Evolving the Network: Politics, Culture, and Consciousness

Steven Taylor
Evolver Salon big2Image.jpg



On March 28, 2008 Reality Sandwich/Evolver
sponsored a panel discussion on the capacity of digital
technology to transform our reality. As moderator Ken Jordan
put it, "What's going to emerge from this digital soup?"

The panelists were Laura Dawn, cultural director of MoveOn; Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, musician, writer, and filmmaker; Daniel Pinchbeck, author and editorial director of Reality Sandwich, and Peter Koechley, former managing editor of the Onion, now with MoveOn.

Watch the video:

Daniel Pinchbeck began the discussion, noting that he had been presenting these panels to open up a space for cultural/political dialog in the absence of such public forums, and to bring in the spiritual dimension. He also spoke of his participation in the recent World Psychedelic Forum in Switzerland, noting that there is now, after a long hiatus since its prohibition in the late 60s, new work with psychedelic research involving therapeutic applications.

Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky talked of a shift in thinking from mass culture to mass customization that has occurred due to the new digital information technologies, with the quot;melt down" of the recording industry, and the rise of a DJ "gift economy" where people can download, edit, and sequence for themselves.

Peter Koechley noted a power shift since the early days of the Web, with the idea that a group of students with a laptop can make a news page, just like the New York Times has a news page. Now that people are voluntarily doing that work, it's
no longer a strictly professional realm, and there is the potential for anyone to create something that millions of people see.

Laura Dawn spoke of the transition in political fundraising away from a powerful minority of donors to vast numbers of small donors. The ability to raise 60 million dollars in fifty-dollar donations means that old money interests are not in control any more. MoveOn has given real-world impetus to a grass-roots effort. Also there is the shift in news onsumption, where instead of watching the same 10-second loop over and over again, news consumers can investigate multiple sources on a story and understand the larger context for events. The result has been to force accountability of our leaders, something we haven't been able to do before.

Pinchbeck spoke of the history of media and political forms, that new technologies -- such as the development of literacy and the printing press -- have tend to support new forms of social organization. What we have now seems to be the possibility that digital technology and social networking points toward a global, direct democracy based on non-coercive, shared power across all races and classes.

As one panelist put it, "Once the data is available, ten thousand flowers bloom!"

 

Photo by Susan Buck.

Comments

Inspirational!

Submitted by mountainguide on Mon, 05/19/2008 - 17:42.
That was so inspiring, interesting and exciting! It was great to be challenged on such relevant and difficult questions... I really felt like I had a good brain stretch and I'm now full of ideas... About a quarter of the way through I had to start taking notes because your conversation was sparking off thoughts I had never come across before and I had to make sure not to lose them! Great job, I hope for many more discussions like these.

Elephant Garden

Submitted by DustParticle on Mon, 05/19/2008 - 20:34.
I share Pinchbeck's model of human emergence as time spent in a garden with elephants. It's a fun example to align our dreams of the now with a grassroots simplicity. When elephants serve as the mainstay for urban design the ghetto will transform into a Neverland not even Captain EO could foresee.

Thank You Daniel, Ken, Everyone

Submitted by Keith M Judge on Mon, 05/19/2008 - 20:44.
Thank you.

This looked like a really

Submitted by Rafiq Hilton on Tue, 05/20/2008 - 15:55.

This looked like a really awesome debate with some great contributors sat on it! Things like this make me wish i lived in New York though! I'll get over for an RS event one day!

 I have to say, i think daniel really hit it on the head with the comment about reducing the amount we work. We need to get back to a form of tribal community that allows that. Which is why this debate was interesting. I think there could be a part 2 to this though as it started to scratch the surface of exactly how that might manifest. I am personally of the beleif that we need to redress our attitude to technology in the same way we need to redress our attitude to all other production and consumption. For example, whilst everybody having a laptop would be awesome (its the only way access can be as ideal as it would need to be for what was discussed) it would create a lot more 'stuff' that would present problems when being disposed of and so on. But technology, whatever that word may come to denote over the coming years, may have a role to play in these tribal societies. I think it might anyway because i imagine them to be a convergence of the old and new in this sense.

radiation?

