
The Rise and Fall of BowieNet - vo2maxer
http://www.openculture.com/2020/04/when-david-bowie-launched-his-own-internet-service-provider.html
======
adventured
I'm sure a lot of people here have already seen it, however this 1999
interview with the BBC shows off Bowie's early understanding of the value &
potential of the Internet (after the six minute mark):

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7s_0tGsg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiK7s_0tGsg)

~~~
agency
Such a breathtaking interview. The internet bit starts around 7min.

> Bowie: I don't think we've even seen the tip of the iceberg. I think the
> potential of what the internet is going to do to society, both good and bad,
> is unimaginable. I think we're actually on the cusp of something
> exhilarating and terrifying.

> Paxman: It's just a tool though, isn't it?

> Bowie. No. No it's not. It's an alien life-form. It's just landed here.

~~~
xtiansimon
That got me too! I immediately recalled a paper I found in one of the free
NASA ebooks (see link below):

\---

Susan Blackmore. “Dangerous Memes; or, What the Pandorans Let Loose” (Cosmos &
Culture p297)

“This reveals the fundamental difference between all other theories of gene-
culture coevolution and memetics: for the former the final arbiter is genetic
advantage so that culture must always remain on its leash, even if the leash
sometimes gets very loose; for memetics both genes and memes have replicator
power and can drive change and creativity. For other theories, cultural traits
are an aspect of the human phenotype, but for memetics they are living things
in their own right.

These include a vast range of memeplexes (coadapted complexes of memes) that
are copied, stored, and propagated by their human hosts using a wide variety
of adaptations. All these, according to Humphrey, “should be regarded as
living structures, not just metaphorically but technically.” (Dawkins 1989,
192).

Some survive predominantly because they are useful to their hosts (e.g.,
effective financial institutions, scientific theories, or useful
technologies); others depend on fulfilling human desires and preferences
(e.g., the arts, music, and literature); and still others are positively
harmful, tricking their hosts into propagating them. We humans are selective
imitation devices (Blackmore 2001); we try to select only the useful or
valuable memes but are inevitably tricked by some of the rest.” (p. 302)

\---

There are a lot of interesting bits in there, but this one has that creepy
invasion has already happened and the aliens are living among us vibe to it.

I watched this Bowie interview before. I am of an age that I remember the
1990s and can recall how people talked about the internet's potential--always
in terms of other previous technologies (really Jeremy Paxman, the
telephone?).

Right now, I'm wondering what Bowie was reading and who he was talking to that
informed his beliefs about the cultural change the internet was going to
effect. (I was not as good a reader in the 1990s as I am now, so I'm sure I
was describing the internet by the same unhelpful metaphors).

Did Bowie describe the internet as an alien life-form, because it's
shocking/what we expect David-Ziggie Stardust-Bowie to say? Or, was his belief
based-on, informed-by, his artistic practice (research), or ideology (his own
personal experiences and world-view)? Of course the truth is likely a mix, but
the bit which makes a difference--the bit that makes Bowie an informed speaker
with lucid ideas and insight--would I expect be research (or surround yourself
with people who are smarter than you).

\---

Sunday March 29, NASA's free history e-book collection (nasa.gov)
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22718489](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22718489))

And in the collection is this book, Cosmos & Culture: Cultural Evolution in a
Cosmic Context Edited by Steven J. Dick and Mark L. Lupisella (2009?)
([https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/hist_culture_cosmos_deta...](https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/hist_culture_cosmos_detail.html))

------
parenthesis
The `Bowie Bond' from around the same time, was a much more interesting
innovation:

[https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/01/11/2149761/a-short-
histo...](https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/01/11/2149761/a-short-history-of-
the-bowie-bond/)

~~~
cosmojg
Archive link for those who don't want to create an account:
[https://archive.md/ubmyY](https://archive.md/ubmyY)

Also, holy crap, David Bowie was incredibly prescient.

> ”The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music
> will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it.
> I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m
> fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10
> years, and authorship and intellectual property is in for such a bashing.”

> “Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity,” he
> added. ”So it’s like, just take advantage of these last few years because
> none of this is ever going to happen again. You’d better be prepared for
> doing a lot of touring because that’s really the only unique situation
> that’s going to be left. It’s terribly exciting. But on the other hand it
> doesn’t matter if you think it’s exciting or not; it’s what’s going to
> happen.”

If only we could hurry up and abolish intellectual property so we could get on
with restructuring the economy around the inevitable.

Also, it's cool to see decentralized financial platforms like Ethereum already
enabling a democratization of the kind of thing Bowie was trying to do with
the Bowie Bond: [https://asone.andysimon.co/](https://asone.andysimon.co/)

