Every year, my favorite part of SXSW is Bruce Sterling’s closing rant. Sterling is a science-fiction writer, futurist, and self-described “Design Critic for things not yet made.” Every year, I hear newbies describe his performance as “disjointed.” Well, yeah: so is the reality he’s describing. Every year, he lifts the veil of exuberant long boom techno-puppy optimism to remind us, not without kindness, of current dystopic reality and warn us about what to keep an eye on as we all skip happily down the road toward tommorrowland.
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ShareLast year @bruces described himself as a design critic of things not yet made. #Sxsw #SXsterling
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ShareThe state of the world is even worse than last year… ” a horrible shameful thing to watch.” #sxsw #brucesterling
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ShareAll marketing all the time debases us. It’s really insect-like. #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareBruce Sterling At SXSW 2012: The Best Quotes
The line wound all round the 4th floor of the Austin Cnvention Center for sci-fi author/“transglobal futurist”/“American original” (accor… -
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ShareThere is no capturing in a tweet the machine-gun dystopic climate change rap that @bruces just did. #SXSterling #sxswi
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ShareImagine an army of Silvio Berlusconis that are implied by Kurzweil’s speech. Another burden on young, broke & beautiful. #brucesterling
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ShareHere we go. I WANT the Bruce Sterling Ray Kurzweil debate next year at #Sxswi Please?? #SXSterling
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“[There’s] a new phenomena that I like to call the Stacks [vertically integrated social media]. And we’ve got five of them — Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. The future of the stacks is basically to take over the internet and render it irrelevant. They’re not hostile to the internet — they’re just [looking after] their own situation. And they all think they’ll be the one Stack… and render the others irrelevant. And they’ll all be rendered irrelevant. That’s the future of the Stacks.
People like the Stacks, [because] the internet is scary now — so what’s the problem there? None of them offer any prosperity or security to their human participants, except for their shareholders. The internet has users. Stack people are livestock — ignorant of what’s going on, and moving from on stack to another. The Stacks really, really want to know you’re a dog.
They’re annihilating other media… The Lords of the Stacks. And they’re not bad guys — I’d be happy to buy them a beer. But really, a free people would not be so dependent on a Napoleonic mobile people. What if Mark Zuckerberg trips over a skateboard?
This structure won’t last very long… But you’re really core people for them and their interests. You are them. I’m them. And your kids are going to ask embarrassing questions about them. And there are voices here and there complaining about them, [like] Jonathan Franzen. He says Twitter is destroying literature. And he’s right. So don’t make fun of him. He’s telling the truth.”
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ShareThe stacks are not selling to you, they’re selling to you. They want to reduce you to dog status — easiest way to handle you. #brucesterling
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ShareThe stacks? They tower at the edge of my imagination like collossi so how could they just vanish like Nokia did in 18 months #sxsterling
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ShareYou work for them.I’m them.Your kids will ask some embarrassing questions about that, because I don’t think it’ll end pretty. #brucesterling
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ShareNone of the stacks offer any prosperity to participants, other than shareholders. #brucesterling
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ShareTidal wave of creatives moved in on the back of the Mexican earthquake b/c rents wr cheap & they dont care if they die. #sxswi #SXSterling
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ShareThe stacks are frail — when Jobs died, we were quaking. #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareI can feel the life blood draining out of other forms of expression — annihilating music, books, film, newspapers, etc. #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareStudent loans? A tax on smarts. Let me let the state & the bankers rob U while I try 2 teach U something interesting. #sxswi #SXSterling
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ShareThe future of the stacks is to take over the Internet. Not hostile to the Internet, just in favor of their own situation. #brucesterling
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ShareRT @CultureRevealed: “Love those fabricators: like easy cyberpunk, fast, fun and outta control.” #sxsw #SXsterling
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ShareWe R livestock 4 the stacks (stacks = Google,FB, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon) who feel no need 2 tell us wht the daily harvest is. #sxsterling
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ShareThe lords of the stack are not bad guys, but a free people would not be so dependent on these Napoleonic figures. #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareAll five of them will be rendered irrelevant and destroyed — that’s their actual future. #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareLife is visibly leaching out of the blog scene. #sxsterling
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ShareThe Internet had users; stack users are livestock. #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareSterling predicts the future: old people in big dirty cities afraid of the sky #sxsterling
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“I’ve seen SXSW people go by for a generation now, and there’s something different about them, and the most obvious thing about them is the way they dress. It actually indicates something deeper. There’s something semiotic, Gibsonian about people dressing better than musicians. When you showed up at SXSW X years ago, you were meeting guys in [t-shirts, jeans]… they’re still here, but mostly that’s the way your uncle looks now. Now they look put together — not like rich person, not like, ‘ook at my sable fur,’ but like new shoelaces, done hair — they look pretty nice. They’re trying to live up to their products and services, which [didn’t look nice] 20 years ago… but you [interactive people] are not anywhere near the film people — you haven’t yet eaten their industry totally the way you did with music some time ago…
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ShareU’re still not as stylish as the film ppl b/c U haven’t eaten their industry entirely the way U have the music industry. #SXSterling
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ShareEven the Maker people are remarkably chic at SXSW. Look at old photos, compare to the way you look now. #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareThere’s something semiotic and Gibsonian going on in SX attendees being dressed better than musicians. #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareYou’re sitting there with your fondle slab going “This device looks great and I look like hammered hell” SXSW Style upgrade. #SXSterling
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But there’s one thing that bothers me. Although SXSW people do look chic, it’s a rather retro look. They don’t actually look very futuristic. I would suggest, when you come back next year… come back in robotvision glitchcore. Man, you would rule the physical universe. It would be like a silent coup, people wouldn’t know what to make of it. And it would outdo the film people.”
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Share“If there was a Twitter every year, you would all explode in spontaneous combustion.” #SXSW #brucesterling
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ShareYour kids are going to ask some embarrassing questions about the stacks. Because it ain’t gonna end pretty. #sxsterling
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ShareBruce Sterling imagines future kids rifling the digital archive of R time. We looked excited. We looked engaged. Diknow how it wld end.
