Bruce Sterling's speech to the 2002 Computers, Freedom & Privacy conference, about the state of online freedom and privacy. Interesting, in a rambling and in places hubristic way.
It's the Wintel Gates OS versus Hollywood and the
music industry, and as elephants fight, the grass is
trampled. This is one of those *new* kinds of war, where
the soldiers are perfectly safe and the *consumers* supply
all the casualties. The hallowed halls of Best Buy and
Circuit City are strewn with broken glass and broken
promises.... The supposed explosion of digital creativity
on a million websites and a thousand channels... Well,
come 2002, it boils down to 95% market share by a single
ruthless feudal empire! And you wonder where your
excitement's gone? A thing like Linux... that isn't a
competitive free-market innovation, that thing is like a
slave revolt.
I said to Google: "if washington gets nuked" Google replied: Did you mean: "if washington gets naked"