Ramblings of a Technology Addict

Monday, February 24, 2003

When it hits close to home.

A few weeks ago, an international "peace" group decided that if they took willing Americans into Baghdad, they could use themselves as human shields against this war. I think that could be the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. First of all, it misunderstands the intent of the actions of the United States. We have nothing against the Iraqi people, the problem we have is with their "leader", a self-proclaimed despot who came to power in a coup, not a democratic election. And apparently, someone my brother graduated high school with is going to be a human shield.
Let me be clear: This will not be a war against the Iraqi people. We will not aim for civilians. We will not aim at civilian targets. We want one thing: the disarmament of Saddam Hussein as specified by UN Resolution 1441.
I vacillate between being sad for this boy, who clearly understands not what he's doing, and stupefied because he's obviously pulling a little bit of Natural Self-Selection here. Getting put in a hospital or an orphanage? Come now, do you think those are likely targets? Nope. He's more likely to be placed at a power plant, or a palace, or a military base.
I feel for the guy. Well. Not really.
4:27:13 PM comment []

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

So, this weekend being what it was, I did a lot of reading. I finished my reread of Iain Banks' Look To Windward as well as a cover to cover read of Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Both were enjoyable. I'm going to skip over the Banks and head straight into Down and Out for a bit. This book became deeply personal. It cuts right to the core on anyone who's ever lost a political battle. Not just democratic elections, but those who've fought power struggles for control of organizations, committees, and such. It's also about what drives people: other people and how they see you. This book paints a picture, much like Kim Stanley Robinson did in Pacific Edge, of a Utopian society that's got problems much like we do now. Except that the problems in this book are based in technology and the difference between nostalgia and experience. It covers the "just because you can doesn't mean you should" part of technology.
Doctorow's Julius, both hero and antihero, is a character I struggled with a lot, seeing both part of myself in him, and his struggles. We all work hard for causes we believe in. We struggle in difficult geo-political and socio-political atmosphere. These causes, these efforts, help us find meaning in our own lives. Magic Kingdom adds another quirk to the whole thing: how you are seen by others is the only form of currency. In a post-scarcity, post-death existence, the idea of money is long dead. Instead, you've got "Whuffie", which serves as both service system and respect indicator. If your Whuffie score is high, you are both rich and powerful. If your Whuffie score is low, you are powerless and poor. Worse yet, your Whuffie score is public, people can pull up your Whuffie score on the fly and see that you are either someone of decent respectability, or see that you truly are a jackass.
The concept of your societal status, not to mention your service level, being determined by a group of human beings is a bit scary to me. People can be way too capricious in their treatment of others, and while that can be both good and bad, this is one place where the destructiveness of a group of determined teenagers could do serious damage without much recourse. But this is fiction, however, and Doctorow does it quite well.
I won't reveal much of the plot, it's best experienced in the first person, and not retold. His Disneyworld is incredibly interesting, as it reminds me much of my own hometown's political system. Every is working together, yet somehow the competition between individuals begins to overpower the good of the community. People manipulating each other for the end results they desire, this is so familiar to me.
But the real overarching theme of this book is Wired vs. Unwired. Should we wire everything because we can? Or should we be more selective? The battle between bleeding edge technology (in our current case, Blogs, Moblogging, Smart Mobs, cloning, etc) and older tech is one that we see fought out every day. As we push for new technology as a society, there will always be the early adopters and there will always be the slow pokes. Pushing for technology that changes who we are and how we experience things is not easy. People are comfortable in their lives now. People are happy now. But yet, we deal with evolutionary change well. 20 years ago, computers were things that universities had. Now they are frameworks and tools we can't live without. This was not an overnight change.
The future we see in Down and Out is far from traditionally Utopian, I see it as just as broken as our current society. It's almost more depressing. Instead of a money-based classism, it's almost worse, it's justifiable classism based on your Whuffie. Human beings thrive on community, we are social animals. That being said, it's difficult to imagine that it's easy to get your Whuffie back once you've hit bottom.
Overall, this is a fantastic book, great characters, a well-written story. My hat is tipped to Cory, who's done one helluva job here. Thanks Cory!
7:35:32 AM comment []