9 Reader Responses

1. Svenson Says:
   September 17th, 2007 at 2:06 pm

   That’s an interesting angle, the sustainable internet. I was reading about a group called Geek Corps, (like peace corp except they work with computers) who has been setting up communications to remote villiages in Africa where the only previous communicaiton was through expensive satelite phones. As I recall, they were using cheap 8011b relays amplified through milk jugs, solar powered.

   Its funny to think of how decadent we’ve become. In the 1950’s, they had the electricity, but they also still had the old kerosene lanterns around for if the power went out. Now we’ve build this whole infrastructure on the foundation of cheap energy that may or may not be here tomorrow, we’ve learned to take it for granted. What’s interesting to me about technology like the solar powered local networks is that the “greenness” of them also translates into disaster (energy cutoff) preparedess and affordability for modern society. So I definately think there is an angle here.

   Love the changes BTW.

2. Tim Boucher Says:
   September 17th, 2007 at 2:22 pm

   Also, say we do begin experiencing massive internet outages (planned or otherwise): we are all so reliant on data retrieval for simple tasks via the internet - even after only a few years - that many of us would be utterly unable to find out how to complete certain simple tasks without it.

   One thing I see as an absolute necessity in a “human internet” or a “local sustainable shared value community” is what could be called a “skills bank”. If you need to know how to do something, you need to know who to go to who is the expert on that particular thing.

   This is one role I have found myself getting into more and more through my work online. I think Malcolm Gladwell calls them “connectors” - people who connect resources with those in need of resources.

   This very much applies here:

   http://www.timboucher.com/journal/2006/07/15/open-source-teaching-clubs/

3. Svenson Says:
   September 17th, 2007 at 2:40 pm

   Yeah, I remembered reading that post about the electrical engineer wishing there were something like that around me, but thinking how rare that guy must be. I feel pretty alone in caring about information for its own sake. Even taking comp. sci classes in college, many of my classmates just wanted to “get through it” to get a high paying job. Of those who did care, most had a interest in making their own shoot em up games, and the few who had deeper interests who introspective, inaccessible. (probably the same way I come across)

   So yes, you are right as usual in the need to build the social network. Its more than just friends though, its friends + skills + values, its bringing it all together, its about achieving integration as people. Right now, there is a lot of social schizophrenia - we have these split personalities where our work ego, social ego, artistic/expressive ego are all different. Thus the college students who actually don’t care about what they are studying, and don’t want to talk about it outside the classroom. In order to get to that point where we care enough to be connectors, and to build these networks, we need to personally care about what we do.

4. Tim Boucher Says:
   September 17th, 2007 at 3:06 pm

   Elegantly put, as usual! You have a talent for that, especially in these areas, it seems, Svenson.

5. Creating A Skills Bank - Pop Occulture Says:
   September 17th, 2007 at 3:56 pm

   […] [[Continued from here. Ties in threads begun here.]] […]

6. speedbird Says:
   September 20th, 2007 at 4:52 am

   This goes in cycles. When bandwidth is cheap, everything centralises. When processing is cheap, everything gets distributed. Thirty years ago everything was centralised in mainframes. Fifteen years ago everything was distributed and the internet was a novelty. Now here we are again. My worry is that processing is in fact now taboo. The internet is not about information but about observations. Of course, that’s just my observation. Go make your own…

7. Tim Boucher Says:
   September 20th, 2007 at 12:20 pm

   The internet is not about information but about observations.

   Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

8. Julia Says:
   September 20th, 2007 at 12:31 pm

   Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

   Yeah. It sounds good.

9. speedbird Says:
   September 21st, 2007 at 5:08 am

   > Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

   Well, I’ve been starting to think that ‘information’ is what the senses receive when you stick your head out the window. Once the world has been observed, all you’ve got are observations. And this is a characteristic of all digital media: because you’ve got to do some processing to get the digits, the information ceases to be first-hand, and it’s an important difference. Now if observations become easier to get by reading the internet than by sticking your head out of the window, what’s going to happen? This isn’t to say that technology can’t help with the observation of information, but that the internet doesn’t seem to in general: it’s all observation by proxy; all you get to see is what other people are up to.

   I get these strange ideas by reading quantum mechanics, drinking beer and listening to vinyl. When you play a record the music is reconstructed on the fly every time, and it’s different every time. And unless the thing is scratched then the hiss and crackle is random and different each time and the brain can filter it out. If you blow a record to CD then the crackle is the same every time and it drives you nuts. Seriously, it sounds really weird. There’s a difference in the way the brain listens to a record and a CD. What I’m saying is that the vinyl contains information, because it has to be observed fresh every time, whereas the CD contains only observations; it’s ready-observed. Some of the work’s been done, and the brain has to work in a different way. But you don’t immediately notice what’s going on. McLuhan talked about ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ technologies in a similar way.