A Hurrah for Steve Gillmor
Grok Headline matches for A Hurrah for Steve Gillmor
Thank God for Steve Gillmor
Thank God for Steve Gillmor
02/01/2005 08:42 PMSteve is the only guy who reminds me of what it was like
before....
Everyone else - from Dave Winer, Steve Levy, Dan Farber, Mitch
Kapor, Heidi Roizen the whole gang - all all grown and matured. But
Steve still reminds me of what it was like BEFORE Windows - back when
Apple still had a chance.
Before the ultimate mistake - that cost them the market and their
company. It's nice that Apple has great products now - but I'm a
software guy and I have to figure out what to do. This 'comeback'
that Jobs is formulating must prove ONE thing.
Will they license their software or not?
I believe the Motorola deal is what we're waiting for - right?
The HP deal is nothing more than turning HP into their sales force.
But it's the iPhone that will show what the future of Apple is.
When you read this rant from Steve Gillmor - remember one thing.
Apple DOES have the best products and software. And they stole allot
from Xerox PARC so we can steal from them. Remember that.
Everything they do is OUR roadmap. OUR R&D.
So without any further ado...... Steve Gillmor....
With all due respect to Marc Canter, thank god for Apple. As
Microsoft’s DRMForSure juggernaut rolled out of Vegas with a full
head of cartel-fired steam, even phone guru Russell Beattie was ready
to bow before Bill Gates and that personal video device vibrating in
his pocket. Though Bill’s message was marginally diluted by some
demo misfires in his CESdex keynote, the gathering force of Media
Center extenders, Scoble’s Smartphone, and the tantalizing prospect
of being able to watch the West Wing in letterbox format on a one-inch
screen at 50,000 feet all conspired to create a surprisingly vivid
re-innovation of Steve Jobs’ patented reality distortion field.
With all due respect to
Robert Scoble, thank god for Apple. When Steve strolled out to center
stage with the Mini, he got more applause for the box than anything Bill showed Conan O’Brien.
Actually, there was a collective gasp over the size of the box,
as it drove home the nuanced multi-threaded message of the Apple play:
less is more. The ThinkSecret leaks didn’t take the power out of the
punchline–they amplified it.
With all due respect to Dan Gillmor, thank god for Apple. They
don’t call them trade secrets for nothing. Personally, I think they
sued for the same reasons Gates called us communists: to protect their
business model. Thank god for the EFF, too. Personally, I think the
gasp in the Moscone Center should be used as Defense Exhibit A for the
fact that no secrets were exposed.
The biggest secret of all was the word not spoken in either Vegas
or San Francisco: podcasting.
Nowhere to be seen was the ru
mored Firewire audio breakout box, the reported
subject of several subpoenas issued in December. But add up the
rest of the announcements, most shipping by the end of the month, and
you may notice that Apple has restructured itself around the iPod
platform.
1. The iPod Shuffle
Though most of us boomers can’t fathom the idea that "life is
random" is a feature, the Shuffle’s secret sauce is its
Playlist mode, turned off by default. Attention: iPodder
developers–if you develop SmartPlaylist functionality in your
aggregators, you can use attention and other explicit metadata to
program iTunes to download, sort, and sequence podcasts while you
sleep. Remember, the iPod is the delivery system, the data cache at
the end of the pipeline. Of course, if some smart 3rd-party vendor
adds a microphone that clips onto the Shuffle, it’s a data recorder
hanging around your neck.
2. The Mini
For podcasters, this is a $500 studio-in-a-box. GarageBand now
supports multitrack recording (eight channels each with their own eq
and effects) and the ability to create your own loops. Combine
GarageBand with Smart Playlists and slice and dice your podcasts up
into "songs" that you can sequence and, more importantly,
pull "quotes" for inclusion in other podcasts. Once again,
remember that the iPod is the endpoint of the production environment.
The Mini is the studio, the mastering lab, where you cut the virtual
grooves between the tracks of these next-generation podcasts.
3. Tiger
The next version of OS/X will load just fine on the Mini, too. It
comes with Automator, which, if hooked up to GarageBand, would provide
an automated way to refactor existing long-form podcasts into this new
track model. Automator could also build consoles to automate
real-time, radio-style production with multiple audio inputs, taking
advantage of Tiger’s enhanced ability to handle multiple virtual
audio devices.
4. iWork and iLife
Keynote, Pages, and iMovie are morphing into a podcast-to-video
porting environment. Use Automator consoles to load in podcast
segments and annotate them with links, iPhoto transitions, and
attention-influenced intelligent caching of related pod- and
Mini-casts, and you’re well on your way to a read/write version of
the RSS-powered multimedia Web. While DRMForSure coddles the cartel,
the iPod Platform plays to the customers in the seats.
With all due respect to Bill Gates, thank god for Apple. If Apple
didn’t exist, Bill, you’d have to invent them. Perhaps you did.
