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Reposted by R.U. Sirius

Tao Neuendorffer

@taonf.bsky.social

Exiles on Mind Street
• Spoonman
• Justin Hall
• Vagabond Jim
• Howard Rheingold @hrheingold.bsky.social

Interview by R.U. Sirius @rusirius.bsky.social
Photos by RE: DESIGN
#Mondo2000 #Cyberpunk
archive.org/details/Mond...

In some sense, they're part of a community of idealistic exiles from Hotwired, hired there to build a cutting edge webzine only to be shunted aside for taking the medium where it wants to go.
But in the process of dreaming a beautiful web of communities, they couldn't stop dreaming. And so there evolved Jonathan Steuer's Cyborganic, a web and In-Real-Life community that has succeeded in becoming a vital center among the younger techno-hippie types. And there's the other exiled Hotwired web-master, Brian Bellendorf's own Organic Online, running in parallel to Cyborganic—more a link in the Web than a competitor.

And now, here comes the man his-self, the boomer Editor-In-Chief of networking idealism, dOOds and gurls... it's Howard! He of the infamous psychedelic tennis sneakers, now electric Kinko's. He edited the Whole Earth Review for many years and was deeply involved in the influential online community, The Well.
When The Well, under new management, showed a disinterest in the opinions of its netizens, he lead a small troop of pilgrims off to form The River, a cooperative bbs that hasn't quite jelled yet, but is still trying. And now, he's front page techno-news with Electric Minds, a webzine-in-progress with some apparent wallop. With his partner, Randy Haykin, founding vice president of sales and marketing for Yahoo!, providing business cred, Electric Minds announced itself BIG as "pioneer-ing the social Web... the next phase of the Virtual Community Movement." Of course, press releases are supposed to be declamatory.
In person, Howard Rheingold carries a degree of skepticism, partly the result of being portrayed as a naïve, over-optimistic fool. I can relate.

Howard's team is a kind of who's who of net activism, ranging from the ridiculously young to the boomerly, with voices ranging from utopian (Mark Pesce) to cynical (Bob Rossney).

Camped on the outskirts of San Francisco's trendy Silicon Gulch, down by the waterfront in the old software district,

the Electric Minds office is in chaos when I arrive. They're still moving in.
Furniture is upended.
There's no receptionist.
Howard throws himself down on a beanbag chair and introduces me to the staff members who happen to be available for today's discussion.
I'm a little disappointed that it's a boys club. They all remain at their computers-talking and tapping at keys simultaneously—supergeek parallel processing. Let's meet them:

• Spoonman: No, not that really old guy in the Soundgarden video who plays with spoons. In his forties, this Spoonman (aka Mark Petrakis) is famous in the Bay Area for his big chaotic live Electronie Vaudeville spectacles. His Cobra Lounge performance gatherings are living proof that performance art can be big fan.
A networking veteran, he was putting together a San Francisco-based SF/Telecircus, originally for inclusion in Hotwired, when the winds of change shifted.
So now he's putting together the multimedia Worldwide Jam section for Electric Minds.

• Justin Hall: Don't let his unconscionably pretty face and generally sweet disposition fool you. 22-year-old Justin Hall can be a sharp young smartass when he wants to be.
The kid virtually conquered the Web with "Justin's Links from the Underground." In those prehistoric days of the Web about a year or so ago, you might have heard his name whispered in awe among net surfers. Too young to have a Curriculum Vitae, he may never need one in the conventional sense.

• Vagabond Jim: Previous to designing the entire website for Sega at the age of 19, Jim's basic experience was being a kid and then being a young man in college. Oh yes, and being an acid head. Now he's the Production Manager.

Pace: Some will probably bristle at having Electric Minds portrayed largely as a vision-in-exile from Hotwired but what the hell, anything for a good title.
And I just wanted to be able to say

"USE THE FORCE, HOWARD!"
—R.U. Sirius

HOW DID THEY GET LIKE THIS?

R.U. Sirius: Howard, there seems to be a trajectory around your involvement in net community activism. It runs from The Well to a period where you attempted to edit Hotwired. And then you started The River, a co-op bbs made up primarily of wellheads distressed by the activities of the new owner, Jonathan Katz. And now you're into Electric Minds.

Howard Rheingold: The Well experience was one where the notion that users can create the content 1st became deeply ingrained. And participating in a public discourse online is certainly something I like to do. It's a habit that I've had for more than ten years now... hours a day! So, despite an increasing awareness of the pitfalls, I'm still a believer in the potential of the Internet for many-to-many communications. Some of that is just for business. Mostly frivolity. But sometimes community actually happens. That's the foundation.

