Rebecca Greenfield

In Silicon Valley, the algorithm is seen as a magic bullet that can fix almost anything. Now one company is banking on an algorithm to fix the industry's dearth of women and minorities in tech.

Entelo, which helps high-profile tech companies like Yelp and Facebook with recruiting, has launched a new product, Entelo Diversity. For $10,000 a year, organizations can target certain groups, like women, black men, or "old" people, with certain skills for job openings using Entelo's "proprietary algorithm."

Entelo assures that its technology won't lead to reverse discrimination, especially given the recent Supreme Court affirmative action ruling.

"I'm sensitive to that," said Entelo's CEO Jon Bischke. "But there's active discrimination going on today and we hope this will mitigate that." The technology claims to sift through already qualified candidates, assuring no "token" hires.

Unfortunately, the algorithm does nothing about the social issues behind the hiring imbalances. Silicon Valley's discrimination problems run too deep. Women often don't "qualify" for jobs because fewer women pursue careers and training in math and science. Multiple studies have shown that women drop out of STEM fields because of cultural, not innate, reasons.

Jake Levine thinks the Internet is stuck inside our computers. We turn on our screens, check e-mail, write a Word document, head over to Facebook, maybe watch some Netflix, then turn them off.

"That tends to build some anxiety," said Levine, the former general manager at Digg. "You have software built on those devices that is designed to demand your attention, to focus you. What we end up feeling at the end of all of that is anxious."

That’s where Levine's new venture, comes in. He wants to take some of the more serene parts of the Internet out of that stress-inducing device sitting on your desk, and put them on your wall through a different kind of device.

"I'm building an Internet-connected screen that will bring the Internet to your wall, a screen that is worthy of that beautiful mess of human expression that pervades our connected lives," Levine explained in a Medium post.

It sounds a lot like a smart TV. But, the similarities between the two end at the screen. Both the hardware and software of Levine's invention are designed for "passive" or "ambient" use, more like a picture frame and less like a tablet.

Alex Rainert, the head of design at Project Florida who is testing the device, said it doesn't feel like a gadget at all.