It’s the real Bill and Steve Show. Two peas in a Pod, that’s for sure.
[Steve Gillmor Inforouter]
Steve Gillmor
Steve Gillmor
03/14/2005 05:56 PMOthers have pointed this out, but it’s worth saying again: Steve has
been writing some
really
good stuff recently.
Steve Gillmor has a Blog
Steve Gillmor has a Blog
03/06/2004 01:54 AMI rarely disagree with Steve Gillmor's opinions he has launched a blog
over at Ziff Davis. [Ziff Davis]...
Steve Gillmor starts to grok it
Steve Gillmor starts to grok it
03/17/2005 04:26 AMI made sure that Steve Gillmor and Dan Farber listened to Dick
Hardt last night in a nearly deserted BoF - here at ETech.
It's a real shame that Dick's good buddy Tim - couldn't find some
stage time for Sxip.
Oh well - they will.
But at least Steve is
listening and grokking.
The moguls' last hurrah?
The moguls' last hurrah?
02/12/2004 02:12 PMI'm convinced there will be more bids for Disney, now that the company
is in play. And I suspect at least one will come from a big-name
media mogul in some way, shape, or form. Barry Diller and Jeff
Katzenberg are ex-Disney guys who would love nothing more than to
wrest
control of the Mouse from Michael Eisner. They have to be
looking
at marshalling bids.
PeopleSoft's last hurrah?
PeopleSoft's last hurrah?
09/20/2004 06:39 AMAfter Oracle's court victory, customers will look for reassurance at
what could be PeopleSoft's last annual user conference.
Gillmor Gang + One More Gillmor
Gillmor Gang + One More Gillmor
07/22/2004 03:09 PMThat would be me, making a guest appearance at 1 p.m. Pacific time on
today's
program.
"Hurrah! Now, I'm not normally one to be
a Luddite, but you don't get this
problem with pencil and paper, you
know?"
"Hurrah! Now, I'm not normally one to be
a Luddite, but you don't get this
problem with pencil and paper, you
know?"
08/31/2004 08:45 PMSteve Portigal — About Steve —
Foreign Groceries
Steve Portigal — About Steve —
Foreign Groceries
11/16/2003 05:58 AMOnline Foreign Groceries Museum .. Now in Funky Soy Sauce Flavor! ..
foreign snack foods .. Food for thought
portigal.com/Museum.htm
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Dan Gillmor
Dan Gillmor
01/02/2005 03:37 PMZDNet Jan 2 2005 7:37PM GMT
See gillmor
See gillmor
08/01/2004 06:21 AMSiliconValley.com Aug 1 2004 10:32AM GMT
"Dan Gillmor"
"Dan Gillmor"
12/15/2003 10:29 PMGillmor guts
Gillmor guts
12/19/2004 03:40 PMDan Gillmor is leaving the SJ Merc to launch a project
that continues the best of blogs. Few have the courage to risk so much
for this. He has earned praise for the work he has done, and respect
for this next step that he is taking.
Gillmor & CC Party
Gillmor & CC Party
07/27/2004 12:47 PMCreative Commons is hosting a party to celebrate Dan Gillmor's new
book,
We The
Media, Friday, July 30, at our new home, 543 Howard Street, San
Francisco. The party starts at 7pm. You
should
must RSVP to get in (limited space). Send an email to francesca
at creative commons dot org.
Dan Gillmor interview
Dan Gillmor interview
12/17/2004 06:31 PMThe international version of OhMyNews has a terrific interview with
Dan Gillmor about his plans and the future of news. (Thanks to Joi for
the link.)...
Dan Gillmor in Finland
Dan Gillmor in Finland
03/14/2005 06:21 PMFor anyone who's been following the
late journalism-debate, the Man Himself, i.e.
Dan Gillmor
is
coming to Finland. Please join him in an open session at
Korjaamo,
Helsinki, Tuesday, 12 April at 18:00. I'll certainly try to be there.
Ja sama suomeksi: Dan Gillmor,
toimittaja-bloggaaja, joka on puhunut pitkään kansalaisjournalismin
puolesta, on tulossa puhumaan avoimeen keskustelutilaisuuteen
Helsingissä, Korjaamolla, tiistaina 12.
huhtikuuta kello 18.00. Tervetuloa!
(Via Jyri.)
Gillmor: Not ga-ga over Google
Gillmor: Not ga-ga over Google
08/09/2004 05:39 AMThedailycamera.com - Mon Aug 9, 10:00 am GMT
"Gillmor Gang. "
"Gillmor Gang. "
06/17/2004 11:32 AMGillmor Gang Up
Gillmor Gang Up
08/27/2004 01:56 PMI'm on the Gillmor Gang today. Doc says we will be talking about all
this....
