems. A stationary sentinel that observes the nuances of atmospheric microclimates and subsoil conditions. A portable minimal laboratory that can capture a full spectrum snapshot on the field in 3 orders of magnitude lower investment of time and energy than traditional methods for infield insights.

2. This sensor data is fused with the most cutting edge geospatial information systems available on the market today to provide the best macroclimate->microclimate->subsoil picture possible. Creating maps of actionable intelligence that fill in the vast amount of variables involved with a worldview that is beautifully rendered in a simple visual interface.

3. Understanding that most of the population cannot read or write to the level of a university graduate, which is the minimum standard existing solutions usually try to hit, we take this to the next level by asking a simple question. What if, people could simply talk to their land and trees? Yes, we are in the early stages of finetuning our own multimodal AI model to address these issues through the lens of a "seasoned permaculture" lens. Our bias is regenerative agricultural assistance inline with farmers interests, not the stock market or social media.

I can detail more, yet I hold back for the sake of brevity. :)

We seek to improve the lives of existing cacao and coffee farmers, their families, and specifically their children. Understanding that younger generations are attracted to the big cities for work and access we aim to flip the switch by making the fields the most advanced centers of technology and holistic prosperity. We acknowledge the current trends of , for example, wanting a "tiny house in the forest" that's surging in interest every day.

As such we're bringing the futuristic tools into the hands of Agronomists, the people who bridge between cities and the fields. A good education can go far, yet not everything can be taught by humanity. Much is learned from nature, and the experience of it. What if, recently graduated students could access the most advanced technology available to return back to their home and help their own communities with the assistance of sovereign AI built on distributed opensource infrastructure?

Simple, we are from these areas we speak of. We live and breath this reality of disparity between worlds. Our families where and still are involved. Our society has not put down their traditions. We have not relinquished hope.

We're in between prototype and pilot. We have implemented V2 with several key partners in permaculture, cacao, and syntropic agroforestry. Yet we're not commercially available nor will be in the next 3 months as we design our V3 with the results and input of these 20+ people.

V2 is functional, but barely, no fluff here. We also need to expand the team, and therefore improve our structure and processes. Thankfully we are currently in the Celo Incuba accelerator program being mentored by amazing people from and invested in Latin America. Our demo day is May 15th and we hope to raise capital for inventory, R&D, and further work on streamlining the systems we have.

Thesocial aspect is most important to us. If accepted we can really base our solution on a unilaterally respected brand as is the MIT name. I can tell you, even the poorest teenager with dreams knows of what it means. In close knit communities people rarely trust outsiders, being backed by such reputation will give people the confidence to change and be open.

The technical support given by such a research institution is also beyond what we could even expect. People like Lex Friedman have given me hope in this world, and being able to discuss, develop, and listen to like minded people would be priceless. Similar to what OpenCourseWare did to my own self education, life-changing.

Of course, funds for implementation is always good. This is not the focus by applying as we could raise funds elsewhere, though perhaps at the cost of our mission. Making this complete system open-source, easily deployable, self repairable, and 100% offline is a pipe dream with VCs, though we hope and strive towards defying all "glass ceilings".

Our AIoT system is vertically integrated and built on FOSS principles. That is our contribution to humanity. Profit is second to prosperity.

A distributed system of sovereign AIs working for the people on the edge of civilization, each sharing data with others about mother earth and her quirks, to better create and sustain food forests that eventually self maintain would create good. The Amazonians had something similar with their TerraPreta, but with wise elders, not AI.

People & communities benefited, hectares of regenerative forests cultivated, climate data points, emergent insights discovered.

IoT for precision, Blockchain for distributed data economy, AI for pattern recognition and conversation.

Each technological component has loads of papers. Permaculture has created forests from deserts. Elders of indigenous tribes will tell you secrets beyond "science".

- 2 Full time

- 3 contributers

- 13 mentors

9 months

We have no notion of gender, race, nationality, history, socioeconomic class, etc. We only care about the work that's being done, and your alliance to a symbiotic relationship between humanity and our planet. All who share a reverence for the pale blue dot that we live on, and are willing to do something to prevent complete chaos and destruction, are welcomed and embraced with open arms.

- Standard SaaS subscription for webapp, optional.

- Hardware is per device, and components with revenue share for Agronomists.

- Data is a platform cooperative model For all contributions.

- Bootstrap at first.

- Hardware is negligible yet sustainable at unit level.

- SaaS for GIS is high margins, despite 1/4 cost of traditional platforms

- Data is the long term bet for profit due to the nature of climate, rural, and logistics value.

- Grants will sustain R&D for hardtech

- Crowdfunding will support modular IoT systems.

- Investment into the platform cooperative will allow likeminded people to join on different terms than solely for profit.