From - Wed Jan 14 15:25:05 1998 Return-Path: Received: from relay1.UU.NET by mrco.carleton.ca (4.1/SMI-4.0) id AA26776; Sun, 7 Feb 93 01:39:10 EST Received: from nyx.cs.du.edu by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA17674; Sun, 7 Feb 93 01:31:00 -0500 Received: by nyx.cs.du.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA08036; Sat, 6 Feb 93 23:30:15 MST From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (andy) Message-Id: <9302070630.AA08036@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: FutureCulture Digest #216 To: future-digest@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Sat, 6 Feb 93 23:30:14 MST X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] Status: RO X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 ______________________________________________________________________ |______________ / | | / | | u t u r e <___________ u l t u r e | _______________________________________________________________________| Issue #216 Saturday, February 6th 1993 Today's Topics: --------------- Alfred Korzybski Bingo Cards and Invisible Literature Re: Religion (Was Re: Persian citizens) BAD VOLTAGE Clinton's Address + Zen Mu-zings FutureCulture Digest #210 How to win friends and influence people and get rich quick and get Lame Gurus Lame Gurus (fwd) lsd/dmso Neural interfaces Re: Masonicks Re: Time Magazine article Re: Future Religions Re: GAIA Re: Religion again.... Re: religions Re: Response to some of Arthur Gorecki's statements Re: UT? RE:BAD VOLTAGE Religion again.... religions Smart Drug book... The Future of Cyberspace Time, Article for your reading pleasure. to the vector the spoils Warning From uucp __________________________________________________________________________ Date: 06 Feb 1993 02:12:37 -0500 (EST) From: "Michael J. Current" Subject: BAD VOLTAGE In response to my recent post on gays and cyperpunk, etc., I've gotten several recommendations for the book, Bad Voltage, by Jonathan Little (I've gotten several variations on the spelling of the author's name). In fact, I was already looking for this book. Our local sci-fi bookstore tells me that it is very old (as old as 1990 or 1991! - apparently this is the ancient past in sci-fi terms) and out of print. They told me to check used bookstores, but we have very few of these in Des Moines. I've had no luck there, either. After all these recommendations, I'm anxious to read this book. Can anyone suggest a good source that I could mail order it from. Hell, I'll send you ten bucks if you mail me your own dog-earred copy. Whatever. Please help. Oh, and a second question. Some time ago, I saw, either here or in alt. cyberpunk or somewhere that Hikaim Bey's book TAZ was going to be made available for ftp. Anyone know if this ever happened, and if so, where I can get it. Thanks, Michael ______________________________ Date: Sat, 6 Feb 93 23:56:17 +1100 From: Kenneth McKenzie Wark Subject: to the vector the spoils Imagine the day - and this is not so difficult now - when every point is connected to every other point. Imagine the space of the world as a rhizome. A rhizome is exactly that - a system of relations without hierarchy and infinite interconnection. Moreover, a rhizome has no outside. Every rhizome is connected to every other rhizome at every point. The distinction between them is, shall we say, academic. The space of the world is becoming a rhizome. It is a becoming-rhizome. The process of deterritorialisation accelerates every day. We no longer have roots, we have aerials. We no longer have roots we have terminals. I am no longer defined by my boundaries but by my connections. I am not bounded by my place of origin, by my class, my gender, my residence. A plethora of relations cross every boundary, slowly eroding and overcoming every boundary, making me a juncture of relations rather than a monad. This is happening to all of us. Some fight it. Fundamentalisms of every kind are attempts to deinformate the self. By cutting off every relation of information with the world but those on a very narrow band, funda- mentalists maintain the old structures, not only of personality but of community also. Communities are fundamentally entities which sttruggle againt their own dissolution, and in doing so constitute a zone of interiority with, a deinformated space where nothing from with out can pass and disturb. Some partake of thr rhizome without noticing. There will be no revolution, n o break, no turning point. We slowly slide into a different mode of becoming. We pick up messages which seem to tell us that we still have roots, we still have origins, we still exist as monads. We use the new regime of the rhizome to purpetuate the illusion that information is still bounded in space, still a secondary and derivative thing in a world of discrete personalities and their neatly marked places. But there are some who through some accident of overexposure to the vectors of information know their power and know that they will not stop for anyone. They are the terminator, pushing us to evolve in the direction of the rhizome. Some seek out this state deliberately, poetically , (what is the same