RE: <nettime> black unicorn on 'high concept, low tech' [hettinga x3 + platt]

[Ed Jauregui <EJauregui@Scient.com>]

Just a note about this statement:

>In April of 2000 Bill Joy wrote an article in Wired that has always
frightened
>me a little.  Chief among his comments:

>The 21st-century technologies - genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics
(GNR) -
>are so powerful that they can spawn whole new classes of accidents and
abuses.
>Most dangerously, for the first time, these accidents and abuses are widely
>within the reach of individuals or small groups. They will not require
large
>facilities or rare raw materials. Knowledge alone will enable the use of
them.

I recently read a book by Paul Virilio (my Spanish translation was called
"El Ciberespacio: la politica de lo peor", something like Cyberspace: the
worst kind of politics).

One of the concepts here that struck me was Virilio's idea that EVERY new
technology creates with it a new type of accident. This is the reason why
the giddy exponential growth and change that we have been experiencing in
the past century is for Virilio as much an exponential growth in threats,
well-grounded fear, and actual disaster situations as it is in what we might
call "progress". His gloomy warning seemed out of place during the heady
days of the Internet revolution, when speed was king and the stock market
was rocketing into the stratosphere. But today, as we look around with
dismay upon the rubble of Nasdaq, the WTC, and the US's past sins in the
Middle East, these words resonate with our new fears.

Is it possible to slow down? Can we keep the winds of our economic,
ecologic, military, and technological Pandora's boxes in check? I fear we
will learn, in every case and as always, the hard way. 

ed


-----Original Message-----
From: nettime's_geodesic_structure [mailto:nettime@bbs.thing.net]
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2001 11:55 AM
To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net
Subject: <nettime> black unicorn on 'high concept, low tech' [hettinga
x3 + platt]


Black Unicorn: Reflections on "High Concept, Low Tech," Martial Law, 
the new Paper Gauntlet and the changing meaning of 911.
          "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com>
          "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com> [forwarding charles platt]
          "R. A. Hettinga" <rah@shipwright.com>

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cut here /mod


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