Dan Gillmor interview up
Dan Gillmor interview up
08/13/2004 07:24 PM
We
caught up with Dan Gillmor this week and conducted a short
interview about the future of journalism and his new book, We The
Media.
We, the Media by Dan Gillmor
We, the Media by Dan Gillmor
05/17/2004 10:25 AMJust finished reading the Galley Proof of We, the
Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People by
Dan
Gillmor. O'Reilly is the
publisher and it should becoming out mid-July. The book will be
published under a Creative
Commons license and you will be able to download it free for
non-commercial use.
Dan is one of the few professional journalists that really
understands the impact of blogs and other new technologies on
journalism. It's amazing how many professional journalists I know poo poo blogs
and keep on chugging like nothing is changing. We, the Media
is a excellent book that should be enlightening and humbling for
professional journalists. It is also a great guide for us little "j"
journalists about what the possibilities are as well as what the
difficulties will be. Anyway, it's an amazingly important book for
anyone interested in journalism and democracy. It goes well with
Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture
and Howard Rheingold's Smart
Mobs.
Radio Gillmor
Radio Gillmor
05/16/2004 03:10 PMMy older, wiser brother Steve has created a new Internet radio show
called the "Gillmor Gang," the first installment of which is now
online. Listen here at
IT Conversations.
"The Gillmor Gang"
"The Gillmor Gang"
05/16/2004 03:36 AMGillmor Gang
Gillmor Gang
07/01/2004 08:56 AM
Okay I admit I've become an addict of The
Gillmor Gang. I copy them to my MP3 player, which unlike the Sony
below, plays MP3s (I guess it's kind of obvious, but the obvious seems
to have eluded Sony, that MP3 players should actually play MP3s) and
take it on my daily walk. The last one I listened to, from June 18,
was about whether Sun should open source Java. It was good. I imagine
I feel about them as a lot of people feel about Scripting News,
they're mostly wrong, in a predictable way, but they get you thinking.
I've also become a fan of Doug Kaye's interviews with people with
blogs. I downloaded his intervi
ew with Doc Searls, and plan to listen to it on my Friday walk, or
maybe on the drive down to NY on Sunday. There's this gap between
Worcester and Hartford where there isn't much good radio. Hey I'm
getting good at this stuff.
Last week's Gillmor Gang
Last week's Gillmor Gang
12/25/2004 05:31 PM
Yesterday I listened to the identity
discussion on The Gillmor Gang. It was very good, as far as it
went, but it couldn't go very far, because identity doesn't go very
far. This is one of the big problems that refuses to get solved. Like
Jon Udell, I expected us to have a global identity system a long time
ago.
Doc Searls, bless his
heart, offered RSS and podcasting as examples of technologies that
were simple, therefore successful, and suggests that identity, if it
were to be approached the same way, might have similar success. Bzzzt.
Wrong. RSS was not easy, it was hard, for exactly the same reasons
identity is hard. Too many cooks spoil the broth. Two ways to do
identity is one too many.
Politics spoiled identity, and would have spoiled RSS had the
major players not converged on RSS 2.0. The difference this time was
that there was a Switzerland, me, to guide RSS through its gauntlet,
and I clearly wasn't in bed with any of the major publishers or
vendors. The Harvard connection didn't hurt because it's a highly
respected university that hadn't been involved in tech standards. Had
identity had that kind of champion-ship it might not be the mess it is
today.
Instead, when Microsoft started moving behind the scenes in
1997, it was also busy losing the trust of the tech industry, the
government, and probably to some extent, the public, by attacking
Netscape and the Web. When we tell the history of this chapter of
computing history, the costs of Microsoft's aggression will be seen to
be very high, not just for them, but for all of us. Now we're stuck,
we don't have a leader to turn to to settle the mess of identity.
Dan Gillmor launches new life
Dan Gillmor launches new life
01/01/2005 04:58 PMXeni Jardin:
Pioneering journalist and fearless tech explorer
Dan Gillmor has a new home
on the web -- and new plans. He writes:
For the first time in two decades I'm not on the payroll of a large
media corporation. As of today I'm on the payroll of a one-person
company, comprised of me, but media is still on my agenda.
As many of you know I'm going to work hard on a project to inspire,
enable and create what many have been calling a new kind of
journalism. In the new world that I and many others believe is coming,
the grassroots will have a fundamental and crucial role in the process
-- a change that I tried to outline in my book, We the Media, which
appeared in the second half of 2004.
For me, this departure is challenging and exciting. I've left what
surely is one of the best jobs in mainstream journalism, and will miss
my former colleagues immensely (not to mention the pay, benefits and
freedom to say what I believed).
I'm also jazzed. Yes, this is a chance to truly walk my talk. But the
opportunity to be in on what I consider a pivotal shift, and to be
involved just as it begins to happen, made my decision easy.
Read the rest here:
Link.
