Genuis Prophecy

What follows is a piece written by 2 postmodern french philosophers that I studied as part of my (unfinished) Masters degree in Philosophy. The passage is a VERY accurate description of the structure of the internet and specifically web 2.0. However (and here is the important part), it was written in 1983 - wayyy before the Net. People are quick to dismiss philsophers (especially postmodern ones) as totally out of touch with the world. Well this piece is pure genuis in its prediction of what is happening today in the world.

R H I Z O M E

One becomes two: whenever we encounter this formula…what we have before us is the most classical and well reflected, oldest, and weariest kind of thought. Nature doesn't work that way: in nature, roots are taproots with a more multiple, lateral, and circular system of ramification, rather than a dichotomous one.

A system of this kind could be called a rhizome. A rhizome as subterranean stem is absolutely different from roots and radicals…any point on a rhizome can be connected to anything other and must be. This is very different from the tree or root, which plots a point, fixes an order.

A rhizome ceaselessly establishes connections between semiotic chains, organisations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles.

All of tree logic is a logic of tracing and reproduction. The rhizome is altogether different, a map and not a tracing. The map is open and connectable on all of its dimensions; it is detachable, reversible, susceptible to constant modification…Perhaps one of the most important characteristics of the rhizome is that it always has multiple entryways…

The tree and root inspire a sad image of thought that is forever imitating the multiple on the basis of a centered or segmented higher unity…To these centred systems, the authors contrast acentered systems…in which communication runs from any neighbour to any other, the stems or channels do not preexist, and all individuals are interchangeable…without a central agency.

Let us summarize the principle characteristics of a rhizome: unlike trees or their roots, the rhizome connects any point to any other point…It has neither beginning nor end. In contrast to centered systems with hierarchical modes of communication and reestablished paths, the rhizome is an acentered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system without a General…

The tree imposes the verb "to be," but the fabric of the rhizome is the conjunction, "and…and…and…" This conjunction carries enough force to shake and uproot the verb "to be". Where are you going? Where are you coming from? What are you heading for? These are totally useless questions - all imply a false conception of voyage and movement….[We should] have another way of traveling and moving:…coming and going rather than starting and finishing.

from A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
Deleuze and Guattari

PS - One of the Frenchmen finished himself off by jumping of a building - BP perhaps?

Net privacy paranoia

I was having an email discussion with a friend yesterday. We wus talking about Facebook, and he said he'd never go there because "it was a personal data nightmare waiting to happen."

It highlighted something I've been thinking about for a while, so here's the reply email I sent to him ('scuse the typos - this was a cut-n-paste job):

As regards the personal data danger on Facebook, I've got a whole new take on Internet privacy. As long as you don't spend time surfing porn sites, or are an Al Queda operative, or have something else to hide - what's the problem? Having spent 8 years trying to market various websites etc. I'd be only too happy if someone/engine bothered to actually differentiate me from the zillions of other gigs out there. Besides, if you're really worried about privacy don't EVER use Google. They've got more info on you than anyone else in the universe (besides perhaps your ISP...).

You're never going to get away from web advertising so ask yourself - would you rather be plastered with stuff you have ZERO interest in, or adverts that are actually stuff that you personally might REALLY like?

***

Am I just been naive? Whaddya think?

Web 2.0. Explained.

Second Life

You may or may not know about secondlife.com, the fast growing 3D social community on the Neb. If not, check it out, because it's a glimpse of where the internet is going. A little wormhole in the current mesh of things that can transport you instantly into Web 3.0. Second Life is virtual reality come to fruition. It even has its whole own economy with its own currency and genuine floating exchange rate to the world's major currencies. Large retailers are increasingly buying up virtual billboard space in Second Life's virtual malls and virtual golf courses. There is such a thriving job market in second life that more and more people earn their entire "real world" income from their jobs in virtual land.

I've been toying with the idea of taking out a Second Life citizenship for many months now. But I've always been scared that my virtual life demands would put even more pressure on my endangered spare time. But today, I have found an even newer, bigger, better second-life type site check it out here , and I am CONVINCED. This is the way to go!

Postmodernism 101

Every now and then I allow myself the luxury of one philsophically-indulged, non-topical post, and today is one of those times.

When I was doing my Philosophy Masters couple years back, I was (un)fortunate enough to delve dig deep into postmodernism. To the non-philosophically inclined (and even the non) postmodernism, henceforth pomo, is just a loada arty-farty, left-wing, gobblygook Bullpoo.

