Interview with Bruce Sterling 133
kpost writes "Reason magazine has an
interview
with Bruce Sterling." Fairly lengthy and entertaining interview for you bookworms out there. Covers a lot of different subjects.
An adequate bootstrap is a contradiction in terms.
Re:Would make sense to tell us who he is... (Score:5, Informative)
yech (Score:2)
On a positive note, they ended the series after the first book. Thats the same thing writers like L Ron Hubbard or Phillip Jose Farmer should have learned how to do.
Re:yech (Score:1)
Re:yech (Score:2)
I read "Virtual Light" with the distinct impression that I had read it before. Than it occured to me: oh ya, this is a poor-man's version of "Snow Crash"!!!
I could just visualize Bill sitting down at his typewriter with all the notes he took after reading it. After reading that hijacked work, I pretty much lost all respect for him. His "X-Files" episodes were pretty good, though.
I love this guy (Score:4, Interesting)
He is right to the point, it doesn't really matter what the RIAA, MPAA and their cronies do, they surely can't stop us, it might have worked in the past, but now we control the information paths and they can't do anything except scare those who haven't got access to the sources of information that we do.
I wish more people like him were in politics, that way maybe we'd be better off.
He's also one hell of a writer.
Re:I love this guy (Score:1)
Huh? He's completely dismissing your point.
Re:I love this guy (Score:1)
Re:I love this guy (Score:2)
IMHO, Sterling is a more skilled and useful visionary than he is a science fiction writer. You should be listening to what he says and probably avoiding his fiction.
Playing movies is no big deal... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I love this guy (Score:2)
I think you completely missed his point.
It doesn't really matter what the RIAA, MPAA, et al do, because changing means of producing and distributing music and movies are relatively minor advances in te
Re:Please keep him out of politics (Score:3, Insightful)
Um... you sure you're not confusing Bruce Sterling (the sci-fi/cyberpunk novelist we're talking about here) with Bruce Schneier [counterpane.com] (the guy who wrote Applied Cryptography, among other things?)
Re:Please keep him out of politics (Score:1, Insightful)
No and Yes. (Score:1, Offtopic)
Stereotypically, Reps are "in favor of economic freedom" and Dems are "in favor of personal freedom."
The fact is, both parties are opposed to both personal & economic freedom.
It just seems like you all simply jump to attack whatever position the opposing party takes, even if your own ideology agrees with it.
Bingo. If GWB changed to the Dems on Jan 21, 2001, ye
Re:Please keep him out of politics (Score:2)
Re:Please keep him out of politics (Score:2)
Let's leave aside your Bruce-confusion, and get into a totally off-topic discussion about american politics. I mean, damn, finally someone who recognizes Geo. W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, et al. as the left wing commie pinkos that they are.
Seriously, though, you need to broaden your perspective a little bit if you find the current politicians (Democrats most emphatically included) in the US (and I can only assume from the r
Re:Please keep him out of politics (Score:1)
I just find it more interesting that he thinks the idea of controlling cryptography (or any technology for that matter) is not left wing.
When the Republicans give us medicare prescription drug plans we have to wonder if there even is still a right wing outside of the ul
Re:Please keep him out of politics (Score:3, Insightful)
Ignoring the fact you've got the wrong Bruce...
You're assuming that restricting cryptography would stop them getting it. This seems to me to be an assumption without any evidence. The US didn't stop the rest of the world getting strong crypto when they tried to restrict it before, because the rest of the world also has the people who have the skills needed to devise or
Great quote... (Score:5, Funny)
I think that says it all
Re:Great quote... (Score:1)
Re:Great quote... (Score:2)
Though you could argue that a clip of some chick getting 19" of man meat shoved in every hole she owns still constitutes more plot line than several big budget movies combined...
Re:Great quote... (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Great quote... (Score:1)
They really tended to detract from those "tender" hobbit scenes! ;-D
R
Re:Great quote... (Score:1)
Re:Great quote... (Score:1, Funny)
10 inches, I swear!
Re:Great quote... (Score:2)
The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow. I hadn't recognized that pr0n is not only comparable to organized crime, drug dealing and child abuse but was also an explicit indicator of the end times. I was thought it was one of the main reasons there WAS an internet in the first place.