Dan Gillmor Leaving the Merc
Dan Gillmor Leaving the Merc
12/19/2004 03:05 PMWow. My hometown paper hero has moved on. Congratulations Dan.
Whatever the future holds, I'm sure you will not only get it, but
possibly now shape it....
"Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism"
"Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism"
01/02/2005 04:12 PMDan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism
Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism
01/01/2005 04:54 PMcan be found here
dangillmor.typepad.com
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Dan Gillmor is one of my favorite peeps
Dan Gillmor is one of my favorite peeps
08/01/2004 01:32 PMHere's Dan's comments after the launch party of his new book "We, the Media".
NOTE: I got to bring my twins Aron and Jacob to the party. That
was fun showing them off.
Here's Dan's post....
J.D. Lasica and Brian Dear
were among the folks who came to last night's gathering celebrating
the book launch and the relocation of Creative Commons to its new
offices in San Francisco. I was honored by the presence of so many
fine folks.
The book was published under a Creative Commons license, permitting
non-commercial use of the material as long as people give it proper
attribution and add their "remixes" back into the world under a
similar license. (The book will be online in full very soon on the
publisher's official
site.)
In my brief remarks to the folks who'd gathered last evening, I
talked about the great value Creative Commons is giving to all of us,
by doing its part to restore a tiny bit of balance in the copyright
regime. I doubt many publishers would have allowed me to live up to
what I've been saying on copyright these past few years, and I'm
grateful that I have a publisher who totally gets it.
(Cross-posted to We the Media.)
[Dan Gillmor]
Brian Dear
and JD Lasica also had their own posts on the party. Here's some of
Brian's shots.....
Dan Gillmor comments on Google IPO
Dan Gillmor comments on Google IPO
08/23/2004 06:14 AMI missed all the excitement and did not have the cash to play in
the Auction but it looks like those that did cleaned up and made a
bundle. [Dan Gillmor]
Interview in OhmyNews International with
Dan Gillmor
Interview in OhmyNews International with
Dan Gillmor
12/19/2004 03:06 PM
OhmyNews International
interviews Dan Gillmor about his new project.
via Howard's
del.icio.us
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Gillmor: Google needs foundation of
trust
Gillmor: Google needs foundation of
trust
07/26/2004 05:46 AMThedailycamera.com - Mon Jul 26, 09:37 am GMT
Dan Gillmor Tokyo bl0gger gathering
Dan Gillmor Tokyo bl0gger gathering
03/06/2004 01:56 AMDan Gillmor's organizing a Tokyo bloggers meeting. Unfortunately, I
will be in Austria, but Tokyo bloggers, please sign up and show him a
good time.
Dan Gillmor
Tokyo Blogger Gathering?
Arrived in Tokyo last night for a few days. Considering a blogger
gathering on Tuesday evening, probably in Akasaka. Shoot me an e-mail,
or post a comment below, if you think you can make
it.
Wired News Interviews Dan Gillmor
Wired News Interviews Dan Gillmor
08/11/2004 03:37 PMWired News has an
interview with Dan Gillmor, whose book "We the Media" I wrote
about yesterda
y (via Micro Persuasion).
Dan Gillmor on Open Source Journalism
Dan Gillmor on Open Source Journalism
07/28/2004 03:02 PMI'm in Dan Gillmor's session at OSCON and these are my unedited notes.
Journalism's new world: networks everywhere, anyone can publish, good
tools for doing so. Who are the news makers of the future? Digital
cameras and even tiny video cameras are everywhere. It's harder to
keep secrets and even easier to share them. SARS first got publicity
via phone messaging. The government tried to kill it, but couldn't.
Moving from lecture mode to a conversation or seminar. "My readers...
Wired News interview with Dan Gillmor on
"We The Media"
Wired News interview with Dan Gillmor on
"We The Media"
08/11/2004 12:08 PMIn today's Wired News, an interview I conducted with veteran tech
journalist and blogger
Dan
Gillmor. In his new book,
We the Media: Grassroots
Journalism by the People, for the People, he chronicles the
social and economic impact of weblogs, wikis, mobile technology and
other networked phenomena on the business of news.
WN: What role do blogs play in all of this?
Gillmor: They have joined the journalism ecosystem. It's more
symbiosis than rivalry. I disagree with Big Media partisans who feel
blogs are irrelevant, and with blog promoters who see the demise of
professional journalism.
WN: How did you see some of the issues in your book play out at
the Democratic Convention? What sorts of trends and activity patterns
do you anticipate as the November elections approach?
Gillmor: Bloggers became pets for the Big Media. You could almost see
the establishment journalists petting bloggers like poodles and
cooing, "Oh, good bloggers, aren't you cute!" (Apart from the ones who
put on body armor and said, "Omigod, these pit bulls are dangerous!")
It'll take a few more conventions -- and a time when blogs aren't a
novelty -- for everyone to sort this out.
