We need a design philosophy for sustainable, post-peak, technological living now more than ever. And preferably one that will last till the 22nd century and beyond. The Viridian movement needs a reboot.

Without it, we run the risk of being distracted by futile arguments between Radical Greens and Techno-utopians. Better living through science is no more an answer on it's own than an extreme localism that is busy knitting yogurt into yurts. It's not just a choice between Catastrophism and Denialism.

http://www.viridiandesign.org/
The Last Viridian Note. The end of a design movement. Being a re-statement of ways of living in the 21st century.

This post brought to you by
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/15/green_party_policy_uk_election_economics/
https://plus.google.com/104092656004159577193/posts/A9T8Jysd6tj
http://shift-magazine.org/magazine/see-no-evil-the-morality-of-collapse/

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Remember this next time somebody tries to tell you that climate change and unrestrained economic growth is probably not that bad in the medium term. Because they read something that refers back to the Copenhagen Consensus Center, Bjørn Lomborg and Richard Tol. Because it turns out the Copenhagen think tank probably accepted money from Paul Singer, billionaire funder of the Republicans and one step removed from the Koch brothers.

Tainted by association? I think so.

http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/02/09/exclusive-bjorn-lomborg-think-tank-funder-revealed-billionaire-republican-vulture-capitalist-paul-singer

Of course this is just one news report and might be an inaccurate smear. But it has the smell of truthiness.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Looking for a book to read? Pretty much everything on this list is worth reading. It's Bruce Sterling's 1988 announcement of the Slipstream Genre.

https://w2.eff.org/Misc/Publications/Bruce_Sterling/Catscan_columns/catscan.05

I'd add Lewis Shiner, John Shirley, Paul DiFillipo, Pat Cadigan, Jeff Noon, Michael Swanwick. But mainly, Lucius Shepherd's entire output (RIP). 

I do have a small problem though with the Slipstream genre name. I really like Slipstream. The problem is that what I think of as Slipstream doesn't necessarily match what everyone else thinks it is!

And I think we need a replay of the New Worlds group. Where's 2015's JG Ballard?

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Today's physics question is brought to you via the Russian self defence firearm carried into space. The TP-82 is basically a sawn off shotgun with a 3rd rifle barrel, and a butt that can be converted into a shovel or machete. It's there in the landing module to help you survive an attack from Siberian bears and to kill an Elk to eat when you land 500 miles off course.

In the comments was this: EVA on the ISS for no other reason that to blast skeets in low earth orbit

So let's get all XKCD about this. You're on an EVA untethered, and wearing your Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU). The Clay Pigeon Launcher MkIV on the ISS launches a target for you. You give it both barrels of your TP-82 sawn off shotgun. What happens next? And where do the pellets and the cloud of clay pigeon fragments end up? More to the point, where do you end up!?!

http://io9.com/did-you-know-soviet-cosmonauts-carried-a-bear-killing-s-1684410938

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[from: Google+ Posts]

So there goes Zero the Hero
Turning on around the wheel of births and deaths
And meanwhile the Octave Doctors
And the Pot Head Pixies
And all the other characters of the Planet Gong
Have to leave you now with a last little song

bye bye

http://www.factmag.com/2015/02/05/gongs-daevid-allen-tells-fans-he-is-dying-of-cancer/

http://www.planetgong.co.uk/

http://lyrics.wikia.com/Gong:You_Never_Blow_Yr_Trip_Forever

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[from: Google+ Posts]

#FridayCocktail (a day late!)

Rum Martinez
- 40ml Myers rum
- 40ml Carpano Antic, red Vermouth
- Barspoon Luxardo Maraschino
- Dash orange bitters
- Dash Angostura bitters
- Stir, Martini glass, lemon peel twist.

Not a whole lot different from the Palmetto which is basically the same but misses out the Maraschino. Some people may find it a bit sweet but it should come out all silky smooth. A good winter drink.
[from: Google+ Posts]

I ain't going to work on Maggie's farm no more.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/31/i-quit-my-job-to-set-up-commune

If you're waiting for the apocalypse so you can be free. Or you want to try some post-apocalyptic living as preparation, it's probably not going to happen the way you think it will.

