1.) The current struggle taking place in Germany (and elsewhere, with less intensity) between the State, which purportedly seeks “security” through a complete and quite authoritarian control of cyberspace (and even all of communication, if one expands one’s perspective to include the various media already under direct and indirect control of the rapidly merging State/Corporate entity…privatization knows no bounds, an alarming truth with dangerously unexamined implications) and the tiny, if vociferously brave Freiheit Statt Angst movement whose very name (“Freedom instead of Fear”) spells the antidote to this hegemonist, panopticon-ish madness. What does it mean that this conflict is taking place in the cyber- and tele-electronic realm? (I think you guys know this already…)

2.) Make a serious effort to enlist Alex Gross, who is quite possibly the smartest man alive at this time. His investigations into both the central, if somewhat theoretical and almost entirely neglected consideration of the nature of language (what is it, anyway–the ridiculously cardboard Chomskian/Pinker-ton uniform construct or a multifarious palette for the painting of Mindscapes, or in the terminology of the late, great Dan Moonhawk Alford, Langscapes?) and also the practical world of “machine translation” are unique, invaluable and very, very promising. The following is the final footnote in a serio-comic exploration of “language as spraying” (yes, as in skunks…and humans) that Alex wrote some years ago:

I wish there were some way both programmers and translators could become aware of their many similarities. Both work at extremely demanding intellectual tasks requiring a high level of familiarity with specialized knowledge. Both tend to live somewhat solitary lives, punctuated by moments of self-indulgence. Both are beset by constant deadlines, and both are reputed to be something of drones. While the programmer often purports to despise language and sees himself as living in “Cyberspace,” the translator may feel hostile towards computer logic while setting up an almost mystical relationship with his dictionaries and envisioning himself as dwelling in a realm where reality and meaning meet. Perhaps both are mistaken in somewhat similar ways.

(Speaking of which, another terribly important & worthwhile resource on this “mistaken similarity” is Rudy Rucker, great-great-great-grandson of Hegel, sci-fi, mathematics & philosophy writer and another genial personality. If you contact him and ask him for his notes and a pdf on Chapter 4 of Infinity and the Mind–”Robots and Souls,” which includes his famous Conversations with Gödel, I’m sure he’d be more than willing to oblige. Just tell him that an iridescent cuttlefish sent you…he has a special affinity for my kind.)

Again with Alex Gross, however, and I can’t stress this too strongly: please contact Alex right now. He’s a warm & funny genius—none of that distracted aloofness we’ve come to expect of his vanishing breed. Come to think of it, if you put him and Rudy together on one of your projects, you just might get a proper introduction to the Geist in the machine.