Hi Gus. Pretty good roll you got on there (: And I agree, Steve's question is hard.
Here's another take on it that I don't think anyone mentioned so far. The field of science and technology studies is interesting here. There's a wiki entry under that name, though they don't mention Bruno Latour, one of the pioneers that ethnos like because of his foundational ethnography of lab science. STS, as they call it, was part of the stream that fed Xerox PARC and John Seely Brown's book The Social Life of Information, which got some FRIAM air time a while back. I don't know the field really. Last exposure was to a few researchers at LANL years back, who were using it. One take on it is that the technology/human question is handled by viewing the technology as another actor in a situation and looking on the ground at how this new "character" affects the story. So some of the early Xerox PARC work showed that assuming that a new piece of office technology would replace the former socially organized work flow was wrong. Instead, it was integrated into it. So then one interesting question is, did the social organization of work really change? And what do you mean by "change?" Maybe, maybe not, maybe in a simple way, maybe in a fundamental way, maybe for the better, maybe for the worse, maybe both. That's why the question is hard. So for instance the early WTO protests in Seattle and the Zapatistas were said by media to be a new wave of political organization thanks to tech. I dunno, they used tech to their advantage, no question. Maybe it was more bottom-up? Or was the bottom-up just quicker and more visible? Lots of new tech crime out there, like identity theft. Is that a change, or is tech just a new criminal accomplice in an old story? Any fans of The Wire, the HBO show about cops and drugs in Baltimore, know that the rapid diffusion of the newly available throw away cell phones added a major new character to the story. According to the recent documentary whose title I can't remember right now, the Republicans stole the 2004 election using tech tricks. Is that adapting a new tech actor to an old story or is it a new story? I grew up in the original Mayor Daley's Chicago, where the joke was, "Vote early...and often." There's an argument that JFK won thanks to Cook County which put Illinois in his column. Then there's the argument about the kids now, that the shift to MySpace and IM and games and all that has changed the fundamental nature of human communication. Looking back there's no question that the invention of writing had a profound social impact. Maybe this new tech actor is clearly in the column where technology across a variety of generation-specific situations is in fact changing the story in fundamental ways, but the jury is still out I think. At any rate, STS suggests taking the question to the ground, a lot of grounds, expecting a lot of variation, and looking at tech/society dialectic over time in a variety of specific cases. Since the work includes tech as a protagonist in the story, and since the stories themselves will be in the tradition of complex adaptive systems, FRIAM is a good place for such conversations to take place. But the overall project itself is a monster. Maybe STS has gone a long way already. Mike On Apr 12, 2007, at 10:22 AM, Gus Koehler wrote: > Steve: > > Actually, your question is really hard. I have been involved in > tracing the > significant issues--economic, political, ethical, philosophical-- > associated > with the emergence of various advanced technologies here in > California. > These include biotechnology, nanotechnology, IT, intelligent > transportation > systems, alternative fuels, and the global marketplace in general. > In each > case there are deep drivers that conflict with basic human and > environmental > values. One is the nexus between a value free science and the > unlimited > drive for profit. A second is the disconnect between IT based > communications > and the direct experience of the body, be it facial expressions, > gestures, > vibes, scent, movement-in-context, and the like. Third, is the > isolation of > decision-makers via IT, ideology, and the way policy choices are > developed > from the lived experience of these policies--a homeless person, > killing on > the battle field and the wounded soldier or citizen, the last > butterfly. > Fourth, the creation of cyborgs and Chimeras without a careful > investigation > of what this means in terms of self, animal nature, Gaia, etc. > Fifth, the > emergence of a new, very privileged, very rich elder-aristocracy that > controls immense amounts of wealth and that will live a very long > time using > cyborg technologies above and various IT related health care > monitoring > extension that include the capacity to control from afar. On the > other IT > side, there are communities wired in such a way that multiple > cultures and > people participate together in urban planning. There is medicine at a > distance. These efforts REQUIRE free technohippies to interpret the > limitations of like how GIS can be biased in such a way as not to show > indian grave yards under proposed sky scrappers. Technohippies can > identify > the ethical and moral limits, design webs that are grounded in the > knowing > of what is cut-off and what is brought forward. They can insist on > face-to-face meetings and rolling in the grass. All of these > issues have > been investigated by science fiction, often very poorly but still > interestingly. > > Okay, what about your group. First, you live in an environment > that is > suffused with artists, poets, environmentalists, indians and others > as well > as national laboratory scientists, your private sector guys, the > Santa Fe > Institute... Why not identify some of the most interesting intersects > above--chimera, cyborgs--and pull together some hands on immediate, > body > oriented explorations of what it feels like via touch, emotions, > vision, > sound. Explore this new terrain very directly. Identify what is > lost and > what is gained. How about this virtual reality, what does it taste > like and > how does it extend into us with what shaping affects? > Visualization is > abstraction by definition. What is abstracted in and what out? The > French > philosopher Bodreard gave this a lot of thought as did other post > moderns > and their inheritors. > > Finally, there what Ginsberg called the search for the connection > to the > starry dynamo in the machinery of night. The real vision quest thing. > Check out Alex Gray's work on the net. In my opinion, it was the > serious > effort to blow up the worn out, corrupted visionary roots of > America by a > direct investigation of what it means to be human that really > scared the > crap out of the powers that be--even now. And we turned to native > Americans, Hindus, Buddhists, sex, and other means in an attempt to > REALLY > find out what's what. It was kinda crude and ended up in really > bad places > for many (I recall coming back from the Peace Corps and walking the > Haight > to see a guys