J.D. Moyer

science fiction author, beatmaker, against fascism

Category: Utopian Speculations Page 6 of 10

The Rise of Ecotopia

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On May 15

In Culture Rants/Shares, Utopian Speculations

Ernest Callenbach, the author of Ecotopia, passed away on April 16th at the age of 83. I read Ecotopia in my early teens, during a family vacation in rural Oregon. Reading the worn paperback in small cabin in the woods that we had built with our own hands — the Ecotopian Pacific Coast secession fantasy seemed present and possible to my impressionable mind.

Tomdispatch.com recently published this essay forwarded from Callenbach’s publisher — his final commentary on the world as it is (and how it could and should be). In relation to my last post, Callenbach was an early/founding member of the Gaia Collective.

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What’s Holding Us Back, As a Species? (Part I – Fight for the Future)

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On April 30

In Politics, Utopian Speculations

People of planet Earth, unite.

Since the advent of the nation state in the 19th century, human beings have been collectively obsessed with comparing the relative merits of our sovereign entities. Who has the biggest navy and the fastest planes? Who has the most territory and natural resources? Who has the most modern, efficient infrastructure, the fastest broadband, and the best recycling program? Whose educational system produces the smartest workers? Who is the most free, the most happy, and the most innovative? And so on …

But what if we zoom out a few hundred miles and look at the big blue marble. How are we doing collectively, as an intelligent species/civilization?

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Disruptive Distribution – a Shareable.net Interview with Michel Bauwens and Neal Gorenflo

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On February 4

In Alternative Economics, Culture Rants/Shares, Music Business, Utopian Speculations

I met Michel Bauwens over at Marvin Brown‘s place when Michel was in town giving a talk on The Future of Peer Production. Talking with Michel (and reading some of his work) was part of the inspiration for my recent post “Watching Open Source Destroy Capitalism.” I forwarded the post to Marvin, who sent it on to Michel, which eventually resulted in the following interview with Michel and shareable.net co-founder Neal Gorenflo. The original can be found here.

Civilized comments from any point of view are welcome as always.

Michel Bauwens: You are a music entrepreneur, and reportedly doing quite well. Can you explain the basis of your success and whether you use music that can be shared, for example based on Creative Commons Licensing?

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How To Get a 1000% Return on Your Investment

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On January 23

In Culture Rants/Shares, Utopian Speculations

Multiply your money with zero risk!

Have I got an investment opportunity for you!

Sit down, relax, and pour yourself a cup of coffee. My idea might sound strange at first, but hear me out.

We’re going to make a film. A short, more accurately. It will be about one minute long. We’ll do some thirty second versions as well.

We’re going to spare no expense in making this movie. We’ll hire the cleverest, coolest director, an experienced crew, and we’ll splurge on location, talent, props, and special effects. We’ll get famous actors, athletes, and pop stars to be in it.

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Watching Open Source Destroy Capitalism

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On January 15

In Alternative Economics, Culture Rants/Shares, Music Business, Utopian Speculations

Theft, or post-capitalism?

About twenty years ago one of my college housemates, Jerry, had an idea.

“What if you could send music over the internet?”

This was the age of 2400 baud modems that made crazy high pitched noised while they tried to connect to the internet. My 20 megabyte external hard drive for my MacPlus computer had set my parents back about five hundred bucks. High quality digital audio files were about the same size as they are now (about ten megabytes per minute of audio). In other words, I couldn’t even fit a single digital audio track on my expensive hard drive — I worked exclusively in MIDI.

So I forgive myself for my lack of vision at the time. I thought Jerry’s idea was ridiculous, and I let him know. Digital audio files were way too big, bandwidth was way too narrow. It would never happen.

Jerry persisted. What if a music file could be compressed? What if bandwidth increased? He pointed out that it would change everything about the way music was distributed, maybe even the way it was made.

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