Seemingly by default, men have represented the face of the geek space for years. Few have considered what the latest round of Apple Computer commercials might look like if the PC (John Hodgman) and Mac (Justin Long) had been represented by women. But if, for instance, a similar commercial for a Linux box were made, Xeni Jardin might be the perfect anthropomorphic avatar of the alternative computer platform—popular, yet under the radar, accessible to almost anyone, yet complex and only sought after by those who defy convention. Getting her first big media look in Manhattan at the Silicon Alley Reporter (the tech industry’s Internet boom news source way back when), Jardin went on to cover science and tech stories for The New York Times, The L.A. Times, National Public Radio, BoingBoing.net (the web’s most popular blog according to blog tracker Technorati) and has talked futurism on CNN, FOX News and ABC. I managed to track her down during a jaunt to Guatemala where she delivered her take on the future of … the future.
NY Press: In the ‘60s, America experienced a free love/peace/hippie movement. Later, most of those kids went on to become like most adults before them in terms of career and an end to counter-cultural activities. Are we again experiencing a romantic “dream” of some sort with the rise of “web 2.0” notions of user-generated content and open source (i.e. free) “everything”?
Xeni Jardin: I think the “free software” dreamers have better survival odds than the “free love” dreamers because nerds do less drugs—unless you count Skittles and Red Bull. I don’t really agree the two eras are all that much alike, but then, I only know the era we’re in now. I wasn’t alive in the ’60s, and all I know of that time is archives: Jimi Hendrix records I downloaded from BitTorrent, LSD documentary videos I downloaded from archive.org, or John Markoff’s excellent book about the influence of the hippie era on the hacker era (What the Dormouse Said). It seems to me that the goals of the open source true believers I know, the people who stay up all night scripting apps and tagging metadata and contributing to wikis—their goals seem less specifically self-indulgent than the tie-dyed stoner dudes. Code-smokers spend less time seeking individual, subjective bliss and more time tinkering with things they’ll then share with the rest of the world.
Whether this era’s free digital dream has more longevity depends in part on how well we articulate why this matters to the world. If the battle over net neutrality is any indication, we’re not doing so well right now.
Considering the charged issue of net neutrality and the looming hand of corporate/governmental regulation of who has access to the fastest version of the Internet, how long do you think this golden age of indie Internet commerce, publishing, etc. will last?
Are we in a golden age? I thought 1999 was the golden age. The dot-com stocks imploded, the twin towers fell, then Iraq, constitutional shrinkage, a new nuke race, domestic communications surveillance ... We’re in a golden age after all that?
I just don’t know how to answer this. People have been predicting the demise of the free, open Internet ever since the first banner ad was viewed in Spry Mosaic. But there will always be people who believe in the enduring value of online freedoms, people who are willing to work and fight hard for them. As long those people are stubborn and numerous enough, there is hope for the gold.
You’ve covered a lot of fascinating tech/science stories, which one changed forever how you look at/live in this world? Why?
Every single one of them. I guess the one that sticks out most as something that effected personal change was flying in zero gravity. My molecules changed. I had lucid dreams about flying in space for months after that. You know, when you fly in zero gravity for the first time—assuming your mom or dad hasn’t done it, you’re the first person in your entire genetic lineage who has ever had that experience! All the way back to your great-great-great-great-grandfather amoebas and the dinosaurs! Assuming you believe in science, of course.
Bruce Sterling recently penned his last column for Wired magazine claiming “futurism has no future.” True?
I don’t have that answer. I just keep wandering around with a microphone and a camcorder, fumbling around the world, trying to find it. I’ll keep fumbling for it as long as I’m alive, and I don’t expect to ever be able to sum it up in one soundbite. To know the future takes a lifetime. That’s how you arrive there, right?
