[yankput]

Yes and no.

The libertarianism the article speaks of at the end gave way to right-wing populism, while Silicon Valley moved into mixture of hard capitalism and social justice (dodging taxes and monopolizing while showing pride flags)

I think this utopian techno-libertarian is more like a relic from the 90s nowadays.

edit: on the other hand… it gave rise to bitcoin/cryptocurrency, which is like the culmination of both techno-utopianism and libertarianism. So, maybe you are right

[FrustratedMonky]

I miss the "utopian techno-libertarian". There was a time in the 90's where I think a lot of people did believe they would change the world for the better. Who knew the old paradigms would still win in the end, the rich took the spoils, and the technology was subverted.

[flir]

I always think of grunge. Counter culture in a Seattle basement to Milan catwalks in about 15 minutes flat.

It seems the system co-opts everything, including rejection of the system.

[sharemywin]

The One, also known as the Prime Program, is a systemic feature of the Matrix wherein a special code is carried by a randomly selected human being. This person is then gifted vast superhuman abilities as an avatar within the Matrix, which sometimes manifests as extraordinary powers in the real world. The special code has the function to collectively attach, to the person that carries it, all of the anomalies which emanate from the few humans who continue to reject the Matrix. This essentially makes The One an "Integral Anomaly" or the SUM of all anomalies.

The mechanisms by which The One appears are rather simple and arranged in the Prime Program process: when the anomalies in the Matrix reach a certain threshold and begin to pose serious problems, a random human is selected by the machines to be born with a special code (the Integral Anomaly) that, as said before, ties and attaches all of the anomalies within the Matrix to the programming of this human. The Oracle, who is aware of The One's existence and purpose because it is her duty to guide humanity to find The One, will enlighten him to his true nature and lead him towards the Source where he fulfills his purpose of reinserting the Prime Program and resetting the Matrix. She does this by predicting the return of The One to the people of Zion to aid them in freeing humanity from the Machines' grip. The Architect, as creator of the Matrix, is also well aware of The One's existence and purpose, referring to The One as an "eventuality".

[JuanPosadas]

I just use a cronjob to restart my nodejs apps at 4am to prevent memory leaks.

[giraffe_lady]

Yes that is exactly how it works, there's a lot of literature on the subject. Any genuinely transgressive movement has its aesthetics, but not necessarily its values, repackaged as a consumer identification and subsumed into the mainstream of the culture.

Grunge is a good example but the same thing happened to punk a generation earlier. Consciousness-raising sessions and second wave feminism quickly became unilever marketing cosmetic products using the language of empowerment. Pride was originally the first anniversary of a riot but now JP Morgan and the cops themselves are comfortable putting out a rainbow float. etc etc etc there are thousands of examples.

Anything that's visually recognizable as transgression will be commoditized until it's no longer transgressive. Many many cultural and art phenomena are downstream of and in response to this mechanic of consumer capitalism.

[flir]

I'm gonna say punk's the odd one out there, because Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren were there at the heart of it with SEX right from the get-go. So the time-to-commercialization on that one might actually be zero, or possibly negative, which gives it a slightly different character.

(I can see the other point of view, which is that Westwood was a nobody until consumerism took her and her designs to its bosom).

[tomjen3]

Its was always hilarious to me that you could get communists tee shirts very easily - as long as you where willing to pay for them.

I guess I never really thought that commodification also worked for the values I grew into.

[Blackthorn]

All those people who proudly and loudly went to Burning Man were all too happy to become The Man when money became involved.

[kognate]

Everyone knew the old paradigms would still win in the end. The master’s tools will not destroy the master’s house, after all. But the people made (more) wealthy and powerful by the old paradigms had a lot of incentive to pretend otherwise.

[FrustratedMonky]

Not everyone knew. I was young and naive and bought into it. I was so doe-eyed innocent I didn't even realize there were old masters to watch out for. Of course we're going to change the world. - Guess this plays out in every generation, you need a big population of young and innocent that can be taken advantage of to keep the system running. Moloch marches on.