And that's the challenge. How do we engineer a soft landing to the decline and fall of the global civilisation, this time around. Because a bunch of yurts on a scottish hillside is fun for a few weeks but it's not an answer.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

I wish I could be as optimistic as this.
http://blog.longnow.org/02015/01/26/jesse-ausubel-seminar-media/

Why nature is rebounding – a summary by Stewart Brand

Over the last 40 years, in nearly every field, human productivity has decoupled from resource use, Ausubel began. Even though our prosperity and population continue to increase, the trends show decreasing use of energy, water, land, material resources, and impact on natural systems (except the ocean). As a result we are seeing the beginnings of a global restoration of nature.

Some of the examples are a little bizarre. eg 10,000 foxes in London is an example of nature returning? And it's repeating some of the old canards about increasing CO2 levels and temperate region temperatures is leading to greater plant growth. Mostly it feels like trying to say that if we can just put a few more sticking plasters on, we'll be able to mend the broken leg.

So what are we to make of the relentless optimism of the Long Now people? Or the relentless pessimism of the environmental people?

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Ah, Politics. The sentiment below is of course about Scotland and the SNP. But lots of us feel exactly the same way about England. Remember that when the election comes round and all the choice you get is various colours of Tory.

The Party leadership remain infected by managerialism. It is easy to convince yourself you are doing good things while not changing anything fundamental, and at the same time building a very well paid career and a personal powerbase. I don’t want devo-max, I don’t want more powers, I don’t want something “as close to federalism as possible”. I want freedom for my country. I want independence. I want to live in a country which does not illegally invade other countries, collude in torture, carry out mass surveillance of its citizens, or possess nuclear weapons. The idea of running the Union a little bit better, making it a teeny bit more humane and competent, does not interest me. Nor does dulling the edge of austerity, when it is going to behead us anyway.

The article as a whole is about Greece and the way that they are not alone in being caught up in the wholesale corruption of gifting the citizen's cash to the bankers. And paying for it with a debt that we'll end up paying for forever in tax and VAT.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/01/greece-london-scotland-and-europe/

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[from: Google+ Posts]

So farewell then, Edgar Froese,
http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.com/2015/01/interview-with-edgar-froese-rip.html

I used to love your analogue synthesiser noodlings with Tangerine Dream and found them strangely hypnotic. But my Mother-in-law complained that the bleepy repetition gave her a headache.

It's Kosmische, Motherf*cker.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Another good reason to avoid Nuclear power. It's centralised, needs centralised control and centralised military protection.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-20/paris-terror-spurs-plan-for-military-zones-around-nuclear-plants.html 

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Think Bigger!

in <134> "It seems to me that the Chinese are the ones who still get it about legitimating a government with concerted, focussed efforts of mega-engineering."

To add further substance to that point, here's two recent articles on Chinese megaprojects:

108 Chinese Infrastructure Projects That Are Reshaping The World
http://www.businessinsider.com/108-giant-chinese-infrastructure-projects-that-are-reshaping-the-world-2011-12?op=1

In China, Projects to Make Great Wall Feel Small
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/business/international/in-china-projects-to-make-great-wall-feel-small-.html?_r=0

via http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/478/Bruce-Sterling-Cory-Doctorow-Jon-page06.html#post150

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[from: Google+ Posts]

A review of King Crimson live. In 2015! It makes me pleased that one of the greatest bands of the 20th century is still producing great performances. http://thequietus.com/articles/17026-king-crimson-live-at-the-orpheum-review

And then this in the comments:- For my own part, I think the really interesting part of this equation is the fact that there's clearly a compelling demand from music fans of all stripes for nostalgia as mainstream entertainment. Why do we seem to have developed a morbid inability to just let go of the past? It's like we're participating in the collective recital of a Really Important Dream, lest its details slip away...

