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Introduction to Cyberpunk Literature - Mar 2010

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Laurian Gridinoc's picture
Laurian Gridinoc on Wed, 2010-05-12 19:46
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5:32pmLaurianhmmm, my clock or the server's is skewed
5:32pmLaurianHello
5:32pmDoreneHi!
5:32pmLaurianhow's going?
5:33pmDoreneNot bad...
5:33pmDorenedifferent coffee shop today
5:33pmDoreneKind of noisy
5:33pmLaurianyou log in here from a coffee shop?
5:34pmDoreneYes
5:34pmDoreneI don't have to be at work until 11
5:35pmDorenebut if I show up, students will want my attention
5:35pmLaurian:)
5:35pmDoreneit's just best to stay away if I need to focus on other things
5:36pmLaurianyup, I like coffee shops for timeboxing, like I have to do X and I have 2 hours of battery life, makes me work faster
5:37pmLaurianseen Ghost in the Shell 2 Innocence?
5:37pmDoreneI watched the first 50 minutes...
5:37pmDoreneand intend to finish it
5:37pmDoreneit is subtitled, which surprised me
5:37pmDorenethe first one had English audio
5:37pmLaurianit is slow, picturesque and very strange
5:38pmDorenecall me lazy if you will, but I tend to multitask while watching movies
5:38pmDorenesubtitiles mean I actually have to pay REALLY close attention
5:38pmLaurianhmmm, on my DVD I have english and japanese audio as options, I prefer the japanese always
5:39pmzombieToasthi
5:39pmDoreneI meant to finish it up last night, but got sidetracked
5:39pmLaurianwow, the zombie just spawned :) kidding, Hello
5:39pmDoreneI am enjoying it...especially as a sequel to the first one
5:39pmzombieToastwork stuff running throughout today :)
5:39pmzombieToastbrb
5:40pmDoreneHey Laurian, I have question...
5:40pmLaurianyup
5:40pmDoreneI see a theme with all the materials provided EXCEPT Little Brother
5:40pmDorenethere isn't much in the way of android/artificail intelligence going on there
5:41pmDorenea lot of high tech, goverment control stuff
5:41pmDorenebut not the android connection all the other materials contained
5:41pmDorenewhat was supposed to be the take away?
5:41pmLaurianyup, the little brother was intended to bring the cyberpunk towards more present time and it should link with the "history" Hacker Crackdown and Freedom Downtimw
5:43pmLaurianso, the assignment regarding Little Bro. will be connected with the Hacker Crack. & Freedom Downtime
5:43pmLaurian(still working on the assignment idea, I have a lot of static in my mind, to quote from GiTS)
5:44pmDoreneDid you happen to provide direct links to those two resources?
5:44pmzombieToastDorene: It's a pretty good example of 'postcyberpunk'
5:44pmDoreneI looked around, but didn't notice...I can't find local copies in the library
5:44pmLaurianyup, hmmm, there were in the assignment on GiTS, lemme dig it
5:45pmLaurianhmmm, where
5:45pmLaurianaaah, the p2pu site kills me
5:45pmzombieToastHacker Crackdown was only 2.50 at a local bookstore here, I just got a copy
5:45pmDoreneYes, it kills me too
5:46pmDorenezT, it's more about getting out and about and finding it
5:47pmLaurianit was in the broacast message on that assigment
5:47pmLaurianNext to read is history: Bruce Sterling's "The Hacker Crackdown: Law and
5:47pmLaurianDisorder on the Electronic Frontier"
5:47pmLaurianavailable online at
5:47pmLaurianor PDF
5:47pmLaurianand as movie, the documentary "Freedom Downtime"
5:47pmLaurianviewable onlike on Google Video
5:48pmLaurianbtw, The Hacker Ethic http://www.amazon.com/Hacker-Ethic-Pekka-Himanen/dp/0375505660 is a nice read on the hacker culture
5:48pmzombieToastThere's a torrent of Freedom Downtime around as well if you prefer to watch it in higher quality
5:49pmLaurianor you could just buy it ;)
5:49pmLaurianand support 2600.com
5:49pmzombieToast:) Wasn't sure if they were selling it
5:50pmzombieToastAwesome you can get it on VHS
5:50pmDoreneI probably won't buy it
5:50pmDoreneI'm in a "stuff" reducing mode, not an accumulation mode
5:51pmzombieToastvery veridian ;)
5:51pmLaurianhehe, you can buy it on VHS!!! that low-fi
5:51pmLaurianI used to subscribe to 2600 magazine, I should start again
5:51pmLaurianamazing what you can publish under the 1st amendment
5:52pmDoreneVeridian?
5:52pmzombieToastone of Bruce Sterlings old projects
5:53pmLaurianI used to get his mail newsletter, hmmm, when did he stopped it? I cannot remember
5:53pmzombieToast'08
5:53pmLaurianI see
5:54pmzombieToastThe video of his talk at reboot11 gives a pretty good summary of his conclusion
5:54pmLaurianbtw, regarding Hacker Crackdown and Kevin Mitnick story, there are two movies that are interesting: Hackers, and War Games
5:55pmzombieToasthaha War Games, was that the tic-tac-toe one?
