Thursday, August 16, 2007

William Gibson on fora.tv

Thanks to fora.tv, here is video of William Gibson reading an excerpt from Spook Country and handling questions during his book tour (at Codys).



A question about the influence of Joseph Cornell led me to find this WebMuseum site.

Gibson, a big favorite of mine for his cultural insights as well as his fiction, has been blogging his trip.

UPDATE: While we are on the topic of Gibson, here is a transcript of an interview with him in The Guardian, titled "Space to Think".

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Francis Fukuyama - The End Of History Revisited

I've been reading this book (End of History and the Last Man), finally, and now found this lecture by Francis Fukuyama, captured on video via FORA.tv.

My opinion is this is excellent thinking, but misses insights on the psychological basis of cultural context and the pace of change. But thinking about things at this scale helps set the stage for understanding where we are and where we might go next. Fukuyama also has cogent insight on the singularity, a topic I enjoy thinking about. Probably inaccurately paraphrasing - he suggests that human societal and cultural behaviors will mitigate extraordinary rates of change.