John Boik received a BS in civil engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder; a master's degree in acupuncture and Oriental medicine from Oregon College of Oriental Medicine, Portland, Oregon; and a PhD in biomedical sciences from the University of Texas, Health Sciences Center, Houston, where he studied cancer biology. He completed postdoctoral work at Stanford University, in the Department of Statistics, and is currently courtesy faculty at Oregon State University, Environmental Sciences Graduate Program. He is the author of Economic Direct Democracy and other books and papers. Interests include statistical modeling and data science; permaculture; and information theory, cognitive science, AI, and complex systems science as they apply to the de novo design of societal systems.