[ExI] Vinge finally cracks the NYT

[Jef Allbright]

On Tue, Aug 26, 2008 at 9:08 PM, hkhenson <hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
> At 04:18 PM 8/26/2008, Emlyn wrote:
>
> snip
>
>> I can't really explain this, but I've been getting a sense of ...
>> momentum in the online environment recently. It feels different to
>> what we've seen before, like isolated strands are starting to lock
>> together, feedback loops kicking off. Like the point in a film where
>> the urgent, tension building music begins, very quietly, so you'd
>> barely sense it. I really don't have anything much very concrete to
>> add, except that the free culture movement seems important to it.
>
> That's the characteristic of exponential social trends.
>
> This is slowly starting to get attention.

I'm feeling it too, and seeing it in my mining of the noosphere.  But
it's acceleration superimposed on a substantial baseline of "same as
it always was."  The metaphor of "escape velocity" applies.

I'm encouraged though, by signs of increasing awareness not only of
the enlightenment project of better understanding how things work, but
also increasing awareness of who we are and thus how and why we should
care.

- Jef