thing) scientifically. Through systematic experimentation the old codes of territory and place, monad and personality can be breached, and the self spills out into the rhizome as the rhizome floods on into the self. This is the new flesh, interconnected at every point with every other point. An impossible state, but in becoming-rhizome one can experience where the terminal state of the rhizome must lie. The sardonic fact of our times is that in trying to protect and serve the most ancient forms of territoriality, the warmachine created a force more violent than any weapon it could imagine. From ARPANET came the internet, which is a more powerful force than the bomb or the bunker because is is like all things most yielding. Information does not break through anything, does not destroy anything. It flows around obstacles, it carries along the weak and wears down the strong. This abstract flow is dissolving the territories of history and is history's end. We no longer have roots we have aerials. We no longer have origins we have terminals. Its just a matter of time... Who will win the information war? Information. To the vector the spoils... McKenzie Wark ______________________________ Subject: Re: Response to some of Arthur Gorecki's statements Date: Sat, 6 Feb 93 7:17:22 CST From: Jon Lebkowsky > I subscribe to the digest version only, so am unable to quote, but would like > to respond to some of Arthur's statements. Specifically about EFF and EFF- > Austin. > > I am on the Board of Directors of EFF-Austin. At one time we were the only > local chapter of EFF-National, but since they have decided not to have > chapters we are free to be our own group. Please keep that distinction in > mind. We are completely different inorganization, goals, and culture than > EFF-National. This is kind of an overstatement. EFF-Austin's organization is not entirely different...like EFF National, we have a board of directors and a membership base. We share some of the same goals (freedom and privacy, and community development, in cyberspace). Our culture does differ somewhat, though both groups have diverse leaders and constituents. > Jagwire X isn't actually heavily involved with EFF-Austin. He attends some > of the Cyberdawgs (informal human networking sessions) but that's about it. > People who *are* involved include John S. Quarterman, _Matrix News_ and > internet guru, Steve Jackson, game publisher, Smoot-Carl Mitchell, a former > city councilmember and computer consultant, Ed Cavazos, law student who > worked on the SJG case and possible author on legal aspects of cyberspace, > Bruce Sterling, author, Jon Lebkowsky, contrib to Mondo & bOING-bOING and co- > owner of Fringeware with Paco Xander Nathan, who everyone here should know. And there are many others, including artist Bob Anderson (Jimbo Bazooka), businessman Dick Anderson (no relation), and a group of regular volunteers. > I think that people who ripped up their membership cards after hearing about > the re-organization have convicted EFF of the crime of Guilt by Association. The response on the net to the EFF announcement was strangely impulsive and ill-considered. Most of the accounts I read were by folks who seemed to have only a vague notion of EFF's mission & accomplishments, and many had misread the announcement issued following EFF National's board retreat. But we discussed in Atlanta a possible cause for the impulsive responses and flames...EFF communicated poorly what it was about, and since the public had only vague info to go on, anyone who wasn't close to the group could evolve hir own personal concept of EFF. With improved communications, the 'real' EFF was revealed. When it didn't meet the conceptions of some constituents, they were pretty pissed. But no organization can be all things for all people. If EFF isn't it for you, as Dave sez below, start your own org! It's not easy and sometimes it's not always fun, but those of us who've been involved in this kind of community-building in Austin...well, I shouldn't speak for others, but I've had a good feeling about EFF-Austin's work, at least most of the time. :-) > Mitch was in Atlanta, and spoke about this as well, but EFF does not think > that the Internet is "a waste of time and is full of weenies". Indeed, EFF > spends a lot of time and resources and energies to educate the members of the > Net and have a Net presence. (Newsgroup, EFFector, ftp site, Cliff Figallo, > Mike Godwin, just to make a few examples) Several of us are trying to extend the meme by carrying EFF news to lists like FC, and to BBSs, which are harder for the national org to reach (connecting with BBSs really requires grassroots initiatives). > But what the people on the Net do not understand is that EFF is playing in a > bigger ballpark now and that "the Net" is *NOT* the *ONLY* constituents. That > the Net is not the *ONLY* team that EFF is fielding. > I explore this in more detail in the Atlanta Summary that I have written. David, perhaps you should just post that summary to this list. > Obviously, for me to spend 20+ hours a week on EFF-Austin, it's something > that I consider very important and vital to the