Submitted by Bill Ottman on Tue, 05/20/2008 - 23:22.

i was wondering if anyone new specifics about the health risks of exposure to technology such as cell phones, computers, or any other glowing piece of gadgetry.

also, it's interesting how "time spent" on a computer or phone, depending on the aim of that session, can either be selfish or altruistic and somewhat sacrificial. a ten hour session on the computer that is exposing us to possible radiation, damaging our eyes, and doing who knows what else, can be worthwhile because it has the ability to generate critical connections and help to speed the evolutionary process.

personally, i look forward to a time without such dependency on technology, and would love to be free from it.  not to say that it should be gone completely, but the longer it remains so heavily embedded in our lives, the longer our disconnection from nature will last. this goes along with the need for a calendar change. it's the shift from artificial and mechanical relationships to natural and organic ones. peace everyone. it's happening.

I agree completely with what Paul said...

Submitted by Ildri on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 01:00.

about how many people, regardless of how much they want or are aware of the need for change don't fee significant and that their apathy and/or lack of action is a result of economical restraints. I have definitely fely this. I seriously, truly, whole-heartedly want to turn this bitch of a country around, tear it down and start from scratch, and maybe keep the technology because it makes life easier. But it's so hard to truly have an impact. I know so many people who say "oh just recycle, ride your bike, be vegan, and everything will be fine." BULLSHIT! NO! Yes, those things are all well and good, but what about everything else? And when you don't have the money to contribute to your causes, and when you have three papers due tomorrow and you have to work all night and are exhausted with just trying to survive in the system, you don't exactly feel empowered to change anything. I know that this or something similar (instead of three papers, there are three children, etc) is the situation for many people I know.

 

But perhaps it's exactly as Laura said, that the system keeps biting itself in the ass and is thereby catalyzing the change it needs. Perhaps I'm just impatient, (and I know that these sorts of things grow slowly and then change happens very quickly) but it still seems like it's just not enough. Unless you have the contacts, knowledge, and other resources to catapult the knowledge of and passion for these subjects into common consciousness, I don't know what more can be done at a lower (my) level at this point, other than to volunteer when I can and spend my downtime on Freerice.com. And it frustrates the hell out of me.

Thanks and another Recommendation

Submitted by Martin D. Anderson on Wed, 05/21/2008 - 14:07.

I so appreciate the effort that goes into creating these videos so that those of use with those "too-busy lives" or who are not in the NY area can benefit from this discourse.

I also want to yet again heartily recommend Clay Shirky's recent book "Here Comes Everybody." So much of the book speaks directly to the topics discussed in this forum, from "symmetrical v. asymmetrical media" to the societal changes wrought by participatory technology. I know I must sound like an advertisement what with how many times I've referenced it recently, but I promise I do so solely because it united and expressed so many disparate ideas that have been floating in unarticulated forms in my consciousness.

"Network" or "Social" technologies are a seminal part of the paradigm shift ahead and I've yet to run across anyone who speaks on this topic with greater insight and eloquence.

Perhaps if I find the time I can do a sort-of book report on it for RS.

more more more gimme gimme gimme

Submitted by maggie on Fri, 05/23/2008 - 00:32.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Well done!

Submitted by Psychonautilus on Sat, 06/07/2008 - 21:54.
The video was fantastic, and I thank you all for initiating this type of discourse, which (thanks to technology) can be viewed by almost everyone so inclined. It's great being able to have access to events such as this in spite of locational disparity, but it does sometimes make me wish I lived closer to NY, so that I could be there in person! Someday I'll make a trip out there and join you all. Beyond that, I applaud you and look forward to seeing more discussions like this one on Reality Sandwich. You made vast improvements over the last one (needless to say), and the future of RS/Evolver looks bright from my perspective.