
Lawrence Lessig's New Book: One Way Forward - akg
http://oneway.lessig.org/
======
Byliner
Here's a brief excerpt from the book:

[http://byliner.com/lawrence-lessig/stories/one-way-
forward-e...](http://byliner.com/lawrence-lessig/stories/one-way-forward-
excerpt)

If you're looking for a DRM-free version, we made that available via Apple's
iBookstore and Google's eBookstore (now known as Google Play). A print-on-
demand version is available via Blurb.com. All of these buying options are
reachable from the book's page on Byliner:

<http://byliner.com/originals/one-way-forward>

One aspect of Byliner that's interesting (we hope) is the ability for authors
to either update their stories, or provide detail behind their stories. A good
example is Jon Krakauer's Three Cups of Deceit. In the months since its
publication Jon has added 20,000 words of updates to his story:

[http://byliner.com/jon-krakauer/stories/excerpt-three-
cups-o...](http://byliner.com/jon-krakauer/stories/excerpt-three-cups-of-
deceit#update-13)

Most of our authors continue to evolve their stories after publication, to the
benefit of readers. We hope that Professor Lessig does the same with One Way
Forward, which we were very proud to publish.

~~~
Alex3917
Maybe I'm just in a bad mood right now, but for whatever reason I find this
excerpt really uninspiring. There's no doubt that amateurization of culture
and politics is part of the solution, but at the same time it's pretty much a
non-answer. He's basically just saying we need to wait 50 or 100 years for the
world to change, and even then it's a pretty big leap of faith.

~~~
Byliner
I don't think you'll feel that way about the full book. Send me an email (info
in my profile) and I'll send you a complimentary copy. If you enjoy it, you
can amend your comment; if not, no foul.

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dfc
The story link is to a blog for discussing revisions the book. The revised
book comes out in the fall and will be available at the story link. Until then
you need to actually buy the book. Here is the link to buy the actual book:

<http://byliner.com/originals/one-way-forward>

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nextparadigms
I haven't read his previous book, "Republic, Lost", but I saw the 1 hour
speech at Google from last year, that was based on it, and it was great. He
explains how the Government ended up having a relationship with corporations
instead of "the people", and what is needed to solve this (almost unsolvable)
problem.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AK56FtVc>

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hdt
Also relevant: <http://theanticorruptionpledge.org/>

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moldbug
No offense to Prof. Lessig - but he's sort of like someone trying to restore
the Roman Republic in the age of Nero.

The reality of Washington is that politics (ie, democracy) matters a little,
but not very much:

[http://foseti.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/on-government-
employm...](http://foseti.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/on-government-employment/)

If politics has negligible power over government, electorates have negligible
power over government. So why do we need to "get money out of politics?" The
reality of Washington is (IMHO) that voters could elect a President and
Congress as pure and holy as the Dalai Lama, and it wouldn't matter at all -
because they'd have about the same real power (over the permanent government)
as the Dalai Lama.

Lessig is yanking with all his weight on a wheel that isn't connected to the
rudder. If there's any rudder at all...

~~~
tocomment
Interesting. So what do you see as solutions?

~~~
moldbug
Fire everyone in DC and move the capital to Palo Alto.

Is it that we don't need to do this, or that we can't? If we can't, the
hypothesis is confirmed and we _really_ need to. If we don't need to... come
on, man.

I've never worked in DC as an adult. But I grew up there as a bureaucrat's
brat. And all I can say is... neighbor, you have _no idea_.

(Professor Lessig certainly has an idea. But he won't share it with you -
because the source of his power is the dark crystal under the Capitol. Ie,
he's important because of his connections, direct or indirect, personal or
institutional, to the permanent government. He matters because he teaches at
Harvard, an institution unconditionally trusted by... you get it. Certainly if
he was just some random neighbor on the Internets, like me, he'd have a much
tougher time being taken seriously.)

