Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
(i have the circulation of the undead, so 'hot in livermore' sound
divine from my chilly basement apartment).
  

    
!!!
  

    
Lingering question I'm just getting around to asking: how do you
understand the relationship between the technolibertarianism you
described and the authoritarian ideas now circulating in (man) parts
of the tech world? Is this a transformation, a contradiction, or the
ongoing emergence of something that was already present?
  

    
i realize some of my comments here on the death and life of tdb are
a bit  mtv 'behind the music', about the strange fate of the book
and not addressing the ideas within it. but res ipsa loquitur! every
day we see the pernicious effect of the ideas and themes described
in tdb, as they have mutated in the last few years.

i used to joke with a friend that my tombstone will read 'i was
right/i didn't lie/no one listened'.

or that homily that started cropping up recently: "History doesn't
repeat itself but it does rhyme' seems apt.

what i do know is what i have been told:  when some people read tdb
-now-, they have 'aha' moments: so the prodromes to those nasty
kooky ideas were around -then-.

gil says our two books are conversation with each other; my version
of that thought is that tdb is foundational and gil's book is the
book of record for 2026, sort of an 'all the presidents's men' for
our moment.

i am very curious about how a livermore crowd will respond, with i
hope a contingent from lawrence livermore lab.

just as i am very curious about how the interview with tech crunch
will go, but for very different reasons.
  

    
Since I use the word "thot" as a replacement word for thought, I
looked it up on the Urban Dictionary and got many definitions for
it..take your pick but none of them good..it has been hijacked..even
Webster's shows it as disparaging so I am left with a quandary as
to my further use of it..jest sayin'

Obviously, I liked your use of it when I first started with this
Topic..am in agreeance with you about Gil..he is mondo and have been
following him for quite a while thru all of his platform
permutations 
  

    
yeah i am a lazy typist and i really have to stop using 'thot'.

i dont know if any lab ppl were at the event. was told livermore has
become so expensive that a lot of lab ppl cant afford to live there
any more. sheesh!
  

    
talked with the EIC of the SF Gazetteer, one of the hyperlocal san
francisco new news publications. there are several, and sadly one of
them, sfist, just shut down.

relevant here is that he will be sending a reporter to cover that
stanford event in nov. i guess he liked the insurrectionist vibe, of
kids at stanford putting on an event that Resists All That.

a question that has come up and i am sure will come up there and i
dont know how to answer: 'how can i have a career in STEM and not
work for the Bad Guys? a lot of the options i might have suggested
in the past (nonprofits, government) as we know are in such bad
shape.

yet, was told many of them are enthusiastic about working for the
military-industrial complex, i suppose as always a) it's where the
jobs/money are and b) possibility of working on great/fun projects.
  

    
i asked one of the not friends-and-family buyers at the livermore
event how she had heard of tdb.  turns out someone on bluesky
reposted/pointed to gil's seminal bluesky rant from fall 2025 ---
which led to name recognition for her for the event. she hadn't seen
any of the media of the last year.

more proof of how siloed everything has become and how everything
mostly leads back to gil.

she wondered if the people behind 'silicon valley' had read tdb ---
i told her i felt it was highly unlikely but my friend tom
scoville's 'silicon follies' was a clear early influence.
  

    
How much of what you observed was specific to Silicon Valley, and
how much was what happens when a group acquires wealth and influence
while facing few constraints, regardless of the industry? What if
anything makes the technology industry distinctive?
  

    
It's always worth mentioning 'wealth addiction' by the always
perfect philip slater (as well as his 'pursuit of loneliness")

the mindset/culture described in tdb predates the current state of
wealth inequality.

just off a zoom with 'techcrunch' --- it amazes me, just as it has
done with 'wired'. how they now all think like i do.
  

    
and perhaps an endnote: a few interviewers have asked if anyone from
back then, whether tech 'leaders' [snort] or journos, have contacted
me now to say 'oopsie'. 

the answer is a thudering 'no'.

a request: send tdb fair skies and following seas as it continues on
its idiosyncratic voyage.
  

    
Today is the last day scheduled for our discussion with Paulina, but
if she's up for it it's quite okay to keep the conversation going.
Meanwhile I want to thank Paulina for joining us, and thank all
others who participated. Here's a link to a page that includes
purchase links: <https://www.cyberselfish.com/>