{"id":406,"date":"2007-05-02T09:04:08","date_gmt":"2007-05-02T17:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/02\/dorkbot-psipunk-tonite\/"},"modified":"2007-05-03T13:22:32","modified_gmt":"2007-05-03T21:22:32","slug":"dorkbot-psipunk-tonite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/02\/dorkbot-psipunk-tonite\/","title":{"rendered":"Dorkbot Psipunk"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I performed my Psipunk <\/a>talk at the Dorkbot SF <\/a>gathering on May 2, 2007.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the afternoon I spent some time with my favorite person in SF, the co-owner of Monkeybrains, Inc<\/a>. We visited the data center where his cabinets of servers live, checking on a machine that\u2019s sending out a 128 Meg movie of Ludacris several times a second—a.o.k. Speaking of video, there’s a funny video interview<\/a> of Monkeybrain moguls Rudy, Jr., and Alex Menendez online.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rudy Jr.\u2019s foodhacking <\/a>friend Marc Powell made ant and raspberry gum-drops for the event!<\/p>\n

The dedicated rabble-rouser and Dorkbot impresario Karen Marcelo <\/a>posted a slideshow’s worth of DorkbotSF #34 images<\/a> on Flickr. We didn’t manage to tape or video it, but Rudy, Jr., pointed out that the telepathic bricks in Chicken John\u2019s wall have the event stored in their lazy eight memories so no prob.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Amsterdam I was uptight about my presentation because of culture shock and the language barrier, so when I was there I actually read my speech from a print-out of it I\u2019d prepared in advance—like liberal arts types often do. I\u2019d thought I might just read the same speech again at Dorkbot, make it a no-brainer, but\u2014seeing all those hip, lively kids there, I didn\u2019t want to come on all stiff and fuddy-duddy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So I didn\u2019t use the text or, for that matter, any computer projection\u2014a good call, that last decision, as the Dorkbot projector was a balky device dangling from a swaying rope above the crowd of maybe two hundred, who were seated in church pews. I just stood up there and taught the lecture like a class and it went over well, lots of laughs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I stayed till then end, then caught a train home. There were a bunch of other good presentations, one that particularly caught my attention was by a crew representing the Osaka incarnation of Dorkbot spoke, describing a vibby installation they called Openpool; they showed some Youtube videos <\/a>of it. The speaker\u2019s English was borderline incomprehensible, but, hey, how well do we speak Japanese? The images were lovely; turns out these Japanese dorks like the same kinds of things that we West coast dorks like: chaotic things. Big undulating domes of fabric. Dangling electronic mobiles twisting in the air currents.<\/p>\n

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I was listening to NOFX song \u201cThe Cause\u201d\u009d this week to psych myself up for the talk. It perfectly expresses why I\u2019m still out there doing things like Dorkbot and Flurb <\/a>for free, not that I\u2019m anywhere near as punk as Fat Mike. I can\u2019t find a video of the song online, but here\u2019s a video of their vibby song \u201cPunk Guy,\u201d\u009d mismatched with the lyrics for \u201cThe Cause.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It isn’t for the money
Nor is it for the fun
It’s a plan, a scam, a diagram<\/em>
It’s for the benefit of everyone
You gotta have a little respect
Subterranean ideals
Traditional of neglect
Reflect on how it would make you feel
The cause\u2014we’re just doing it for the cause<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

No it isn’t for the fortune, it isn’t for the fame
It’s a scheme, a dream, a barterine[?]
We want everyone to think the same<\/em>
Because you know what you know is right
And you feel what you can’t ignore
And you try so hard to point the blame
A shame\u2014what are we doin’ this for?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The cause\u2014we’re just doing it for the cause
The cause\u2014we’re just doing it for the cause<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Open, your eyes, don’t trust, these lies
What are we doin’ this for?
The cause\u2014we’re just doing it for the cause
The cause\u2014we’re just doing it for the cause.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I performed my Psipunk talk at the Dorkbot SF gathering on May 2, 2007. In the afternoon I spent some time with my favorite person in SF, the co-owner of Monkeybrains, Inc. We visited the data center where his cabinets of servers live, checking on a machine that\u2019s sending out a 128 Meg movie of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}