I had the incredible pleasure of spending a cocktail party seated next to Stewart Brand back around '94. I did not know who he was, but by the end of the evening I was convinced this was the most witty, empathetic genius I'd ever encountered. And I've met quite a few. At one point, astonished at his quick wit, a group of us throw topics at him, and he knew them all, and the biting sarcastic jokes about them was how he let us know. Extremely fun guy.
I believe that when people are in high contact with things that look to the uninformed like serendipity, it's a sign of something in them as a sensory organ, and something they are tapped into in the information environment... though perhaps we don't have good enough language to label it yet.
Whatever a "sense of smell" is for information (and surprise, and comedy, and aliveness...), this confirmed to me that Stewart Brand totally has it.
Website as of May 02013 [sic]: https://sb.longnow.org/SB_homepage/Home.html
Books in Progress: https://books.worksinprogress.co/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_of_All_Demos
I believe that when people are in high contact with things that look to the uninformed like serendipity, it's a sign of something in them as a sensory organ, and something they are tapped into in the information environment... though perhaps we don't have good enough language to label it yet.
Whatever a "sense of smell" is for information (and surprise, and comedy, and aliveness...), this confirmed to me that Stewart Brand totally has it.