A new work of fiction by Bruce Sterling
*What audience could possibly comprehend all the blackly humorous in-jokes in a political satire written for Swedish PEN on the subject of Internet espionage? *Wait a minute -- nettime would get all that. Hey yeah. That's perfect for them. http://www.dissidentblog.org/en/articles/nexiste-pas bruces # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: tensions within the bay area elites
As the saying goes, where you stand has a lot to do with where you sit. Outside looking in? Vulnerable to the politics of envy. Inside looking out? Vulnerable to the politics of manifest destiny, personal edition. --dan # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: tensions within the bay area elites
On 05/11/2014 01:38 PM, Michael Weisman wrote: I don't think this is a Bay Area thing. Google, Schmidt, and even Cory, operate at a supranational level, traveling from place to place and speaking and working all over the globe, without any regard to national borders or local cultures. Yet there is a local effect. As Google and other major Silicon Valley companies have grown to become a global economic force, supplying information-processing capacities and managerial tools to the entire world, their local footprint has grown disproportionately. Their presence, buying power and influence in the Bay Area is palpable and increasing. A social class cannot simply remain invisible. And the sight of a superior class - arguably, a dominant class, a ruling class - is generally painful to the eyes of others. Thus the recent (and in my view, quite justified) attacks against Google techies/execs by Bay Area political countercultures. Doctorow is a somewhat different story, no? He may get himself flown around the world to give talks, but he is not a full-fledged member of this newly dominant class - all the more so since he seems to identify himself at least partially with those on the outside of it. Both his politics and his own quest for attention-market share lead him to see, or at keast try to see, the new mangerialists as so many of his readers do, with ambivalent admixtures of envy, fear and class hatred. These kinds of tensions within elites have often emerged in the capitalist democracies. They are a good sign. We need more of them, and not just within the elites themselves. It is healthy to lash out against those who rule you. Otherwise they do what they are doing right now. They just walk all over us. With pleasure and impunity. best, Brian # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: tensions within the bay area elites
I don't think this is a Bay Area thing. Google, Schmidt, and even Cory, operate at a supranational level, traveling from place to place and speaking and working all over the globe, without any regard to national borders or local cultures. They live in cyberpsace, literally. I'm sympathetic to Cory's concerns, but they are a little childish. Cory is shocked, shocked to wake up and find out that Eric Schmidt, the old-school businenessman hired to be the adult in the room at Google, turns out to be a moderate Republican who sees his company as a fellow traveller with western governments (Google pulled out of China). Why wouldn't a company like Google seek to be in concert with Boeing, Lockheed, GE, or GM? Like his entitled brethren, Cory wants special rules to apply to him, his family, the places he shops and eats, and to no one else. I mean, I listen to this discussion almost every day. It can be described as a generational difference as much as anything, and Cory identifies wit h the generation below him (Millenials), and Schmidt identifies with the generation above him (late Boomers). Google plus (a practical failure BTW, like most of Google's rollouts) will not be where the mass murder of anyone is 'outed.' And Cory can bitch all he wants about privacy, but Boing Boing, his blog, has nine trackers on its site, including doubleclick and google analytics, and beacons as well. So I guess Cory is all religious when it comes to his own privacy, but not so much when it comes to making money on his website from snarfing up little bits of others' privacy. I'm not sure who is more, or less hypocritical. Mike Weisman On May 11, 2014, at 6:57 AM, Geert Lovink wrote: > Dear nettimers, > > I know, there are tons of examples of this. I just want to know more > what you think of it, in particular if you happen to live there, or > come from the Bay Area. <...> --- Mike Weisman please respond to pop...@speakeasy.net # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
tensions within the bay area elites
Dear nettimers, I know, there are tons of examples of this. I just want to know more what you think of it, in particular if you happen to live there, or come from the Bay Area. To me, it is somehow super clear that Facebook is evil. Not hard to understand. But Google? Why are tensions rising so high lately around them? Look at the tone of the Cory Doctorow blog post to Boing Boing… Don't get me wrong. But have they really gone down lately? In my humble view they are as evil as were a decade ago... What happened? Have we changed? Yours, Geert -- Eric Schmidt, war crimes apologist and colossal hypocrite Cory Doctorow at 6:00 pm Wed, May 7, 2014 Just a reminder that Google CEO Eric Schmidt is a colossal hypocrite and an apologist for war crimes: “Some people will cheer for the end of control that connectivity and data-rich environments engender. They are the people who believe that data wants to be free and that greater transparency in all things will bring about a more just, safe and free world. For a time, WikiLeaks' cofounder Julian Assange was the world's most visible ambassador for this cause, but supporters of WikiLeaks and the values it champions come in all stripes, including right-wing libertarians, far-left liberals and apolitical technology enthusiasts, While they don't always agree on tactics, to them, data permanence is a failsafe for society. Despite some of the known negative consequences of this movements (threats to individual security, ruined reputations and diplomatic chaos), some free-information activists believe the absence of a delete button ultimately strengthens humanity's progress toward greater equality, productivity and self-determination. We believe, however, that this is a dangerous model, especially given that there is always going to be someone with bad judgment who releases information that will get people killed. This is why governments have systems and valuable regulations in place that, while imperfect, should continue to govern who gets to make the decision about what is classified and what is not.” - Google CEO Eric Schmidt, on whistleblowers, from "The New Digital Age," written with Jared Cohen, another Googler. This is the man who said, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place" (but flipped out when Cnet performed the most perfunctory of doxxings on him), but whose position, when it comes to leaks detailing everything from the indiscriminate killing of civilians to criminal mass-surveillance of whole nations (and massive cyberattacks on his own company) is that grownups know what they're doing and it's not up to the "far left," and "right wing libertarians" to publish the truth and hold powerful criminals to account. In short: if Google outs you through a "Real Names" policy on G+, maybe you just shouldn't be gay, or maybe you shouldn't be hiding that fact from your violent and intolerant neighbors. But if a whistleblower or a reporter outs an elected official for gross corruption and war crimes, she's an irresponsible child who's taken the law into her own hands and should know better. # distributed via : no commercial use without permission #is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
