4 ms·

>Somebody has to step up and lead us through this transition—rally us and help us all benefit from the great inventions of our time. It seems here that the aut

>Somebody has to step up and lead us through this transition—rally us and help us all benefit from the great inventions of our time. It seems here that the author is calling for some sort of Napoleonic figurehead to lead the way into the electric age and does not realize the meaning of "the medium is the message". Paper-based, literate societies naturally form centralized hierarchies because that is the nature of the paper and printing press technologies. It is a one way flow of centrally controlled information where the end user has highly limited feedback to the source and so this is how rigid bureaucratic hierarchies were formed in the Roman, British, and French empires. They kept mountains of papyrus, parchment, or paper-based documentation in order to manage their militaries and colonies. The electric medium is the opposite of that in many ways. Electricity is distributed (as opposed to centralized) and allows for feedback. So naturally, electric societies form distributed, flat hierarchies -- like that of many non-literate nomadic tribal cultures. There is no use for the Napoleonic figurehead in the electric age. This tribal design is implemented by terrorist organizations whose most effective tools use the electric medium (i.e. cell phones, remote IEDs, and of course the insatiable coverage they receive on television).

ddw 11y ago
I agree with this, but I read that line as meaning that there needs to be a politician that can communicate a technology focused long-term view of the economy. All of the US candidates are using social media effectively to communicate their message, but none of them actually understand technology (witness how they talk about encryption). It would be good to have a politician that could talk about the vision of where the economy is truly going. Sanders' projects that he's telling "the truth" but his vision of rolling back the economy to the good old days is naive. But it's not surprising that a 74 year-old would lean that way. None of this should be surprising because the main way that politicians use technology is to target their voters.

ddw 11y ago

I agree with this, but I read that line as meaning that there needs to be a politician that can communicate a technology focused long-term view of the economy. All of the US candidates are using social media effectively to communicate their message, but none of them actually understand technology (witness how they talk about encryption). It would be good to have a politician that could talk about the vision of where the economy is truly going. Sanders' projects that he's telling "the truth" but his vision of rolling back the economy to the good old days is naive. But it's not surprising that a 74 year-old would lean that way. None of this should be surprising because the main way that politicians use technology is to target their voters.