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Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

nytimes.com

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Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#11

Post by dredmorbius »

tacon wrote: post #6
Cyph0n wrote: post #5

I quickly read through the article, but I was unable to see how Brand changed the world. I've lived outside the US for most of my life and I'm probably a bit too young to have been directly impacted by Brands work. Based on the article, most of his work involved combining the spiritual and technological into a cohesive whole. This sounds really cool, but seemed to only be limited to US culture. Honestly, I think the…

There is something delicious about such a comment on Hacker News. There is a direct link between The Well and Hacker News, and you would probably feel quite at home back on The Well in its heyday. What is the old saw, that fish can't grok the concept of water? Someone had to invent these online forums that attract smart people and intelligent discussions from around the world. For a wild ride with Stewart Brand polym…

What's the Well-HN link?

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#12

Post by jtmcmc »

dredmorbius wrote: post #11
tacon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something delicious about such a comment on Hacker News. There is a direct link between The Well and Hacker News, and you would probably feel quite at home back on The Well in its heyday. What is the old saw, that fish can't grok the concept of water? Someone had to invent these online forums that attract smart people and intelligent discussions from around the world. For a wild ride with Stewart Brand polym…

What's the Well-HN link?

The Well was a bbs for tech nerdery, futurism, science fiction, etc... in the 80's. It was massively influential in creating the cyberpunk literary genre and many tech people from the time were on it and influenced by it.

There is a direct line of ancestry IMO between the well and places like HN.

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#13

Post by gdubs »

bradneuberg wrote: post #10

Funny coincidence: Stewart Brand was actually the camera man filming Douglas Engelbart's Mother of All Demos as well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos Evidently he helped advise the team on how to present the demo.

There's a good story about this in his interview on The Tim Ferriss Show.

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#14

Post by steveeq1 »

reneherse wrote: post #7

What must have been a side project for him, the book "How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built", was hugely influential to me as an architecture student. His observations of built works continually adapting to the evolving needs of users have obvious parallels in the world of software, and helped form the basis of how I approach UX and product design.

video documentary of the book with Stewart Brand hosting for anyone that's interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvEqfg2sIH0

Saw the documentary and now reading the book, it's good.

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#15

Post by malloreon »

amasad wrote: post #3

Stewart Brand is a phenom. Not mentioned in this article but he started The Long Now Foundation ( http://longnow.org/ ) to "foster long term thinking". I've been a member for over a year and their seminars are absolutely fantastic.

there's a podcast of those, called "seminars about long term thinking" that is amazing.

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#16

Post by rmason »

dredmorbius wrote: post #11
tacon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something delicious about such a comment on Hacker News. There is a direct link between The Well and Hacker News, and you would probably feel quite at home back on The Well in its heyday. What is the old saw, that fish can't grok the concept of water? Someone had to invent these online forums that attract smart people and intelligent discussions from around the world. For a wild ride with Stewart Brand polym…

What's the Well-HN link?

Surprised myself but looks like it's still going strong. Never made the transition from the BBS, the web provided new hangouts for me like HN.

https://www.well.com/

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#17

Post by dredmorbius »

jtmcmc wrote: post #12
dredmorbius wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the Well-HN link?

The Well was a bbs for tech nerdery, futurism, science fiction, etc... in the 80's. It was massively influential in creating the cyberpunk literary genre and many tech people from the time were on it and influenced by it. There is a direct line of ancestry IMO between the well and places like HN.

I'm aware of whatvthe Well is. And that it pressages much present online discussion (though Usenet predates it).

But I'd suspected some specific individuals or group.

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#18

Post by dqpb »

rmason wrote: post #16
dredmorbius wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the Well-HN link?

Surprised myself but looks like it's still going strong. Never made the transition from the BBS, the web provided new hangouts for me like HN. https://www.well.com/

It's $15 dollars a month to join. Anyone here members? Is it worth it?

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#19

Post by wpietri »

rmason wrote: post #2

Actually I'd wager that Stewart Brand has changed the world more than twice. I was a huge fan of both the whole earth catalog and the Well. Both Tim O'Reilly and John Battelle have mentioned him as a mentor and influence. Though it wasn't mentioned in the article he's also along with Kevin Kelly behind The Long Now foundation http://longnow.org/about/

They also have an excellent set of lectures. They're in SF, but available remotely to members: http://longnow.org/seminars/

Stewart Brand usually interviews the speakers after, and he's fantastic at it. I strongly recommend seeing him in action.

Re: Stewart Brand Changed the World, Twice

#20

Post by dxw92297 »

dqpb wrote: post #18
rmason wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprised myself but looks like it's still going strong. Never made the transition from the BBS, the web provided new hangouts for me like HN. https://www.well.com/

It's $15 dollars a month to join. Anyone here members? Is it worth it?

I’ve been a member since 1986. I keep my membership mainly to read a few of the regional Well conferences. And for nostalgia. These days there are only a few conferences with regular discussions. It’s a treasure trove of historical cultural conversations on hundreds of topics. Think of it as a moderated usenet with an emphasis on tech & social communication. Many very interesting dialogs in the late 80s to mid-90s but the web and social networks superseded it by the turn of the century. It still has a feel of home.

To the question, it’s probably not worth joining anew unless you have a deep interest in the history of social computing and online communities.

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