Re:The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (Score:2)
Don't forget about VCRs, camcorders, and the rapid advancements in simulated-flesh technology... [realdoll.com]
(ot) Great f-ing handle hehe (Score:1)
Re:The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (Score:1)
End Times or Transitions (Score:1)
Except, of course, that the decadence of Tiberius and Caligula that people point to as marking the decline of Roman morals, was over four centuries before the fall of the Western Roman Empire and over a millenia before the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire.
However, this is a good point. The Fall of Rome was a disaster at the time, but the history of China reveals the problems w
You could more easily argue that ... (Score:2)
Re:The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (Score:1, Insightful)
Not many years ago... (Score:2)
It does seem to me that this attitude has been relexed a lot the last few years, probably because the net has given most people easy access to pr0n, taking some of the mystique away.
Re:The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse (Score:2)
If porn were not "dirty" and "evil" then it would just be more office work.
If drugs (expecially pot) weren't the "dirty" and "evil" then drug dealing would take place in pharmacies where it belonged.
If both of these
Another new (ongoing) Sterling interview (Score:5, Informative)
And, don't forget Bruce's new weblog at Wired: Beyond the Beyond [wired.com].
I know it's so terribly un/. of me, but (Score:5, Interesting)
Some random snippets...
"Socially, policy makers have made a series of choices very similar to what preceded the collapse into World War I."
Huh? Like?
"we've really turned our backs on a world that could have been pleasant, delight-ful, peaceful, and technocratic. Now we face a world that is religious, narrow-minded, fundamentalist, and violent."
This is precisely the sort of vapid utopianism that begs so many questions it's meaningless. Really? How did "we" turn our backs on it Bruce?
"Sure, we hate Exxon because they're huge and they're everywhere." Personally, it seems a little L.Ron Hubbard-y to contrive a eco-social movement with designated hate subjects, if not downright Nineteenth Century. Wouldn't it be more intrinsically interesting to try to understand the reflexive envy in a society that's not all that zero-sum anymore? Doesn't Bruce feel some irony in poking at Ellison's "proper" enemies, when his own cachet cows look as stereotypically sacred as anyone elses?
I dunno. He's just got this 'end of history' thing cooking, looking for the McGuffin in a story that's just a stream-of-consciousness monologue. He keeps trying to refer to "the real story" or the very-much-italicized "truth", but I don't see how he manages it with a straight face. Maybe he's laughing all the way to the bank. I still cannot find the kernel of tangibility he seems to keep flourishing.
It's probably just me.
Re:I know it's so terribly un/. of me, but (Score:2)
However, one interesting approach his Viridians (or whatever they'd call themselves) have is simply the "you catch more flies with honey" idea: Instead of beating everyone's heads with doom and gloom environmental scenarios, why not work harder to create marketable r
Re:I know it's so terribly un/. of me, but (Score:1, Interesting)
However, there is a kernel of true insight that you seem to be missing in Sterling. There is something more to him than the 99 percent of SF which is pure pulp crap.
My advice is to just read his novels and short stories.
Re:I know it's so terribly un/. of me, but (Score:3, Interesting)
Look, the thing you need to get here is it is not particularly Sterling's job to get everything right, because the people who *are* in positions like that get frozen by the need to be responsible. When Sterling is at his best, what you get is a pyrotechnic spew
Re:I know it's so terribly un/. of me, but (Score:2)
Huh? Like?
Read something about WWI. Then the leaders of Europe weren't thinking hard about the economy but instead were spending tons of money on war equipment, which eventually the politicians were just too eager to try out, thus the pointless first world war. Sound familiar?
"we've really turned our backs on a world that could have been pleasant, delight-ful, peaceful, and technocratic. N
Re:I know it's so terribly un/. of me, but (Score:2)
No, actually maybe YOU should read something about WWI - I think you've rather misunderstood the root causes. It
Re:I know it's so terribly un/. of me, but (Score:2)
Actually, it is an excellent analogy. Every historian agrees that the build up of standing armies and the development of new technologies were a major causes of W
Re:Who? (Score:2)
But I bet you've heard of John Grisham and Micheal Critchon...
