The biological human was created to struggle
against chaos, to seek order, put things in their place. It is this
never ending quest that gives us something to do, something to strive
for. It is this quest that will eventually finish us.
We need chaos, the unexpected, the uncontrollable. It is only
through mutation, disorder, messiness that we grow as humans and become
more god like.
Technology will eventually completely rob our souls from us,
dehumanizing others to the point where a point and click will terminate
a relationship.. A point and a click may eventually signify the end of
a life. We are already heading in that direction. Think smart bombs,
cruise missles.
I read today of a 18 foot wide vending machine that basically
replaces a convenience store. It is being field tested here in the US.
The Roboshop is already popular in Japan, where space is at a premium
and wages are high for unskilled labor.
Imagine a world with no convenience stores or more importantly no
convenience store clerks, waiters, service folks. There would be no
friendly hellos, no eye contact, no have a nice day. We will all live
our lives inside the bubble of our needs that are instantaneously
satisfied, gratified, and quelled. We will download our music, order
groceries on the web, pick up milk and eggs from a vending machine,
self check out at K-mart. We won’t go outside to check the weather or
look at the sky. We will watch CNN to tell us what to think. We will
bio-engineer our children, take more pills to delay aging, and seize
more and more control. Like a hungry dictator we will pacify the
masses. Give them what is good for for them. Control is everything.
We have fewer children later in life. We control reproduction. It’s
messy business. The time isn’t right. Well guess what? The time is
never right for messiness. Messiness is something we would never choose
for ourselves. We never choose disorder. It serendipitously finds us.
It must. We need it. It is the guide that we need it to be. Want has
nothing to do with anything. What we think we want trips us up, lets us
down, and never ever meets our expectations.
Yet we want to control. We WANT to know. It’s built in. We classify,
pacify, and create structure. We crave control like crack cocaine. The
more we have the more we want and less satisfied we are.
Here’s the Rub
I sometimes get a glimpse into the world of Microsoft. Why did
Windows succeed so completely, so dominantly? Windows is everywhere. It
is on every new PC. It’s bought stolen, copied, pre-installed. We want
it and we will do anything to get it.
I am more and more convinced that it is because Microsoft gives the
drug addict what he craves so desperately. Control. While the service
centered Unix world was carefully creating interdependence among their
consultants and Value Added Resellers (VARS), Microsoft was out
creating a cheap product individual customers could use and control on
their very own. It was simple. It was not multi-user. It gave the basic
user a sense that it was something they could manage. It did not take a
staff of sysadmins and a ten thousand dollar budget to get it up and
running and do something useful. The PC running Microsoft Windows, gave
us poor humans a bone to chew on. Sure it was just a bone, but
we owned that bone. We bought it and it was ours, and we didn’t have to
depend on ANYONE.
Windows is a technology that is built to satisfy humanity’s all
consuming craving for control. Bill Gates has known this for some time.
Bill knows we want the crack. He supplies the crack. We reward him.
Sure our lives are miserable, but he gives us what we feel is control.
He supplies us with technology to buy and use. We have a problem we
download a patch. We fix the problem. We have a virus, we buy a virus
scanner. We need to create a document, we buy Word. We buy a solution,
prepackaged with all the features Microsoft has told us we would need.
Why deal with the messy details of our particular problem.
Why try to explain it someone and have them help us out. Just buy some
software and all problems fit nicely into its container. All supersets
do not exist. Problems outside the glossy plastic and End User License
Agreement simply cannot be.
Maybe you need to buy another piece of software or wait until Microsoft tells you that the problem exists.
In our culture of self-reliance it was the car that beat out the bus or train.
The Camel of Chaos Puts Its Nose in the Tent
I don’t know if Linux will ever overtake Microsoft. I don’t know if
liberation will ever overtake order. I do know that there has begun a
revolution though. Linux was created by an ethnic swede living in
Finland, named Linus
Torvalds. Linux was created by a person who wanted a Unix machine but
could not afford it. He decided to do something to take control of the
situation. He wrote a version of Unix for himself and named it Linux.
He pacified his need, he created order.
Like a madman though, Linus threw it all away. He threw a monkey
wrench into the mix. He scattered his jigsaw puzzle. He shuffled the
deck. He kicked down the towering cathedral and tossed its pieces to
the hungry mob. You are hungry, he said. Feast on this.
Linus made one particular decision that would plunge the world of
technology into a state of disorder the likes of which have never been
seen. He gave his code away.
The hunger that had consumed so many without them even knowing it,
had left them gaunt, wild-eyed. They had been users, disconnected from
each other, feeding on what they thought would nourish their souls.
They had not realized what the truth was, and how with it, they would
never go hungry again.
Linux just may give us hope afterall.
Linux is about messiness, confusion, interdependence. It is harder
to use, harder to accept. Its Truth is not for the faint of heart.
Linux requires of you. It requires that you deal with people to get it
running to use its potential. Linux requires that you admit your need,
admit your failings, admit your incompleteness. It will never lie to
you. However, should you accept it, Linux will take you to heights that
few users have known.
Linux did not come to conquer Bill Gates. Linux did not come to define your problem and solve it.
Linux came to give you something that you might not want. Linux will set you free.
Now, I don’t know if Linux is the future of computing or not. Will
it be killed not by Microsoft but by the listlessness and smallness of
humanity? Will Linux be struck down by our inability to accept chaos
and its
inability to solve our need for order?
I don’t know the answers. But I do know one thing. If technology
will eventually dehumanize us to the point where life has no meaning,
then Linux is our only hope.
"Daddy, can we watch the Spiderman DVD?"
You have arrived on the island of Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory in the Caribbean Sea. You have traveled a long way, about 1000 miles south east of Florida in the Greater Antilles and about 500 miles north of Venezuela. I would love to tell you all about Puerto Rico, but instead of all the basics, I will try to give you the flavor, el sabor, of Puerto Rico. El Sabor means "the flavor" in the local language of Spanish.