[ExI] SKDB (apt-get for hardware) presentation from H+ Summit 2009

Wed Dec 9 15:08:52 UTC 2009

---- Bryan Bishop <kanzure at gmail.com> wrote: 
> Hey all,
> 
> I edited (split up) the videos and threw them up on youtube. You can
> see fenn and I talking about SKDB in a broader context (this is not
> the technical nitty-gritty).
> 
> http://bit.ly/50Fi1g
> http://bit.ly/5jvyjG
> http://bit.ly/87ntrh

These were not particularly enlightening as there was really not a lot that hasn't been hashed around since the late 70's (ever hear of Toffler?) and 80's. This is in many ways the same sort of stuff we were talking about at Discovery Hall and (for example) the first Cyberspace Conference that was held here in Austin in 1990 if memory serves.

Free software didn't start with Richard and the FSF (which started in '84) it goes way back to DECUS and the original hackers at MIT. Then we talked about copyleft now we talk GPL. Same idea different coat.

Finally, society isn't going digital. It's communications and storage infrastructure is. This is a subtle but major distinction to be made and understood. What this means is that the real value of material that is digitizable will become clear, it isn't worth much. Real economic value will come from the things that people need to interact with their environment.

I have noticed a common thread in a lot of this transhumanism/free technology discussions over the last ten years, it's like anything before about mid-1980's doesn't exist. There seems to be a major disconnect between the younger generation of 'hackers' and the actual history of hacking technology. A recent example of this was the discussion on the Robot Group mailing list about the 8-cube several of the members made and then were looking for applications.  Several of the comments made during that discussion referred back to material that was at best 80's and several important aspects from earlier times was unknown or seriously confused; hadn't heard of ONAG and there was some serious confusion about how the nomenclature of CAs came about. These cubes are also rather amusing as the common theme is they are somehow new and different, when in fact they were a pretty common project for hackers in the late 70's playing around with their 6502/6800/8080/z80 SBCs.

There really needs to be more effort put into looking farther back as we're going to end up recreating the wheel, not only technologically but also philosophically. Just remember Santayana,

Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it.

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Venimus, Vidimus, Dolavimus

James Choate
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512-657-1279
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Adapt, Adopt, Improvise
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