"The collective recital of an important dream, lest its details slip away" This. I've recently been listening to FourTet/Floating points 6hr set and then dipping into Caribou's 1000 track playlist. And in both I was struck by their reverence for the late 60s and early 70s mainly in the form of barely remembered soul and funk. Do we have to keep deliberately remembering this to avoid forgetting it? Or is this turning into some tribal memory kept alive by the elders repeating it to each new generation.

btw. Go and listen to "Starless" and "One more red nightmare" again off King Crimson's album Red. And turn it all the way up to 11. Fair makes the hair stand up on the back of the neck. But this is the one that gets me every time. The Letters from the album Islands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2dPNF2Jt24

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Re-visiting a theme that is much on my mind, this January.
Here's William Gibson paraphrased:- In the 20th century, everyone spoke with reverence of the 21st, while here, deep into the 21st, the 22nd century never gets a look-in.

Where's the SciFi being produced now that describes short to medium term futures? Like say, 50-100 years hence. Because 2100 is only 85 years away or one (reasonably lucky) lifetime for somebody born today. It seems like there's a gap in the middle. Between 5 minutes in the future SciFi which is really about now and ages quickly getting overtaken by events. And far future space opera, which requires an alternate physics to make it work. The middle ground is about both imagining realistic futures but also creating narratives that help to explain where we're going. I'm convinced we need this to counter the endless dystopianism. How are we going to fix pervasive economic injustice, catastrophic climate change, rampant sexism (manifest by white guys holding forth etc.), media conglomeration, network interference, terrorism, etc.? Just describing all that is not enough. We need people to imagine some solutions. 

Bruce Sterling's call to arms. Write more about the 22nd Century #22C
http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/478/Bruce-Sterling-Cory-Doctorow-Jon-page01.html#post8

Neal Stephenson's Call to arms. We need more optimistic SciFi to counter the dystopianism.
http://hieroglyph.asu.edu/book/hieroglyph/

Kevin Kelly's Call to arms. A request for 100-word descriptions of a plausible technological future in 100 years that he would like to live in.
https://medium.com/message/a-desirable-future-haiku-ff01d63c93c6

Stewart Brand's call to arms. Try and imagine a 10,000 year future for mankind.
http://longnow.org/

Jem Finer's call to arms. A 1000 year long song to listen to while it plays out. Longplayer has now been playing for 15 years 013 days 20 hours 16 minutes and 27 seconds (as I write).?
http://longplayer.org/

Meanwhile this is just so last century. King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man (BBC Sessions - 1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4eRpwRJgzk
http://www.lyricsfreak.com/k/king+crimson/21st+century+schizoid+man_20078587.html
Fripp & Sinfield (& the others) were talking about You, Now.

And here's a shallow look at how 2015 was perceived by historical SciFi
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-the-year-2015-is-depicted-in-science-fiction

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Assorted music irritations

Yet another music limit that's getting in the way. Google's Play Music has a 20k song restriction on uploaded music. This has a side effect on Chromebooks, tablets and phones. Since they don't really understand local storage and especially local network storage, you're expected to store everything in the cloud. Except the cloud isn't big enough! Even within the 20k limit, actually managing and dealing with a 20k track library is hard with the UI provided. For instance you can delete/remove tracks and albums but not artists. Meanwhile the upload "Music Manager" program is still fairly brain dead and still doesn't understand .pls or .m3u playlist files.

The next problem is that DNLA compatible media servers and clients are universally horrible. It's the kind of thing that gets built into "Smart" TVs and home NAS. So why does Buffalo's NAS fail to index all the files? VLC locks up when trying to display them. The "smart" TV just gives you a huge long list of tracks instead of any kind of Artist or Album display. MS Windows Media Player fails to actually provide any kind of list when acting as a server and is just as useless at working as a client as all the rest. Just about the only bit of "Smart" in the TV I actually liked was the Youtube app.

Another year has gone by and Winamp still survives but there's been no developments, bugfixes or updates while the new owners try and work out the various licensing issues. It still works pretty well but runs out of steam somewhere around 50k tracks. Several people I know have given up and just use VLC with a sensible directory structure. The remaining problem is searching on track metadata rather than just filenames and directories. For actual desktop programs with library management I've yet to find anything as good as or better than winamp. 4 synced window panes for Artist, Album, Track, Playlist, just kind of works. And just kind of works better than tree or any of the other approaches like drilling down into a folder structure. VLC may be good for playing media, but it sucks for managing a library. As for Itunes, it's still horrible on Windows. Maybe it's better on OSX but I wonder. 

