Thursday, February 28, 2008

Drafting Lessig and the Age of the Ostrich



The dedication page of Lessig's first edition (1999) of "Code" reads:

"FOR CHARLIE NELSON, WHOSE EVERY IDEA SEEMS CRAZY--FOR ABOUT A YEAR."

That is how it is these days with forerunning and foretelling types.

I haven't yet read the second edition of "Code," but it's called "Code v2," and (inevitably),
it is an open source "book," and (inevitably), here it is online.

Another amazing sign of the kairotic times.

From the first edition:
"We stand today just a few years before where Webster stood in 1850. We stand on the bink og being able to say, 'I speak as a citizen of the world," without the ordinary person saying, 'What a nut.'....This misfit will matter." (226) "It is the age of the ostrich. We are excited by what we cannot know. We are proud to leave things to the invisible hand. We make the hand invisible by looking the other way. But it is not a great time, culturally, to come across revolutionary technologies. We are no ore ready for this revolution than the Soviets were ready for theirs. We, like the Soviethave been caught by a revolution. But we, unlike they, have somethig to lose." (234)


No wonder there is a movement (at least on Facebook) to "Draft Lessig for Congress."

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