Politicians 'drinking their own bath water'

Bruce Sterling, the famous Sci-fi novelist, gave the closing speech at the Southwest interactive conference .

During the roughly 45 minutes Sterling talked, he touched on any number of issues, from the wonders of Web 2.0 technologies, to the way America and Americans are viewed abroad, to politics and daily life in Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro, where he currently lives.


But Sterling is also clearly unhappy with the state of American political and governmental affairs and the way he says the Bush administration and others in power are stifling innovation with unimaginative policies. These words were well-received by most of the audience--many of whom come from either the San Francisco Bay Area or Austin itself, one of the few liberal enclaves in Texas.

"If I've learned anything from hanging out with the Eastern European dissident crowd, it's make no decision out of fear."
--Bruce Sterling
"Our people in Washington are drinking their own bath water," Sterling charged. "They have forgotten how to build anything...it looks like the Soviet Union."

He talked at length about society in Belgrade, where he is living with his wife, a "Serbian feminist peacenik dissident." And he explained that Serbian society is even more troubled than America's and that much of the vitality there comes from the strength of writers, philosophers and other social thinkers toughened by years of war.

"If I've learned anything from hanging out with the Eastern European dissident crowd," he said, "it's make no decision out of fear."
The line got a rousing cheer.-->>>>snip---

read and see speech here.:http://news.com.com/Sci-fi+author+laments+state+of+world/2100-1026_3-6049844.html?tag=nl

A bit about Bruce Sterling:


He has been the inspiration for two projects which can be found on the Web -

The Dead Media Project - A collection of "research notes" on dead media technologies, from Incan quipus, through Victorian phenakistoscopes, to the departed video games and home computers of the 1980s. The Project's homepage, including Sterling's original Dead Media Manifesto can be found at http://www.deadmedia.org

The Viridian Design Movement - his attempt to create a Green movement without his perceived self-righteousness of the current Green movement. He called his proposed design movement the Viridian movement, to signify its desire for high-tech, stylish, and ecologically sound design. The Viridian Design home page, including Sterling's Viridian Manifesto, is at http://www.viridiandesign.org, and helped to spawn the popular "bright green" environmental weblog Worldchanging, where many of original members of the Viridian Movement blog, including sometimes Sterling himself.

In the December 2005 issue of Wired magazine, Sterling coined the term buckyjunk. Buckyjunk refers to future, difficult-to-recycle consumer waste made of carbon nanotubes (aka buckytubes, based on buckyballs or buckminsterfullerene).


Novels:
Involution Ocean (1977) - a kind of SFnal Moby Dick story set on a desert planet with sex and drugs with an alien

The Artificial Kid (1980) - about a young street fighter who continuously films himself using remote controlled cameras

Schismatrix (1985) - The 23rd century solar system is divided among two human factions: the "Shapers" who are employing genetics and psychology, and the "Mechanists" who use computers and body prosthetics. The novel is narrated from the viewpoint of Abelard Lindsay, a brilliant diplomat who makes history many times throughout the story.

Islands in the Net (1988) - a view of an early 21st century world apparently peaceful with delocalised, networking corporations. The protagonist, swept up in events beyond her control, finds herself in the places off the net, from a datahaven in Grenada, to a Singapore under terrorist attack, and the poorest and most disaster-struck part of Africa.

The Difference Engine (1990) (with William Gibson) - steampunk

Heavy Weather (1994) - about hi-tech storm chasers in a midwest where greenhouse warming has made tornadoes far more energetic that the present day.

Holy Fire (1996) - about a world of steadily increasing longevity, the marginalised subculture of young artists, and the nature of the posthuman mind.

Distraction (1998) - a master political strategist and a genius genetic researcher find love as they fight an insane Louisiana governor for control of a high-tech scientific facility in a post-collapse United States. Winner of the 2000 Arthur C. Clarke Award. US editions: ISBN 0553104845 (hardcover), ISBN 0553576399 (paperback)

Zeitgeist (2000) - A girl group ala the Spice Girls tours the Middle East under the direction of trickster Leggy Starlitz. Introduces the concept of Major consensus narrative.

The Zenith Angle (2004) - a non-SF techno-thriller (or very near-future SF, looking at some of the gimmicks) about a cyber-security expert who goes to work for the US government fighting terrorism after 9/11.


link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Sterling