<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On Jul 30, 2008, at 11:44 AM, Michael LaTorra wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div><a href="http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge252.html#pesce">http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge252.html#pesce</a></div> <div> </div> <div><p><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><strong>HYPERPOLITICS (AMERICAN STYLE)<br>A Talk By Mark Pesce</strong></font></p><p align="center"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><img height="150" src="http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/images/pesce150.jpg" width="119"></font></p><p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><strong>Introduction</strong></font></p><p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">In his well-received talk at this year's <a href="http://pdf2008.confabb.com/conferences/60420-personal-democracy-forum-2008" target="new"><font face="http://pdf2008.confabb.com/conferences/60420-personal-democracy-forum-2008Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#000000">Personal Democracy Forum</font></a> (organized by <a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/about/#andrew" target="new"><font color="#000000">Andrew Rasiej</font></a> and <a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/about/#micah" target="new"><font color="#000000">Micah Sifry</font></a>), "digital ethnologist" Mark Pesce makes the point that "we have a drive to connect and socialize: this drive has now been accelerated and amplified as comprehensively as the steam engine amplified human strength two hundred and fifty years ago. Just as the steam engine initiated the transformation of the natural landscape into man-made artifice, the 'hyperconnectivity' engendered by these new toys is transforming the human landscape of social relations.<em> This time around, fifty thousand years of cultural development will collapse into about twenty.</em></font></p><p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">In presenting his ideas on "the human network" Pesce references the work of archeologist Colin Renfrew, that "we may have had great hardware, but it took a long, long time for humans to develop software which made full use of it"; and Jared Diamond's ideas in <em>Guns, Germs, and Steel</em>, that "where sharing had been a local and generational project for fifty thousand years, it suddenly became a geographical project across nearly half the diameter of the planet". </font></p><p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">In the 21st century, it's time to "Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for a rapid descent into the Bellum omnia contra omnes, Thomas Hobbes' "war of all against all." A hyperconnected polity—whether composed of a hundred individuals or a hundred thousand—has resources at its disposal which exponentially amplify its capabilities. Hyperconnectivity begets hypermimesis begets hyperempowerment. After the arms race comes the war."</font></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div>It does not have to be a war of all against all. That is just one of the options. The other option is that that hyper sharing drives such plenty and multi-dimensional understanding that many of the external and some of the internal ones of such conflict subside. </div><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div><p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">To understand this new kind of mob rule, it's necessary to realize that "<em>Sharing is the threat.</em> Not just a threat. It is the whole of the thing. A photo taken on a mobile now becomes instantaneously and pervasively visible on Flickr or other sharing websites. This act of sharing voids "any pretensions to control, or limitation, or the exercise of power".</font></p><p align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"></font></p></div></div></blockquote>"Mob"???? This seems like a very classist and elitist position and I say that as a flavor of "elitist" myself. That mob is composed of individuals who have exactly the same long term trans- and even post-human potential as you and I. Every individual in it, no matter how different in ingrained cultural patterns and beliefs, is far more like you and I than we may be comfortable acknowledging. What the hyper-connection between all does is make it far more difficult to hide, especially to hide unfair disparities. Sharing is here to stay. If we attempt to limit it to the few we most like and deny the future to others then we will certainly guarantee War. Sharing is absolutely essential if we want peace and progress to the future we dream of. If instead we walk the path to War by limiting sharing then what we will end up with, if we survive at all, will be a great deal more hideous than what we once dreamed of. The denial of sharing will lead to the detailed observation and in-depth control of everyone and everything or at least the attempt to do so. That is not the path to what we desire. </div><div><br></div><div>I look forward to reading the rest of the piece. </div><div><br></div><div>- samantha</div><div></div><div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div></div></blockquote></div></body></html>