From - Wed Jan 14 16:21:44 1998 Return-Path: Received: from relay2.UU.NET by mrco.carleton.ca (4.1/SMI-4.0) id AA28829; Mon, 8 Feb 93 18:33:51 EST Received: from nyx.cs.du.edu by relay2.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA09529; Mon, 8 Feb 93 18:32:31 -0500 Received: by nyx.cs.du.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA01485; Mon, 8 Feb 93 11:30:35 MST From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (andy) Message-Id: <9302081830.AA01485@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 #219 To: future-digest@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Mon, 8 Feb 93 11:30:34 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 #219 Monday, February 8th 1993 Today's Topics: --------------- Co-housing Re: Religion again.... Weekly FC Administrivia _Snow Crash_, Cyberpunk, & Postmodern Criticism __________________________________________________________________________ Date: 08 Feb 1993 01:42:48 -0500 (EST) From: "Michael J. Current" Subject: _Snow Crash_, Cyberpunk, & Postmodern Criticism I read a very provocative essay today that I thought some of you might be interested it. (Especially anyone interested in Postmodernist thinkers and theorists). The essay appeared in the latest issue of the e-journal _Postmodern Culture_ . It is called "Deuteronomy Comix," and is by Stuart Moulthorp, a professor at Georgia Tech. Ostensibly, it is a review essay of a book that is much discussed on this list - Neil Stephenson's _Snow Crash_. But it is really about much more than that. [I confess to having not yet read _Snow Crash_, though it is on my (very long) list. I'm posting this anyway because it isn't really necessary to an understanding of the essay. He discusses Gibson, Sterling, and Rucker as well. Besides, anyone who has spent any time reading PoMo criticism realizes that it is, itself, a kind of artwork.] Moulthorp's essay is basically a socio-political critique of cyperpunk fiction, which he argues comes up wanting. Moulthorp writes that cyberpunk lit. _ought_ to have `revolutionary significance'(my phrase, not his). . . >[T]he concept of cyberspace--a social order founded on broadband >communication, hypertextual ediscourse, and systematic simulation-- >suggests at least the possibility of a genuine cultural divergence. Instead, he argues that it misses the mark, and ends up reenforcing the status quo to a disappointing extent. . . >[T]he dystopian refusal of the cyberpunks turns all too easily into an >apology for the military-entertainment complex. (Yes indeede, it is as jargon-filled as most PoMo writing, but then again, so are many of the posts here - just different jargons). I tend to agree with some, but not all of Moulthorp's argument. In any case, it is a solid, well-written, thought-provoking academic consideration of cyberpunk, and it is not like we have those coming out are ears yet. . . If you'd like to read this essay, it is available for anonymous ftp from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu, in the directory /pmc, with the filename "REVIEW-1.193" This isn't really the sort of work that gets talked about on this list much, but if anyone *does* read it and has comments, feel free to at least e-mail me. Michael -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael J. Current Executive Director, Gay & Lesbian Resource Center mcurrent@nyx.cs.du.edu / iamichael@delphi.com 4211 Grand Avenue Des Moines, IA 50312 (515) 279-2110 "There's no revelation forthcoming - *that's* the revelation!" -Avital Ronell -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______________________________ From: swisher@cs.utexas.edu (Janet M. Swisher) Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1993 01:14:54 -0600 Subject: Co-housing > The future >of humanity is not a bunch of loners spread out on ten-acre plots in the >woods and telecommuting to work. The future is more likely quality high- >density housing (150+ people/acre) designed to minimize environmental >impact and maximize undeveloped land. And still telecommuting to work. > Which produces less polution, a large >laser printer serving a workgroup, or twenty-five personal laser printers? >And we have to consider the social aspects of work, which are also >important (I'm probably talking to the wrong group here... :-). > >How about planned, high-density communities with generic workspace where >full office services could be provided, but where workers would tele- >commute to any place on the globe? I believe it would be highly undesirable >for society to disperse into an infinity of individuals connected only >through fibers. And ecological suicide to do so without reducing the total >population by an order of magnitude or two. > >Joe Pollock >The Evergreen State College This makes me think about what I've heard about co-housing. This is an idea which is quite popular in parts