Information Tyranny

Being a reluctant revolutionary, I am always wary of tyranny and the many insidious forms that it takes. Here's one that really gets me.

The "folder" system. Otherwise termed "hierarchical" information systems.

Filesystems are hierarchical. Operating systems are hierarchical. Scientism is hierarchical. Modernism is hierarchical.

The information systems of the world are infected with an embedded ontology.

And I intend to do something about it...

The Return of Santiago

Well, I read The Return of Santiago in about 3 hours straight through last night.

Not only did it bring me to tears, but it reminded what is really important: compassion, the work.

I really needed that.

Santarchy

Just had to blog this bit of "Kringle Kaos":

http://www.santarchy.com

Saskia Sassen at the U of Utah Followup

Well, the talk was pretty good. The sad truth is that most of it was similar to things I wrote in 1986, and much of it was nothing new and has been covered in more detail by other scholars: global civil society, feelings of "human" citizenship, etc.

Nonetheless, it was great to see such a heavyweight talk about where she thinks the world is headed. She may be only half right but that's half more than the people who are all wrong :-)

Saskia Sassen at the U of Utah

I'm headed to see Saskia Sassen tonight at the University of Utah. She proposes that global financial networks are concentrated in "global cities" that are the major control centers for the new economy.

I took on her argument in my article Cities Without Borders: Digital Culture and Decentralization, so I'm pretty stoked about getting to talk with her.

Santiago

I reread Mike Resnick's Santiago last night. Turns out there's a sequel not out in paperback yet. Guess I'll read that one this week.

Santiago has profoundly affected my life and I've read it plenty of times. Someday I'm going to make it into a film.

The first aim of power is to perpetuate itself, and the first duty of free men is to resist.

blog4zog emerges

Like a slime-mold, the blog4zog has emerged.

I've started this personal blog to hold all those things that I think about that don't fit on any of the other places that I blog.