The story of human evolution is a story of innovation. Fire. Organized hunting. Social organization. Language. Domestication of plants and animals. Maritime Revolution. Industrial Revolution. Information Revolution, etc. In short, technology, from paleolithic to neolithic to cryptolithic technologies--i.e. man-made solutions to problems--makes the world go around. Technology has always driven human evolution as we as a species struggle to solve problems and create meaning for ourselves.
Today is no exception. Technology drives so many aspects of our lives, some of it for good, some of it not so good. One thing, though, is for sure: Global communities of like-minded people are being enabled by technology. For example, without the network, coworking communities such as Jelly would hardly be possible. Just knowing who is out there, what they are working on, and where they can meet up to cowork and possibly collaborate, is virtually impossible without wikis, blogs, and ubiquitous wi-fi. The various spears that we each use to hunt and gather in our efforts to make a living are mostly (though not exclusively) grounded in technologies that make communication across space easier.
Old-schoolers like to depreciate us because we spend lots of time connected on the network, their implicit (sometimes explicit) critique being something like this: With your head buried in your computer you are being anti-social and this is where all of society's problems originate. Fuck you! What we are really saying is we just don't want to socialize with you, because you are a dick! Rather, we socialize with people that are like us and that we want to get to know. It is a shame that very few of these people work in the same company as we do (most of them are dicks too), so we are using technology (our spears) to do what we need to do to have community in a postmodern world.
Hunting in San Francisco
Yesterday we hung out at the Hat Factory and Berkeley Coworking in San Francisco, where we had beautiful conversations with like-minded folks that I wish I worked with on a regular basis. That we were able to connect with them was made possible through previous connections with various people who put us in touch with other people (on the network). This bares out for us that the core ingredients of trust and affinity PLUS technology do enable community. While neither of us live in San Francisco, for the few days we have been here we have been welcomed in as part of a community, and that feels really good.
As for the bloke sitting one cube over from me back at the office, when he comes to San Francisco for his vacation (once in his whole life), he will have a really swell time at Fisherman's Wharf, riding the trolley cars, and eating Rice-a-Roni. After all, it is the San Francisco Treat.
The Butcher