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Austinist Panel Part of Latest SXSW Interactive Additions
Each year, science fiction writer Bruce Sterling takes the stage for an hour at South by Southwest Interactive and turns on the jets: it's described as a state of the cybersphere address, but that's not an adequate phrase to encompass the dizzying stream of topics Sterling covers.
Monday's talk centered primarily on the relationship that authors and journalists have with their audience, but the part-time Austin resident delivered his spin on his status as a "global microbrand", his famous SXSW parties of years past, bookstores of the past and future, and the Europeanization of America.
Although he now splits his time between Austin; Turin, Italy; and Belgrade, Serbia, Sterling had plenty of suggestions to offer his part-time hometown.
"If I ran the Austin city council, here are a few things that I'd do:
- micropayment system payments run by the city;
- Linux netbooks, just buy them and give them away;
- Austin genius grants -- give someone $250,000 and get them to fix something; tell them to try something hard and fail;
- healthcare festivals;
- hang out with the elderly, they've to to be involved in online activities; they can be the backbone for a non-commercial social web;
- take over abandoned buildings and give them to young people, then get out of their way."
Sterling also recounted his recent visit to Brave New Books on Guadalupe, which he described as an example of the future of bookstores. Brave New Books describes itself as "one of the first brick-and-mortar bookstores in the country to focus on the myriad of political, economic, medical and spiritual scams that populate our mainstream media today." A bemused Sterling even found a copy of a book (Spychips by Katherine Albrecht) for which he wrote the introduction.
Even with its share of dystopia images, Sterling wrapped up his talk with an optimistic look toward the future.
"We've got more going on than we think," he said. "We've got enough to turn our thing, if not around, then into a genuine 21st century situation."
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Belgrade is in Serbia, Yugoslavia hasn't been around for quite awhile. oops.
My bad. It's now changed. Geography FAIL.