Keith,
Your last paragraph really jumped out at me for two reasons:
"Except that the Internet keeps growing and spreading and
getting faster and better and ever more firmly rooted in all our
societies."
getting faster and better and ever more firmly rooted in all our
societies."
These are some of the most encouraging words I've read in a while on this subject. I always wanted to believe it. I had the information to back a position on it but, what I really like is when there is consensus on it.
"Would you include the hacker community in the Second Superpower? (Or do they all work for the CIA these days?)"
I find it extremely interesting how a society which is developing on an entirely different plane (and without any political hierarchy) can so closely resemble one which we are so accustomed to in the physical world.
The
hacker community has taken on behaviors which also resemble those of the CIA (for example). Both act on a certain ideology, are motivated largely by a resistance to be controlled (i.e. "sticking it to the 'man'"), feel a sense of community and pride. Last but not least, the intelligence community of every superpower is somewhat troubled by various rogue elements. I don't want to portray hackers as people I admire - only as people who show familiar patterns of behavior when looked at in groups.
One of my favorite examples is how they collectively express their position on Microsoft and during the earlier days of the Internet, how so many government and large corporations were the main targets.
Mike
Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi Mike
>Keith,
>
>So, it seems as though the federal government (a.k.a. corporate
>America) is threatened by the Second Superpower and is making
>preparations for war.
:-) Maybe. Or maybe it's just what corporations do all the time
anyway, they want to own everything. They had such an easy time with
concentration of media ownership they probably think the Internet
will be easy meat too, then they can turn it into FauxTV in drag.
It's supposed to be immune to nuclear attack, do you think it'll be
somewhat immune to hostile corporate take-over too? Wasn't the US
government also supposed to be immune to nuclear attack? Didn't help
them much with the take-overs though.
Seems to me I've been reading stories like this for at least 10
years. It keeps upping the ante each time but nothing much seems to
happen. Except that the Internet keeps growing and spreading and
getting faster and better and ever more firmly rooted in all our
societies. How much of this stuff could they make stick without
running afoul of international agreements or stirring up
international opposition? Let alone world opposition? Isn't it all
just a hacker-magnet anyway? Would you include the hacker community
in the Second Superpower? (Or do they all work for the CIA these
days?)
Best
Keith
>Mike
_______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org
Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
