Date archives "February 2011"

Mark Pesce: The Age of Hyperintelligence

In a thoroughly hyperconnected environment, behaviors are pervasively observed. If these behaviors are successful, they will be copied by others, who are also pervasively observed. The behavior itself hyperdistributes throughout the network. This is a behavioral analog to hyperintelligence: hypermimesis. The development of ‘SMS language’ is one example of hypermimesis; as terms are added to… Continue reading

Matt Taibbi: “Why Isn’t Wall Street in Jail?”

Interview, recalling some basic truths, via Democracy Now: “Nobody goes to jail,” writes Matt Taibbi in the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine. “This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed… Continue reading

FCForum Declaration: Sustainable Models for Creativity

The following was also endorsed by the P2P Foundation: Original via http://fcforum.net/sustainable-models-for-creativity/declaration Free/Libre Culture Forum Declaration [For details, see the extended version] We can no longer put off re-thinking the economic structures that have been producing, financing, and funding culture up until now. Many of the old models have become anachronistic and detrimental to civil… Continue reading

Details on the cyber revolt in Lybia and the role of the revolutionary media cells

Excerpted from a report from Al Jazeera, on the situation in Benghazi. Evan Hill: “The top-floor internet centre began operating on Tuesday, explains Sanalla, a dual British and Libyan citizen who has spent the past four years studying medicine at Benghazi’s Garyounis University. Ahmed Sheikh, a 42-year-old computer engineer who works in civil aviation, rigged… Continue reading

Mark Pesce: When hyperdistribution comes after hyperconnectivity

This is the sharing instinct, caught up and amplified by hyperconnectivity, producing the capability to send something everywhere, instantaneously: hyperdistribution Excerpted from Mark Pesce: “What happens after we are all connected? For an answer to this, we must look back to the original human network, language. Our infinitely flexible linguistic capability allows us to put… Continue reading

Book of the Week: Insect Media, the anti-McLuhan book

Insect Media is an anti-McLuhan genealogy of media: how can we understand media not as extensions of the (hu)man, but as extensions of nature and animals? * Book: Insect Media. An Archaeology of Animals and Technology. Jussi Parikka. University of Minnesota Press,2010 The publisher’s page states that Through close engagement with the pioneering work of… Continue reading

A conservative-progressive alliance around the protection of working families?

Excerpted from Claire Snyder-Hall in Tikkun : “What is their positive agenda? Most obviously, Christian conservatives are pro-family. While this term often stands in for “anti-gay,” when you look at some of the non-political evangelical websites, you start to see the positive vision they embrace. For example, consider the conservative women’s site, called truewoman.com. This… Continue reading

Throughout history, the use of media has been crucial for political and social struggles

Contribution 1: Steve Sherman Excerpted from Steve Sherman : “I think the general point that social media, and other forms of media, are trivial sideshows to the ‘real’ element of struggle is completely untenable and wrongheaded. In fact, I would go quite a bit farther than remarking that they are important, or that they facilitate… Continue reading

Selling out free labour: the case of the Huffington Post

Harsh words from Chris Hedges: “The sale of The Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million, and the tidy profit of reportedly at least several million dollars made by principal owner and founder Arianna Huffington, who was already rich, is emblematic of this new paradigm of American journalism. The Huffington Post, as Stephen Colbert pointed… Continue reading