(2009-06-29) Webb Macroscope Reboot

Matt Webb gave the kickoff at Reboot-11 on the Macro Scope theme. (Oddly, he never associates the term with Bucky Fuller. Though he does credit John Thackara, who used the term more recently.)

*Ze Frank: “When people start learning something new, they perceive the world around them differently. If you start learning how to play the guitar, suddenly the guitar stands out in all the music you listen to. [...] as more and more people have access to things like iMovie, they begin to understand the manipulative power of editing. Watching reality TV almost becomes like a game as you try to second-guess how the editor is trying to manipulate you.”

Every time a person takes into their own hands the tools of production, it’s like they have eaten a Macro Scope. They see and feel the world in Context. They are able to not just consume, but to produce, to invent culture.* (Constructivism)

When you contribute, when you participate in culture, when you’re no longer solving problems, but inventing culture itself, that is when life starts getting interesting.