~~~
Mediterraneo10
Sure, Bowie was right that the industry overall would swiftly move to a
situation where many people are getting music for free (or for next to free on
streaming) and artists tour to actually make money. Yet he himself was still
able to spend nearly a decade from 2004–2012 not actively working, living
entirely off his royalties that persisted thanks to those copyright laws, so
things didn’t develop as suddenly and drastically as he suggested.

~~~
verelo
And the bonds! That’s the amazing thing, he wanted the cash but knew it was at
risk, so he made a financial instrument to extract that value before the
market could price the risk. Brilliant!

------
pstuart
He was a visionary. He also tried his hand at a branded VISA card:
[https://www.forbes.com/2000/03/04/feat.html#4304e53130da](https://www.forbes.com/2000/03/04/feat.html#4304e53130da)

I think worshipping people is not a healthy habit, but I make an exception for
him.

~~~
nostromo
I love Bowie too.

But the credit card, the ISP, the whatever... I don't care about any of that.
That's typical for people that are brands to make a quick buck, like Branson
putting his "Virgin" name on a cellphone company, Trump putting his name on
steaks, or Kim Kardashian putting her name on a perfume.

It's all basically the George Foreman Grill -- a company leases the name from
the famous person to promote something they have little to do with.

~~~
boulos
The article actually calls out that this wasn't the case for the ISP at least:

> As Ars Technica's interview with BowieNet co-founder Ron Roy confirms, Bowie
> didn't just lend the enterprise his brand but was "tremendously involved
> from day one." As Roy tells it, Bowie kept BowieNet fresh "by exploring new
> technologies to keep fans engaged and excited. He always preached [that]
> it's about the experience, the new."

~~~
NikolaNovak
It's certainly possible - but the wording in article is exactly the same as
Perfume or Clothes designers say about celebrity branded products: Oh,
Jennifer [Aniston|Lopez|Garner] had HUGE impact and was VERY clear on her
vision from day one. She's been very specific and hands-on to ensure that we
bring fresh new scents & ideas never seen before, and really push the
boundaries of what the market has experienced. etc etc etc.

It's part & parcel - in order for your name/brand to have any value to the
manufacturer/producer, it has to at least appear, plausibly, that you actively
contributed. Some celebrities buy into their own spiel too... (and some, to be
fair, actually find they have talent and/or invest actual effort into it, that
may not even have to be secretly undone by the actual experts :P )

~~~
mft_
Bowie lived around the corner from the data centre and could often be seen
popping in, of an evening, to swap out a defective drive or two.

(Possibly.)

------
robotbikes
He also went all in on a video game Omikron: The Nomad Soul, starring in it
and writing the sound track. It was kind of cool as I remember but I never
finished it. Just another part of that era of Bowie.

~~~
Trasmatta
That game is pretty bad but also fascinating at the same time.

------
quijoteuniv
The website had a collection of music (online radio?!)curated by him that he
gathered for his son musical education. I wish i could listen that again.
Incidentally Duncan jones mentioned in an interview he is not into music and
listening to songs is ‘like watching your dad do accounting’.:p

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everluven
Another on the list of Bowie innovations was a random lyrics generator called
the Verbasizer [https://youtu.be/H7Sgq0XoxPw](https://youtu.be/H7Sgq0XoxPw)

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axaxs
I'm a big Bowie fan, but this isn't that notable imho. During this time, there
were hundreds if not thousands of 'ISP's springing up. Even Kmart of all
people had an ISP.

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koksik202
AS number or it didn't happen

~~~
tptacek
Most small ISPs in the mid-late 1990s didn't have ASNs, which you only needed
once you scaled to the point where you were peering with your upstreams.

------
milquetoastaf
Bowie was always bleeding edge. He helped fund Eyebeam
([https://www.eyebeam.org/](https://www.eyebeam.org/)) as well

