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Just a little more to the left. A liiiittle more …
You may have heard of Thomas P. Barnett; he’s a foreign-affairs wonk whose influential latest book is The Pentagon’s New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century. He once worked for Donald Rumsfeld, yet is a lifelong Democrat who briefed John Kerry on his foreign policy during the last election. Barnett has an interestingly geeky way of describing politics. He calls the American style of government the “source code” for democracy; he argues that democratic countries need to form an armed deployment that will operate as the “SysAdmin force” to help negotiate peace and trade worldwide.
Perhaps because he’s so tech-savvy, Barnett recently agreed to a really unusual public event: He appeared as an avatar in the online game-world Second Life, and conducted a speech and Q&A session on his ideas. Avatars logged in from all over the world, including France, Britain, and China — many of whom hurled catcalls at him and threw tough questions. Wagner James Au, Second Life’s official in-game journalist, hosted the event — as his avatar Hamlet Linden — and he’s blogged the transcript. Here’s a sample moment from the Q&A:
HL: OK, this one from Hank Hoodoo. “What, if anything, should the SysAdmins in Iraq be doing differently right now?”
TB: Not a whole lot, given the reality that we didn’t have the numbers or the spread of “civilizations” that we should have had at the start. Most of the mistakes we could have prevented way back when by doing the SysAdmin right are now past that… particular fix.
Hank Hoodoo [from the audience]: Yes, that was what I was afraid you’d say.
My favorite part is at the end, when Barnett’s kids arrive home and begin distracting him (“…in my face like you wouldn’t believe!”) and his paragraphs become shorter and shorter until he’s almost typing in point form. This stuff couldn’t be more Snowcrashian if it tried. I love it.
I'm Clive Thompson, a writer on science, technology, and culture. This blog collects bits of offbeat research I'm running into, and musings thereon.
Currently, I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. I also write for Fast Company and Wired magazine's web site, among other places. Email or AOL IM me (pomeranian99) to say hi or send in something strange!
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» visit the Collision Detection archives
September 26, 2008 » 01:57 PM
From an interview with ethnobotanist and anthropologist Wade Davis:
One of the cultures you celebrate in Light at the Edge of the World is the Inuit. What do you most admire about them?
Davis: The Inuit didn’t fear the cold; they took advantage of it. During the 1950s the Canadian government forced the Inuit into settlements. A family from Arctic Bay told me this fantastic story of their grandfather who refused to go. The family, fearful for his life, took away all of his tools and all of his implements, thinking that would force him into the settlement. But instead, he just slipped out of an igloo on a cold Arctic night, pulled down his caribou and sealskin trousers, and defecated into his hand. As the feces began to freeze, he shaped it into the form of an implement. And when the blade started to take shape, he put a spray of saliva along the leading edge to sharpen it. That’s when what they call the “shit knife” took form. He used it to butcher a dog. Skinned the dog with it. Improvised a sled with the dog’s rib cage, and then, using the skin, he harnessed up an adjacent living dog. He put the shit knife in his belt and disappeared into the night.
September 25, 2008 » 11:21 AM
“Video from a camp north of Toronto in December 2005 shows a car spinning around in a nearby, snow-covered parking lot. Prosecutors characterized that as special driver training but the defense, and many outsiders, said it was nothing more than “cutting doughnuts,” a favorite winter pastime of young Canadian motorists.” - A key piece of evidence submitted in the trial of a gang of alleged young Canadian terrorists.
September 24, 2008 » 11:21 PM
“Life imitates art imitating life: just thought a gnat crawling across my monitor was part of a Flash-based ad. I clicked it.” - A Tweet from Bill Braine.
September 24, 2008 » 02:37 PM
“Funniest FB friend request ever: “Twitter friend hoping to get to second base (Facebook!) ;-).”” - A recent Tweet by Pistachio
September 24, 2008 » 12:28 PM
Chinese powdered-milk crisis creates a new market: The return of the wet nurse
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