Tuesday, 9th o September 2003
From the "How Linux Will Save the World" Series
The biological human was created to struggle against chaos, to seek order, put things in their place. It is this never ending quest that gives us something to do, something to strive for. It is this quest that will eventually finish us.
We need chaos, the unexpected, the uncontrollable. It is only through mutation, disorder, messiness that we grow as humans and become more god like.
Technology will eventually completely rob our souls from us, dehumanizing others to the point where a point and click will terminate a relationship.. A point and a click may eventually signify the end of a life. We are already heading in that direction. Think smart bombs, cruise missles.
I read today of a 18 foot wide vending machine that basically replaces a convenience store. It is being field tested here in the US. The Roboshop is already popular in Japan, where space is at a premium and wages are high for unskilled labor.
Imagine a world with no convenience stores or more importantly no convenience store clerks, waiters, service folks. There would be no friendly hellos, no eye contact, no have a nice day. We will all live our lives inside the bubble of our needs that are instantaneously satisfied, gratified, and quelled. We will download our music, order groceries on the web, pick up milk and eggs from a vending machine, self check out at K-mart. We won't go outside to check the weather or look at the sky. We will watch CNN to tell us what to think. We will bio-engineer our children, take more pills to delay aging, and seize more and more control. Like a hungry dictator we will pacify the masses. Give them what is good for for them. Control is everything.
We have fewer children later in life. We control reproduction. It's messy business. The time isn't right. Well guess what? The time is never right for messiness. Messiness is something we would never choose for ourselves. We never choose disorder. It serendipitously finds us. It must. We need it. It is the guide that we need it to be. Want has nothing to do with anything. What we think we want trips us up, lets us down, and never ever meets our expectations.
Yet we want to control. We WANT to know. It's built in. We classify, pacify, and create structure. We crave control like crack cocaine. The more we have the more we want and less satisfied we are.
Here's the Rub
I sometimes get a glimpse into the world of Microsoft. Why did Windows succeed so completely, so dominantly? Windows is everywhere. It is on every new PC. It's bought stolen, copied, pre-installed. We want it and we will do anything to get it.
I am more and more convinced that it is because Microsoft gives the drug addict what he craves so desperately. Control. While the service centered Unix world was carefully creating interdependence among their consultants and Value Added Resellers (VARS), Microsoft was out creating a cheap product individual customers could use and control on their very own. It was simple. It was not multi-user. It gave the basic user a sense that it was something they could manage. It did not take a staff of sysadmins and a ten thousand dollar budget to get it up and running and do something useful. The PC running Microsoft Windows, gave us poor humans a bone to chew on. Sure it was just a bone, but we owned that bone. We bought it and it was ours, and we didn't have to depend on ANYONE.
Windows is a technology that is built to satisfy humanity's all consuming craving for control. Bill Gates has known this for some time. Bill knows we want the crack. He supplies the crack. We reward him. Sure our lives are miserable, but he gives us what we feel is control. He supplies us with technology to buy and use. We have a problem we download a patch. We fix the problem. We have a virus, we buy a virus scanner. We need to create a document, we buy Word. We buy a solution, prepackaged with all the features Microsoft has told us we would need. Why deal with the messy details of our particular problem. Why try to explain it someone and have them help us out. Just buy some software and all problems fit nicely into its container. All supersets do not exist. Problems outside the glossy plastic and End User License Agreement simply cannot be.
Maybe you need to buy another piece of software or wait until Microsoft tells you that the problem exists.
In our culture of self-reliance it was the car that beat out the bus or train.
The Camel of Chaos Puts Its Nose in the Tent
I don't know if Linux will ever overtake Microsoft. I don't know if liberation will ever overtake order. I do know that there has begun a revolution though. Linux was created by an ethnic swede living in Finland, named Linus Torvalds. Linux was created by a person who wanted a Unix machine but could not afford it. He decided to do something to take control of the situation. He wrote a version of Unix for himself and named it Linux. He pacified his need, he created order.
Like a madman though, Linus threw it all away. He threw a monkey wrench into the mix. He scattered his jigsaw puzzle. He shuffled the deck. He kicked down the towering cathedral and tossed its pieces to the hungry mob. You are hungry, he said. Feast on this.
Linus made one particular decision that would plunge the world of technology into a state of disorder the likes of which have never been seen. He gave his code away.
The hunger that had consumed so many without them even knowing it, had left them gaunt, wild-eyed. They had been users, disconnected from each other, feeding on what they thought would nourish their souls. They had not realized what the truth was, and how with it, they would never go hungry again.
Linux just may give us hope afterall.
Linux is about messiness, confusion, interdependence. It is harder to use, harder to accept. Its Truth is not for the faint of heart. Linux requires of you. It requires that you deal with people to get it running to use its potential. Linux requires that you admit your need, admit your failings, admit your incompleteness. It will never lie to you. However, should you accept it, Linux will take you to heights that few users have known.
Linux did not come to conquer Bill Gates. Linux did not come to define your problem and solve it.
Linux came to give you something that you might not want. Linux will set you free.
Now, I don't know if Linux is the future of computing or not. Will it be killed not by Microsoft but by the listlessness and smallness of humanity? Will Linux be struck down by our inability to accept chaos and its inability to solve our need for order?
