Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky: "State of the World 2012"

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Old-school bOING bOING contributors Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky posted their annual State of the World discussion on the good ol' Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link. Sidle up for some fine brain tennis. Jon says:

The reality we're in today is reflected in responses I got when I asked my online social network what they thought we would cover (in this State of the World discussion). They suggested a diverse list: climate change, Arab spring and social media-driven political upheaval, courage, "1984," Fahrenheit 451, the future of Occupy, global economics, underground economies, cyberwar, favela chic, dead media, the future of the Internet in light of pending legislation (SOPA etc.) and emerging alternative networks, space wars, and private drone fleets (for tactical protest command, celebrity capture, and industrial intelligence).

"Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky: State of the World 2012"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

This is must-read folks.
terry childers

been a long time since i saw anything from mr sterling. nice to see he’s still rad.
- http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
  
  I guess I’ve been following Bruce since, well, before the beginning. I was gobswached to find that he had a published novel [Involution Ocean] and then that later he jumpstarted the entire field of SF . Uh, he deserves a medal of sumthin
http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke

Very interesting, but I was kind of put off by the 90′s-USENET sort of format. For a couple of futurists, isn’t this sort of like writing on stone tablets or in Shakespearean verse?
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones
  
  It’s The WELL, the primordial ur-Forum.
- Dv Revolutionary
  
  I suppose we could break it up into 4 or 5 pages and put ads on the top and side of every page if it would make you feel better.
- jonlebkowsky
  
  We use all sorts of tech, but a basic text interface can be very powerful for this sorta thing.
SamSam

Not knowing what Bruce Sterling looks like, the photo rather took me aback. The rock in front of him and the scarf around his neck conspire to make him look rather like a role-playing elf. Elrond, probably.

You’ll see it if you imagine the rock to be behind him.

http://i473.photobucket.com/albums/rr95/Aenain/Elrond/Elrond_eyebrowsA.jpg
- http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt
  
  Lord :) Way cute
ultranaut

I look forward to reading these things every year. Bruce Sterling is mindfuckingly brilliant
. .

That was a huge mess. No format, no questions, no conversation, who’s talking, I don’t know, what all this about Italy, a list of loony issues no one talks about any more, and then it ends on page 1. Huh?
- http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd
  
  Congrats, you got mentioned!
  http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/430/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page01.html#post25
http://www.facebook.com/namacdonald Nicholas MacDonald

For some people, the New Year means a party in Times Square. For others, it’s the CCTV Variety Show. For me, it’s two aging cyberpunks going on about how the world is screwed. Good stuff.
- jonlebkowsky
  
  I think we’ll try to find ways that the world isn’t screwed, and talk about those, too.
dorkhero

Yet, somehow, the world muddles through, like it does every year, and will continue to do so long after we are gone. We are only important to ourselves, and it is very important right now that I go get a cookie.