Bruce Ster­ling / trans­me­di­ale 2014 after­glow Open­ing Cer­e­mo­ny (by trans­me­di­ale)

Per­haps not Sterling’s great­est per­for­mance ever but he makes some inter­est­ing points towards the end about the need to argue with the sta­tus quo by build­ing alter­na­tives. And that the val­ue of these alter­na­tives can be in their rick­ety nature. A few choice quotes:

“It’s time to build alter­na­tive com­pu­ta­tion­al sys­tems which reflect our own ethics and val­ues. We can do that.”

“In the tech art world we have to break with our long habit of liv­ing off oth­er people’s crumbs. We got­ta stop sleep­ing in the rich guy’s used car.”

“Now that com­mer­cial com­pu­ta­tion has become so slick and seduc­tive. Peo­ple for­get that tech­nol­o­gy and tech­nol­o­gy art are hard labour. It’s a tough scrab­ble when you’re real­ly on the elec­tron­ic fron­teer. And if it’s noth­ing but deca­dent point­ing and click­ing. How do you know if you’re any damn good? You’re good if you’re build­ing some­thing that peo­ple can use with some sense of decency.”