LinkHalley interviews Dan Gillmor on Memory
Lane
Halley interviews Dan Gillmor on Memory
Lane
02/01/2005 09:19 PM
Halley interviews
Dan Gillmor on Memory
Lane. Two of my favorite people. Dan, as usual, presents a
balanced view on blogging and journalism.
Comment -
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Dan Gillmor’s suggestion that we
all send money
Dan Gillmor’s suggestion that we
all send money
12/27/2004 07:21 PMweblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/011142.shtml
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Grok Description matches for A Hurrah for Steve Gillmor
GrokA matches for A Hurrah for Steve Gillmor
Apple's Jobs to be Stanford Commencement
speaker
Apple's Jobs to be Stanford Commencement
speaker
01/06/2005 05:15 PMApple CEO Steve Jobs will be Stanford University's 2005 Commencement
speaker...
Steve Jobs' Stanford 2005 Commencement
Speech
Steve Jobs' Stanford 2005 Commencement
Speech
06/17/2005 04:54 PM
Stanford has posted the text of Steve Jobs' recent commencement speech
from Stanford's 2005 graduation speech.
Jobs relates stories about his life,...
Steve Jobs named Stanford University’s
Commencement speaker
Steve Jobs named Stanford University’s
Commencement speaker
01/06/2005 03:00 PMSteve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and PIXAR Animation Studio, will be
Stanford University’s 2005 Commencement speaker, University President
John Hennessy announced yesterday.
An article today in The Stanford Daily says Hennessy selected Jobs
after receiving a list of recommendations from a committee consisting
of faculty members, graduate students and senior class presidents.
“The name Steve Jobs is synonymous with innovation and creativity over
the past three decades,” Hennessy said in a press release. “Steve has
been a leader and visionary, a pioneer in the use of technology as a
means to create a more engaging and humanistic world. The advisory
committee identified Steve as someone who personified the spirit and
creativity that have characterized Stanford since its founding. This
was an inspired recommendation, and I thank them for their thoughtful
work.”
A Commencement Address to Ponder
A Commencement Address to Ponder
06/13/2004 09:40 PMHoward Rheingold is giving this commencement
speech to the graduating class at Stanford's Communications
Department. He concludes:
I know that your education,
the tools you have available, and most of all, your determination and
enthusiasm constitute a formidable counter-force to the walls that are
being built around creativity and discourse. I count on you to get out
there and create. You can – you MUST -- innovate faster than
your ability to innovate can be enclosed by laws, regulations, and
technological fences.
Jon Stewart's (Class of '84)
Commencement Address
Jon Stewart's (Class of '84)
Commencement Address
05/18/2004 04:42 PM
Jon Stewart's
William & Mary Commencement Address 5/19/04, Commencement Address by Bono -
Almanac Between Issues
5/19/04, Commencement Address by Bono -
Almanac Between Issues
06/03/2004 09:03 AMBono's commencement address at UPenn: "Africa needs justice as much as
it needs charity" .. commencement ..
Bono
upenn.edu/almanac/between/2004/commence-b.html
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"Jon Stewart?s Commencement Address to
the 2004 class at William and Mary"
"Jon Stewart?s Commencement Address to
the 2004 class at William and Mary"
05/20/2004 03:58 AMShai Agassi on RSS
Shai Agassi on RSS
04/09/2004 04:02 PMOne of the most classic interviews of blogmind meets enterprisemind:
Steve Gillmor: It's striking that you're not aware of RSS. Shai
Agassi: Believe me, I'm going to Google it the minute we're done. Hey!
You put RSS in my Enterprise!...
COMMENCEMENT
ADDRESS
COMMENCEMENT
ADDRESS
06/23/2004 05:37 PM
 Last year I
republished
a wonderful commencement address by Tony Kushner. It's that time of
year again, so I went looking for the best of this year's crop. I read
a lot of commencement addresses, many by famous people -- Bono's is
not
bad, and Jon Stewart's has been bandied all over the blogosphere. I
even found a few by writers -- of which my favourite is Ursula
LeGuin's. But I found nothing of the calibre of Kushner's moving
speech. So I've written my own. Since I am unlikely to be asked to
actually deliver one, any writer who has such an opportunity is
welcome
to steal it. It's too long, so you'll have to do some editing. I just
ask that, unlike the US Presnit, if you can't write your own
commencement address, at least have the honesty to acknowledge those
who wrote it for you.
Dear Graduates:
You have probably learned that most good speeches start with a story.
