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Excerpts > "CybeRevolution Montage" from Mondo 2000 no. 7 [1989]

Mondo 2000
"CybeRevolution Montage"
1989

1954: Bard College, Annandale-on-the-Hudson, NY... It was the first time I ever head Buckminster Fuller speak. He said that by the late 1980's we would all be living in a "one-town world." In 1988, I have been ostensibly "living" in Los Angeles, but in these twelve months I have visited or re-visited Maui, San Jose (2x), Berkeley, San Diego, Vancouver, Seattle (3x), Phoenix, Boulder, Dallas (2x), Philadelphia, Wilmington, New York (2x), Boston, Dublin, Berlin, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Munich, Bern and Vienna.

I don't suppose this travel log will impress many readers of Mondo2000. Still, re-living 1954 in memory, I am astounded at the mutation that has occurred. Though many people still use the word "jet-setter" to mean some kind of millionaire, most of the folks who are hopping around the globe are not rich at all. They have simply redefined travel.

Throughout evolution, the average mammal has never traveled more than ten miles from the place it was born. Throughout human history, the average person has never traveled more than ten miles from the place she or he was born...

Since 1900, the speed of travel has increased by a factor of 10 to the 2nd power, known energy resources by 10 to the 3rd, explosive power of weaponry by 10 to the 6th, and speed of communication by 10 to the 7th power. (Source: J.R. Platt, Michigan State University)

Americans have also eaten 1.8x10 to the 10th power McDonald's hamburgers....

Deforestation... According to Popular Mechanics, February 1938, a new invention would soon make it possible to end the cutting of trees to produce paper for our books, offices and newspapers. Popular Mechanics was so enthusiastic about this invention that they predicted farmers would earn billions of dollars a year making paper this way and would never cut down another tree.

As you look around at our devestated forestlands, you might ask yourself, what the hell happened in the past 50 years? Where did the wonderful invention go?

Well, kiddies, the wonderful invention was a device that made it possible to harvest hemp more cheaply than ever before. Hemp was the chief ingredient in paper throughout most of history (our Declaration of Independence was written on it, for instance) and paper made of hemp lasted a good long time compared to paper made of wood pulp. Ever notice how 19th or 18th century books or even 17th century books like the original folio of Shakespeare's plays, printed on hemp, are still around, while modern books printed on wood pulp fall apart in only decades?

Our books continue to rot away quickly, and our forests continue to be destroyed because the U.S. Government declared war on hemp. They had found out that some people smoke it and get happy.

Puritanism, to quote H.L. Mencken, is "the haunting fear that somebody, somewhere, might be having a good time."

PISS WARS.... George Bush volunteered to be one of the first Americans to take a urine test for drugs. During the Iran-Contra investigations, however, Bush refused to take a lie detector test. As Paul Krassner astutely commented, it appears Bush doesn't want us to know whether he's telling the truth or lying, but he wants us to be sure he's not stoned while doing it.

Neurologically, Piss Wars opens awesome possibilities. The most widely used urine test in the country detects traces of marijuana and cocaine but does not detect LSD. The corporate structure of the short-term future will therefore thin out the ranks of pot smokers and coke freaks while the acid heads climb merrily upward in the hierarchy. This would suggest that the sensuality of grass and the wired aggression of coke will dwindle in Power Centers but the morphogenetic/futuristic evolutionary visions of LSD will play an ever-larger role in shaping policy.

Think about it.

One Ton a Day?.... On the other hand, a friend of mine in Silicon Gulch recently told me there is a ton of grass smoked every day in that area -- where most of the software of Star Wars is being produced. I couldn't believe it at first, but he worked it out on his computer and showed me. The population is 4 million. Assuming only half of them smoke grass and they smoke only one joint a day -- reasonably conservative estimates, I think -- one comes out with a ton of weed, and a heavy fog of cannabis vapor circulating "in the belly of the beast" (as SDS used to say).

Most of the companies in the Gulch are unwilling to institute Piss Wars. They know if they did, they'd lose their most talented, diligent, and inspired software experts immediately.

The modern "barbarians" -- the Cyberpunks -- are not only within the gates, but have penetrated the Citadel itself.

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