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John Perry Barlow has died

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Re: John Perry Barlow has died

#121

Post by dsnuh »

Unknoob wrote: post #103
walterbell wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've already read the transcript, see his statement: https://w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/John_Perry_Barlow/HTML/... 1993-1994 was also an important period for the legal case which motivated the creation of the EFF: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Frontier_Foundation...

Man, the interview was kinda hard to read, but that statement destroyed me. What a moving tale. Makes me want to believe in the afterlife just so he could be reunited with her

Such a wonderful story, and one I hope we all get a chance to relate to at some point in our lives. His last descriptions of the sky and how heaven might look reminded me of this part from a poem by Jacques Prevet:

  Our Father who art in heaven
  Stay there
  And we'll stay here on earth
  Which is sometimes so pretty
Full poem: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/667126-pater-noster-our-fat...

Re: John Perry Barlow has died

#124

Post by adultSwim »

bstrand wrote: post #38
Dangeranger wrote: post #11

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather. We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater…

It is worthwhile to consider Barlow's legacy--particularly this utopian rhetoric about cyberspace--as examined by Adam Curtis in his 2016 film Hypernormalisation (starting at 40m 35s):- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fny99f8amM&feature=youtu.be...

I'm inclined to agree with Curtis' analysis. His critique is particularly pertinent now that Silicon Valley yields such enormous power.

Re: John Perry Barlow has died

#125

Post by adultSwim »

Dangeranger wrote: post #11

A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace by John Perry Barlow Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather. We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater…

~"Government: get out of the way! We need no impediments to unbridled corporate power" -JPB

Re: John Perry Barlow has died

#126

Post by perch56 »

mattl wrote: post #27

JPB on meeting a partner on an evening when he was due to roast Steve Jobs at a NeXT Expo. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/74/transcript#act3

This is an incredible story. Strangely enough this is what John Perry Barlow shared on Instagram last December: “I met my precious granddaughter today. She feels inexplicably familiar to me.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bc-zR3TlIoz/

Re: John Perry Barlow has died

#127

Post by aphrax »

mindcrime wrote: post #114
allworknoplay wrote: post #3

If Barlow doesn't deserve the HN black bar, I don't know who does. He fought for electronic freedoms tirelessly for decades, fending off companies who wanted to control the Internet or individuals' rights to hack technology they own.

Definitely. Please HN mods, let's have the black bar tribute today.

Please, the black bar

Re: John Perry Barlow has died

#129

Post by smhenderson »

klenwell wrote: post #78
mattl wrote: post #27

JPB on meeting a partner on an evening when he was due to roast Steve Jobs at a NeXT Expo. https://www.thisamericanlife.org/74/transcript#act3

a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former rancher and Grateful Dead lyricist Now that's a life lived.

Yeah, I was a big Dead Head in the 80's and loved JPB for what he had done with Bob Weir and the rest of the band.

Years later I learned about the EFF as part of diving deep into tech in general. It took me another five or so to put together the fact that the JPB I knew and loved was the guy who started the EFF. It felt neat to have my past and present collide a little like that.

RIP Mr. Barlow, you will be sorely missed.

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