Finishing Off The Open Content / Web 2.0 Revolution: (#SummerNSA)
Headers
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Subject:
Finishing off the Open content / Web 2.0 revolution
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From:
Shlomi
Fish (a.k.a “Rindolf”), the
hacker king of the Open
content/Web 2.0 revolution (~2000-2014)
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To::
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Summer
Glau, Hollywood actress, known
for her roles in Firefly, the Sarah Connor
Chronicles,
xkcd
and
Summerschool
at the NSA, and who I suspect
wishes to become the new hacker queen.
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Sarah
Michelle Gellar, Hollywood actress and
producer,
known for playing the
fictional Buffy Summers,
who was the hacker queen of the Web 1.0 revolution (~1997-2000),
in the show Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS).
Ms. Gellar was also the frontwoman of the show,
and Hollywood’s Alpha female for that period.
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Chuck
Norris, martial artist, actor, and filmmaker
, the inspiration and subject of many satirical
“facts” about him, which have become
a very powerful weapon by their own right, and also inspired my
NSA
“facts”, and later and earlier
humorous collections of facts..
Furthermore, Mr. Norris appears to be the current
Alpha male of Hollywood.
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Megan Fox,
Hollywood actress, a very inspiring person, and
someone whom I suspect wishes to become the
next Hollywood Alpha female.
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Jennifer Lawrence,
Hollywood actress, a very inspiring person,
and the present Alpha female of Hollywood.
Also provided a lot of inspiration for
the multi-sectioned essay
“Putting All The
Cards On The Table (2013)”.
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General
Keith B. Alexander, retired
United States
Army general, and former director
of the National Security Agency (NSA).
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Joss
Whedon, Hollywood filmmaker (writer,
director, etc.) who is notable here as the creator
of BtVS, and Firefly, and a potential back-up
director for Summerschool at the NSA.
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CC::
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Larry Wall,
creator of the
original “patch” program,
the Usenet newsreader “rn”, the Perl programming
language versions 1-to-6 and their “perl”
implementations
and the hacker
king of the Open source/Usenet revolution
(~1984-1997).
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Edward Snowden,
former contractor for the CIA and the NSA, who
is notable for foolishly, but gallantly,
revealing a lot of internal claims of the NSA
(= NSA “intel”) and becoming a media hero and
an outcast. Mr. Snowden
has thought he was under a constant threat for
revealing what
was likely mostly a product of delusional minds
inside the NSA (or false/out-of-date data as
intelligence data probably often goes).
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Randall Munroe,
creator of the
xkcd web-comics,
which introduced me to Summer Glau, and
provided a lot of inspiration and fodder
both for “Summerschool at the NSA” and for
other aspects of hackerism.
He may wish to further collaborate with
Glau on her journey as the new hacker monarch.
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All action heroes / hackers
and
geeks
/ amateurs of the world.
Producing “Summerschool at the NSA” (#SummerNSA)
Your assistance is required in producing the feature film
“Summerschool at the NSA” based on
my
original screenplay. The screenplay is made available
under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-by) and its text
is original. I have designated my
recommendations
for some of the cast, and the film should be capable
of being filmed mostly
or entirely in a film studio and at a relatively low cost.
Note however that I encourage any productions whatsoever of the
screenplay, including
by enthusiastic independent film makers, on
YouTube,
and including producing them as voiced animations.
I also neither mind nor discourage any hacks and deviations from
the
original screenplay, up to and including featuring
Arnold
Schwarzenegger sending Rihanna to
kick the NSA’a ass,
or Kermit
the Frog doing the same with
Fluttershy.
(And you may consider both mutations as artistic challenges).
What I do not want is that nothing will get done, and that
there won’t be any film - by anyone - in the forseeable future.
So please get to it as soon as you can. I need you, and the world
needs you.
If you create something, please mark it with
the
hashtag of #SummerNSA.
I have written about some
profitable
business models for creators of online culture, which
do not involve ad revenue which is small and has proven to be
ineffective. Absent from the post, is selling merchandise
(see the famous
“Merchandising” excerpt from Spaceballs), and putting
selected
Project Wonderful-like ads, which the web site owner pre-approved of and
are non-intrusive. Film makers and artists may wish to deploy
them either with “Summerschool at the NSA” or with different
cultural works.
Implications Of The “Summerschool At The NSA” Films
The open content / Web 2.0 revolution has proven to be a blazing
success and a source of decent or better income, esteem,
and publicity for many individuals, small companies,
large companies, and other organisations. While during the Web 1.0
era, information was hard to find, not reliable, and often hard
to contribute to (what Prof. Lawrence Lessig calls "read only"
vs. "read/write" in his book
Remix,
which I read and loved.), in the Web 2.0 era, one can
build upon information, which is often cited and reliable,
change it, enhance it, and perform
many remixes as well as
crossovers
and “mashups”.
