tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5329139329489259389.post2432591422091563865..comments2023-09-18T06:11:49.382-05:00Comments on No Fear of the Future: In the Panopticon, no one can hear you rebootJayme Lynn Blaschkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02919766841748858790noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5329139329489259389.post-41263250065602666312011-09-21T12:32:25.110-05:002011-09-21T12:32:25.110-05:00And now we have "Twitteros terroristas"i...And now we have "Twitteros terroristas"in Mexico, citizens who spread the rumour of a narco attack on schools (which never happened) and are now facing imprisionment, a month before 35 bodies were thrown in a freeway in the same city. Networkphobia as a government disease.T(e)Mhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00824154774404132026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5329139329489259389.post-7538247062493108272011-09-03T10:39:20.833-05:002011-09-03T10:39:20.833-05:00I just stumbled on an amazing blog post that seems...I just stumbled on an amazing blog post that seems relevant to the 'network culture' topic. It's an analysis of the spectrum of economic transactions based on two variables; the degree of 'relatedness' between the parties (ie, the frequency of interaction between them) and the degree of 'refinement' of the good being exchanged (ie, the ratio of effort put forth by the provider in creating the good vs the amount of effort required by the consumer to benefit from the good).<br /><br />The result is a surprisingly useful framework for conceptualizing economic transactions, and well worth a read.<br /><br /><a href="http://onthespiral.com/unifying-value-universe" rel="nofollow">Unifying the Value Universe</a>Ryan Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10648369569875052365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5329139329489259389.post-435092585808129542011-08-18T22:15:28.645-05:002011-08-18T22:15:28.645-05:00Here's the link to the piece that hat tips thi...Here's the link to the piece that hat tips this great post - cheers!<br /><br />http://historiesofthingstocome.blogspot.com/2011/08/there-is-no-going-back.htmlLC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5329139329489259389.post-10485525251206050802011-08-16T21:39:55.228-05:002011-08-16T21:39:55.228-05:00Wow, so many threads to play with.
I guess I'...Wow, so many threads to play with. <br /><br />I guess I'll need to read more about the slave trade, one interesting point that Mann makes is that the slave trade evolved largely due to the fact that africans had higher immunity to yellow fever and malaria; the colonists needed a labor force and indentured servants from england kept dying off. Adam Smith apparently discussed the issue of slavery and made the case that it was inherently uneconomical - Mann argues that it was only disease resistance which made it profitable in the new world.<br /><br />The term 'growth' reminds me of an interesting blog I posted on Google+ about recently, <a href="http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/07/can-economic-growth-last/" rel="nofollow">Do the Math</a>. It's a physicist talking about the inherent problems with approaching economics from a growth perspective. The issue is that growth means exponential growth, which means (among other things) that given the growth in energy consumption over the past 400 years, in the next 400 the earth will need to be consuming the full solar energy load of the entire planet (in 2400 years we'd need all the energy available in the universe). The post I linked to discusses the issue of 'decoupling', which is the idea that we can increase value without increasing energy consumption. He argues that this isn't a long-term solution, as it would create some perverse incentives (physical goods would be essentially free).<br /><br />In any case, I like your thoughts on network culture, I've been feeling the same way for awhile, wondering why our government is so interested in geographical borders. Not sure what else to say about that, more processing cycles needed...Ryan Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10648369569875052365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5329139329489259389.post-45218209276229981802011-08-16T18:34:27.881-05:002011-08-16T18:34:27.881-05:00Fantastic post! I'm going to hat tip it in a p...Fantastic post! I'm going to hat tip it in a post on my blog on Thursday the 18th. Hope you'll come by and have a look.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5329139329489259389.post-80670248712174803522011-08-16T08:10:44.612-05:002011-08-16T08:10:44.612-05:00Thanks, Ryan. Interesting stuff. I bet we would ...Thanks, Ryan. Interesting stuff. I bet we would be talking about computer networks...or would we? Is that a product of peculiar Western historical circumstances?<br /><br />Regarding the New World, one thing I didn't mention was how much of the English Revolution seems to have been an indirect result of the slave trade and the new wealth it created among non-aristocrats, and how interesting it is to see the threads of those problems of race still working themselves out in English culture.<br /><br />I think network culture is important ecologically, as a way to enable growth that doesn't inherently require more dominion over the planet—new worlds to conquer that are conjured out of the ether. DO you buy that?Christopher Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11102514167871372993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5329139329489259389.post-54866858801620456782011-08-15T21:48:08.767-05:002011-08-15T21:48:08.767-05:00Like the new site design - and I see you've ch...Like the new site design - and I see you've changed your nom de guerre.<br /><br />It's interesting that you're reading/thinking about the period, I've just started reading Charles Mann's '1493' which largely covers the same time period, although from an ecological perspective. <br /><br />It's interesting to think about this time from such different angles; 1493 is discussing both how random details of history largely resulted in europe's world domination and how catastrophic the 'New World' was for almost everyone involved in many ways. <br /><br />I've always taken the political philosophies developed by european thinkers so seriously - it makes me wonder what we'd be discussing if cows had evolved in north america, or China hadn't done such a poor job managing it's paper money supply.Ryan Michaelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10648369569875052365noreply@blogger.com