@marimeireles

I'm seeking opportunities to work with organizations that are uplifting to the world.

I've worked as a software engineer with a focus on scientific development for several years. All of this work was within open-source organizations. As a Systems Engineer, I mostly focused in backend and devops work, developing libraries for other developers and scientists. I'm a core contributor to projects such as Jupyter, Firefox, Mamba, Conda Forge, Farama's Zoo, PyScript, PySide, Mozilla Webcompat, Qt, and many others.

Currently I'm affiliated with the Open Knowledge Foundation as an Expert.

In the past, I served as a member of the Jupyter technical committee, as a member of the DISC NumFOCUS steering committee, as a Max Planck Insitute Open Science Ambassator and as a Subject Matter Expert for NASA, developing a course aimed at providing guidance for scientists on practicing open science.

I've also taught open science and software classes to graduate students at Harvard through the LSSTC-DSFP program and at several other conferences, meetups, and groups. I'm also grateful for the Jupyter community having recognized me as a distinguished contributor in early 2022.

Communicating ideas is important, I write about software in my personal blog "Do Cyborgs Dream of Bionic Sheep?" and on my Medium page.

You can access my talks, workshops, classes, and podcasts at this link and check out my hack projects that I tackle alone or with friends here.

coordination:

As a Cooperative AI researcher I'm interested in understanding what are the underlying characteristics that are important for fostering cooperation among heterogeneous actors.

The reason why I care about furthering this area of research is because I believe it can directly improve people's lives, be it in increasing cooperation between political and economic agents or in improving coordination among humans and machines.

In BarfussLab, I'm modeling the interaction of heterogeneous agents in repeated general-sum game scenarios using reinforcement learning. If you are interested in the overall direction of the research take a look at our recent poster Learning to cooperate with intelligence inequality: a complexity science exploration.

I have a research blog where I write about my experiments.

poverty alleviation:

One of the main goals of my work in coordination is to be able to better coordinate markets in a way that benefits people living in extreme poverty. Some initial thoughts are described here but they need to be expanded.

I've started a non-profit for people in developing countries to connect with the global open source ecosystems. Journey offers 3 months long paid programming projects under the guidance of experienced software mentors. Learn more about it at opensourcejourney.org.

I'm currently enrolled in MIT's MicroMasters Program in Data, Economics, and Development Policy because I hope to gain a better understanding on how to be more effective about supporting and developing poverty alleviation policies. I care about support people from unprivileged backgrounds by having a fitting pedagogical ethos to their contexts, teaching farmers about permaculture and supporting them with community and grants and increasing internet access in the world.

open knowledge:

I find a lot of significance and love in the open/libre internet. Liberating knowledge and fostering cultural and scientific development deeply resonates with many of my personal principles and working towards making the digital world more accessible and comfortable for all is a very fulfilling mission to me.

My main form of action on this front has been the advocacy of both the ethos and the practice of open source and open science.

2024 update: I'm now highly uncertain about the advantages of open-licensing everywhere. I'm still very much pro-open access manifesto, but this doesn't comprise AI technologies.

governance:

Increasing interoperability and people's agency in a world of machines and humans. I keep some notes here.

consciousness: I have several different directions in which I'd like to explore conscioussness. Personally as a meditator, as fan of sci-fi and a functionalist who wants to simulate life in machines and as an AI Safety researcher that's worried about when consciouss life will be actually created inside machines. I write notes about my research here.

I flourish by having the support, serendipity and positive feedback loops that a community brings. Do you want to learn or practice something together? Send me a message! If you want, you can also send me anonymous feedback here.

• Intentional co-living: I'm starting an intentional community in Berlin. It's loosely centered around hacker-house, music making, scientific and spiritual exploration and just being a huge nerd. If you are interested, please send me an email introducing yourself.


• Supper and salon: I host vegan dinners and salons in Berlin. Themes we talked about in the past include "The limits of free speech", "Spirituality and rituals", "Rethinking future socio-economic structures and institutions", "How to be moral", etc. If you are a Berliner or a passer-by and would like to join we welcome first-timers, just send me an email!
↪ If we're on a 1:1 I'm happy to have discussions that abide to the Crocker's Rules.


• Buddhism and meditation: I practice secular Dzogchen Tibetan Buddhism. That said, I was a part of many religious traditions in the past and I enjoy very much learning about all kinds of different cults and spiritual communities. I'm part of an Aro sangha in Berlin and you're welcome to join us if you're interested and respectful, the sangha is religious. I'm interested in meditating with others and sharing curious states of consciousness (non-related with drug-usage as I do my best to follow the five precepts).


