MXV

Wishing upon people a thoughtful International Women’s Day 2010!

The Internet, similar to great inventions of the past from the wheel all the way up (down?) to nuclear fusion and beyond, all initially had the potential to be powerful instruments of freedom. Some still are, whereas some are categorically not and are used specifically and universally as instruments of social management and control.

The days of the Internet being “the wild frontier” (of technology, culture, society, freedom) are rapidly drawing to a close – but only if we let it.

The central design principal of the Internet during it’s inception was decentralisation. A computer network, a network of communication, that was able to withstand an attack by a “foreign power”. If one node of communication was destroyed the communication could re-route around the broken element and the message could still get through.

This was the revolutionary aspect of the Internet that enabled it’s eventual success. Previously all communication and information dissemination was facilitated through a central outlet – be it a single telephone network, a single printing house, record companies, the church, government etc etc. Information was centralised and monopolar (well, in fact this really only goes back as far as empires do, that that’s a different subject).

Today, the decentralised aspect of the Internet is under attack from the same old shady Control-Merchants that have been trying to keep each and every one of you out there in place since the dawn of the industrial revolution, and to a lesser degree since the dawn of Empire.

”The Cloud”, “software as a service”, as well as many aspects of so called “social networking” services such as Facebook and Myspace are specifically and systematically designed to re-forge the basic building blocks of the Internet such as email, web browsing and forums into a centralised monopolar block.

Now, I’m not entirely suggesting that this is another aspect of a global conspiracy to crush freedom – it is rather a side effect of another mostly unrelated global conspiracy, that is – making money, which plays right into the hands of Social Management and Control. This too, is the subject of another article, other than the important fact that we must remember – I am not suggesting a crusade against a shady conspiracy – I am a system of social control that has grown and been specifically fostered by the powers that be with interests in Social Management.

What “services” such as Facebook are doing is changing the Internet from a decentralised network of inter-operable protocols (I can email someone using a different ISP to me) to a closed, highly monitored and regulated “high rise tower block” of technology – to use a Ballardian metaphor.

People drag out the tired old line “I’ve got nothing to hide so I don’t care” every time they give up one of their essential human freedoms, or at least they do until it’s too late.

To paraphrase Richard Stallman, it is our moral responsibility to turn down these incentives to relinquish our freedoms in the name of convenience, to not take the path of least resistance – to live our lives as if society were primarily geared towards facilitating freedom, rather than restricting it, and in doing so clear the path to a better quality of life for the majority instead of the minority of today.

A fine 24 hours spent at Chez Bryce/Selleck filled with fine philosophical conversation and superior visual media. The highlight of which is Mr Bryce’s facinating remix of Genesis Climber Mospeada, which is a facinating example of remix culture taken to an entirely new level – that of remixing an entire tv series (which was in itself a kind of remix of the original Japanese version). Very enjoyable!

Infrequent though the frequency may be -
Infrequent is frequent enough for me.

Or to put it another way -

Four and twenty magpies sitting in a pie,
Four and twenty chances of shit in your eye.

Travels and stationaries? Who can tell?

Current status – WEARY.

Hot weather, no really decent sleep for ages.

Can’t seem to get enough green tea and iced soda water (not together).

Stillness is what is needed. Shhhh!

Acronymns….

Well after a good couple of days in the same location, it’s back to wanderment.

Tonight – The Wretched Villains at The Jubilee Hotel – 7pm onwards. I’d link to their website, but they don’t seem to have one at the moment (and I don’t link to those steaming piles of shite known as MySpace poor excuses for bandwidth-waste).

It’s also their first performance with their new drummer – Stuart! Yay!

Shin-post, slimtip
if time tips then we are here
and nothing breaks -
other than collapse itself.

Or, if you’d prefer
then that’s OK.
No – I readily agree
that this is not.

It cannot be built yet -
a legacy of interest.
Commitment to freedom
is probably pretty optimistic.

Historical interest
equals corporate buy-in.
Target users,
overcome.

Happy with your new toy!
My toy! My toy!
Conform! Adhere!
Give up, and sleep sound.

An excellent talk entitled Freedom in the Cloud by Eben Moglen is now up concerning the many and varied problems with the “cloud” concept. This is an issue that everyone, and I really do mean mean almost every internet user, including people who are otherwise quite concerned with “real world” ethics, freedom and privacy, nowadays seem generally unconcerned and/or unaware about.

From the promo information for the event – “Everyone wants a piece of you these days: Google, Facebook, Flickr, Apple, AT&T, Bing. They’ll give you free e-mail, free photo storage, free web hosting, even a free date. They just want to listen in. And you can’t wait to let them. They’ll store your stuff, they’ll organize your photos, they’ll keep track of your appointments, as long as they can watch. It all goes into the “Cloud.”

How we got here is quite a scary story. But nowhere near as scary as getting out again. Eben Moglen, a Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University and the founding director of the Software Freedom Law Center, warned you about privacy and the cloud before. At a public meeting of the Internet Society of New York on February 5, Moglen will ask you to consider how much worse things have become since then and explain what you can do to reclaim your freedom in the era of Web 2.0.”

A very timely and important talk, which is well worth everyone’s time!

UPDATE – looks like the audio & video has been moved here.

After being slightly reticent about attending Porcupine Tree again, I’m very glad I did. Having been an enthusiast since around `94 or so, they’re a band I’ve slightly parted aesthetic ways with over the past few albums. Also, I was quite underwhelmed by their first Brisbane show last year. That last one was the last gig on their first Australian jaunt, and appeared quite weary and I felt the music was very much by the book. This time, on the other hand, was their first gig on the Oz tour, and they appeared very much more enthusiastic, really seeming to have a good time. Steven made a couple of jokes as I recall, one about the postage-stamp sized projection, Colin was beaming for much of the show and so on. In short, musicians enjoying themselves = me enjoying myself.

That being said, their new album The Incident, is a much more solid effort than the past few, in my eyes, with much more variation and subtlety.

It was also good to briefly catch up with various people I usually only see at gigs there, and to discover that Adrian Edmondson has a band called The Bad Shepherds, which I had no bloody idea of, but am VERY interested to hear.