Re: <nettime> Fw: Enemies of the Future

["geert lovink" <geert@xs4all.nl>]

> Huh?  Wakeup!  This is the year 2000.

Almost over, Mark.

> The FUTURE has already arrived and it doesn't look at all like Russell
> Mokhiber and Robert Weissman would have us believe.

They warn for corporate power, that's a good thing.
A bit old fashioned task, yes, but necessary none the less.

> Hasn't anyone noticed that the NASDAQ is *DOWN* 50% overall and Barlow's
> vaunted DOT.Communism has fallen 90%+ since April, 2000?

We all read the papers, look television and click on websites, so I
suppose they are aware of this. The question should be: Has the power of
American corporations fallen with 50%? I don't think so.

> Having just returned from the Left Coast on an extended reconnaisance
> mission, I can report that Silicon Valley has actually already experienced
> the BIG ONE and that it has -- just as any competent observer predicted --
> slipped right off the edge and into the Pacific Ocean.

Is that a good or bad thing, or beyond any moral judgement? Should we
mourn or celibrate the soon to be disappeard Valley?

> C'mon, folks . . . what's nettime gonna do . . . now that there aren't any
> FAST companies to stink-bomb anymore?

Good question. I don't think that the Internet economy as such will
disappear overnight. If sniping at Wired and cracking jokes about dotcom
failures is becoming a redundant hobby, then there is perhaps more time to
focus on alternative network architectures, cultures and economies.

I hope you did not lose all your assets, Mark. And I am curious what you
thought of your 1996 prediction that Al Gore was going to become US
president, eliminate democracy and install some kind of HG Wells regime.
Zero Growth after the Long Boom? Do you look back on own your future
predictions?

Best, Geert




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