So let me tell you a story. During World War II, many of the prisoners
of the concentration camps tried to dig their way to freedom by
building tunnels. The odds against them were enormous: They used
rudimentary tools or their bare hands to scrape out channels inch by
inch. If they were caught, they would be immediately killed, or suffer
a fate worse than death. And they knew that they would probably be
caught. And if not, the chances were overwhelming that their number
would come up, and they would be sent to the gas chamber before they
scratched their way to freedom. The Nazis planted spies in the camps,
and publicly rewarded those that turned in tunnel-builders. They made
a
spectacle of murdering those caught building tunnels, and of filling
in
the tunnels that they found -- a warning to others. But a few
succeeded
in escaping. The ones that escaped were generally the new prisoners
who
channelled out the last few feet. In many cases they did not even know
the long-dead prisoners who had built the first 95% of the tunnels
that
allowed them their freedom. But they honoured them with the rest of
their lives. They were thankful that the prisoners who clawed and died
before them showed that rarest of all human qualities, true
self-sacrifice.
Although most of you do not yet know it, you are in the position to
volunteer for a self-sacrifice no less noble and no less anonymous
than
those brave prisoners. The reason you do not know it is that the
wardens of the prison in which you live -- in which we all live --
have
gone to great pains to make sure you know of no life other than the
one
you are living, and to make life in this prison sufficiently bearable
that you won't rise up and riot. They don't tell you about, or show
you
on TV, the hopeless squalor, disease, death and terror that most of
those in the southern and eastern parts of this global prison struggle
with every day. They lock up, behind closed doors so you will never
see, the victims right in your neighbourhood -- beaten spouses and
sexually abused children and animals in factory farms and the inmates
of institutions -- who suffer unimaginable indignities and constant,
unbearable pain for their entire, pitiful lives. And they pay you to
keep the prison looking as clean and tidy and running as efficiently
as
possible. And until recently they even promoted some of the most loyal
and hard-working inmates to warden status. Unfortunately, due to
cutbacks in resources, there are really no openings for new wardens
anymore, unless you happen to be the child of someone who is already a
warden.
You put up with this, and even bring more children into this terrible
world, because you have all lived -- we have all lived -- in this prison for our whole
lives. It is the only life we know.
Recently, our local TV news
told the story of Lucky, a dog whose life started out badly, but
turned
out just fine. Lucky (so named by the Humane Society when they rescued
him) was left behind when the family of an alcoholic and abusive man
fled to a social services shelter, a 'half-way house' that didn't
allow
dogs. Neighbours say Lucky was beaten several times by this man, and
left outside in all weather, but steadfastly refused to run away, and
even came back to more abuse after the man told neighbours that he'd
driven the dog a mile away and abandoned him. What earned Lucky his
name was his discovery, a month later, flailing weakly in a country
ditch fifty miles away, by a caring couple who found him, bruised,
emaciated, feet tied together and nearly dead. Nursed back to health
by
the Humane Society with the help of an outpouring of local donations
from citizens, Lucky had over a hundred adoption offers.
The
reporter covering the story raised the issue of why Lucky didn't
run away, and kept coming back for more abuse from this man. They used
the words 'brave' and 'loyal' to describe this behaviour. It obviously
didn't occur to the reporter that Lucky came back for more abuse because that's the only life he
knew.
He couldn't have survived in the wild, and couldn't have known that
another, better life could be had in just about any other house, as
part of any other family.
We are all, in a real sense, like
Lucky. Compared to the hunter-gatherers who lived
for millions of years before modern civilization, we work much harder
and longer to make a living, we face much more physical and
psychological violence (in our neighbourhoods, in our workplaces, in
our war-torn world, and sometimes even in our homes), we suffer from
many more physical and psychological diseases and illnesses, we live
in
crowded, polluted, mostly run-down communities, in constant fear (of
an
infinite number of things, most notably not having enough),
and we are oppressed with hierarchies, laws, rules and restrictions
that would have driven our ancient ancestors quite mad. We invented
civilization because, after the last ice-age, we faced a sudden and
terrible shortage of food. It was a well-meaning response to such a
crisis, but now, like Pandora's box, it is out of control. We have
become its prisoners.
This situation is growing worse, steadily and almost imperceptibly,
each day. Unlike the POW camp, our civilization, our
prison is not sustainable. We have run out of room to build new cells.
We already consume over twice the resources our planet can sustainably
produce even with the most advanced technology. By the end of this
century -- after your deaths, but within the lifespan of your children
and certainly your grandchildren, our population, even with a steadily
decreasing growth rate, will more than double again, and by the most
conservative estimates the per-capita resource demand will more than
double, so we will be consuming more than eight Earths
can sustainably produce. Your parents -- my generation -- have already
drawn heavily on your share of the Earth's nonsustainable resources,
most notably petroleum and forests, and depleted the Earth's arable
land to the point it needs huge amounts of oil-based fertilizers and
chemicals to produce what it produced naturally just a generation ago.
And we have poisoned the water to the point drinking water will become
a staggeringly scarce resource for your grandchildren, and poisoned
the
air sufficiently to propel our world into unpredictable and
catastrophic climate change that may make your descendants' lives
horrific. To even live in a life-style comparable to what we have
lived, your grandchildren will need to use up every scrap of the
Earth's land, forests, plant and animal matter, both surface and
underground hydrocarbons, in this
century.
