
The Complicated Legacy of Stewart Brand’s “Whole Earth Catalog” - mitchbob
https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/the-complicated-legacy-of-stewart-brands-whole-earth-catalog
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paultopia
About a year ago, I actually joined the WELL---it still exists, and I was
curious about what it looked like.

Sadly, it turns out that it's largely moribund. There was barely anyone on
there, and nothing interesting was happening.

They were more than happy, however, to take my money for the $15/month
subscription fee. So happy, in fact, that they ignored my multiple emails
trying to cancel. And nobody answered the phone. Ultimately, I had to contact
my credit card company to block the charges.

~~~
tacostakohashi
Thankyou for that piece of anecdata.

I was thinking seriously about joining a few months ago, because I think a
"social network" / forum that caters to its paying users instead of
advertisers, and has a membership fee and something less than 100% anonymity
to keep the riffraff away is a nice idea.

Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be a practical business model.

~~~
CharlesW
You'd probably like MetaFilter.

~~~
msla
You'll like MetaFilter if you can stomach the weird ideas which seem to be
required to join in, like their weird definition of "racism".

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peter303
I heard brand talk about his 2009 book Whole Earth Discipline. He surprised me
as not being a rabid environmentalism but what he called a pragmatic
environmentalism supporting urbanization, nuclear and genetic engineering as a
way to improve humanities environmental footprint. Take the first for example:
until then I hand realized that dense Manhattan has one of the lowest per
capita carbon footprints in the developed world. Density reduces
transportation and building interior cost.

~~~
maxxxxx
i think there is something to this but we shouldn't forget that big cities
depend on a lot of goods being transported there. So a lot of the emissions of
rural areas should be counted towards big cities.

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snarf21
Exactly this. All of these systems are so complex that we can only ever make
the crudest estimates. Similarly, people want to "fix" something by changing X
and don't bother to account for all of the ripple effects of said change.

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prepend
This piece reads like a 7th grade given an assignment to write 1000 words on a
confusing subject. I thought there was a second page because it ended so
abruptly.

It’s a bunch of content on Brand and then makes a slew of subjective
statements that seem like I’m supposed to know the author. Or look for future
pieces.

So the piece informs and then adds some apocalyptic musings with no basis
other than the author’s neuroses.

“ As I sat on the couch in my apartment, overheating in the late-afternoon
sun, I felt a growing unease that this vision for the future, however
soothing, was largely fantasy. For weeks, all I had been able to feel for the
future was grief. I pictured woolly mammoths roaming the charred landscape of
Northern California and future archeologists discovering the remains of the
ten-thousand-year clock in a swamp of nuclear waste. While antagonism between
millennials and boomers is a Freudian trope, Brand’s generation will leave
behind a frightening, if unintentional, inheritance. My generation, and those
after us, are staring down a ravaged environment, eviscerated institutions,
and the increasing erosion of democracy. In this context, the long-term view
is as seductive as the apolitical, inward turn of the communards from the
nineteen-sixties. What a luxury it is to be released from politics––to picture
it all panning out.“

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TheOtherHobbes
No, it doesn't read like that at all. It appears you simply didn't like - and
possibly didn't understand - the conclusion.

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jameskegel
No, I think Prepend is right. This is painful to read, feels disjointed at
times, then ends abruptly. Good articles aren't written this way.

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nozfud
The quality of writing in America has really fallen off. NYMag, NYT, etc. used
to publish at least mediocre journalism & opinions. I guess the death of print
means talented people just work elsewhere, the incentives are skewed, or some
combination of factors.

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whitepoplar
Try a subscription to _Lapham 's Quarterly_, or just read it free online:
[https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/](https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/)

