An Info-hippie's Manifesto

An Info-Hippie’s Manifesto 1. I.Information wants to be Free •In the new millennium information has come alive. Hyperlinks fire like synapses across the new global mind, there is no stopping it. Memes spread faster then we can keep up. Trends spread across the globe in the blink of an eye. News stories seemingly reach everyone simultaneously. The spread of knowledge is the new reality. •Any information that a person wants is at their fingertips. Intelligence can no longer be measured by the amount of facts a person has memorized but only by patterns they see in that information. Everyone of us has access to the same facts. •It is an impossibility to secure knowledge forever. The more locks placed on forbidden information, the more tempting it becomes to know. Curiosity is man’s defining characteristic. II. Trust in the Crowds •A Person is confoundingly stupid. There is no exception. One mind can only ever really see from one perspective. It is impossible for a man to know what it is that he doesn't know. Reliant on imperfect sensory data, and a hidden unconscious that continually eludes understanding, a man is forever shackled by his own limitations •People are amazingly intelligent. Every person has individual experiences, dreams, hopes, and skills. Through their collaborative use the sum of our knowledge is greater then it’s individual parts. There is no problem great enough, no challenge to difficult that humanity can not find the solution. With enough resources at our disposal everything becomes trivial. The inevitable drive towards omniscience is the Net’s reason for being. III. Fear the Mobs •One bad idea, one man to preach it. That’s all it takes to turn a wise crowd into a raged mob. Book bannings, obscenity trials, censorship, surveillance acts, genocide. These are the dangers we face. Yet the solution lies in the problem, for the more members in the crowd, the more voices of dissent. This is humanity’s immune system. Dissension causes discussion, discussions lead to thought, and thinking prevents mobs. The larger the crowd, the more difficult to form a mob. IV. Digitization is Preservation •Just as men can’t force themselves to forget something, neither can the Net. Once information has been digitized it will last in perpetuity, immortalized for everyone to know. It has joined with The Net, there is no erasing it. Information may become difficult to recall, seemingly forgotten, but it isn’t

truly gone. It’s there, buried deep in the new collective unconscious, waiting to be rediscovered. •It is our duty to digitize, a responsibility to our children, a way to honor our forefathers. Find an out of print book and carefully transcribe it’s contents, upload scans of your grandmothers wedding photos, convert your father’s Hi-8 movies. Through this process alone do we increase, and safeguard, what we have learned as a species. •Physical media decays. Paper burns, wood rots, stone crumbles. Once digital information is spread across many hands. . . losing a copy is no more tragic then losing a single strand of hair. However, if restricted through copyright and DRM, information isn’t secure. It is endangered and can be destroyed. Copyright = death. V. Respect the Artist •Artists create. They add meaning to our existence by the act of filtering information and giving it meaning. They tap into humanities experiences and give back ten fold. Without the artist we wouldn’t know what it means to be human, we would just have facts with no context. What the artist creates is for us all, and it is the artist’s best interests to spread his message to as many people as possible. Share the pieces of art that have meaning. We have a responsibility to the artist to share their work and spread their message. •Support the artists when you have the opportunity; buy their merchandise, attend their performances, link their blog. Take an active role in their future success. •Never charge others to supply them with an artist’s work, joyously share it with them for it enriches you both by ensuring the artist’s future success. Spread their word and humanity’s knowledge grows.