We can do better

What Bruce Sterling Actually Said About Web 2.0 at Webstock 09 | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com
But you know, I’m not scared by any of this. I regret the suffering, I know it’s big trouble — but it promises massive change and a massive change was inevitable. The way we ran the world was wrong.

I’ve never seen so much panic around me, but panic is the last thing on my mind. My mood is eager impatience. I want to see our best, most creative, best-intentioned people in world society directly attacking our worst problems. I’m bored with the deceit. I’m tired of obscurantism and cover-ups. I’m disgusted with cynical spin and the culture war for profit. I’m up to here with phony baloney market fundamentalism. I despise a prostituted society where we put a dollar sign in front of our eyes so we could run straight into the ditch.

The cure for panic is action. Coherent action is great; for a scatterbrained web society, that may be a bit much to ask. Well, any action is better than whining. We can do better.

Inspiring, I think. Works better for me than this collection of 40 inspirational speeches.

Our Panarchic Future

Ran into a friend of mine yesterday and he showed me an article in a magazine called World Watch. Very interesting read. After studying the ecology of forests for decades the interviewee is applying some of the knowledge gained to civilization.

Our Panarchic Future | Worldwatch Institute
A theory that explains the evolution of ecosystems may apply to civilizations as well-and it says we’re approaching a critical phase.