I've just returned from a long weekend in San Francisco, where I had the honor of participating in monochrom's Arse Elektronika 2008. I hope to have a more comprehensive missive about just what was discussed and what I learned in the coming days. For now, you can read my notes--minus a few last-minute additions--or listen to the .mp3. The audio can be found on the Arse Elektronika website, and text can be found here, on what I like to call "the old site" (I've got some problems with it, but for now it seems to be the best way to post such large volumes of text).
Enjoy, and leave some comments. Nothing is too combatative or unfounded an argument for the Internet, or for these trying times in American democracy. Attack! Attack!
10.01.2008
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1 comments:
It's awesome that you got to do this. It's awesome to know that people are actually combining theory and cyborg lust. Seriously, I'm just racked with convulsions of delight.
RE the whole anonymity/internet predator/sensationalist bullshit thing, though: people who are frightened of the internet ("because anyone could be some kind of sex killer!") bug the shit out of me. You might as well be afraid of doors; a sex killer could just as easily hide behind one, waiting to leap out and rape-murder you. And the guy behind the door doesn't even need to con you into giving him your address or phone number before he can make with the stabbing.
Ultimately, it comes down to the same sort of provincial arguments that people I've met out in the suburbs use to scare each other out of going into the Big City. "You could get killed! There's weirdos out there, man! I know all the people in my neighborhood but I won't know who anybody in the city is!"
At this point I will admit that I haven't really slept in 36 hours, and that I don't remember what my point was. Scary stuff can happen here in internet land, but at least we have the discipline of the telco market, the panopticism of facebook, and the hegemony of the MPAA to keep us safe.
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