5:55pmLaurianyup
5:55pmLaurianzombieToast: yeah, I know that video, lovely, I tried to run a natural language recognition on it, got very funny
5:55pmzombieToast"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
5:55pmDoreneLoved War Games...became a huge fan of Matthew Broderick during that movie
5:56pmDoreneand loved the tech in it
5:56pmLaurianall the tech in it you will see it in the Hacker Crackdown, etc, from war dialing to everything
5:57pmLaurianhere is the voice recognition on Bruce's reboot talk, funny http://gridinoc.name/blog/2009/07/bruce-sterling-reboot11/
5:57pmLaurianthe computer got things so wrong
5:57pmLaurianatemporality = and the timber rally, and a temper relative
5:57pmLaurianeleven reboots = a laminar a bid its  ... etc
5:58pmzombieToasthaha
5:58pmLaurianbtw, I have to post online a Bruce Sterling short talk I recorder at one of the parties this spring in Austin, at SxSW
5:59pmzombieToast'graf future narratives' - nice
5:59pmLaurianit is funny to play the video, and try to follow the text
6:01pmzombieToast'salamander chairs the finance its shares to cash'
6:01pmzombieToastwow
6:01pmzombieToastthis stuff is profound lol
6:01pmLaurianthat's computer voice recognition
6:01pmLaurian21st century  :(
6:01pmzombieToast'thank you for your attention to pat'
6:02pmzombieToast'these tools do not make it to you with broken stop it enemy not the hair shirt dreams is that i tonic like that'
6:03pmzombieToastamazing
6:03pmLaurianthat's deep cyberpunk
6:03pmLaurian:)
6:03pmLaurianI would like to feed it in a Markov chain, you would get scary stuff
6:04pmDoreneOkay, I'm lost
6:04pmLaurian:)
6:04pmLaurianon the Markov thing?
6:05pmzombieToastI just had to have a quick read on wikipedia myself
6:06pmLaurianbased on statistical measures on a text, you can know what word might follow another
6:06pmLauriantherefore you can generate stuff which appears coherent
6:06pmzombieToastAnd create spam
6:06pmLauriantry this toy, feed it some text you know http://utilitymill.com/utility/Markov_Chain_Parody_Text_Generator
6:07pmLaurianif I take the p2pu intro, which is The Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is an online community of open study groups for short university-level courses. Think of it as online book clubs for open educational resources. The P2PU helps you navigate the wealth of open education materials that are out there, creates small groups of motivated learners, and supports the design and facilitation of courses. Students and tutors get recognition for their work, and we are building pathways to formal credit as well.
6:07pmLaurianah this text doesnt work
6:07pmzombieToasthaha "This article may be too technical for most readers to understand"
6:07pmzombieToastno shit
6:08pmLaurianeh
6:08pmLaurian]
6:09pmLaurian(not bragging, but I had to understand that math at the master)
6:09pmLaurian(now forgot it all)
6:09pmzombieToastI only took first year CS maths
6:10pmzombieToastso yeah, slightly beyond me
6:10pmzombieToastI get the general idea well enough
6:10pmLaurianI did no CS, just a master with the CS, and it was damn hard
6:10pmDoreneWhat is CS?
6:11pmzombieToastCopmp Sci
6:11pmzombieToast*Computer Science
6:11pmDoreneI got sidetracked downloading and reading the Hacker Crackdown for a moment...
6:11pmLaurianno problem we were just showing off :)
6:11pmDoreneHow is CS math different from other math?
6:11pmLaurianmore obscure :)
6:12pmDorenethan calculus?
6:12pmDoreneor linear algebra?
6:12pmLauriannope, just different
6:12pmzombieToastIt's just a subset more relevant to programming
6:12pmsundancer joined the chat room.
6:12pmsundancerhuh
6:12pmLaurianyeah, different set of problems
6:12pmzombieToastalgebra, logic etc
6:12pmLauriansundancer: all groceries in place?
6:12pmsundancersorry you guys for popping in like that
6:13pmsundancer:D
6:13pmsundanceryeah, i feel like alice falling down the rabbithole
6:13pmLaurianwe were talking about Markov chains :P
6:13pmsundancerright
6:14pmsundancerwhy are you doing statistics on this bright sunny day?
6:15pmLaurianbecause we're punks!
6:15pmDorenestatistics wait for no weather
6:15pmzombieToastalso speech recognition / veridian design / postcyberpunk / VHS and subtitles
6:15pmDoreneLOL
6:15pmDorenewe've covered the spectrum
6:16pmsundanceruber-cool
6:16pmDorenewithout a doubt
6:16pmsundancersounds like i've been missing some serious fun
6:16pmsundancer>))
6:16pmLaurianwe'll have the logs
6:16pmDoreneYou guys, is it just the four of us in this class?