and gals laying on the street out of their mind on > speed....). > This vision quest is not over. There are many guides who have > found things > as well as the ancients still here who can help out. > > Here are some interesting links. From the Urban Dictionary: > technohippy 34 > up, 2 down > > 1. a computer nerd with hippy ideals > > 2. there are cyberpunks and script kiddies, but technohippies are a > breed of > their own. they are not malicious, but only interested in the way > things > work. usually not the "l33test", (in terms of knowledge of a > specific area), > but they have a broad wisdom of many different technologies. the > favored > music of the technohippy consists of (but is not limited to): post- > rock, > electronica, ambience, eccentric cultural music, and any other obscure > music. technohippies are often very philosophical, but are open to > new ideas > (as long as they are somewhat intelligent). ignorance and hatred is > looked > down upon by the technohippy, and some may even be a bit cynical. > all in > all, a technohippy is a philosophically-open eccentric geek. > http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=technohippy some > links here > too. > > Kung Fu Technohippies Kicking Some Ass http://betterdonkey.org/node/ > 524 > > Also, http://billyjoemills.blogspot.com/2006/03/rebellion-of- > nerds.html > > And then there's the technohippy band. > > > > Gus > > > Gus Koehler, Ph.D. > President and Principal > Time Structures, Inc. > 1545 University Ave. > Sacramento, CA 95825 > 916-564-8683, Fax: 916-564-7895 > Cell: 916-716-1740 > www.timestructures.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Behalf > Of Stephen Guerin > Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 9:23 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Can you guess the source. > > Gus, > > As I was reading through the full Port Huron statement at > http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111hur.html I was > thinking, hmm, > maybe if we actually developed some of the distributed net tools > we've been > talking about it could help. But then I cam across this passage > near the > end: > > "Loneliness, estrangement, isolation describe the vast distance > between man > and man today. These dominant tendencies cannot be overcome by better > personnel management, nor by improved gadgets, but only when a love > of man > overcomes the idolatrous worship of things by man." > > So I thought, ah, technology may not help...it's a bigger problem. > > Then you write: >> There were even technohippies that believed that the new computers >> could really form a basis for communications and analysis--and this >> was pre-internet. > > This made me think that maybe there is a technological angle... > > In your opinion, where's the leverage for a group like ours? Is it > what we > can offer in technological / ideological realm, or is it local > political > action? > > -Steve > > > > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Gus Koehler [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 9:59 PM >> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 'The Friday Morning Applied >> Complexity >> Coffee Group' >> Subject: RE: [FRIAM] Can you guess the source. >> >> >> Lets see, patriot act, >> citizen phone taps without knowledge, bank taps without knowledge, >> Bush manipulation of fear by terror buggy man, electronic voting >> subversion resulting from subversion of two presidential elections, >> "privacy get over it" as the creed of the internet and of all the new >> video, voice, body fluid MEMS sensors that feed into it, world >> domination by US navy that controls the seas, air and land preferably >> with autonomous killer robots (none of our men on the battle field), >> torture as an acceptable activity without shame for a greater good >> like the Spanish Inquisition but no saving in an American heaven and >> supported by our president, pictures of our soldiers in coffins >> forbidden to be taken, no count of the number of Iraqis or Afghanis >> killed, loss of most Americans of a retirement, of health care when >> they are old, and loading up with extreme debt, students graduating >> from college so in debt that all they can do is work for the man, VA >> that can't figure out after 4 years that head injuries will be a >> problem and that urban warfare screws with people's heads, movie >> marquis that trumpet the most horrible tortures and attacks on women, >> the disappearance of a black led movement for freedom and dignity >> replaced with woes and gangsta rap belittle the life and voice of >> their own people a future dominated by the destruction of our sea >> side >> cities, heat waves, death of 30 percent of the world's species, >> Africa >> and the poor sent to suffering the most, diseases out of the cut down >> rainforests that we never expected to emerge because people eat bush >> meat, a plague that is global and is cutting the foundations out of >> African societies..... >> >> These are all things that the Port Heuron Statement could not >> anticipate but saw the foundations emerging for. >> Santa Fe probably won't be much of a place to live in 30 years and >> neither will Sacramento. >> >> I remember the Port Heruon Statement well having been a member of the >> SDS. >> We, for a short while, saw the beast naked and what it could do. We >> even had a vision of wholeness of what men and women could become. >> Read the rest of the statement. >> >> There were even technohippies that believed that the new computers >> could really form a basis for communications and analysis--and this >> was pre-internet. >> >> I think the big difference is how subtle all of this has come about >> without the direct intervention of 1984 like social structures, even >> right in our faces. >> >> At least we could see our soldiers being wounded, sent home in boxes, >> and watch the people suffer on fire with napalm or being shot in >> ditches whom we were killing so effectively. >> >> In my view the vision came true and we are even more asleep than we >> know. >> >> >> >> Gus Koehler, Ph.D. >> President and Principal >> Time Structures, Inc. >> 1545 University Ave. >> Sacramento, CA 95825 >> 916-564-8683, Fax: 916-564-7895 >> Cell: 916-716-1740 >> www.timestructures.com >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stephen Guerin >> Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 8:22 PM >> To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group' >> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Can you guess the source. >> >>> Does anyone remember the Port Huron Statement? I'm >> reaching here, and >>> I don't remember the date. Hell, most of you probably weren't even >>> BORN yet! >> >> I cheated with Google and still didn't know who it was. Yep, >> 6 years before I even saw light. >> >> Thankfully, things have turned out nothing like what was described >> there ;-) >> >> -Steve >> >> >> >> > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, > archives, > unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
