The winner is almost guaranteed to be a conformist, given that the organization selecting the winner is part of the dominant, mainstream power structure.
So expect the winner to be, paradoxically, someone who is completely obedient.
Source: Intimately familiar with the Media Lab. As with most places, there is a type of conformable non-conformance. Kind of like casual Fridays at work, or office humor. The Media Lab, and Joi in particular, would never reward non-conformance. Now, if a liberal in Saudi Arabia breaks conservative laws, that they would reward. But that's conforming to their standards.
Yup. I submitted my application based on the FashionTech wearable I designed, built and wore to protest the lack of inclusion of any local women at a Western tech event here in Shenzhen. http://i.imgur.com/2D8dESV.jpg
I ended up stomping around a mainland Chinese tourist attraction half-naked in it, giving speeches to massive Chinese crowds about an inclusion issue. http://i.imgur.com/9Dz9M9N.jpg
Anyone who knows anything about China will tell you how unbelievably dangerous this is.
But I was protesting the MIT Media Labs best buddy Make Magazine so I'm sure my application has been directly filed in the trash- even though I'd be very surprised if anyone else applying has done anything that dangerous.
Off-topic, but since I started looking at some of your stuff, with the entire trans-humanism and cyborg thing, what implants do you have? I don't mean aesthetic body modification, but things with chips in them.
I'm also in China, a bit further up north, in 山寨版silicon valley, aka. Beijing, Haidian, but I'm really interested in what is going on in Shenzhen. Any chance we could chat?
Hey, I'm going through your Pastebin (http://pastebin.com/u/SexyCyborg) and it's really interesting, informative, and eye-opening. Keep it up, that's some voice!
So expect the winner to be, paradoxically, someone who is completely obedient.