It is my belief that it was I, Shlomi Fish (“Rindolf”), who was
the
“Hacker
King” (a.k.a “Warrior King/Queen/Monarch” / The
best-of-the-best-of-the-best / The Saladin / The Qoheleth / The
John Galt / etc.) of that revolution. To quote what Quark from
the Star Trek franchise said
about
the Grand
Nagus, he/she: «has the greatest
business mind… always thinking ten,
sometimes twenty steps ahead of
everyone else.»
and the kind of person who has the same ideas as everyone else only five
years earlier and thus is named a lunatic.
Nevertheless, my reign as Hacker Monarch has reached its end
with the writing of the screenplay, Summerschool at the NSA.
The latter mixed and matched Judaism (Tanakh, Talmud, and Israelism),
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the
xkcd
web comic, the “99 problems” meme, the old
“Publish or Perish” adage,
the deeds and words of
Saladin,
open source and open content, some
modern but not unthinkable technology,
love/romance/sex/relationships, pop culture, and humour, and
more into what
was essentially a realism,
Real
Person Fiction, story. Furthermore, it featured
fictionalised versions of Sarah Michelle Gellar,
Summer Glau, and General Keith Alexander, who was the
director of the NSA at the time.
I also ended up seeing it as my modernisation of
Ayn
Rand’s Atlas Shrugged novel, which was her
magnus opus as Hacker Monarch (while still building upon
it, referencing it, and going against some of it original premises).
Like Atlas Shrugged, “Summerschool at the NSA” was eventually
understood to be my magnus opus, and I passed the baton to
someone else, Summer Glau, and thus mostly concluded the
open content/Web 2.0 revolution with a mostly happy ending and
a blazing success.
Sic
transit gloria mundi (STGM).
The formalities for concluding all that are:
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Directing/producing the feature film or films
of “Summerschool at the NSA” in whatever format
they shall be done.
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Ms. Glau and I meeting somewhere and me asking
her these questions, which I'll give along with the
answers I expect:
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Question:
Are you afraid to die?
Answer:
There is no correct answer.
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Question:
Are you afraid to live?
Answer:
Maybe I have in the past, but I no longer am.
I will do and say what seems right and good,
whether people like it or not (while still being
careful and avoiding being arrogant).
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Question:
Do you wish to become the Hacker Monarch,
while being fully aware of the implications
of this role, and taking full responsibility for
it?
Answer:
Yes, I do.
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I will
give
her my blessed/cursed amulet of power,
a plain brown ten-sided die, that was given to me as
a present by my friends at the time, and ask her to
determine
what to do with it next. I urge her not to throw it away or
destroy
it (by seeing if
it
blends or whatever), since despite its low
cost and mundaneness, it is a fine piece of engineering.
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I will declare Summer Glau as the presiding hacker queen,
and step down from my role, and become a hacker king
emeritus.
One implication of all this is that we shall finally and
almost completely unite these worlds:
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The Academia.
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The software industry / open source / Internet /
World-wide-web workers.
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The “content”/culture creators, both the content industry
(e.g: Hollywood, the MPAA, the RIAA, and many smaller
local franchises around the world)
and many hobbyists, amateur, independent and/or unsigned
artists and content producers.
This is despite the fact that some of these worlds appeared to
be at a constant dispute with each other. This merging of
these worlds is similar to
the
merger of the AT&T UNIX/BSD
worlds and those of the early PDP-10-based
ARPA-NET
and NSFnet hackers that happened at the early 80s, and that
in turn led to the open source / Usenet revolution.
There will likely be a lot of time to reflect upon my history
and achievements during my reign as hacker monarch of the world, but
I think
the future is more important than the past. I have a lot of
potential advice we can use to continue to battle the remaining
man-made
problems (e.g: bloodshed, suicides, deaths due to arrogance
and carelessness, possible present and future environmental
problems, unnecessary red tape and regulations, unnecessary
hatred, antagonism and distrust, and vandalism)
and some questions for further inquiry.
However, it's now also
up to the new generation of activists of the upcoming post-open
content / post-Web-2.0 revolution
(whose nature is yet to be discerned) to build upon the work
of the activists and action heroes of the open content revolution,
and take the world even more forward.
So let me just give some pieces of advice to Ms. (Summer) Glau,
which are mostly relevant to other people as well.
Advice To The Upcoming Hacker Monarch
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Don’t
be too arrogant and/or careless - I don’t
want you to get killed prematurely, and it seems God
punishes
more people for that rather than for being bad.
Note that Hubris in moderation is still very
important as almost all ancient and modern technology
(from fire, through Aristotle’s Logic and science, through
the Lever, through modern architecture, through automobiles
and air and space travel, to computer and computer networks,
to this very essay and very word) are product of mankind
wishing to defy "gravity" and show his environment
that he is not bound by its rules.
Furthermore, courage and spite is required as a way to
avoid the “fear of living”: never fear what some
other people think or do not think about you. Furthermore,
accept criticism and even encourage people to prove
you wrong or even offend you. Like the mightiest Klingon
warriors say when they were proven wrong: “What a great
day it was for me to die! Thank you for this excellent
battle.”.
