23c3: day one

[metaphorge]

Too tired to comment on these now, but here are the talks we made it to today (I'm still pretty jet-lagged, and we had to locate the power converter for the laptop, so we missed some of today's sessions):

The Grim Meathook Future:
How The Tech Culture Can Maintain Relevance In The 21st Century
-Joshua Ellis

Amongst technology pundits and futurists, it seems to be a given that "progress" in the 21st century will be driven by technological advancements -- nanotechnology, biotechnology, networking technology, etc. However, recent global trends and events suggest that the course of human destiny can just as easily be driven by religious fanatics using weapons and tactics which are hardly on the technological cutting edge.

Meanwhile, the promise of a global Internet providing equality to all is still a pipe dream; the developing world's primary interface to our networks come in the way of 419 spam and data piracy. Not to mention, of course, the fact that we're rapidly approaching the end ofcheap, freely available energy sources and the likely beginning of massive climatic change.

As a species, we could be on the verge of the utopian vision of the"Singularity"...but we might just as easily be on the verge of a Spenglerian return to a global Dark Ages; a scenario that resembles less the utopian science fictions of Hugo Gernsback and more a nightmare of feral cities and warlordism...a scenario which I refer to with a certain amount of bleak humor as the "Grim Meathook Future". Such a scenario is not apocalyptic; rather, it's a natural result ofwhat happens when the economic and technological bedrock upon which our current society relies begin to fail and anarchy and irrationalism take their place.

Against this unnerving potentiality, such current tech culture obsessions such as the blogosphere and the war against copyright seem downright frivolous. Are we become too self-obsessed, self-referential? Are we making ourselves irrelevant?

These are the questions I want to explore in this lecture. I plan to explore ways in which, by looking outward rather than inward, those of us in the technology culture and industry can work to prevent the Grim Meathook Future, and to ensure that our labor works to benefit humanity as a whole.

The talk will probably include discussion of many if not all of the following topics:

• Spengler's concept of cyclical history and the widely-heldidea that our society is in a similar position to societies like theRoman and Mayan empires, just prior to their collapse, and also some discussion of the shift in the 20th century from the idea of socia limprovement as progress to technological innovation as progress.

• Already-extant examples of the Grim Meathook Future, such as the Lord's Resistance Army in Northern Uganda, the Somalian city of Mogadishu (as an example of a "feral city"), the rise in warlordism in both the developing world and the former Soviet bloc, and the increasing rise of ad-hoc infrastructure instead of designed infrastructure (such as the growing number and entrenchment of squatter communities in major world cities, many with their own self-evolved governments and infrastructures). Also, the lessons we can learn from these events and scenarios.

• Current technological programs and initiatives which show promise in helping to direct and stabilize the massive changes which are beginning to occur globally, such as MIT's $100 laptop project, th eLifestraw project, and the search for alternative energy sources.

• Possible useful future projects and initiatives which can be undertaken by the technology culture/industry as a whole.

We Don't Trust Voting Computers:
The story of the Dutch campaign against black-box voting to date
-Rop Gonggrijp

This talk covers the Dutch campaign against unverifiable voting on computers, which is part of a growing movement world-wide to reject these computers. Successes in Ireland and (surprise) the US seem to indicate that media, law-makers and the general public are beginning to wake up.

For far too long The Netherlands have been the European capital of 'black-box style' electronic voting. It was time someone challenged Nedap, the leading manufacturer of unverifiable voting "machines" in Europe, in their own country.

The talk very briefly describes the international situation with regard to electronic Voting, with emphasis on European history and events. It then describes the Dutch campaign that was set up this year. I will talk about the results of the FOIA (IFG) requests we made, the results of our lobbying as well as highlight some of the media attention we got.

We need help: I will also try to motivate you, the listener, to become active against unverifiable e-Voting in/on your own country, bundesland, weblog, city, province, university or wherever else yo ucan.

We can win this one. And we must: either democracy destroys black-box voting or it will eventually destroy democracy.

Revenge of the Female Nerds:
Busting Myths about Why Women Can't Be Technical
-Annalee Newitz

Why do media and industry lag behind reality when it comes to estimating women's technical and scientific abilities? That women have these abilities is obvious. The question is how to change social expectations about them. What are women doing, and what can they do, to combat pervasive myths about their inferiority as engineers and scientists?

Why do media and industry lag behind reality when it comes to estimating women's technical and scientific abilities? That women have these abilities is obvious. The question is how to change social expectations about them. What are women doing, and what can they do, to combat pervasive myths about their inferiority as engineers and scientists? I have just completed a book-length project on female geeks, to be published in January, which is a collection of essays by women in a variety of male-dominated "geek" jobs -- everything from computer science and bioinformatics work, to comic book writing and videogame programming. I will present some of the findings from my book, looking at real-life examples of women fighting back against sexism in technical/science jobs. I'll also examine how women can help change the pop culture image of geeks as almost entirely male.

I particularly liked the latter two and will have a bit to say about them when I get a chance, especially the black-box voting hack job.

BTW, here's the abstract for our presentation, Culture Jamming & Discordianism: Illegal Art & Religious Bricolage, which is on Saturday. Turns out it's going to be in the large room, which has the capacity for several hundred. *gulp* ioerror, what did you get us into? ;D

A bit annoying that my bio got flubbed at the web site, but such is life.

Comments

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a culture jamming idea I had the other day...

Next time there's an Earth Day celebration, it would be great to get a group of people together, dressed up as vegetables, to hold a "Green Power" parade, intentionally reminisent of a Klan rally.

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

That would suggest lots of carrots. ;D

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

Or asparagus, perhaps...