Its not that I've heard of every writer, not even the really good ones. Just don't declare yourself something unless you're prepared to back it up, and remember there's always google [google.com].
Who? Nobody. (Score:1)
All the books I cite here have been o
Re:Who? Nobody. (Score:1)
The point is you've heard of the man and have an opinion based on having read him. Our friend above belives all Sci-Fi is "not meaningful" and he bases this opinion on having read Satre, Fulkner and Hemingway
(which is not Sci-Fi for those of you irony deprived.)
Re:Who? Nobody. (Score:1)
I remember back in high school not being able to do a book report on "The Lord of the Rings" because it wasn't considered "serious" literature. Tolkien was Professor of Anglo-Saxon (Old English) at the University of Oxford. I think he knew a thing or two about literature.
Early Cyberpunk (Score:2)
Uhhh... no.
John Brunner [skypoint.com] was writing stuff like Shockwave Rider w a-a-a-a-a-a- y before either of those two.
For that matter, some of Phillip K. Dick's stuff and that of a dozen others was pretty doggone relevant back when Gibson and Sterling were still in nappies. Delany certainly is on that list of earlier folks, as is Bester.
For tone, I'ld go with Cordwainer Smith [nyrond.co.uk] or even Van Vogt [mmedia.is].
Lem? Funny as hell, smart and sharp. But I wouldn't classify him as cyberpunk.
Silly thoug
Re:Who? (Score:2)
Can I come live in Eggheadtopia with you? It must be divine.
Re:Who? (Score:2)
I've read all the people you just listed above and I happen to be re-reading Satre's Nauseau (existentialism isn't a niche?) as we speak, and there are Sci-Fi writers who meet and exceed them in talent and skill.
You can sit and pish posh about Stephenson not being serious literature, but until you read
Re:Who? (Score:1)
circa 1940: guess what guys, jazz is a niche in the industry. Most people who are into music don't know about it. Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, those are the names people know...
I have listened to Ellington, and while interesting, he's not a serious musician...
while the analogy isn't perfect, you should get the idea that you can't validate a contemporary artist by comparing them to the giants of another era...
not to mention you said 'Stephenson' instead o
Re:Who? (Score:2)
A quick glance at Amazon.com indicates he is the author of the bestsellers:
Something tells me Amazon doesn't sort their Bruce Sterlings apart...
wait a minute, who's he talkin' bout? (Score:2, Funny)
Sterling Slags Windows, Praises Mac (Score:2)
- Bruce Sterling
Source: 2004 Bruce Sterling State of the World Address [well.com]
He has Porn issues (Score:1, Troll)
The man is spewing little more than dogma and slashdotters admire this man?
Maybe its because everyone respects his obviously repressed urges to ogle massive amounts of pictures of nekkid women.
Re:He has Porn issues (Score:1)
Re:He has Porn issues (Score:3, Insightful)
No, he references the scare-mongering media's (and sometimes Justic Department's) "Four Horsemen," not his own. Plus he's being interviewed by his buddy, Mike Godwin [panix.com] (yes, Godwin's Law [wired.com] Godwin), who knows what Bruce means.
Mass customization (Score:4, Interesting)
Work up this morning from a dream in which I was framing a
Maybe the carmakers are afraid that such modular creations wouldn't have as much brand identity, that the brand would effectively be more the individual customer than the manufacturer. But why should that matter if it sells? And think about the downstream revenue - get in a fender-bender, just replace that module - less work for repair shops, more orders to the factory.
Auto-nomy (Score:2)
http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/environment
Re:Auto-nomy (Score:2)
Delete the space between "r" and "o".
Please learn how to use links (Score:2)
Click here! [gm.com]
Pegged meter (Score:1)
OUCH - my inronimeter is pegged! (and it's a Fluke digital)
The four horsemen (Score:2)
Oh man, I wish I were a cartoonist, that is too funny to pass up...
Bruce Sterling the Alter Ego of Jon Katz? (Score:3, Funny)
The question arises:
Has anyone ever seen Jon Katz and Bruce Sterling in the same room at the same time?
You, too, can interview Bruce (Score:1)
Re:You, too, can interview Bruce (Score:2)
Re:I'm Doomed :( (Score:1)
Re:I'm Doomed :( (Score:2)