HackMDTechvolution: A New Philosophy
by Johnny Majic
May 2019 (manuscript)
Back Page
Even before this pandemic, middle-class Americans and Canadians had serious problems: rising debt, stagnating wages, expensive healthcare. Not too long ago, we could relax and assume our political culture would solve our everyday headaches. Not anymore. Today, politics on both sides of the border is controlled by ideologically obsessed reporters, columnists, and pundits finding new ways to sing to their Left-wing or Right-wing choirs.
COVID-19 will only make middle-class problems worse, and therefore make traditional Left/Right politics even more dysfunctional.
What can ordinary people do?
In Techvolution, we'll see how everyone on Main Street today has a big choice to make. We can either pick a side in the increasingly nasty Left/Right war. Or, we can start funding and using apps and electronics that we custom-design to solve our everyday problems. But before the middle-class can choose the better option and reach for the incredible power of modern technology, we need to redefine what's good and bad in our politics. To do that, we must adopt a new philosophy.
Here it is.
Dedication
This book is for the people in the open-source community. For the collaboration philosophy you handed down to me. For selflessly updating Wikipedia, writing free software, and building cool new tech for us all. For being the protagonists of the Internet Age. You gave the best education a political guy can get. I hope I've learned enough to write this book for you.
For the antagonists, the self-entitled delegators keeping Blockbuster—and it's Industrial Age gatekeeping mentality—alive, thanks for making history to repeat itself yet again. I hope you learn something.
This book is especially dedicated to the extras on Main Street. When it's time for you to act, I pray you decide to play the game.
"We are really the revolutionaries in the world today—not the kids with long hair and beards who were wrecking the schools a few years ago."
Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, 1973.
Contents
- Start
- Preface
- Introduction
- Prologue
- Act One - The Beginning
- Act Two - Blowing Up the Death Star
- Intermission - Taking a Break
- Mid Point - A Techvolution Battle
- Act Three - Climax
- Epilogue
- The Appendices
Note to the Reader
I used lots of online videos and story referenceswhen writing this book. I found using familiar stories is a more natural way to explain philosophy, politics, and in general, to relate to one another. Keep in mind, you'll have to press play on the YouTube videos, and enable sound on the GIFs. And of course, in all cases, all due credit goes to the media's owners.
Also note, I've finished writing the majority of the book, but I'm still getting reader feedback. If you like to contribute your thoughts on anything, you can email or, fitting to internet culture, you can write on this webpage by clicking "edit", then the paragraph you want to comment/edit. You can make an account on this website or not, that's up to you.
I also haven't sent this to an editor yet for the final proofread. If you spot any grammatical errors, it would be helpful if you made a quick note. I'd especially appreciate knowing where the writing gets slow.
Lastly, keep in mind all web browsers have "reader" modes that let you customize the screen. For Firefox press F9, Safari/Edge Command-Shift-R. Chrome makes you install an extension. Some readers disable videos, so I put a link labelled "Video" in the caption so you can still tap and watch.
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy.
Inner Flap
You, me, and everyone else quarantined in their houses are anxiously waiting for the COVID-19 storm to pass.
On the bright side, we have Netflix.
Thanks to our beloved online streaming, our pandemic worries are easily replaced with tales of passionate love, fantastic magic spells, and galaxies far far away.
We find Netflix is so compelling because stories are so clear. Protagonists are good because they want to fix a problem. Antagonists are bad because they don't. There is no debate. We always take the protagonists' side. This moral clarity tells us precisely who the heroes and villains are, and therefore lets us commit our emotions.
For example, we can cherish Romeo and Juliet because we know their love is beautiful and worth dying for! While their families' rivalry is ignorant and stupid. We also get why Luke Skywalker's rebellion is righteous and worth fighting for! And know Darth Vader's empire is hellish and must be destroyed.
But our emotions don't change the story. Even the main character's feelings mean so very little to the final outcome.
