<nettime> 1994, Visions Of Heaven and Hell

Dear Carlo & Co

Where is Nick Land now? What is he up to? Can he be brought back to philosophy and critical theory?

I read "Fanged Noumea" when it was released a couple of years ago (I guess most Nettime members did) and remembered how inspired I was by Land's perspective in the 1990s on "the flat chaos" that would become the Internet. Although my take it would be more Deleuzian-nomadic than Land's accelerationist take (you either base your ideology on that worked in The Tribe or what worked during Feudalism), he is still a massive inspiration and a truly creative thinker. So his mind would certainly be a welcome prodigal return for current critical debate.

Last I heard, Land was in Shanghai and busy doing pop culture and writing psychological fiction. If he is still around there, maybe I could find him for an interview when I'm in Shanghai in April?

Best intentions

Alexander Bard

2018-03-02 13:24 GMT+01:00 carlo von lynX <lynX@time.to.get.psyced.org>:

Bumped into an amazing documentary from 1994: depicting the future
of society in the age of the Internet. Some statements are funny or
sad for their naivity, some others are chilling as they predict the
advent of the great Internet monopolies.
"Visions Of Heaven and Hell" - https://www.youtu.be/GMdPLxbuc8Q

"I think it could be a disaster scenario, as this new technology
comes to its fruition, with fewer people getting richer and more
people getting poorer. And I think it could mean the collapse of
society as indeed the collapse of the world civilisation and a
new dark age. And the only thing that I think in the end can save
that, is if the people who master this technology, the new rich,
the new intellighenzia, can actually think beyond themselves. If
they can realise, that the best form of selfishness is unselfish-
ness. That if they don't actually invest in people other than
themselves, beyond themselves, they will destroy themselves."
Charles B. Handy, 1994.