A00098 - Book of the Month for December 2022: Cloud Empires: John Perry Barlow

"Cybervisionaries like John Barrow had imagined that the Internet would give rise to social order beyond the reach of governments and powerful corporations. Yet by the late 2000s, it was clear that the Internet was giving rise to corporations that, if anything, were even more powerful than before." Cloud Empires, pgs. 132-133.

In reading Cloud Empires, I find that the libertarian seeds sown by those like John Perry Barlow in the 1990s has sadly produced rather monstrous corporations that seem to diminish humanity.  So far, I have read the foundational stories for Ebay, Silk Road, Upwork, Uber, Amazon, and Bitcoin.  In the beginning, these technological corporate innovations were often designed to minimize the role of government.  However, over time, the innovations often became monsters themselves.  I suppose with a title like Cloud Empires, one has to assume that the word "Empires" is an apt description of these new corporate entities and that, as with most empires, over time, they become autocratic corporations in their own right.    

Nevertheless, in reading the book, I am grateful for being introduced to the founders of these Cloud Empires.  Names such as Pierre Omidyar, Ross Ulbricht, Odysseas Tsatalos, Stratis Karamaniakis, Travis Kalanick, Garrett Camp, Jeff Bezos, and Satochi Nakamoto should be remembered as being instrumental in creating our brave new world.  However, none of the ones profiled so far comes close to visionary John Perry Barlow.  I invite you all to learn more about him  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Perry_Barlow

and better yet to listen to some of the lyrics that he wrote as a chief composer for The Grateful Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLQS1E7ZaqA

Also, just for nostalgia, here is a live performance of the aforementioned song from 1993, when the legendary Jerry Garcia was still alive and strumming along

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HpIASgwvPc

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California 

December 15, 2022

-----Original Message-----
From: skipjen2865@aol.com
To: 
Sent: Wed, Dec 7, 2022 5:39 am
Subject: Book of the Month for December 2022: Cloud Empires: Notes from Chapter 2: "Reciprocity: The Golden Rule in Cyberspace"

Notes from Chapter 2 of Cloud Empires:  Chapter 2 is entitled "Reciprocity: The Golden Rule in Cyberspace"

"Therefore, live with self-restraint and pay your best attention to dharma, and treat others as you treat yourself."  Mahabharata Shanti-Parva 167:9

Cloud Empires, page 15

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"In February 1996, (John Perry) Barlow's virtual statemanship reached new heights as he published a text titled "A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace":

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind.  On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone.,  You are not welcome among us.  You have no sovereignty where we gather.

We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks.  I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us.  You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear ...

You have not engaged in our great and gathering conversation, nor did you create the wealth in our marketplace.  You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions ...

We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace.  May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before."

Cloud Empires, page 19

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"Barlow wanted to establish a "home of Mind" in cyberspace that would be independent of the impositions of territorial states.  But while the mind was dreaming big dreams, its body was withering.  Netizens exchanged millions of messages, but very few exchanged goods or services.  University employees with secure jobs could afford to expound libertarian doctrines on the 'net, and some of the most vocal cyberspace activists were financially independent technology entrepreneurs.  But most people had to take care of their material needs somehow.  As long as that was not possible on the Internet, it was meaningless to speak of it as a domain on a par with territorial status.  A nation that's all politics and no economy is just a mutual hallucination."

Cloud Empires, page 33

88888

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

-----Original Message-----

From: skipjen2865@aol.com
To: 
Sent: Tue, Nov 29, 2022 5:45 am
Subject: Book of the Month for December 2022: Cloud Empires: How Digital Platforms Are Overtaking the State and How We Can Regain Control

Yesterday was my birthday.  One my Victorville cousins informed me that I had received some 13 Happy Birthday greetings on my Facebook page and asked if I wanted to see them.  Given my disdain for the social media in general and the dire warnings set forth in The Social Dilemma about involvement with social media, I expressed reluctance.  This reluctance was bolstered by a report I later saw while watching France 24. The report was about the latest fines imposed on Meta, Facebook's parent company, by European regulators

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/irish-regulators-fine-meta-265m-euros-in-latest-privacy-case/

The European regulators appear to be more strict or vigilant than American regulators which gives one pause to wonder just what has happened here in this country which has gone undetected or undisclosed.

https://theintercept.com/2022/10/31/social-media-disinformation-dhs/

I do not know much about technology and social media, but perhaps, it is time that I learned a bit more.  Accordingly, I will be reading 

Cloud Empires: How Digital Platforms Are Overtaking The State and How We Can Regain Control by Vili Lehdonvirta

as my Book of the Month for December 2022. You are welcome to read it too.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins

-----Original Message-----

From: skipjen2865@aol.com
To: 
Sent: Wed, Nov 16, 2022 12:11 am
Subject: Must See TV for November 2022: The Social Dilemma

I recently attended a conference named Techonomy 22 which was held in nearby Sonoma, California, from November 13 to November 15.  Techonomy 22 is the successor event to the Techonomy events sponsored by Techonomy Media

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techonomy_Media

It is my understanding that Techonomy 22 was the first Techonomy conference to be held in the last three years due to COVID.

The principal moderator of Techonomy 22 was David Kirkpatrick, a classmate of mine from Amherst College.  David did a masterful job of interviewing some of the most prominent individuals in not only the fields of technology but also in the fields of medicine and climate change.  The wonders and marvels discussed at the conference were at times overwhelming, especially for a person, like me, who is technology averse.  Nevertheless, even as a Luddite, I came away with a deeper appreciation of the Tech Universe with all of its potential, and its peril.  Over the next few months, I hope to elaborate and report on some of the things I learned both at the conference and away from the conference.  Today, I begin with some of the things I learned away from the conference. 

By coincidence, on November 6, a week before the Techonomy conference began, Sixty Minutes aired a segment entitled "Angry in America" 

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/angry-in-america-sunday-on-60-minutes/

In this segment, it is made clear that social media has played a large part in stoking the Anger in America by purposely dividing us and by serving as platforms for disinformation.  I noted the names of two of the prominent individuals interviewed for the segment, Tristan Harris and Jonathan Haidt, and looked them up on Wikipedia;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_Harris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Haidt

In reading these bios, I noted that both individuals appear in a Netlix documentary entitled The Social Dilemma.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Dilemma

On Saturday, November 12, the day before Techonomy 22 began, I watched The Social Dilemma  It was my worst nightmare.  The nightmare was compounded when I returned home from the conference yesterday only to find these two alarming articles in the air:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/google-privacy-settlement.html

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fbi-extremely-concerned-tiktok-operating-171955671.html?guccounter=1

only to be followed by a further reading of this

https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/the-department-of-defense-is-warning-people-not-to-use-tiktok-over-national-security-concerns.html

Based upon all this, I find that my conscience compels me to name the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, as the Must See TV for November 2022.  I also recommend we all consider the recommendations contained therein.

Peace,

Everett "Skip" Jenkins