It Seems There is a Major Disconnect Between Cyber
(the Development of Thinking Around Computer-related Matters)
and the World
(the Use of Computers to Help Design and Build Macro Systems)
In a cyber-world with no split
there would be cyber attention
paid to how to actually build a car-free city
Or how to create an economy
that would pay everyone something -
say more than a dollar or two a day
But when it comes to vision for the macro world
we experience not application but robbery
I can only assume that
like the pell-mell rush to gadgets
this is a Toynbean retreat from challenge
a passive acceptance of the world as it is
or simply an assumption that
anything that was relevant to the macro world
would not really be relevant
unless it was strained
through the esoteric linguistic approaches
one finds in cyber-parsings.
An example is the term ontology
This is a beautiful term with a serious history
But in pursuing it on the web
I found its place had been taken by some high-falutin' cyber group
that is concerned with monetizing the term
Monetizing ontology
When I clicked through
to read some of their ontological reflections
I was led to the opportunity to buy an article for $27
The result is that the application of cyber
to the wider world
is likely to be shorn of any of the thought process
that would enable us to actually plan -
as Prince Charles and other sane individuals might wish us to plan -
with an eye to using our new capacities to benefit individuals.
Specifically to move beyond oil and cars
as the self-evidents of a dismal sprawl future.
Because of Google's selectivity
a generalist protest from an unconnected individual
is not destined for much readership
But I would hope that a stubborn resistance
to the appropriation of pattern language and ontology
by the computer glitterati would at least raise questions
