There is a sense in which art, politics, and economics are all inextricably and symbiotically tied together, but history has proven to us that art serves as a powerful corrective against the dangers of the establishment. There is a system of checks and balances in which, even though the arts may rely on the social structures afforded by strong economic and political systems, artists can also inspire a culture to move forward, to reject the evils of greed and prejudice, and to reconnect to its human roots. If we are seeking a political and economic change, then, an authentic embrace of the arts may be key.
.. Bob Dylan’s first album only sold 4,000 copies. In this day and age, he would have been dropped by his label before he created his greatest work.
Doug Englebart: Doug’s Story
The economics professor wanted to know what kind of research he was planning to get started. What kind of research he’d do would be important for his career etc. Doug told him about computers and augmentation – there came a point when he didn’t look very interested. He looked at Doug and said: Do you know how promotions are done at university? Doug remembers the moment well: My jaw dropped, guess I don’t. It’s about peer review: If you don’t get papers published you won’t get advanced. Papers get published by peer review.Talk like this and they won’t get reviews. So much for blindly looking for an academic career!
.. So he said would you notice if everything and everyone here increased by 10 in each dimension? What would happen?
Many said they wouldn’t notice a thing as the angles would be the same; looking at someone bigger would look the same if you yourself was bigger. But what about weight? And strength?
.. Then Bill English came to work with Doug at the beginning of 1964. He had gotten his M.S. at Stanford in 1962, in engineering. A very energetic and competent engineer. Very bright, very active. He complemented Doug and provided things Doug wasn’t good at. Doug had his right hand man, his doer.
.. His work was to be developing a means to augment the human intellect. These “means” can include many things–all of which appear to be but extensions of means developed and used in the past to help man apply his native sensory, mental, and motor capabilities– and we consider the whole system of a human and his augmentation means as a proper field of research for practical possibilities.
Alternative Satire by John Oliver and Clickhole
But the core of the site is strong and scathing, with a clear point of view: that a large segment of online media has nothing interesting to say, but many creative ways to get you to read it. While it’s too smart to state this explicitly, the point of almost every story is that the purveyors of such online news think you’re incredibly stupid.
.. There is no inherent virtue in length. After all, verbosity is not the soul of wit. But sustained thought on an undercovered topic is smart counterprogramming in our age of multitasking and tweeting. And Mr. Oliver has a gift for bringing technical, wonky subjects to vivid life.
Iraq Everlasting
“Supporting the Iraq War was the smart career move, the savvy play,” he wrote, adding that he witnessed “this career pressure at work, first-hand” when, between the summer of 2002 and the start of the invasion in March 2003, “the views of a number of big names at Newsweek flipped like light switches.” Why did they? A big incentive, he wrote, “was the pressure to stay relevant. Being for the war was seen as the cutting edge of thinking. If you were against the war, you were marked as some kind of left-wing throwback, or an isolationist, someone who didn’t get it.” And, as Hastings marveled in 2009, “the consequences for getting it wrong” were “zip.” Indeed, many of those who got it wrong, in his estimation, had become more successful after the war spun out of control. Some have just slunk away from the ruins of the fiasco they supported as if they bear no culpability or responsibility for the wreckage. Now and then, they write lovely pieces thanking those Americans who fought the war for their service.
.. Andrew Sullivan, who had impugned the patriotism of those who disagreed with his post-9/11 effusions, became a tireless writer on the crimes revealed at Abu Ghraib and more recently went so far as to publish an e-book titled I Was Wrong containing almost his entire hawkish output. He admitted that he had become “enamored” of his own morality, and likened his support for the war to that of “a teenage girl supporting the Jonas Brothers.”