Bruce Sterling speaking at the close of Reboot 11 a conference of “Nordic geeks”. He prophesizes that the coming decade will be one characterized by “Dark Euphoria”. Which he defines as an excitement and dread over the un-imagined/un-imaginable (to date) possibilities of the contemporary/future. The resulting response can be seen in two similar but different (in terms of “class”) “movement”. The first Sterling labels Favela Chic, the second Gothic High Tech.
My favorite bit, is his “practical” advice on environmentalism, specifically “geek friendly” environmentalism.
He offers a general principal for our Gothic generation; “stop acting dead“ Hair-suit green just changes the polarity of the 20th century, doesn’t offer the answer. As he puts it “Economizing is not social.”
Watch video (here)
Mat Webb spoke in the opening session about the value of macroscope (as opposed to microscope). What was interesting is he used the term not just in relation to scale, but also as object/value. Meaning he talked about how certain tools/resources can serve/function as a macroscope not just in terms of defining a sense of scale.
Watch video (here)
