Ode to Technology—The Future

This article is part of our Exploring the Future series. We’re talking to innovators and dreamers in creative media, technology, energy, climate and more—Imagining tomorrow. You can also VIEW VIDEO from our session with Gavin Newsom.

INTERVIEW WITH CALIFORNIA'S LT. GOVERNOR, GAVIN NEWSOM

By Miles Andersen, KC Badala, Lizzie Chadbourne, Erin Fernwood, Pierce Freeman, Caroline Frost, Taylor Galla, Matthew Geffen, Victoria Gioia, John Hassen, Scott Hogan, Kathy Khalvati, Olivia Malek, Sam Newsome, Will Ogden, Tom Ogden, Isabelle Kitze, Alina Rainsford, Ashley Salinas, Lacy Slattery, Maddy Suennen, Bridget Went and Burke Wynne
From Branson, Drake High, Hall Middle, Marin Country Day, Marin Academy, Marin Catholic, Marin Horizon, Redwood High, San Domenico, San Rafael High and Tam High Schools

"Designed in California," Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom read, pulling out his shiny iPhone 4 and pointing to the small letters imprinted on its back. “I love that.”

Then he read the next line, where the words “Assembled in China” were printed, and cautioned that if we take the arts out of California education, we will end up with phones that are engraved with “Designed in China, Assembled in China.”

As the state prepares to make another round of budget cuts, including potential cuts to education, Newsom’s words ring like prophesy, not political hyperbole. Preserving the arts is practical, he said, and directly related to our state’s ability to generate fresh ideas and cutting edge technology.

A Marin native, Newsom lived near Joe Wagner Field in Larkspur and graduated from Redwood High School before studying political science at Santa Clara University. His first job was delivering papers for the Marin Independent Journal, but today he’s more likely to be on the paper’s front page than dropping them off around town.