[Noisebridge-discuss] Sleeping at NB

[Moxie Marlinspike]

On 12/23/2010 01:09 AM, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
>> And unfortunately there are things about noisebridge which make hacking
>> the motherfucking planet something you'd rather do somewhere else.
> 
> I think it would be awesome if you would list some of those here. I have
> a really hard time getting upset about someone sleeping on a sofa. what
> is the impact to me programming or reading? Perhaps that I can't sit on
> the sofa?

There's a certain "geography" of a place that defines what is likely or
possible to occur within it.  When you walk into Noisebridge, the
chances are high that you'll walk into a room of people watching TV on
the projector, playing video games, sleeping on the couches, or
comparing fart noise apps on their iphones.  With a few exceptions,
people don't go to Noisbridge because they've got a great idea, they go
to Noisebridge because they're bored.  And this defines the geography.

The world around noisebridge has its own geography: sidewalks are for
walking, stores are for buying things, the BART is for commuting to
work.  The geography of the sidewalk makes it difficult for me to ride a
bike on it, and the geography of a store makes it difficult for me
compose a symphony in it.  Both are totally possible, but there's
something about the way they're set up that provides a cultural
resistance to those activities.  And so in many ways the possibilities
of our lives are defined, and the only way to change that is to change
the geography.

When I see people doing things at Noisebridge that I consider inspiring,
they always appear to be sort of sneaking past the culture of what's
going on around them.  I'm not talking about a place that's buzzing with
happening projects along with a single person taking a nap in the
corner, but the inverse.  Ideally I think you'd want the geography of a
hackerspace to encourage inspiring projects, not set up a culture that
offers resistance to them.  If that's not the case, what's the
difference between Noisbridge and any other place?

> I'd love to hear about other issues because some of them are really
> probably something that does impact us all. It would be good to fix
> pressing issues that push you away because you're part of the reason
> that Noisebridge is such a fucking anarchist mess. You personally. :-)

I think Noisebridge is a really interesting experiment in public space,
but I'm sorry if I ever somehow gave you the impression that anarchy is
"no rules."  Anarchy is "no rulers," which is very different.
Anarchists actually *love* rules.  The "circle a" was Proudhon's
shorthand for "anarchy is order," and even the very first anarchist
writings were all about ideas for... rules!

I mean really, if Noisebridge is an "anarchist space" because it imposes
no rules in addition to the state framework it is surrounded by, does
that mean that Dolores park is an anarchist space too?

- moxie

-- 
http://www.thoughtcrime.org