of Europe such as Denmark, but is only getting started in California and elsewhere in the U.S. (just saw a posting about an co-housing organizational meeting here in Austin). In co-housing a group of interested folks cooperatively plan a community development for themselves; each family owns its own home and has a stake in the development as a whole. The developments are geared toward community and resource sharing, so it's sort of a cross between a commune and a condo. The developments usually have various shared facilities such as dining halls (though each house still has its own kitchen and dining room), nurseries, launderies or rec rooms. Residents may share duties such as cooking and childcare. Exactly how each development works depends on the preferences and budgets of the participants. I can easily imagine that in a group where lots of the participants were telecommuters, you could have a computer network in the development (with appropriate security, as everyone works for different companies), and shared printers, modem pool, faxes, copiers, and of course, water cooler to gather 'round. Well, I guess the printers and faxes could pose security problems, too. But you get the idea. Anybody out there got more direct experience with co-housing? Know if this sort of shared work space has been tried? Janet ______________________________ Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1993 09:39:05 +0100 From: cardell@lysator.liu.se Subject: Co-housing Janet, the sort of co-housing you describe is rather popular in Sweden with several co-villages around the country. All, or at least many of them, also have the means to use computer networks and have LANs allready in place. However, there aren't much knowledge what to do with these LANs and I'm afraid most of them are used simply as a way of sharing a laser printer or some such. Just wait until I have moved in! :) ______________________________ Date: Mon, 8 Feb 1993 09:40:14 +0100 From: cardell@lysator.liu.se Subject: Co-housing Janet, the sort of co-housing you describe is rather popular in Sweden with several co-villages around the country. All, or at least many of them, also have the means to use computer networks and have LANs allready in place. However, there aren't much knowledge what to do with these LANs and I'm afraid most of them are used simply as a way of sharing a laser printer or some such. When I move in, I'll create the first co-housing village with Internet access, just you wait! ;) mikael cardell S P U N K P R E S S ______________________________ From: mcarpent@ecn.purdue.edu (Matthew A Carpenter) Subject: Co-housing Date: Mon, 8 Feb 93 10:10:35 EST Hello all, Co-housing seems to me almost like being stuck in an expanded dorm the rest of your life. I wouldn't mind it since I don't mind having little living space (enough for a comp, piano, stereo and pool table), but many people I know are in the world to get bigger and better things, like a large house (relative) by the time they are say 35. The idea makes sense, but I have a feeling that there are two problems with this in good 'ol america : 1) the lower income populus that this would be ideal for in inner city life, where crowding, etc is rampant, don't seem to get along well enought to operate this kind of a housing project effectively or coorperatively; and 2) the middle/upper class are trying to make it into higher levels of society to AVOID being cramped. (Unless of course they get their four other really wealthy friends and design and build a co-house that covers a few thousand square acres.) Presently though, dorms are kinda becoming a co-house in the sense that most are getting several terminal rooms, ibm's, macs and in my dorm's case, a sun workstation (one of these semesters...). Just think, in maybe say 10 or so years, the new dorms might even have ETHER running to each room along with the HDTV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Looks at university administration, and laughs histerically to himself) -Matt mcarpent@en.ecn.purdue.edu ______________________________ From: hassinge@sfu.ca Subject: Re: Religion again.... Date: Mon, 8 Feb 93 7:13:13 PST from the mouth of Joe Pollock ] commute to any place on the globe? I believe it would be highly undesirable ] for society to disperse into an infinity of individuals connected only ] through fibers. And ecological suicide to do so without reducing the total ] population by an order of magnitude or two. