Bruce Sterling attempted to solicit funds for this issue by writing that "friends at Whole Earth Magazine have experienced a funding crunch so severe that the Spring 2003 special issue (#111) on Technological Singularity, edited by Alex Steffen of the Viridian curia, hasn't been printed and distributed.

[8] At the same time, another Brand publication, CoEvolution Quarterly evolved out of the original Whole Earth Supplement in 1974.

In deciding to publish full-length articles on specific topics in natural sciences, invention, arts, etc., Whole Earth (like its predecessor, CoEvolution Quarterly) was a journal aimed primarily at the educated layperson.

Tool and book reviews were in abundance, and ecological and technology topics were interspersed with articles treating social and community subjects.

[12] Stewart Brand and the later editors invited reviews of books and tools from experts in specific fields, to be approached as though they were writing a letter to a friend.