I don't know the answers. But I do know one thing. If technology will eventually dehumanize us to the point where life has no meaning, then Linux is our only hope.
Saturday, 30th o August 2003
Unintended Consquences of the Proliferation of Security Cameras.
Just think of all the potential presidential candidates that would be disqualified for being nose-pickers.
Worker on phone with headquarters
"We can't support that candidate, sir. He was caught on a Walmart security camera rooting around in his nose."
"No, we couldn't supress it. CNN's already got copies. You think Ford's stumbling was bad... Sir, we're going to have to dump him. Inviable candidate. Need to find someone with shorter softer nose hairs and less mucus buildup."
"We will start looking for a clean nose right away. There's nothing more important in a presidential candidate than naturally clean nasal passages."
Tuesday, 26th o August 2003
Remedial School for the Critical Thinking of Liberals
I read this essay linked from fark.com (silly news site with interesting links all over the web, highly recommended). Its basic premise is that liberals are naive and narcissistic. He raises some interesting points, but I think makes a couple of subtle errors that conservatives always make when naysaying liberals.
“Liberals are always looking for excuses.” That is, they excuse bad behavior or failure as the fault of society, education, television etc. Many liberals will take this sophmoric bashing and fail to achieve an argumentative upper hand. I sometimes wonder if they have not been properly schooled or had their weapons sharpened to the precise edges necessary to do battle. Conservatives love to slice and dice you on the value of your words. A-ha, I nailed you through that chink in your armor. You must be precise. Your imprecision is your failing. Your anger unbalances you, grasshopper, or some such nonsense.
Your taxes benefit the rich!
Who are these rich?
Your policies hurt poor people.
Which policies?
Sometimes liberals have a difficult time answering these questions. They feel they are right, but haven't polished their game. Conservatives know this and set back at a safe distance hurling precise questions to which they know their opponent has no answer.
You see, liberals feel things. I'm going to tell you how to feel things and still make your case. I'm going to give you a tool straight from the golf bag of your conservative rival. You are going to use this club and you are going to beat him with it.
Let us begin.
First, yes, I agree with you. There are never excuses. People make choices and some of them are bad. They sometimes make these wrong choices because of things in their environment, but there are never excuses. You are never excused from abiding by the law. You are never excused for not giving your children all the possible advantages that they deserve. You are never excused for your failings. So, yes, I agree with you Mr. Conservative. People should stop making excuses, looking for ways to peddle cupability to some other unlucky soul or business or institution. You are not taking responsibility for yourself and what is worse, you are handing your power to that which does not have the right to retain power from you. You are setting yourself up as a hapless victim by continuing to abdicate your hard earned volition, your precious vehicle for success, your humanity. You have become just one of “them,” one of those powerless, victimized masses to whom much happens but the flurry of motion disguises the true lack of forward movement.
To you, you tragic characters in a tragic play, I say, you are not absolved. You are not excused. You are not through.
What a wonderful point you make. I couldn't have made it better myself.
Good, because now I am going to ask what are you going to do about it?
Do about it? Why nothing, you said it yourself, people must take personal responsibility.
But you see, we have a problem. This country has a problem. This problem is here and now.
A problem created by you liberals. You and your social programs. You've created a cycle of dependency, a cycle of crime, a cycle of poverty.
It's OUR fault? I thought it was THEIR fault?
Tuesday, 22nd o July 2003
Bridge View from the Top
So, here's the little bridge from the top. THAT's why I never gave it a second look. 'Fraid if I did it would collapse or something.
Monday, 14th o July 2003
Things Aren't Always What They Seem
There's this little rickety bridge that leads to the neighborhood where we live. I've driven and biked over it countless times in the 5 years we have lived in Santa Clara. It's narrow, sometimes you have to wait at one side while a large truck passes. There is an area where the concrete barrier is broken away and they have placed temporary moveable barriers to fill in the gap. I have always regarded it as a second rate pile of crap, but since I have to get to my house, I have to pass over it, every - single - day.
I was flicking through the local news channels the other day and I heard the neighborhood Tortugo (through which the little road travels) mentioned, "El puente pasa por el Barrio Tortugo en la carretera vieja de Caguas." Hmm, they call that little lane and a half decent into the valley, the old road to Caguas? Chuckle. Anyway, I listened further.
"The old bridge takes 150 years in that same locale. It was built by the Spanish in 1847, and is in the process of reconstruction by the city of San Juan as part of a restoration project."
I did a little double-take and called Laura. "Hey hon, they're talking about our little bridge. Look, they have pictures. Wow, I never realized what we were passing over all that time. Look at that thing. It's all bricks, just simple brick arches. Geez. And all those semi's go over that thing. They don't build 'em like they used to do they."
Laura expressed her incredulity same as me. "What a beautiful bridge. It's gorgeous. Look at those arches. It's a wonder those concrete and marble trucks didn't make it collapse."
The underside of the bridge, which I had never seen, was remarkable. It was an old brick archway, like old Roman thoroughfare, apparently very resiliant, because it has stood in place for over 150 years with very little maintenance.
I took my bike down into the dry creek bed and took some pictures of the underside, a place I had never seen, and place I never realized existed, but I had passed by above every day for the past five years.