See, it's not just, "Here we are. We're the publishers. We’ll sell you this stuff and you give us your money. And we'll sell your attention to advertisers." It's a new kind of medium where the audience becomes part of the show.

Now, the whole Hotwired debacle had it's roots in a time when Jonathan Steuer was a grad student at Stanford. He had the keys to a terminal room that had a bunch of work stations and a Tl connection. So people would head down to Stanford from San Francisco late at night, bring a bunch of junk food and some tunes. We'd sneak into this room and have fun with the Net…
So I got drawn into creating Hotwired through Jonathan. It was really Jonathan and I and Louis and Barbara planning out the original design. But, ultimately there were two conflicting visions. There was the vision of people who really live online, a populist vision of this many-to-many medium. And then there was the idea that it's a franchise of Wired…

Anyway, some of the things that I wanted to do when I first saw the Web, and didn't get to do for Hotwired, I still want to do.

HR: Wouldn't it be great if Americans supported the artists with their tax dollars? Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to sell ads in order to pay people decently? If you're an artist in the Netherlands, the money appears in your bank account every month. Of course, there's a 60% income tax rate…
So, the question, is this commodification? Yes it is. I wish it didn't have to be. What's the solution? The working classes are going to revolt and set up a dictatorship of the proletariat and then resources will be allocated fairly?

RU: But just looking at it from a really broad perspective, not taking it so personally. Looking at the amount of money being made off the Net and the Web.
Contrast that with the value being put into this system by content providers and what we're getting in return.
Shouldn't some of this money go back in the other direction? It could be a resolution to the unemployment problem... lots of people paid to be content providers..

HR: Yeah, I like the idea. We're trying to do just that. It starts with a minority of people being paid to make great conversation. That's a start.
The whole idea of The River is exactly that. The people who make the conversation, which is the content, which is the product, own and govern it. It's a co-op.
Of course, the thing is that co-ops are really raucous and endlessly argumentative. Endless boring arguments till the only people left are the ones who like to argue.
Either way, there's problems. I think one thing that's uniquely American is that we think that problems have solutions.

VJ: But one of the things I love here is that every time I come to work, something new happens that changes how you think about things. Different approaches to design. Things come up that I wouldn't think of if it weren't for the creative environment and collaboration. Things happen in your brain that wouldn't ordinarily happen. It's why I like drugs and it's why I like collaborations.
The people around you modify your brain.

November 29, 2025 at 1:49 PM

R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

He Killed for the CIA in Afghanistan. Trump Blames Afghan Culture Instead of Langley’s
zeteo.com/p/national-g...

He Killed for the CIA in Afghanistan. Trump Blames Afghan Culture Instead of Langley’s

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zeteo.com

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Reposted by R.U. Sirius

R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

== A TRIP THROUGH THE OUTER BURROUGHS ==

R.U. in conversation with Alex Johnson, editor of ‘The Junk Merchants: A Literary Tribute to William S. Burroughs’:

magazine.mindplex.ai/post/bowie-b...

Bowie Burroughs Black Sabbath Oh My! An Interview with Avant-Garde Writer/Publisher Alex Johnson

A vivid, name-rich conversation with Alex S. Johnson traces the wild intersections of cyberpunk, neurodivergence, cult literature, and countercultural art—told with irreverence, intellect, and unapolo...

magazine.mindplex.ai

November 28, 2025 at 6:14 PM

R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

also, he DID do this in Afghanistan

George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 22h

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

Simcere religious girls!

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@rusirius.bsky.social

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@rusirius.bsky.social

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

"6-7" explained by the LA Public Library

The reference desk at your public library is an amazing tool.

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

Butterfly Nebula revealed by Gemini South telescope

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025...

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

== A TRIP THROUGH THE OUTER BURROUGHS ==

R.U. in conversation with Alex Johnson, editor of ‘The Junk Merchants: A Literary Tribute to William S. Burroughs’:

magazine.mindplex.ai/post/bowie-b...

Bowie Burroughs Black Sabbath Oh My! An Interview with Avant-Garde Writer/Publisher Alex Johnson

A vivid, name-rich conversation with Alex S. Johnson traces the wild intersections of cyberpunk, neurodivergence, cult literature, and countercultural art—told with irreverence, intellect, and unapolo...

magazine.mindplex.ai

November 28, 2025 at 6:14 PM

R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

seen on fbook this morning

Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012), Avatar, 1947

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R.U. Sirius

@rusirius.bsky.social

The Triumph of the Won't

We age how we age
Watch successful people surpass us
We’re tripping falling grasping laughing
Mostly resisting… everything

In an age of remorse
They’re staying the course
They do what we don’t
In the Triumph of the Won’t

November 28, 2025 at 12:36 AM