Bruce Sterling says: Marry the UN and the Net 343
An anonymous reader writes "SF writer Bruce Sterling is guest-posting on the global-eco-tech blog Worldchanging today and thinks we ought to marry the Internet and the United Nations. 'The UN has cumbersome rules, no popular participation, and can't get anything useful done about the darkly rising tide of stateless terror and military adventurism. The UN was invented to "unite nations" rather than people. The Internet unites people, but it's politically illegitimate. Vigilante lawfare outfits like RIAA and MPAA can torment users and ISPs at will. The dominant OS is a hole-riddled monopoly. Its business models collapsed in a welter of stock-kiting corruption. The Net is a lawless mess of cross-border spam and fraud. Logically, there ought to be some inventive way to cross-breed the grass-rootsy cheapness, energy and immediacy of the Net with the magisterial though cumbersome, crotchety, crooked and opaque United Nations.' It's obviously part tongue in cheek, but it does make you think."
Cats and dogs (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Without the ICC, this won't work (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently the ICC so evil that one extreme just isn't enough for it, it needs both.
Re:The UN is Evil (Score:5, Funny)
Too late. Your IP has been tracked and the CIA will be by shortly to assist your enrollment in a 're-education' program. You'll be wearing Nikes, bopping to Britney Spears, and taping Survivor in no time.
Don't worry, you'll still be allowed choices. Specifically "Coke or Pepsi" and "Doritos, Doritos Extreme and Lo-Carb Mega Doritos Extreme".
Re:The UN can't do anything unless you want it... (Score:3, Funny)
Be prudent, you risk to infuriate all american slashdot readers.
Oh boy oh boy... (Score:3, Funny)
Getting married with her sure sounds exciting!
**Maybe I can have flings with PCs and Macs when the net is busy transiting to IPV6 too!
Re:Without the ICC, this won't work (Score:4, Funny)
1. After reading the article, the closest thing I could find to an actual point is the suggestion that UN "sherpas" could be more effective and populist by doing some of their work online. I wouldn't exactly call that a "marriage" of the UN and the internet, it's more like adding modern technology to internal UN processes.
2. "sherpas"? Seriously, that nutcase is calling mid and low level diplomats "sherpas". here's a place with real sherpas. [shangrilatrek.com] And they're already online. OH SMACK, UN bitches, you just got an information technology beatdown from a bunch of professional hikers in the Himalayas. UN IT department gets "served" by a pack of llamas!
3. You'll notice I called the article guy a nutcase in #2. Well, he calls himself "Bruce Sterling, Worldchanging Ally#1 [worldchanging.com]" What is he, some kind of super hero? Does he hang out at the World Changing Headquarters in spandex with Captain Planet, sidekick Democracy Boy, and Womens' Rights Woman? Check out what he's standing in front of in his picture: read about all their stunning adventures in this month's edition of Amazing Stories--featuring the fearsome Ghost of Mars!!!
But just click on the "Worldchanging Ally#1 link in the article. You'll see the home of the Viridian Curia, a secretive mailing list of the world's most powerful superheroes. They apparently trade links to modern art reviews, and make comments like "(((Christmas is coming. Are you Viridian? Go buy something "Tech Nouveau" and flaunt it! Give it to your best friends! Go consume it, for heaven's sake! Waste not an hour.)))"
Yes, they surround everything in triple parentheses. They don't even match parentheses between lines. That's sooo TECH NOUVEAU, omg omg.
But it gets better. Follow the link in Viridian Curia (viridian curia???) site to worldchanging.com. Down the page you'll see lots of fun superhero plotting against evil, like this review of a book reminiscing about their greatest battles against the evil Globalization Cabal of Ultimate Doom [worldchanging.com]. It includes a comment by the famous Dr. Menlo himself, to his site www.corpse.org. Exquisite Corpse [corpse.org] (yes they actually call it that!) is a site mascotted by a pair of dancing multicolored day-glo skeletons and secret communiqes from the great Doctor Menlo himself describing the Battle in Seattle. booyah!
4. wow that was some good shit. but getting back on topic here, let's look at the one crazed article slashdot did link to. Last paragraph-the #1 Worldchanging ally lays the smackdown with his name-dropping superpowers! Actual quote: "bigger than the self-appointed Davos Forum, faster and smarter than the Porto Alegre contingent, less cranky than the Soros initiatives, less creepy than Bilderberg, more potent than MoveOn, and faster-spreading than Napster." Well, I've heard of Napster and Soros. So maybe name-dropping isn't his most awesome power. But he sure is into this superhero stuff!
5. And, as befitting his #1 status, Mr. Worldchanging unleashes a KAPOW! on his rivals with the bold statement "The Malaysian Super Corridor tries hard to look really Super." Dizzamn yo, when the Malaysians' translator gets back from his coffee break there's gonna be an earth-shattering epic gladiatorial tableaux in the inimitable Stan Lee style!!
6. ???
7. Profit!
8. But don't fret, you mere mortals who don't have Worldchanging Ally-class superpowers! from the article: "Here Kofi Annan offers you a personal invitation [wsis-online.net] to log right on to the dizzy apex of global policy-making." Yes, much like the decoder ring in your ceral box or the mutant sea monkeys purchasable via mail order from the back of your fine comic book, YOU TOO can fight e