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Don’t feel superior. Even if you are the hacker monarch,
everyone else is or can be the most powerful man on Earth,
and the Messiah. Even the smallest and most fragile
inanimate object, serves an important purpose in God’s
(= The King of the Kings of the Kings) world.
You can never travel the path or survive alone. You need
each and everyone and everything out there.
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Be Yourself: remember
that whatever you do or whoever you are some people
will always complain. Please
all→Please none. Aim for perfection
in imperfection. Remember that
You’re awesome.
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Take a good care of yourself. Have a lot of
“Wine,
Women & Song”: Good food and drinks (that
taste good and are what you desire at the moment);
Good company - of any sex ; and clean, creative,
enlightening, fun - however amateuristic or of
apparent low quality.
While it’s OK to be busy for short periods of time,
don’t become a wage slave who doesn’t eat and drink
well, doesn’t socialise, and doesn’t have time to enjoy
themselves.
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Seize
the day! (= “Carpe diem”)
Don’t wait for a special ocassion to enjoy yourself or
contribute to the world - or usually both.
Every day is the
unbirthday
of your friends, your fans, everybody, and of you,
and it’s a good day to
remind
them that you love them.
Every day can be the
best
day of your life so far.
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Don’t be pseudo-Utilitarian:
if you made one person a little happier, then what you did
was a blazing success. “He who saved one man, has
essentially saved the world entire.”.
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Never deny that you are
the hacker queen: proudly admit it. Too many hacker
monarchs did not acknowledge their own self-worth. Don’t
repeat the mistake of Larry Wall and of me, and play
“The Invisible” who is arguably the worse kind of hacker
monarch.
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Be a
hacker / action hero: bend the rules, violate them,
surprise people, defy social norms, dogma, inertia,
prejudice, enthropy and gravity, all in order to earn
your victory and - be happy and proud doing that.
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Be an alpha female (= see “Wesley Snipes” in this essay by
Eric Sink)
or a beta female (= “Denzel Washington”) or a little bit
of both, but don’t be a Gamma↔Omega female.
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Get an active online presence. See
my
plan for that and the comments I got.
One further note is to avoid
Shaike
Ophir’s “The English Teacher”’s definition of
monologue as “One person talking to himself”, which
I noticed many celebrities succumb to. The more
you reply and interact with the people who reply to your
online posts and comments, or otherwise interact with
them, and collaborate (engaging in a true dialogue), then
the fewer redundant answers will be given, and the better
quality the discussion will be.
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Be honest and enlightened and constantly stay honest and
enlightened. Honesty and enlightenment are processes and
one must constantly be committed to become more and
more honest and enlightened, or else they immediately
became dishonest, cynical and stagnate.
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Practice the basics of the philosophy of Saladin,
a very noble man, a strategical genius, and one of the
most notable hacker kings in history.
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If you’re in a dilemma or run into some trouble, remember
that I and possibly other hacker monarchs emeriti (such
as Larry Wall) and your other friends who are hackers
and geeks, are always there for you and can give you
a fresh perspective on the situation.
( An independent person is not someone who does everything
on their own using feudalism taken to extreme. As long
as he or she takes full responsibility for the outcome
of their actions, they can ask or even pay for help or
advice. )
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Finally, remember - Sic transit gloria mundi! You will
most probably not be the hacker monarch forever, because
one day you too will create your magnus opus, and a
younger (at least in spirit), more awesome, action hero
will displace you as hacker monarch, because they want
it more badly than you. And they can be
a man or a woman or a group, fact or fiction, animal,
vegatable, or mineral, etc. And then you too
will become the Hacker monarch emerita and actually
feel relieved about all that.
Have a lot of fun, stay smashing and awesome, and hack on!
Hail, Saladin! Hackers of the world, unite!
References and Further Reading
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“The
Eternal Jew” - an early attempt at codifying
“Rindolfism”, which is my personal, one man, dynamic
philosophy.
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“Putting all the Cards on the Table (2013)” - a
multi-sectioned
essay, that was written in March 2013, a short time before
I wrote Summerschool at the NSA, and which was inspired a
lot by Silver Linings Playbook, Jennifer Lawrence, and the
fact that she won the Academy for it (at age 22).
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Summary for “Putting
more cards on the table (2014)”
- points for an essay that is an update/ammendement to the
previous one.
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“Saladin
Style” - a short, irresponsible essay about
Saladin’s innovative and inspiring strategy and philosophy,
that still has direct implications today.
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My
works of fiction, humour and action heroism
and my
essays
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About
“Rindolf” and “Rindolfism” - a page
about my nickname and personal philosophy and my hopes
and expectations for the future of me, Summer Glau, and
everyone else.
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My
Twitter feed, where I posted many thoughts and
insights about “#SummerNSA” and other things. I have
some other presence
on social media sites.
Licence
This work is copyright by Shlomi Fish
and licensed under the
Creative
Commons Attribution licence version 3.0 (or any later
version). See my
interpretation of it.
Syndicated 2014-08-31 12:13:12 from shlomif
