Copyright © 2000 by Michael
Segers, All rights reserved
In
ancient Hindu writings, the universe is compared to a vast net, made by the
interweaving of space and time. Gee, does that sound familiar? It is a shock to
realize that the ancient sages envisioned the universe very much as it may
appear to us today, as we rove through the Internet, the World Wide Web, or
cyberspace. All of our terms for this new technology, however, are only
metaphors, only images, and surprisingly, these metaphors and images are already
starting to grow a little worn around the edges.
Unfortunately,
the Internet is so driven by commerce ("dot com") that we are
abandoning to the accountant and the CEO a territory that the poet and the
philosopher should stake out for us. Enter, to grateful applause, Steven
Johnson, co-founder of FeedMag
and author of Interface Culture. A young (early-thirties) writer with
liberal arts degrees, Johnson is a voice of reason in the sometimes unreasonable
space of all things cyber.
He
focuses his attention on the interface, that zone of encounter between the
computer—a machine for which a Bach sonata, a Vermeer painting, or a Rilke
sonnet is nothing but a string of zeroes and ones—and a human being for whom
they are so much more. This, for him, is where new art forms lie.
With
a familiarity with the cultural riches of the past as well as recent advances in
software development, Johnson comes across with grace and balance. He writes of
an Internet that is neither a messianic force for a complete restructuring of
life and society nor the devil’s own playground. To Johnson what is happening
in technology is part of our ongoing growth and development, growth not only in
scientific and technical know-how but also in social and cultural know-why.
He comes across as a realistic optimist—or, is that optimistic realist?
Steven
Johnson is a very necessary person at this time in human development. He builds
bridges between the past and the future, and he builds bridges—although he
might prefer the word interfaces—between artists and philosophers on the one hand
and technologists and software developers on the other.
On
one point he is especially good, and that is in his discussion of the change in
the concepts of intellectual property and the ownership of information. What I
find especially good is that he raises the questions so eloquently but doesn’t
provide any definite answers. We have moved into ethnical and legal areas that
scarcely have precedent, the kinds of areas that need commentators like Johnson.
It is a special pleasure to report that he has a new book, Emergence, scheduled to come out next year, as reported in the Voice Literary Supplement.
But,
until then, you can log onto the excellent FeedMag site, which seems to have not
wallpaper but flypaper, because I always get stuck at it much longer than I plan
to.
Keep
your feet dry, your heart full of noble thoughts, and your own interfaces open
to whatever good may come along in your own interweaving of time and space.