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Whole Earth Index

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Re: Whole Earth Index

#31

Post by paulcole »

MarcelOlsz wrote: post #30
paulcole wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a bit sad to see where we have landed after all that. For a comically small amount of money I can listen to any song I want to, read any book I want to, watch any movie/TV show I want to. Then there’s the ad-supported videos and images and text. Then there’s the AIs that I use every day! I’m in awe at how amazing where we have landed at is. Sure some stuff isn’t perfect but what fun is it to be sad about what…

I Live in a Techno-Dystopian Surveillance Nightmare and All I Got Was This Shitty MP3 Player

It’s actually a pretty cool mp3 player!

Re: Whole Earth Index

#32

Post by solomonb »

paulcole wrote: post #26
epolanski wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you're too young to remember the kind of vibe and optimism that people rode in the 90s. Felt like everything was going to be better, like we humans were going to be better. More peace, no apartheid, no Soviet union, removing borders between countries in Europe, tech felt like a way to connect us. In fact, I invite you to re read your entire post. You post achievements in conveniences as major milestones for hum…

I started getting online in around 1996 for whatever that’s worth. > You post achievements in conveniences as major milestones for human progress A careful reader will note that I did not do this.

You didn't explicitly call your examples major milestones of human progress but you did use rather trite examples of consumer capitalism as a counter example to my disappointment at the lackluster end game of 20th century techno-futurism.

As other commenters have stated the techno-futurist vision that comes out of the Whole Earth Catalog was radically utopian and far grander then "I get to watch low value consumer media whenever I want."

Re: Whole Earth Index

#33

Post by ghc »

solomonb wrote: post #12

I love the Whole Earth Catalog. That era of techno-utopian optimism is so exciting. I'm too young to have experienced more then the tail end of it in the 90s going to computer camp as a kid, but it felt like anything was possible and everything was connected. It is a bit sad to see where we have landed after all that.

If you look at the first 10 years of Whole Earth Review, starting in 1985, it's startling to see the similarities to the issues of today.

January 1985: Computers as Poison - "It is not our hand that we put into the computer, it is our attention."

July 1985: Digital Retouching - "The end of photography as evidence of anything"

Winter 1985: "Islam: Beyond the Stereotypes"

Spring 1986: "Peering into the age of Transparency" - about space surveillance

Summer 1986: “This text tries to explain how minds work. How can intelligence emerge from non-intelligence? To answer that, I’ll show that you can build a mind from many little parts, each mindless by itself.”

Fall 1986: The Fringes of Reason - Strange myths and eccentric science

Winter 1986: AmerRuss - Joining America and Russia into one country

Summer 1987: What is real & A No-Cash Economy that Works

Fall 1987: Doing Drag & Male Identity

Summer 1988: The Far Left & Far Right Converge Summer 1988: The Rights of Robots

Summer 1989: Is the body obsolete

Summer 1991: Electronic Democracy

Winter 1991: Questioning Technology

Fall 1992: Artificial Life

Re: Whole Earth Index

#34

Post by ch4s3 »

solomonb wrote: post #32
paulcole wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started getting online in around 1996 for whatever that’s worth. > You post achievements in conveniences as major milestones for human progress A careful reader will note that I did not do this.

You didn't explicitly call your examples major milestones of human progress but you did use rather trite examples of consumer capitalism as a counter example to my disappointment at the lackluster end game of 20th century techno-futurism. As other commenters have stated the techno-futurist vision that comes out of the Whole Earth Catalog was radically utopian and far grander then "I get to watch low value consumer me…

I’d say dirt cheap solar panels and CRISPR based vaccines are pretty cool. I’m also quite optimistic about the proliferation of plausible SMR designs. That new concrete that self heals and sequesters carbon is cool too.

Re: Whole Earth Index

#36

Post by rainingmonkey »

epolanski wrote: post #25
zackmorris wrote: post #10

This is great! I remember a turning point for me when I was feeling very low at the height of the War on Terror and jingoism appeared to have taken over the world. Just before the housing bubble popped and politics would swing the other way, but we didn't know that was going to happen yet. John Mayer was playing music at Macworld 2007 (wish I could find the video) and said "Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. just make life mo…

Not sure why wealth inequality is mixed anywhere near the rest of the topics. I couldn't care less about it, if some people live to make money, let them, as long as they do it legally. On the other hand hacker culture is very lacking and the fact that we don't really own our devices is part of the issue.p

Inequality necessarily reduces living standards for those at the bottom of the heap.

When the person at the top has more than they can spend on necessities and luxuries, they put their money to work. That means buying assets and driving up their prices.

Some assets are fairly divorced from the "real" economy, but enough filter through to extract wealth from the masses who have to work for a living as eg. spiralling rents, inflated credentialism etc.

Re: Whole Earth Index

#37

Post by wombatpm »

MarcelOlsz wrote: post #30
paulcole wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is a bit sad to see where we have landed after all that. For a comically small amount of money I can listen to any song I want to, read any book I want to, watch any movie/TV show I want to. Then there’s the ad-supported videos and images and text. Then there’s the AIs that I use every day! I’m in awe at how amazing where we have landed at is. Sure some stuff isn’t perfect but what fun is it to be sad about what…

I Live in a Techno-Dystopian Surveillance Nightmare and All I Got Was This Shitty MP3 Player

Sorry you bought a Zune instead of an iPod.

Re: Whole Earth Index

#38

Post by vermilingua »

ch4s3 wrote: post #34
solomonb wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't explicitly call your examples major milestones of human progress but you did use rather trite examples of consumer capitalism as a counter example to my disappointment at the lackluster end game of 20th century techno-futurism. As other commenters have stated the techno-futurist vision that comes out of the Whole Earth Catalog was radically utopian and far grander then "I get to watch low value consumer me…

I’d say dirt cheap solar panels and CRISPR based vaccines are pretty cool. I’m also quite optimistic about the proliferation of plausible SMR designs. That new concrete that self heals and sequesters carbon is cool too.

And we have the administration of the ex-hegemon working to demonise most of the cool innovations we do have.

Re: Whole Earth Index

#39

Post by adastra22 »

ghc wrote: post #33
solomonb wrote: post #12

I love the Whole Earth Catalog. That era of techno-utopian optimism is so exciting. I'm too young to have experienced more then the tail end of it in the 90s going to computer camp as a kid, but it felt like anything was possible and everything was connected. It is a bit sad to see where we have landed after all that.

If you look at the first 10 years of Whole Earth Review, starting in 1985, it's startling to see the similarities to the issues of today. January 1985: Computers as Poison - "It is not our hand that we put into the computer, it is our attention." July 1985: Digital Retouching - "The end of photography as evidence of anything" Winter 1985: "Islam: Beyond the Stereotypes" Spring 1986: "Peering into the age of Transpare…

Whole Earth published a whole spectrum of ideas, so you can cherry pick and find things that were prescient of the trouble we would find ourselves in. But overall the publication held a very optimistic view that stands at odds with present day reality.

Re: Whole Earth Index

#40

Post by adastra22 »

leoc wrote: post #22

Apparently ( https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-importance-of-Christopher-... ) one of the things that originally got computer scientists interested in Christopher Alexander was the original Whole Earth Catalog promoting his Notes on the Synthesis of Form .

I have never heard of Christopher Alexander (and Quora is unusable). Who is he?
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