Episode 3 of our companion podcast is now live! The Whole Earth Catalogue
Before there was Google, before the Internet, there was the Whole Earth Catalog: a hippie version of the Sears catalog for anyone who wanted to opt out, join a commune, and get back to the land. It also became the philosophy for Silicon Valley’s founding mythology. This week, we tunnel into how Stewart Brand’s 1970s guide to building your own civilization became the blueprint for Facebook, Amazon, and every digital platform promising to “democratize” your life—and why it just might be the basis for our current surveillance capitalism society.
Check out the full episode on our sister site: Radio Cinematica
The Internet Archive contains a whole subsection dedicated to the Whole Earth Catalogue and its various incarnations. You can peruse the various editions of the catalogue and the Whole Earth Universe here.
And if you want to watch Doug Engelbart present the “Mother of All Demos” you can watch it on Youtube here: “The Mother of All Demos”
Give a listen and whether you agree, disagree, love it or hate it, don’t forget to post a comment!
