Comments on: Bruce Sterling on the State of the World

Bruce Sterling on the State of the World

blue_beetle — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:59:03 -0800

Bruce Sterling : The State of the World (mp3) from the South By South West Media Conference. (SXSW)

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:00:41 -0800

I wasn't going to post this, but I was captivated by some of his opinions, even if I don't agree with them all. Worth thinking about.

By: Afroblanco

Afroblanco — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:03:49 -0800

Transcript?

By: UrineSoakedRube

UrineSoakedRube — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:08:28 -0800

Bruce usually posts transcripts (you may have to wait a few days) at www.viridiandesign.org.

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:09:30 -0800

Sorry, no transcript that I could find. For those that don't know Bruce Sterling, he's a SciFi writer and "visionary in residence". The SXSW website describes his presentation as [his vision of global drama and the human condition, circa 2006].

By: mischief

mischief — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:12:40 -0800

I hope he's a better speaker than he is a writer.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:15:07 -0800

He's an awesome speaker, give it a listen. I haven't heard this year's yet, but the last five years of his rants/talks at SXSW have been incredible.

By: mischief

mischief — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:21:25 -0800

I'd like to but I'm on dialup.

By: JeremyT

JeremyT — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:25:54 -0800

Metafilter: your favorite anything sucks.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:39:30 -0800

Bruce sounds like he's been drinking his own cool aid. Not that he doesn't have some points but he's a bit too emphatic.

By: Western Infidels

Western Infidels — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:42:54 -0800

I hope he's a better speaker than he is a writer. I think his novels are really terrible, but I mostly like his short stories and non-fiction columns and essays. I can't think of another writer who seems so differently-capable when writing in a different form.

By: mischief

mischief — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:04:23 -0800

I read four of his novels, three were middling but the worst by far was his newest, Zenith Angle. Ugh.

By: matteo

matteo — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:06:40 -0800

Metafilter: your favorite anything sucks. *flags as "excellent" comment, expects own comment to be flagged as "against the guidelines", deleted*

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:09:33 -0800

Really? I genuinely enjoy his novels... thought Zeitgeist was amazing.

By: lodurr

lodurr — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:18:52 -0800

Sterling's recent (say, past 10 years) novels are mediocre as novels, but generally great as exercises in idea-farming. And as a speaker, he's just funny as hell and a little disturbing, all at once, which is usually a good thing.

By: ijoshua

ijoshua — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:28:20 -0800

Best quote from Sterling’s speech: “Make no decision out of fear.” [Best quote overhead at SXSW: “Not to pimp my own kool-aid or anything…”]

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:54:54 -0800

Bruce is a great guy. I've chatted with him in person several times and he is an engaging, charming curmudgeon with a real brain that seems excised of the irritating hermit-egos most writers seem to develop. I though Distraction was a good novel, perhaps not as "literature" but the plot was smart and prescient, the story was entertaining and funny. What else to say.... hmmm... oh, Suck it Haters!

By: darkpony

darkpony — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:30:23 -0800

who can hate on the author of the shaper/mech stories and Schismatrix? no one can. that's who!

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:35:19 -0800

His short stories and non-fiction rock. Zeitgeist, Distraction, Hevay Weather and Holy Fire are all amazing. Schismatrix is a product of it's time. Zenith Angle... just didn't work. There were some moments In there I really dug, and points of identification with a character whos lived through those years in technology, but it didn't gel, and most of all seemed like he was just channeling his own blog. Still... high hopes. He's alot more interetsing than Bill Gibson is these days.

By: darkpony

darkpony — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:55:53 -0800

'product of it's time'? if everything written in Schismatrix does not come true by the year 2075 i will eat my nanofiber hat with my cybernetic masticatrix.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:44:24 -0800

Does that include making contact with capitalist lizards, darkpony?

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:46:24 -0800

Thanks for posting this. I would have missed it otherwise. When he's not channeling Allen Ginsberg, he's tossing brain-bombs. The speech was a little uneven. I've read about the middle part before ... the spime part ... and it wasn't half as interesting as his commentary on society. I'm not sure what's so great about not having to care about where your keys are or where you took off your shoes. My life is not so complex that my pants need to have a url. Or maybe I'm missing the point.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:50:47 -0800

(by the way, here are more podcasts of some of the panels and presentations from the SXSW Interactive 2006.)

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:52:40 -0800

The stuff about what Americans look like form the outside is spot on.

By: darkpony

darkpony — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:59:20 -0800

"Does that include making contact with capitalist lizards" reptilian capitalists? without a doubt. probably the least far-fetched idea in the book.

By: chasing

chasing — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:06:49 -0800

My notes for the talk are here, if you're interested. They're pretty detailed, but definitely not a complete transcript.

By: AaronRaphael

AaronRaphael — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:12:02 -0800

Don't miss the idiotic, poorly described "Spimes".. blech.

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:44:08 -0800

Yeah, the Spimes stuff is definately less interetsing than, say, the weirdness of living in Belgrade. The Web 2.0 stuff is a bit sales-guy-esque as well.

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:47:48 -0800

Are those "podcasts" available as mp3s i could just download?

By: ernie

ernie — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:55:38 -0800

My life is not so complex that my pants need to have a url. Crunchland, I wish I could say the same. *resumes pantquest*

By: thedaniel

thedaniel — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 00:00:03 -0800

My notes on the speech

By: theonetruebix

theonetruebix — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 01:32:06 -0800

More importantly, he let me and a friend (who he later described on The WELL as something like "a couple of punks" or some such) crash in his house when, at the end of his CFP-related shindig in Austin, we found we had no way back to where we were staying. Not that this matters to anyone but me.

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 08:14:26 -0800

Big cry baby.

By: cali

cali — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 13:10:42 -0800

I saw him give that talk while woozy from antihistamines. It was one of the more surreal experiences of my life.