Tech pronouncement: “The Net is net beneficial.” Historian Niall Ferguson: “Globalization is in crisis. Populism is on the march. Authoritarian states are ascendant. Technology meanwhile marches inexorably ahead, threatening to render most human beings redundant or immortal or both. How do we make sense of all this?”
Ferguson analyzes the structure and prospects of “Cyberia” as yet another round in the endless battle between hierarchy and networks that has wrought spasms of innovation and chaos throughout history. He examines those previous rounds (including all that was set in motion by the printing press) in light of the current paradoxes of radical networking run by massive hierarchical companies (Facebook, Amazon, Google, Twitter, and their equivalents in China) and exploited by populists and authoritarians around the world. He puts the fundamental question this way: “Is our age likely to repeat the experience of the period after 1500, when the printing revolution unleashed wave after wave of revolution? Will the new networks liberate us from the shackles of the administrative state as the revolutionary networks of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries freed our ancestors from the shackles of spiritual and temporal hierarchy? Or will the established hierarchies of our time succeed more quickly than their imperial predecessors in co-opting the networks, and enlist them in their ancient vice of waging war?” Niall Ferguson is currently a senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and visiting professor at the New College of the Humanities. His books include The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook (2018); Civilization: The West and the Rest (2012); and The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (2009). "Networks and Power," Niall Ferguson, SFJAZZ Center, Hayes Valley, San Francisco, 7pm, Monday November 19. The show starts promptly at 7:30pm. To be sure of a seat: • Long Now Members <https://longnow.org/membership/> can use the discount code on the Ferguson Seminar page to reserve 2 free seats <http://longnow.org/seminars/02018/nov/19/networks-and-power/>. • You can purchase tickets for $25 each <http://longnow.org/seminars/02018/nov/19/networks-and-power/>. • Seminar at SFJAZZ Center <http://www.sfjazz.org/visit/directions> 201 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102 • Tune into the live stream <http://longnow.org/live/> for Long Now Members at 7:30 PT - become a member <https://longnow.org/membership/> for just $8 a month. Share this talk: Niall Ferguson, "Networks and Power" Long Now talk on 11/19 https://goo.gl/h8DyWq <https://goo.gl/h8DyWq> Talks coming up: December 4 & 5 - Rick Prelinger, Lost Landscapes of San Francisco, 13 <http://longnow.org/seminars/02018/dec/04/lost-landscapes-san-francisco-13/> January 14 - Martin Rees, Prospects for Humanity March 13 - Chip Conley, The Modern Elder and the Intergenerational Workplace <http://longnow.org/seminars/02019/mar/13/modern-elder-and-intergenerational-workplace/> April 2 - Jeff Goodell, The Water Will Come <http://longnow.org/seminars/02019/apr/02/water-will-come/> High-quality videos of the talks and other benefits (such as priority tickets) are available to Long Now members. Membership, which starts at $8/month ($96/year), helps support the series and other Long Now projects. Joinable here <https://longnow.org/membership/>. This is one of a monthly series of Seminars About Long-term Thinking (SALT) organized by The Long Now Foundation. Free audio and my summaries of all previous talks are available for download here <http://longnow.org/seminars/> (or stay up to date with the podcast here <http://longnow.org/seminars/podcast/>). You'll find a range of long-term thinking items on our Blog <http://blog.longnow.org/> (RSS <http://feeds.feedburner.com/longnow>). If you would like to be notified by email (like this one) of forthcoming talks, go here <http://list.longnow.org/mailman/listinfo/salt> to sign up online. Any questions, contact Danielle Engelman at Long Now -- 415-561-6582 x1 <tel:415-561-6582%20x1> or danie...@longnow.org <mailto:danie...@longnow.org>. You are welcome to forward this note to anyone you think might be interested. --Stewart Brand s...@longnow.org ---- The Long Now Foundation -- http://longnow.org/ <http://longnow.org/> Seminars & downloads -- http://longnow.org/seminars/ <http://longnow.org/seminars/> Interval Events -- http://theinterval.org/events/ <http://theinterval.org/events/> •Twitter <https://twitter.com/longnow> - up to the minute info on tickets and events •Long Now Blog <http://blog.longnow.org/> - daily updates on events and ideas •Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/longnow> - stay in touch through our fan page
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