survival of computer culture. > > If you are interested in forming what we call "EFFish groups" in your own > region, send me e-mail and I'll provide more help, assistance, and pointers > than you could ever imagine. Nothing would make me happier than to attend a > similar conference next year, except to have 50 groups present instead of 5. I second that emotion! jonl ______________________________ Date: Sat, 6 Feb 93 16:07:39 -0500 From: redline@gnu.ai.mit.edu Subject: The Future of Cyberspace From: Peace and Love Comments: The 23:00 News - +1 206 382 6245 Date: Sat, 06 Feb 93 11:51:04 pst Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service The biggest problem with green-left cyberpunk new-agers and grass-roots acronyms are the niggers. [similar ranting racist drivel deleted] *sigh* Now you know why some people shudder at the thought of "a computer in every home, all connected to the rest of the world on the net". How'd you like to end up a kill file with a couple thousand of these people's names in it? A brief observation: When you're nothing but 1's and 0's, you don't have a color. Remember it. XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX X redline@gnu.ai.mit.edu Spork? Jesus built my .sig X XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX ______________________________ Date: Sat, 06 Feb 93 16:46:17 EST From: Jeff Mirza Subject: Bingo Cards and Invisible Literature Some of you might have read an article in whole earth review a few issues ago about getting underground trade journals by filling out reader information cards. Has anyone tried this? What kind of success? I'm trying to get a sub to biotech type magazines but so far all I've got is catalogues. Just wanted to see what other people might have done. Jeff Mirza ______________________________ Date: Sat, 6 Feb 1993 10:44 EST From: CONCEPCION%BABSON.bitnet@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Subject: RE:BAD VOLTAGE To Michael and anyone else interested in gays & cp, Bad Voltage is a bad recommendation. Tcha, sure I got hooked when I was fourteen and mindless, but looking back at it, it's an RPG game session transcript with littel (that's the correct spelling of J.L.'s last name) saving grace other than the music list in the back which is a good start into the early Cyberpunk music of yesteryear (Cabaret Voltaire, VU, Violent Femmes, Sex Pistols, etc.) [OK, & fine, it's more punk than cyber but still makes a good resource for anyone w/o the convenience of a FAQ or M2k Guidebook.] A better shot of cyberpunk homosexuality is Simon Ings's Hot Head. One of a few books I picked up whilst on the LondonSide of the Atlantic, it's a fist-fuckin', net-lovin', acid-trippin', tarot-readin' tale of Malise Arnhim, a Muslim w/ all the cultural perks and none of the religious 'tude, as she grows up in a well-rendered collapsing Europe. Her ultimate destiny is to save the world twice from Von Neumann behemoths (Self-constructing, self-repairing AIs w/ their own manifest destiny). It's mixed in with a lot of occult, virtual-life VR. The final confrontation with the Jovian Von Neumann could be described as a Case-Neuromancer VR dialogue on LSD. It's unavailable in the US (deduced from the fact that there's no price in US dollars but there is for UK, Australia, Canada & NZ) Publisher is Grafton An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB UK 4.99 pounds NZ $17.95 RRP INC.GST Australia $12.95 (Recommended) Canada $9.95 Anybody who's read this book? If so I'd like to discuss just what the dust jacket meant by claiming the work to be "post-cyberpunk". Media-hype or artistic truth? A review from Londonside by: - Briareos "His dog was not a dog, not killed by dogs. Not real, flesh & blood dogs. He harbored a machine for twelve years. But as long as you can't tell, does it really matter?" ______________________________ Subject: Re: GAIA Date: Sat, 6 Feb 93 16:48:48 CST From: David Smith Personal message to Peace and Love : "Just go away" ______________________________ Date: Sun, 7 Feb 93 01:03:29 -0500 From: micro-c!uucp@uunet.uu.net Subject: Warning From uucp We have been unable to contact machine 'eastwind' since you queued your job. eastwind!mail fut (Date 02/05) The job will be deleted in several days if the problem is not corrected. If you care to kill the job, execute the following command: uustat -keastwinZ049a Sincerely, micro-c!uucp ############################################# ##### Data File: ############################ ______________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ | | | That's all for today! | | To send a message to the list: future@nyx.cs.du.edu | | To subscribe/unsubscribe/change format: future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu | | All other requests: future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu | | List Maintainer is: (andy [aka hawkeye]) ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu | |_________________________________________________________________________| | | | The opinions expressed in FutureCulture are those of the individual | | author only. | |_________________________________________________________________________|