Rob, On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 11:52 PM, Rob Myers <r...@robmyers.org> wrote:
> > Knowledge can be spread through the Internet more effectively than other > communication systems. > > And the knowledge it spreads need not be limited to clean water. > > I once listened to an Indian activist explaining that, actually, > villagers do need computers. They help stop their crops failing... > > you know that i am perfectly in synch with that. i have a website that is called "art is open source" with very specific content on it :) i was suggesting that the "question" was placed in terms that were too simplistic talk about problems of the planet and the internet? the computer you are using is part of the problem. the electricity you are using is part of the problem. the people working at the ISP to allow for monthly bandwith at 21.99£ a month are part of the problem. the clothes you are wearing are part of the problem. the battery of your laptop is part of the problem. some of the things you ate for dinner are part of the problem. the way that you give for granted that a certain organization of "time" is "normal" is part of the problem. and so on. this takes nothing out from the concept that "internet" is fundamental, that learning about "how things work" (be them computers, software, pills, solar panels or water filtering techniques) is fundamental and that (as someone suggested) learning the methodologic-performative form of thought-action that is programming, is fundamental. but it still remains "part of the problem". which is wider. and it has to do with "what we take for granted", and what we feel is "normal" or "acceptable". It is a problem of awareness and of culture. as we have seen, open source, free software, hacking & C. have brought up insightful mental frameworks to think about "the whole thing". But i am really fascinated by (and see opportunity in) the scenarios in which we take a wider approach. this is a time of change. in times of change people tend to give names to things. which is fine, but let's not loose contact with the fact that we're still learning how to deal with a new world configuration. we're like many Charlie Chaplins in "Modern Times": still cumbersome and unprepared for what we're facing. in the movie it was industry and a new mediated, authoritarian, experience of time. For us it is the digital age as intended by governments and large, planetary operators (be them financial, technological, energetic or whatever) i'm sure many (all?!?) of you perfectly understand and maybe even agree to that. i am just not comfortable with "questions" placed in a narrower perspective, and i wanted to point it out, as i thought it could be useful to opening the discussion to a larger perspective. ciao! xDxD
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