From Counterculture to Cyberculture II
From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism Part I here: A broad overview, tracing through the changing connotation of the “Computational Metaphor” from one of dehumanization and control to one of anonymity, equality, and radical freedom. I often get bogged down in the details because there’s so more »
From Counterculture to Cyberculture I
From Counterculture to Cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism intends to present a history of thought from the 1960’s into the new institutions and ideologies of the networks that rose to prominence in the 90’s. The “prequel” book traced American countercultural thought from the ’60’s back into the 1930’s [the Digital more »
Mulling: Doctorow’s Wars, Estrada’s Organisms
I’ve started to clean and update my “cowpaths” page of reasonable-sounding connections/themes for 2014 so far. The reflection probably could’ve been saved for my March meta-post, but I had a little time. My current constellations of posts are: Ecological Thinking, Stories and Decision Making, Modern/Centralized Systems, and Games/Game Studies. I have half a mind to more »
Against the Smart City III
Between my new learning regimen and a big sprint on one of my projects (which will probably continue into another week), I haven’t been keeping up with my usual reading/writing pace. I’ll make for lost time starting next week, I think. Anyway, more of Greenfield’s Against the Smart City. Very light run-through this time. Part I (reviews/interpretations) more »
Against the Smart City II: Generic Time and Space
Note: Greenfield’s arguments are also easily applicable to any political ideology. Discussion about this pamphlet started here. Background Against the Smart City is the first pamphlet in an unfolding series, The City is Here For You To Use. The pamphlet is not long, but I’ve been reading it sporadically alongside some other things, so these notes more »
The Last Psychiatrist
The Last Psychiatrist is reliably fun to read. But is there a consistent method/view to the whirlwind soliloquy? I was thinking about this again during my note-taking on the “psychotherapy of nations” theme in The Democratic Surround. This is a short back-of-napkin exercise at approximating the line of thought of The Last Psychiatrist. I think I more »
The Democratic Surround II
Part 1 here. This book was wonderful, very illuminating, and I scratched as much of it as I could to share but there is a lot of very interesting trivia. Here are my notes and quotes on the second half of The Democratic Surround. World War II and the Cold War Post-War America is misremembered more »
Against the Smart City I
In this post, I strategically deploy strawmen. — Now also on my to-read list: “Against the Smart City (The City is Here For You to Use)” by Adam Greenfield. I’ve read some reviews of the pamphlet and it looks very worth the read. The “Smart City” is a proposition forwarded by my employer and other more »
The Democratic Surround I
You can find Part 2 here. On the theories of the Committee of National Morale and the Bauhaus movement in the United States. I apologize if I was too over-broad in my notes in part iv, my sense of art history is weak. I. “How can we prevent Fascism from growing in the more »
Totalitarianism
A favorite relevant passage: “Technology Implies Belligerence“ Greer’s three part series on Fascism ended this week, excellent reads. — My girlfriend has been a bit weirded out by my sudden interest in Fascism over the past few weeks. Let me explain. I have been convinced that Fascism is far more misunderstood as a pathology than more »