So your generation is in a double bind. You have been born into a vast
and terrible prison that you think of as the only way to live, and
nothing has equipped you to even see the need to escape, let alone the
means. And the ecological, and hence human, crisis that the
astonishing
growth of this prison is precipitating will only be felt in your
children's, perhaps even your grandchildren's lifetimes. How can
anyone
expect you to do anything under these circumstances?
The truth is, no one expects you to do anything. The only ones who
will, have not yet been born, and while they will curse both my
generation and yours, they will appreciate the double bind that led to
our, and your, inaction.
But if you do decide to do something, for some inexplicable reason,
perhaps because some instinct (something much more powerful than my
feeble arguments and inadequate stories) tells you you have to do
something, let me point out three tools you can use, and show you
where
we have begun digging a way out.
The first tool is knowledge. The Internet is the equivalent in our
prison to the grapevine, the code used by POWs to pass on knowledge of
ways and plans and actions to escape. It is the new Underground
Railroad. During your lifetime, those with wealth and power will
recognize its subversive capacity and try to either take it over or
shut it down. Don't let them. It's your lifeline, your tunnel out.
Read, learn, talk with others. Foment awareness, understanding,
discontentment and dissent.
The second tool is instinct. Our culture, including the education
system you have hopefully survived, has tried to sublimate it, to
ridicule it as animal, illogical, unreliable, mythological, even
immoral. But we survived on instinct, and lived free and in balance
with nature for three million years on Earth before civilization and
its politics and laws and technology and ethical codes started
teaching
us that human reason and human morality were better survival tools.
We're finally learning that they're not. So exercise your instincts --
spend time in nature, listening and learning, open up your senses and
see how powerful and strong your instincts really are. And then trust
them. They will not let you down.
The third tool is imagination. The most important sentence I ever
wrote was a double-entendre: If we
can't imagine, we can do anything.
If we can't imagine, we can turn paradise into a prison, and convince
the prisoners they are free. We can allow billions of people and
animals to live in unbearable squalor, misery and suffering, keep it
all out of sight, and take no action, no responsibility to fix it. We
can convince ourselves there is nothing we can do, no better way to
live. We can end the world. If you regain your imagination, despite
the
efforts of our society and its systems, like this university, to
squelch it, then you will see the world for what it is, and also see
what it could be, can be. And
once you imagine what it can be, you will know what you must do to
make it better.
When I told you I would show you where we have begun digging I lied.
My
generation hasn't begun -- we have been too selfish. I didn't want you
to give up hope. Because hope is the fourth tool, and perhaps the most
important one. The POWs assuredly had the knowledge, instincts, and
imagination to claw their way to freedom, but without hope they would
not have tried. My generation ended the war in Vietnam but then, when
the world started to backslide, we gave up, and now most of us just
sit
in our cells writing, on a kind of perpetual hunger strike, sticking
to
our ideals but not really doing anything. We are, in every sense of
the
word, hopeless. Somewhere along the way we lost our courage.
Breathe easy. I'm almost done.
Most of you probably think I am angry, nostalgic, bitter, and insane.
That may be true. When you live with terrible knowledge for most of a
lifetime, it starts to eat your soul. You start to babble, to repeat
yourself, to get impatient with those that don't understand you. You
start to see conspiracy where there is none. This is a terrible world,
but it is no conspiracy, it's nobody's fault. And if we -- you
-- don't escape from the prison and save the world, nature, who always
bats last, will save it her own way. What she leaves behind may not be
recognizable, and it may be grim for a while for homo sapiens unused to living free,
but it will work for the rest of life on Earth, or at least what's
left of it.
And if you do start to build the escape tunnel, and allow your
grand-children to build a new, healthy, free human culture, in harmony
with the rest of life on Earth, to replace our civilization's prison,
those grandchildren will thank you and honour you, but only after
you've gone. For your knowledge, your instinct, your imagination, your
hope and courage, that's the only thanks you'll get. Not enough of a
motivation for most of us to sacrifice ourselves and our lives.
If you have that motivation, it will come from inside. And you will
know that, of all the people in this crowd of restless graduates, I
have really only been talking to you. So let me, at least, thank you in advance.
Brave and unsuspecting pioneers -- Thank you.
The Hanged Man in the
Tarot deck represents self-sacrifice, a giving up of accepted wisdom
and putting faith in nature, instinct, higher forces. In the three
Tarot readings I have had in my life he has always shown
up.
|
Video of MIT-Stanford Venture Lab Event
Video of MIT-Stanford Venture Lab Event
01/16/2004 10:56 AMMIT-Stanford Venture Lab has posted video from their Septemeber event
on Social Software and Social Networking. Panelists and Speakers
include myself, Reid Hoffman, Tony Perkins, Jonathan Abrams, Cynthia
Typaldos and Andrew Anker. Here's my blog post about it and Stewart...