Yes, and No. One area where it has related remarkably well to the Real world, is it's prediction of the World Wide Wonderland. Just check out the table below which I culled from "Postmodernism for Beginners" by Jim Powell. This book was published in '98, a time when there were no wiki s, blogger or web 2.0 beta s. But compare this same table to the WWW today and you can't deny that the internet is decidedly Postmodern. Which means that those gibberish-spouting, pomo frenchman (usually) hanging around Parisian coffee shops in the 80s and 90s were actually pretty prophetic. (right column added by Bipolar Guy) :


Next time I embark on one of these philosophical diversions, I'll quote a passage from A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and Brian Massumi (french or what?). This book was published in 1987 - PRE the www (as we know it), and it's predictions of the internet were even more accurate and detailed.

So: I'm not sure what these pomo dudes were on, but it sure gave their visions wings.

Firefoxed

I'm posting this straight from my "performance" add-on in Firefox. My developer finally convinced me to switch from IE to Firefox. I'm mighty impressed. If I was Billy Gates I would be worried - very worried. His empire is eroding on every side.  Yesterday's launch of the Google Spreadsheet Beta will make excel redundant within a year.

And there is very little way IE can compete with firefox. Firefox is finally demonstrating the power of  open source collaboration. What really makes Firefox is all the extensions and add-ons  that are available. Millions of brilliant creators all over the universe are contributing. How can a bunch of employees in a corporate department ever compete??

My only compaint with Firefox thus far is that BiPolar Daily looks pretty damn deformed in the F browser. No images come through, side bar content is all squashed. Haven't had a chance yet to see if other blogger sites suffer the same fate.

As to the BiPolar Carnival post on Saturday, I appreciate the unconditional support. Some have suggested that I write another post. Not sure if this is gonna happen. Any thought of my Carnival Carnage over the weekend just drags me down right now.

But today I'm up.

Revenge of the Dumb Network

Way back in the 70s when computers weighed half a ton and cost more than your car, a computer network referred to one big central mainframe linked to a whole load of "terminals". The terminals had no stand-alone programs on them - no word processor, no spreadsheet. All they did was give you access to the mainframe. Hence "dumb network". Even today bankteller terminals and airline booking systems are still configured in this structure.

But the PC (personal computer...duh) changed all this, putting all your own programs, apps and files on your own computer. MS Windows was hugely instrumental.

So are dumb networks dead? Not a fck! Everyday in the past month apps and data on my pc have been migrating to the web:

bookmarks - delicious
rss reader - google reader
business newsletter editor and management - Quattro
Personal blog - blogger
Calendar - Google calendar

Even my email these days I don't bother to download - just leave them on the webmail server. I hover from cmptr to cmptr during the day so leaving it on the server I've got permanent access. Once a day I download.

And any day now my photos will migrate to Flickr.

Shit, I recently saw a site that has a fully functional excel worksheet that you can operate from anywhere on the web and store your files there too. How long before Excel on the desktop becomes redundant?

Basically all we need these days is a dumb terminal and internet access (ala Dumb network). Everything has migrated back to the mainframe, except this time the mainframe is The Internet.

The advantages of the new dumb network are huge. We can access our data and apps 24/7 from anywhere in the world. No more synchronisation bullshit. It is NOT advantageous for Billy Gates though. Slowly all his apps are becoming redundant with Google taking over a large slice.

The LINKs and the LINKED

I got so fired up about that thread at Icarus yesterday. Links, links, links. I could see them all over the place. They were jumping out and attacking me. This stuff really sends me. In fact, after a couple of posts I started realising that I'm actually more excited about the LINKS themselves rather than the things being LINKED.

Last week I finished a book titled "SEARCH" about Google, Yahoo, ALta Vista etc. etc. An amazing read and essential reading for anyone that wants to be remotely involved in any way with Marketing in the future.

SO WHAT'S THE LINK (between the book "Search" and the Icarus thread)?

This: How did Google slaughter the rest of the search market in 5 quick years? Simple - they came up with a new search algorithm. And what differentiated their algorith from all the previous ones??

THEY FOCUSED ON THE LINKS between web pages, rather the Web pages themselves.

BINGO!!!!

It's a whole new paradigm. The paradigm of the future. The structuralist philosophers saw it decades ago. Even the post-structuralists recognised it. They woulda been proud of Google.

(Please excuse this post. I'm off on a philosophy flight at present and you'll probably have to put up with shit like this for a while yet)

***
My lungs are feeling really sore and heavy today. Like they're laden with boulders tugging down on my thorax. Probably wondering what's happened to the atmosphere down there.

Which has left me feeling pretty drained and zestless. So my business doesn't look like it's gonna happen in a big way today either. Goddam deadlines flying by...