6:17pmsundancerguess so, but it's fun :))
6:17pmDoreneI tried engaging on the discussion forums...no luck
6:17pmLaurianyup
6:17pmLaurianyeee, just took the whole log of today and run it throught that markov thing:
6:17pmzombieToastoh god
6:17pmDoreneOh dear
6:17pmsundanceroh my
6:18pmLaurianhmmm, must kill the timestamps to get something good of it
6:18pmLaurianwill do it later
6:18pmzombieToastI'm pretty sure that when the internet becomes sentient it will also immediately degrade into senility
6:19pmzombieToastthis isn't helping at al
6:19pmLaurianthe law of intelligence conservation?
6:19pmzombieToastAs soon as it can think its head will explode
6:19pmzombieToastpretty much
6:20pmsundancerok i'm trying to catch up
6:21pmLaurianok got some results
6:21pmsundancerbut dont really folow :)
6:21pmLaurianI tried engaging on the hacker culture There's a
6:21pmLauriantorrent of Freedom Downtime around as well if you will, but I had to have a lot
6:21pmLaurianof static in my mind, to quote from GiTS
6:21pmLaurianI have a quick read on
6:21pmLaurianwikipedia myself based on statistical measures on a text, you can generate stuff
6:21pmLaurianwhich appears coherent And create spam try this toy, feed it some text you know
6:21pmLaurianlovely
6:21pmDoreneSo my situation...I need to finish GItS and then write my assignment
6:22pmLauriannote: the above lines from me were markov junk
6:22pmLaurianyup, there are just two more assignments
6:22pmsundanceri also have to do it
6:23pmLaurianthe one related to little bro + hacker crackdown + freedom downtime
6:23pmLaurianand the final one
6:23pmsundanceroh dear
6:23pmLaurian3 weeks would be enough? more?
6:23pmzombieToastyeah I've done my research for 3, just need to actually wrote the thing..
6:23pmzombieToast*write
6:24pmsundancer3 weeks is cool for everything
6:24pmsundancerI also have my notes, but I'm lagging behind on time
6:24pmDoreneI'm still a little at a loss for what to do for the final
6:24pmLaurianthe original course had as final assignment: write your own cyberpunk-ish story
6:25pmLaurianI would add as an alternative a free essay on whatever you feel that the course inspired you to address
6:25pmsundancerI'm surely lacking talent for that sorta thing
6:25pmLauriansundancer: just try, I had the same feeling
6:25pmLaurianand I found that I love to write fiction
6:26pmsundancerdunno about that
6:26pmsundanceranalysis is somewhat easier
6:26pmDoreneI have a harder time creating than analysing as well
6:26pmLaurianbtw, here is my short story I wrote for that assignment: http://gridinoc.name/blog/2009/11/haute-couture/ I had so much fun doing it that I want to write more
6:27pmsundancerright, I'll dig into that one
6:27pmzombieToastJust take some new designer drug, record your adventures to audio and feed that into the speech recognition module Laurian used
6:27pmzombieToastinstant cyberpunk
6:27pmLaurianyup
6:27pmLaurianadd some markov variations
6:27pmDoreneha
6:28pmsundancerhahaha
6:28pmLaurianI'll prepare a long set of related materials regarding to writing fiction
6:29pmsundancerthe surroundings don't really inspire me to cyberpunk, rather to classical poetry or I don't know, militant socialism
6:29pmzombieToastUrsula leGuin & Rudy Rucker both have some writing related stuff online
6:29pmLauriansundancer: well, just ask Radu to start talking about XML configs in Spring, you get into the cyberpunk zone
6:30pmLauriannice
6:30pmDoreneOkay, folks, I have to pack it up and head to work
6:30pmDoreneSame time next week?
6:30pmsundancerLaurian: doesn't count, I'm getting used to those kinds of stories
6:31pmsundancerzombieToast: good shit
6:31pmLaurianyup, same time next week
6:31pmzombieToastlater Dorene
6:31pmLaurianyo, sundancer, whad'z tat? Sprawl talk?
6:32pmDoreneBye!
6:32pmLaurianbye Dorene
6:32pmsundancerbuhbye Dorene
6:32pmDorene left the chat room. (Quit: Page closed)
6:32pmsundancerLaurian: yaman
6:32pmsundancerright, so to sum up
6:32pmsundancerI'll have to produce the essays
6:33pmsundancerand also the final cyberpunk story
6:33pmLaurianit would be fun
6:33pmsundancerdid you discuss any of the study material today?
6:33pmLaurianit can be a cyberpunk haiku if you want
6:33pmzombieToastI'm out too guys, hungry as
6:33pmsundancer:) meant to ask that: any wordcount limitations
6:34pmLauriansundancer: nope
6:34pmzombieToastgot to get food
6:34pmsundancerzombieToast: have fun, seeya next week
6:34pmzombieToast left the chat room. (Quit: www.whatthefuckshouldimakefordinner.com)
6:34pm
6:45pmsundancer left the chat room. (Quit: tacos)
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