millsworks

Michael Geist appeared on TV Ontario’s The Agenda last week, along with Bob Wiseman (formerly of Blue Rodeo), Matt Hartley of the Globe and Mail, Grant Dexter of MapleMusic, and Andy Maize of the Skydiggers and MapleMusic.

It’s a great discussion about the changes in culture and business wrought by digital downloading of music (in particular but other media by inference) with the clear emphasis being on how any business has to attend to the needs and desires of the consumers citizens who buy the products and services being offered for sale.

While the big attention being paid to the disruptive effects of digital media, commerce and accessibility invariably focuses on the music, film and television industries we can clearly see a rising tide of resonant effect in other industries as citizens become used to and insist upon having the ability to speak loudly and clearly about what they want and don’t want. This ripple-to-tsunami effect on the culture will touch more than industry, reaching deep into the processes of governance, law and how we share this planet with each other.

I’ve often been accused of being naive whenever I look past the current state of things and attempt to get a glimpse of the further consequences which await us. Naiveté connotes ignorance and while I might sometimes be admittedly dirt stupid about many things I’d like to believe I am far from ignorant. There’s a difference between naive and hopeful; and I am hopeful for what lies in store for us as we continue to embrace and use these new tools, these new extensions of our senses. It harkens back to Stewart Brand‘s arguably hubric “We are as gods … “ statement in the opening pages of 1969′s The Whole Earth Catalog:

We are as gods and might as well get good at it. So far, remotely done power and glory — as via government, big business, formal education, church — has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate, personal power is developing — power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment, and share his adventure with whoever is interested.

That’s not naive and it sure as shit is more than just being hopeful. It is a declaration of intent and one we would all do well to remember and embrace. The arguments of today in response to how our past is being changed before our eyes is, at best, a mildly interesting discourse.

The better conversation is: What do we do next?

Cheers.

P. S. And as we accelerate on our journey into the future-now we must still contend with the heavy clay-laden feet of the dying dinosaurs as they waddle behind us and eagerly copy each others lies to justify their indolence and greed.