Amerika

Hacker culture bypassed politics for a morality of function alone. This reduced life from the question of “should I do this?” to “how can I do this?” and removed all of the pointless debate and control tactics from technology. Over time hackers have pollenated more of tech than not.

Cyperbunk authors like Bruce Sterling have seen enough of the net come and go to realize that the instinct toward manipulation, taboo, scapegoat, and conformity will ruin any space by bringing morality of socializing back into play, driving out morality of function alone.

Sterling recently took a strong stand for freedom of viewpoint by refusing to censor or judge those who follow him:

I have more Mastodon followers than on any other social media service

I don’t feel any particular need to scold and/or ethically purify the weird polyglot polyethic mass of them.

He seems to have enjoyed my reply which makes light of the situation but points out a fundamental stumbling point for the West: we need our non-conformists more than we need fake social order achieved through conformity and control.

Tags: bruce sterling, censorship, cyberpunk, scolds