One tip for using Youtube. Open one tab to play your "Watch Later" playlist. Then use other tabs to find and cue up more music. Click the "Watch Later" icon on each and they'll get added to the end of the main playlist. It kind of works. And see above about the Youtube TV App.
[from: Google+ Posts]

This post got deleted by the mods in the SciFi community. Hard to tell exactly why. Anyway, it's quite a tasty little short story from one of my favourite authors.

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One side effect of the nowt protocols is suppression of Saccadic Masking in the visual processing functions of the brain. This makes them more aware than the rest of us of the 50/60 HZ flicker of LED and energy saving fluorescent light bulbs. In extreme cases the simple act of walking through a new housing development at night can produce petit mal epilepsis unless the nowt is careful to avoid sliding their gaze across the typical fake tudorbethan door lights.

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This is why I read Bruce Sterling. He points me at stuff like this.
http://stratechery.com/2015/xiaomis-ambition/

via http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/478/Bruce-Sterling-Cory-Doctorow-Jon-page03.html

What is certain, though, is that Xiaomi isn’t going to the West anytime soon. Not only would the licensing fees be prohibitive,6 but the West already has fully furnished houses and powerhouse brands. The opportunity is simply so much greater elsewhere. It’s absolutely the truth that a company can be worth $45 billion - and, in the long run, probably a lot more - without ever targeting the United States or Western Europe.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

It's time for the +Bruce Sterling  vs +Jon Lebkowsky  vs +Cory Doctorow  "State Of The World 2015".

It's on The Well so you can't really participate if you're not a Well subscriber except via moderated email. This seems curiously old fashioned in 2015. It may be good for moderation and noise control but feels like a conference with worthies up on the stage talking to themselves while a cast of thousands look on. You can't even heckle! So maybe we should start a reddit or a G+ community or something to have the meta discussion of just how full of bullshit or truthiness they are being.

This year I'm going to try really hard to bite my tongue as Bruce's usually inciteful glocal comments about the world get diverted into yet another discussion about the USA. That lasted about as long as it took to get to Jon's opening paragraphs. Oh well. The view from Austin or Silicon Valley is interesting but we get to do that all the time. I was hoping for more of a global perspective. It being "State of the * World *", and all.

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Bruce has a phrase he uses often about the near future as seen from 2015. "old people in big cities afraid of the sky." I'm curious about this. I suspect that the global average age of people in cities is nearer 20 than 70. Perhaps it should be "old people afraid of young people in big cities who are afraid of the sky". I'm picturing Sao Paolo, Shanghai, Mumbai here not Tokyo, Prague, Chicago.

----

I think we need to marinate on this next bit for a while as well. It fits right in with thoughts about 2030 no longer being the far future; 2050 being on our door step; and as an antidote to Post-Millenial-Tension. Seriously, let's look forward to 2100 not back to 1967.


But speaking of the influence of William Gibson, he said something very striking last year; that in the 20th century, everyone spoke with reverence of the 21st, while here, deep into the 21st, the 22nd century never gets a look-in.  Of course he's right, but this problem seems like honest work to me.  A child born in 2015 will be 85 in the Twenty-Second Century: it's within the reach of a normal, average human life span.

So, the 22nd Century: I'm determined to make it our friend.  I've resolved to talk more and more about it.  Let it be the buzzword, let it become the watchword. The 22nd Century, the #22C : whatever the hell it is, it's getting closer every day.

http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/478/Bruce-Sterling-Cory-Doctorow-Jon-page01.html

Bonus link: 2014, Hottest Year Evah! http://www.climatecentral.org/news/record-2014-hottest-year-18502

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[from: Google+ Posts]

So did you feel a little light headed and a little lighter on your feet at precisely 9:47 UTC[1] this morning? I know I did.

http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/zerogday.asp

ps. There is no gravity; It's just that the Earth sucks. In your heart, you know it's flat.

[1]The tweet got it wrong. It's UTC, not PST.

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When are China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the USA going to join the civilised world, stop doing State-sanctioned, judicial executions and consign the death penalty to history? It's 2015 people, grow up!

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-09-25/chief-executioner-officers-mapping-dealth-penalty-world

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[from: Google+ Posts]