Going Back To Jive County
Going Back To Jive County
12/02/2003 05:23 AM Attack
of the Disco Furball! The cute animated character has become
something of a staple for alterno-pop videos - from the runaway milk
carton in Blur's
Coffe
e and TV to the big-nosed moper in Moby's
Why
Does My Heart Feel So Bad. But new heights of weirdness are
reached on this Flash video called
Jive
County which shows a be-stetsoned one-legged bundle of hair
bouncing to an electro beat.
Change address formats in Address Book
Change address formats in Address Book
02/05/2005 10:14 PMOK, this is picky of me, but I got fed up having a line for "County"
in my UK-format addresses in AddressBook. It irked me. After a brief
hunt, I found that I can modify the address format for each country's
addresses by modi...
The humanism of media ecology: Keynote
address delivered at the inaugural media
ecology association convention
The humanism of media ecology: Keynote
address delivered at the inaugural media
ecology association convention
12/09/2003 03:47 AMTennis: Agassi eases through
Tennis: Agassi eases through
01/27/2004 01:15 AMAndre Agassi reaches the Australian Open semis after Sebastien
Grosjean is injured in their quarter-final.
Tennis: Agassi to miss Wimbledon
Tennis: Agassi to miss Wimbledon
06/15/2004 08:25 AMFormer champion Andre Agassi confirms he will miss Wimbledon with a
hip injury.
Tennis: Agassi takes easy win
Tennis: Agassi takes easy win
01/19/2004 08:29 AMAndre Agassi and Andy Roddick make easy progress on the opening day at
the Australian Open.
BRS Media Announces iDotz.Net to offer
.MD Domain Names via Dotz.MD - Unique
Internet Address for Doctors, Medical
Professionals and the Healthcare
Community!
BRS Media Announces iDotz.Net to offer
.MD Domain Names via Dotz.MD - Unique
Internet Address for Doctors, Medical
Professionals and the Healthcare
Community!
06/25/2004 02:08 AMBRS Media, an e-commerce firm that specializes in assisting multimedia
web sites build and brand on the power of the Web, announced today the
addition of .MD domain names to iDotz.Net a full service multi-domain
registrar service. [PRWEB Jun 25, 2004]
Stanford: Day 60
Stanford: Day 60
12/19/2004 03:11 PMI wake up to impatient emails from Steven Levy, the technology
reporter for Newsweek (among many other impressive things). He…
Stanford: Day 58
Stanford: Day 58
12/19/2004 03:11 PMKat and Vicky want to know why I eat breakfast alone reading a book,
instead of talking to them. I…
Stanford: Day 55
Stanford: Day 55
12/19/2004 03:11 PMAs I walk into class TGIQ falls in behind me from the other entrance.
As I look behind me I…
Stanford: Day 59
Stanford: Day 59
12/19/2004 03:11 PMHot on the heels of showing us documentaries about porn, in sociology
section we watch an episode of the Simpsons…
Stanford: Day 61
Stanford: Day 61
12/19/2004 03:11 PMWhat exactly is life like here at Stanford? I take four classes, each
of which has different components and requirements….
Stanford: Day 2
Stanford: Day 2
09/22/2004 12:15 AMAfter breakfast we get a chance to apply the cheers we learned
yesterday as we wait outside the massive Memorial…
Stanford: Day 53
Stanford: Day 53
12/19/2004 03:11 PMStupidly, I haven’t done the reading for Sociology today so I
walk to class with my head in a book….
Stanford: Day 52
Stanford: Day 52
12/19/2004 03:11 PMMy Mom sends cake and balloons for my birthday. What am I going to do
with that? We end up…
Stanford: Day 4
Stanford: Day 4
09/24/2004 04:09 PMThis week we were repeatedly informed about the “unprecedented
personal freedom” that we would have at Stanford. Apologies, but
I…
Stanford: Day 66
Stanford: Day 66
02/01/2005 08:31 PMDuring an IHUM lecture, the professor mentioned the “Crisis of
Democracy”, a 1970s Trilateral Commission report. The report,
which was…
Stanford: Day 56
Stanford: Day 56
12/19/2004 03:11 PMI hate change. Not in the abstract, I mean the actual coins you get
from cashiers. If I were in…
Stanford: Day 5
Stanford: Day 5
09/25/2004 05:34 PMYesterday very little happened (except for a show by a stand-up
comedian who had obviously stolen his material from this…
Stanford: Day 54
Stanford: Day 54
12/19/2004 03:11 PMI’ve noticed that it’s easy to get away with not doing the
reading and not attending class, without any noticeable…
A Hurrah for Steve Gillmor
