All about democracy and the political possibilities on the internet in relation to how it gives us free speech. Stephen Stockwell seems to really know his stuff, he can talk in so much depth about something so cyber and so political! Cyberpolitics! So here is what I gathered from the lecture...
Disregarding the third definition they all portray the 'hacker' in an unfavorable light. But in today's day and age we are all hackers. We all hack our way around bugs, through backdoors, using programs to sly the internets filters. Stephen in his essay says that -
Cyberpolitics: Politics of the internet that exists predominantly on the internet. It embraces all forms of social software like journalism, blogging and organisation building.
E-democracy: Internets intervention and contribution to real world politics that exists predominantly off the internet e.g. governments using internet to raise awareness and debate issues.
'Golden thread': Ability of people to communicate freely and the quality of participation of free speech regarding democracy.
Public sphere: domain of social life in which 'public opinion' forms.
Stephen talked about the question of free speech being crucial to democracy and that the biggest danger to this is censorship. With the mass media increasing in its power over society, democratic participation in representative democracy is wearing thin. Theorists are reacting and there is a growing potential to remodel what Habermas calls 'the public sphere'.
I caught the tail meaning of the term "Cyber Punk" somewhere in Stephens talk. This links in with the democracy of internet politics as the genre of cyberpunk studies the political possibilities inherent in cyberspace. Its like a 'matrix' - where the themes of cyberpunk are taken up and mused upon.
*** I also discovered that we are to go and feed ourselves the 'Allegory of Plato's Cave' to read up before our exam? Sure?
"In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see."
Here is an illustration of Plato's Cave:
Theory and practice of politics
*** I checked out Stephen Stockwell's We're all hackers now: Doing global democracy from the suggested reading on L@G. I had a read, but couldn't seem to waver my way through the whole stock of Stockwell so I just mused over the ideas that he was presenting in his wordy essay.
Stephen discuss' the idea of democracy as it adapts and prospers in the 21st century and talks about the "hacker" ethos, as hacking has become a creative intervention within mainstream media.
So hackers undoubtably have secured a bad name in modern times.
hacker |ˈhakər|noun1 informal an enthusiastic and skillful computer programmer or user.• a person who uses computers to gain unauthorized access to data.2 a person or thing that hacks or cuts roughly.3 a person who plays amateur sports without talent or skill
"hacking can signify the free-wheeling intellectual exploration of the highest and deepest potential of computer systems. Hacking can describe the determination to make access to computers as free and open as possible. There is an attitude among hackers that 'beauty can be found in computers... (and) the fine aesthetic in a perfect program can liberate the mind and spirit'."
He then goes on the deflower the hacker values as - passionate and free work; the belief that individual imaginations can create great things together; and a commitment to existing ethical ideals, such as privacy and equality.I was so consumed by this whole hacker ethos and how it opens up to become a tool in creating democracy within the realities of the information economy. Hackers sustain political structures and play their own part to repurpose the 'media machine' and explain the forms of equality in light of democratic values.
(All websites viewed on 20th September 2009)
Stephen's essay was and is a very "powerful, challenging and scholarly piece!"
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