IP: The Telecosm's Last Dream from Silicon Alley Newsletter

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

From: Tom Watson <tom () siliconalleynews com>
Subject: newsletter


Dave


Sure, you can post our stuff--we'd like you to include our url --
http://www.siliconalleynews.com -- and make sure folks know they can
subscribe for free.
Tom




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TOM WATSON -+- Editor & Publisher, @NY


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The Telecosm's Last Dream 
EDITOR'S NOTE -- For those of you who missed it, Forbes Magazine, in its
subscription-only publication Forbes ASAP, ran a huge content package this
month consisting of a string of relentless rip jobs on the culture,
cuisine, climate, and yes, new media industry East of the
Rockies--especially here in New York. (How can you defend the climate in
San Francisco if you've ever been to a baseball game at Candlestick, er,
3Com Park where outfielders literally wear wetsuits under their uniforms to
stay warm?) 


The tone shouldn't surprise anyone. Forbes has always been a haven for
crotchety, "whatever-it-is-I'm-against-it," knee-jerk, ideological ranting
and raving masquerading as journalism. Gary Poole's piece, "Dream On,
Silicon Alley," is no different. It's characterized by what we consider
lazy journalism and sloppy logic, an opinion we already expressed to Poole
privately. Poole's piece is predicated on a comparison between New York's
new media industry and Silicon Valley's software and microchip industries,
a comparison that is a misfire from the get-go. 


New York's new media revolution is not about inventing technology but about
inventing modes of expression that use technology. Howard Stern didn't
invent the radio, but he sure made listening to the radio a different
experience for Americans. Venture capitalists might invest in a radio
company like Westinghouse, but wouldn't invest in a show like Stern's or
Rush Limbaugh's--it's just not a venture play. But radio companies would be
nearly valueless without the Sterns or Limbaughs of the world. It's the
difference between media and technology and it seems to have eluded Forbes. 


The strange thing about the Forbes ASAP special issue rip job on the East
(entitled "How the West Kicked Butt") seems to be its timing. Why in the
summer of 1997 would Forbes issue a broadside that rips MIT, New Yorkers'
work habits, Silicon Alley, and hotel service in Boston with absolutely no
news peg in sight? A cynical media observer might chalk it up to the
difficulty magazines have filling pages during the summer months. But our
guest editorial writer this week posits a different idea. To Mark Stahlman,
the co-founder of the New York New Media Association, the Forbes ASAP
package is the opening salvo in a war between the West Coast
techno-utopians and East Coast cyber populists, or realists, to use
Stahlman's term. Read on and tell us what you think: 


By Mark Stahlman
East vs. West. Content vs. Technology. Silly vs. Stupid. Sound familiar? 


How about Realists vs. Utopians? Yes, I'm talking about politics and I'm
talking about economics. Real life. Nothing at all virtual about this.
Atoms, not bits. 


For those of you who haven't yet seen the current Forbes ASAP cover story
on how the West has kicked the East's butt, it's a real laugh-riot. It's
drive-by journalism. It's the techbiz-press equivalent of John-John's
fabricated feud with his cousins and his nudie photo-op in George. It's . .
. well . . . a joke. Or, is it? 


Forbes ASAP was founded by business writer and economist George Gilder, a
former speech writer for Richard Nixon and author of Wealth & Poverty, a
supply side economic tract dating from the first Reagan administration. 


You might know Gilder. In the 1990s he became that guru of
cyber-libertarianism who brought us a redefinition of the word
"microcosm"(which to Gilder refers to the microelectric world that lives on
the surface of a semiconductor). You might have heard Gilder's references
to the "telecosm", a catch-all description of the internetworked world, an
idea developed by Gilder for the Seattle-based cyberlibertarian think tank
The Discovery Institute. You might say that Gilder's the Carl Sagan of
cyberspace. "Billions and billions . . ." 


But, maybe you didn't hear him say the following in a promotional write-up
for his keynote speech, "Revolt Against the Telecosm," at the upcoming
(September 14-16) Gilder/Forbes invite-only ($3800) "Telecosm" conference
in Palm Springs: 


"Beyond the usual ohms of practical executives, the new paradigm of the net
aroused the resistance of the usual suspects. With the Internet emerging as
the central nervous system of global capitalism, the Luddite left burst
into 'flames' against the microcosm and telecosm . . . pseudoeconomists
prattle endlessly about the growing gap between the 'information rich' and
the 'information poor' . . . according to the critics' predictions, [the
Internet] will collapse, clogged with traffic and polluted with porn and
violence." 


Hmmm, now we're getting somewhere. George is upset. Apparently, so is Rich
Karlgaard, his editor at Forbes ASAP, which is why he commissioned the
missed-all-the-obvious-points-mugging on the current cover of ASAP. They
are upset that everyone isn't buying into their cyber-libertarian utopian
dream. They are upset that what they call the "Luddite left" (whatever that
is) has started to raise some major objections to the bonanza of
oligopolistic looting they have been falsely sugar-coating with promises of
boundless prosperity. They are upset that their "revolution" isn't working
out as planned. And, they blame New York and everything East of the
Berserkley Hills for their frustration and, yes, their confusion about the
nightmare they have helped to create. I wonder if they understood Tom
Wolfe's brilliant anti-Gilder essay "Sorry, but Your Soul Just Died" in
last December's ASAP. Maybe they're still mad about that too. 


Economic Libertarianism (the modern credo hatched largely by Nobel-winning
economist Frederick von Hayek) is in trouble because, in economic terms,
this stuff simply doesn't work as advertised. Deregulation of
telecommunications -- significantly underpinned by libertarian lobbyists
and think-tankers like Gilder and fellow conference speaker Peter Huber of
conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute -- has only produced more
market concentration, more layoffs, more million dollar bonuses and more TV
channels. 


Not innovation, not progress and not competition -- as was claimed. 


Reality has a way of making some people angry. They need to find people to
blame for the errors of their own fervid imaginations. So, naturally, they
pick on New York. Yes, this is the Gilder who once argued we don't need
cities anymore. 


Gilder's pal Mike Milken will be giving a keynote in Palm Springs called,
stunningly, "The Predators Ball." Fitting, since Gilder keynoted the real
"Ball" until those nasty Feds stepped in and put Mike behind bars. Milken
will also be moderating the final "special address" called, prophetically,
"The 20th Century is Over." Here's how Gilder sets this one up: 


"It will be seen that science, technology, and capitalism all stand
interdependently on the same moral foundations. With the unleashing of a
global spiral of growth and progress, a new cultural era is at hand. . . .
The true vision of the 21st Century will become prevalent in a rich and
expansive culture, spread around the globe by the Internet."


Nice thoughts. Good sentence structure. Total utopian hogwash.


Realists know better. The end of the nation-state, the political
cornerstone of Gilder et al's politics could only yield a brutal
oligarchist imperial struggle and wholesale depopulation of the planet.
What cyber-geopolitician Michael Vlahos called "The Big Change," will in
his estimation produce a wretched underclass comprising 25-percent of
America's citizens -- which he glibly refers to as "the Lost." Far from a
"global boom," the libertarian political-economics of Gilder/ASAP would
much more likely usher in a New Dark Age of death, misery and ignorance. If
we let it happen, that is.


Reality has a way of imposing itself on dreamer's virtual worlds. But, the
same George Gilder who yearns for "the overthrow of matter" isn't quite
ready for Level Above Human yet. Let's make sure that the realists figure
out what's going on and take charge of this mess or we'll all be meeting on
the comet's tail before long. Dream on, telecosmos dwellers. Dream on.
Reality approaches.




What Do You Think?