Hackers, hippies, and idealists

I am reading a book that offers a solution to the frustration I have with two technology trends. The first is to treat older folks (I will be 70 in a couple of months) as ignorant to digital technology. The second is the negative consequences of the hyper-commercialization of online technology (e.g., net neutrality, selling user personal data as compensation for access to online services).

The book is Adam Fisher’s Valley of Genius. The book is a history of Silicon Valley and the creation of digital technology as told by those were the innovators and enablers. Fisher “wrote” this book in a very unusual style. He first interviewed a couple of hundred people. He printed the text generated by entering the words generated in these interviews. He identified themes which mainly represented the comments on key events or innovations. He then manually cut apart the printed pages of text to isolate the comments associated with these events. Finally, he pasted together the comments to tell the stories of these events. It does sound strange.

So this was not the isolated remembrances of 200 valley notables. It was the integrated remembrances as if the entire group engaged in a group storytelling session.

It took more than four years of work. I understand the process, but I cannot imagine having the patience or the broad view to make this work.

If you are interested in technology and really want to understand the backstory, I strongly suggest this book. If it sounds too weird or you are not up to reading 500 or so pages, I would recommend two interviews with Fisher conducted by Leo Laporte (session 1, session 2). The closest thing I can recommend to this book is a much earlier book by John Markoff – What the dormouse said.

What these sources capture is the culture of early technology innovation and how that culture is so different from the present culture surrounding technology.  Fisher suggests we have moved from “a bicycle for the mind” to “rats in a social media maze”. I agree. This is what those who have lately to technology mostly fail to see this transition. They fail to see the negative consequences of unfettered capitalism as it has taken the innovation for all out of the culture.

Fisher proposes that perhaps by identifying the arc of the story of digital technology we might move forward in a more productive way.

I hope so.