That's why all characters, from Hogwarts students to Jedi Knights, Lord Voldemort to Sith Lords, don't battle using emotions. They fight using real objects like wands and lightsabers.
Watching the good and bad guys fight is exciting stuff. It's why we can binge-watch for hours. But unlike us, the protagonists can't sit back and enjoy seeing the events unfold.
Because nobody ever won a battle by watching it. The victors are the ones who control technology because tools are the levers of power in every story. Cinderella used a slipper to defeat her treacherous step-family. Harry Potter used a wand to defeat "He Who Must Not Be Named." And Luke Skywalker used a small ship to destroy the Death Star. When heroes control the levers of power, they overcome antagonists and solve problems.
And this simple observation is the lesson Main Street must learn today.
Otherwise this pandemic was for nothing.
Talk to any political junkie, no matter when, and they'll say there's a big election coming up. They'll tell you, "if the Right-wing triumphs, infrastructure, healthcare, everything will go to shit!"
If you buy it—and most of us have at some point—you glue yourself to Left-wing blogs, radio, and TV. Filled with Left-wing philosophy, you walk the path to extremism and see more sinister Conservatives with every step. Or, if the other side sucked you in first, you start spotting sinful Progressives instead.
But it's all bullshit.
Despite Left/Right yelling matches, neither ideology is your enemy. Because neither is your hero. The pundits, columnists, and reporters on NBC, CNN, Fox News, and countless newspapers and blogs only care to send you one-way messages to tune-in, protest, or donate. These extremists trick you. They say their ideological purity will hold the government accountable to their "good" ideology. But, both sides only want you to keep watching the Left/Right circus. They want the middle-class to be the audience of our own society.
Galileo, George Washington, and Luke Skywalker reached for the power of new technology. So, why shouldn't you? Even more important, why shouldn't the middle-class? Isn't our healthcare, infrastructure, and especially our pandemic preparation, worthy of upgrades?
Of course they are. And, that's the point.
The feud between Left and Right ideologues is a distraction. The politics of upgrading our lives (or not) is the real political game of our time.
This contest started in 1970 when our civilization left the Industrial Age and entered the Internet Age.
The owners of industrial age technology don't want you holding advanced tools like Netflix. There's a simple reason, gatekeeping access to thinks like movies, education, and insurance is very profitable. That's why many Industrial Age power brokers are working hard to antagonize all future upgrades. These "Darth Blockbusters" want society's levers of power all to themselves.
Happily, many internet geeks, hackers, and innovators have already been fighting Darth Blockbuster's gatekeeping and antagonism. The open-source community alone has made hundreds of thousands of tools that empower every person to live a better life. But, these protagonists can't keep fighting your battles for you. Main Street must jump into the fight.
There is no debate. The story is simple, and the morality is clear. We must upgrade our society now.
If we don't, this pandemic only foreshadows a much more terrible storm to come. Every year, month, and day we delay our evolution only makes our technology, tools, and culture more outdated. Responding to and preventing horrible events like depressions, storms, wars, and pandemics like COVID-19, will only get harder if we keep using Darth Blockbuster's Industrial Age technology.
This book will teach you how to upgrade our society to the glorious Internet Age. Like conquering illiteracy, defeating slavery, and going to the Moon, upgrading our way of life will be a compelling story for your grandkids to one day watch on Netflix.
But you have to make it happen first. To start, all you have to do is realize politics isn't a show to watch, but a game well worth playing.
Levers of power. Whoever controls them, wins. Credit: Star Wars, Harry Potter, Unsplash.
About the Author
I graduated from the University of Toronto in political science, history, and geography. But I learned far more about the divide between Industrial Age and Internet Age on the frontline as a projectionist, contractor, adjuster, and especially when inventing a digital tool for an Industrial Age industry. I was once a Left/Right ideologue (both sides) but left them behind long ago, and have been thinking of a better way ever since. I wrote this book for my fellow people in the middle-class, so we can all live happier lives as soon as possible.
