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Interview with Bruce Sterling

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the stuff-to-read dept.

kpost writes "Reason magazine has an interview with Bruce Sterling." Fairly lengthy and entertaining interview for you bookworms out there. Covers a lot of different subjects.

8 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse by burgburgburg · · Score: 4, Insightful
    That's funny, but the thing that's peculiar about it is there was always a dark side. There was always the porn/mafia/drug dealer/pedophilia aspect -- the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

    Wow. I hadn't recognized that pr0n is not only comparable to organized crime, drug dealing and child abuse but was also an explicit indicator of the end times. I was thought it was one of the main reasons there WAS an internet in the first place.

    1. Re:The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Wow. At least two of these dark horseman only exist because of stupid laws that seek to protect me from myself or other consenting adults.

    2. Re:The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse by TwistedSquare · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think that he might mean the four horsemen according to the media, but I wouldn't want to put words in his mouth. He doesn't come across as being pro-porn though..

  2. Re:Please keep him out of politics by Sheriff+Fatman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Um... you sure you're not confusing Bruce Sterling (the sci-fi/cyberpunk novelist we're talking about here) with Bruce Schneier (the guy who wrote Applied Cryptography, among other things?)

    --
    -- Open Source: It's mad, but you don't have to work here to help.
  3. Re:Please keep him out of politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I don't label myself as either liberal or conservitive, I think mostly because I've never understood how you people come up with what side of an issue to be on. Aren't republicans supposed to be the "ra ra personal freedom" party, and democrats the "Why is nobody thinking of the children!!!" party? It just seems like you all simply jump to attack whatever position the opposing party takes, even if your own ideology agrees with it.

  4. Playing movies is no big deal... by Per+Abrahamsen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ... but experimenting with technology is. Palladium and similar technologies which are largely motivated by the desire to prevent us from unautorized playing movies, may as a side effect prevent us from experimenting with technology. If we can only run authorized programs, plug in authorized hardware, and browse authorized content, how can we experiment with new programs, new hardware or new content?

  5. Re:Please keep him out of politics by gorilla · · Score: 2, Insightful
    still thinks that unrestricted cryptography is a good thing even if it ends up in the hands of world's remaining bin Ladens and Saddams.

    Ignoring the fact you've got the wrong Bruce...

    You're assuming that restricting cryptography would stop them getting it. This seems to me to be an assumption without any evidence. The US didn't stop the rest of the world getting strong crypto when they tried to restrict it before, because the rest of the world also has the people who have the skills needed to devise or implement crypto. Why do you think that anything different would be true in the future?

  6. Re:He has Porn issues by extra88 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Then he puts porn on the same level as mafia crime, pedophilia, and drugs.

    No, he references the scare-mongering media's (and sometimes Justic Department's) "Four Horsemen," not his own. Plus he's being interviewed by his buddy, Mike Godwin (yes, Godwin's Law Godwin), who knows what Bruce means.