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ugh. I always get shivers when I hear someone talk like this. I say, nice day for some genocide on a hertofe unheard of scale, eh? Why, yes, what a good idea! Okay, I *know* that's not what you had in mind, but consider: What are the chances, given our history, that if it is decided once and for all, that we must reduce "the total population by an order of magnitude or two," we're going to implement some calm, patient plan that will achieve our goal (maybe) or the span of many, many generations? Uh-huh. No, we'll go quick and dirty as always, with the power group deciding that some other groups don't deserve to live quite so much as do they due to their "incorrect" ways of thinking, living, whatever. I seem to remember RAW glibly outlining a scenario like this in _Schrodinger's Cat_, he called it the struggle between those with diminishing expectations for the future and those with expanding expectations. Or the ec and the non-ec. Or the neophobes and the neophiles. I know which side of the fence I stake my claim. ] Joe Pollock ] The Evergreen State College ] -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -fold here- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ha!sSinge # "well we had to drown the gat, but we saved you two gittens" ------> Sebastian Hassinger, dehabiltated net.lurker: hassinge@sfu.ca <------ "run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" ______________________________ From: ahawks (andy) Subject: Weekly FC Administrivia Date: Mon, 8 Feb 93 10:00:21 MST ______________________________________________________________________ |______________ / | | / | | u t u r e <___________ u l t u r e | _______________________________________________________________________| ________________________________________________________________________________ Vital ListStats as of February 8th 1993: Realtime: 244 Digest : 302 FAQ-Only: 182 ::::::::: Total : 728 Current Digest is Issue #219. ________________________________________________________________________________ To post to the FutureCulture list, send your message to: future@nyx.cs.du.edu ALL Requests to FutureCulture must be sent to: future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu [All request messages should garner an auto-reply msg. ] [If future-request does not *consistently* work for you ] [then please send your message to: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu] The subject of request mail must have one of the following: subscribe realtime -subscribe in realtime (reflector) format subscribe digest -subscribe in daily-digest (1 msg / day format) subscribe faq -subscribe to faq only (1 msg every few months) unsubscribe realtime unsubscribe digest unsubscribe faq help -receive a help file send info -receive this file send faq -receive a recent copy of the faq if you need one (list subscribers *automatically* receive this) send agrippa -Gibson's poem send agr1ppa -PKK's work * When unsubscribing, you must unsubscribe from the same address you subscribed from. (IMPORTANT!). If this is not possible, send the message over to ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu. * To change formats, first send a message unsubscribing from the crrent format, and then send another message to resubscribe. * Please note that when posting to the list, you should expect to receive at least 1 "Failed Mail" message because, inevitably, there is a problem with the addresses of one or more of the subscribers. Sorry. Please also note that I receive these failed mail messages automatically, so there is no need to send them over to me, cuz I already know about 'em. If it *really* bothers you, then send me mail about the particular address/site that is causing the problem. list administrator: andy (hawkeye)(dali)(freshjive) ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu ahawks@mindvox.phantom.com _______________________________________________________________________________ I do not keep archives of the digests, or the list in general. So, if you're looking for archives, I can't help you out, probably. But it wouldn't hurt to ask on the list. If you're looking for an FTP site that carries FutureCulture related stuff, try: ftp.rahul.net /pub/atman/UTLCD-preview ftp.css.itd.umich.edu /poli/future.culture.d ftp.eff.org pub/cud/papers/future ftp.u.washington.edu public/alt.cyberpunk redspread.css.itd.umich.edu If you have IRC access, look for the '#future' channel. If it's not there, start it up! Don't wait for the #future, make the #future. =) You can also find the FutureCulture FAQ on the IRC, with the #CyberPunk Bot. Join Channel #CyberPunk and type: /msg CyberBot send info. _______________________________________________________________________________ If the list is dead, you might try posting something new. Here are some suggestions: computer underground cyberculture cyberpunk (literary and cultural movements) cyberspace new edge nootropics or other drugs raves technoculture virtual reality music, movies, books, magazines that fit into the mold _____________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________ | | | 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. | |_________________________________________________________________________|