[p2p-research] fakeness of recovery

[Ryan Lanham]

On Fri, Dec 25, 2009 at 11:30 PM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> It's not just technology Ryan, but technology embedded in new
> organisational, funding, and other social forms,
>
> Carlota Perez book is an excellent one for that,
>
> I think you really have a penchant for technological determinism,
>
> new inventions can lay dormant for decades if not centuries, if they are
> not taken up in that integrated way by social forces and society,
>
>
Yes, when information was sparse, that was the case.  Though changes in
organization are just a different form of technology.

But now, I doubt it can be the case that technology can lay dormant.  It is
information sharing mechanisms that shatters times.  The Kindle device sold
more units this Christmas than Amazon sold books.  Think of the implications
of that!  We are rapidly moving toward hyper-informational protocols where
old systems like books, journals, academic coteries, etc. are going to seem
very backward indeed.  It is the organizations that are now hopelessly
lagging.  Harvard and Oxford are a joke.  They have no idea how to respond
to free, rapid, abundant data and ideas from large quantity open-source
sensors and sharing systems.  They'll look innovative when they catch up.
The universities now are bastions of backwardness.  They are fortresses of
darkness...like something from a Pink Floyd album, terrified that people are
going to see how stupid it all is and how wasteful...the cozy and biased
committees, the closed-minded journal editors, the self-serving university
presses that protect a way of life more than their fundamental ideals.

The Droid is blowing out of stores...totally revolutionary in terms of open
source and open systems content.  The first mass market open systems device
really.  In 2012 we will have 75 lap tablets in the OLPC system that are
going to bring easy technology to virtually every child on earth where
governments aren't completely evil (e.g. Islamic countries, state socialist
countries, etc.) including full Internet access.

We are winning the technology war on close-mindedness and hierarchy...and we
are doing it with the market in tow.  It is very exciting.

If that be technology determinism, then I plead guilty.

By the way, UK scientists have just cured high blood pressure in about 80%
of cases with a 1 hour 500 dollar operation that is trivial.  That will save
millions of lives per year and extend life expectancy a decade in many
locations.

I remember talking to a venture capitalist once who said the real
revolutions of the sixties happened in computer garages and in biology
labs.  It was true.  The same is happening now. The world is transforming
and 99.9% of the people don't have a vague clue about just how extraordinary
the change is...one transformative technology after the other.  It is the
organizations and the social mores that are primitive.
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