• Literature: I love reading and discussing things I learn. Do you want to read together? Or maybe recommend be a book? Check my reading list, maybe we can chill in a cafe or park and share our thoughts after a reading session. I also write or post short texts or poems I like here.


• Multimedia Artist: It's really fun to be the girl taking care of lights at events. I've built my own DMX controller, and I'm somewhat versed in being scrappy with electronics. I also try to be artsy with Touch Designer, I mainly focus on interactive art. Check some of my toes. Here's a link for a portfolio I'm building. I'm open for hire and to collaborate in this kind of work.


• Drawing: I'm a beginner tattoo artist. Tattoing is a very special practice to me, something I consider truly sacred and ritualistic. I wrote more about it here. I'm open to tattooing new people, if you're interested, send me an email. I'm looking to get a Sak Yant done, please let me know if you know anyone in Europe or the US that is able to bless it. I tattoo myself and friends. I also know the basics of painting with spray, and I want to learn more, I would very much like to learn together. I also want to improve in watercolor and drawing, for that I like to go out on small friend dates and paint city/landscapes.


• AI Art*: In the past, I've experimented with GANs and created some cool tattoo designs. I've also worked with story telling and agent-based modeling LLMs. Would love to collaborate with artists as a software engineer! For more of my AI projects check my Behance.


• Music: Music theory, music producing (mainly electronic but also interested in analog jams), djing, foxdot(and similar shenanigans). I play the guitar and sing a bit, trying to be better at my Bossa Nova. Also looking for riot grrrls to play some punk rock with.


• Flow: Dragon staff, hula-hoop, fire flow, yoga. Anything flowey, I'm always looking for people to share these practices with.


• Sports: I am practicing calisthenics mixed in with some free weight lifting. I think it's fun to practice with friends, as we can teach each other stuff. I go to a nearby calisthenics park, but open to travel for a calisthenics date. I also really like bouldering and am member at a cool climbing gym! If interested, ask me which.

I support several causes: ethical open source, animal liberation, the decrease in animal-based products consumption, investing in carbon offsets to decrease my CO2 footprint, leveraging democracy through open democratic practices, post meritocracy in my engineering work context, combating disinformation on the Web, AI alignment, open access to knowledge, empowering people to overcome poverty using a) non-traditional methods of pedagogy, b) land redistribution coupled with permaculture and community building in rural contexts c) offering OSS opportunities through internships and mentoring d) respecting people's agency over their own economical future through donating money directly to them.

These are some of the projects I support:

• Women of Color Code: This program seeks to unite WoC and other members of minoritized groups to battle feelings of isolation and marginalization that are prevalent in educational institutions and industry settings. Women of Color Code is an initiative funded by AstroPy. I offer 1:1 mentorships, workshops, and webinars. I also co-organize the group. If you're interested in either becoming a mentor or offering webinars for our group, get in touch! We offer monetary compensations to our contributors!

• ReDI: In response to the refugee crisis, the ReDI School was founded: a vocational training program teaching digital skills to migrants and locals. I currently help as a mentor, but you could be a teacher of software or design, or if you have good organizational skills, you can help folks with the administration of the school!

• PyLadies Berlin: The global PyLadies mentorship group has a focus on helping more women become active participants and leaders in the Python open-source community with the mission to promote, educate and advance a diverse Python community through outreach, education, conferences, events and social gatherings. PyLadies aims to provide a friendly support network for women and a bridge to the larger Python world. I'm helping to organize the group. You can join the meetup group, organize talks or classes. Hit me up and we'll figure out something together. Disclaimer: we don't care about your gender :) just come!

• Frauen Loop: FrauenLoop offers a diverse network of women tech professionals who train motivated, women-identified persons in computer programming. There are many ways to help, from software to administration work.

I believe women have the right to have full control over their own bodies:

• Doctors in Germany are not allowed to post factual information on abortions on their websites. Other websites are allowed to post this information, though. Frag Den Staat is currently providing resources on the subject in German, English, and Turkish.

• Women on Waves is a Dutch nongovernmental organization created in 1999 by Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts in order to bring reproductive health services, particularly non-surgical abortion services and education, to women in countries with restrictive abortion laws. If the value of their products is inaccessible to you, I want to help, send me an email.

*AI art:

• I believe it's hard to throttle technological development, which is not always good for our culture, institutions, and people. However, I also believe it's quite possible to harness these technologies in an ethical and uplifting way.