Mindfeed

"The subliminal undertow of the mindfeed felt like a layer of gelatin lubricating every conscious thought; factoids and assumptions rose to the surface of awareness unbidden only to dissolve once expressed. "Like gnats," he thought, leaning into his augmented exosuit. "Digital mayflies canvassing my synapses and quietly expiring." The notion weighed on his conscience. He imagined the husks of dead insects clinging to the warm, wet lining of his skull, impervious to decay."

- Mac Tonnies - story fragment via this 2005 PHB post

I didn't intend to post today, but during my daily cyber-surf I came upon 2 adjacent posts on Boing Boing, both of which related to Mac in an odd way.

The first was an article regarding an exhibit by photographer Charles Gatewood, which features the photograph of William Burroughs posted above. Burroughs was an important author to Mac; he reviewed all of Burrough's books on his website, found here.

The second Boing Boing post features an interview with author Vernor Vinge. I know Mac mentioned Vinge in the past and upon searching PHB, I came upon this mention of Vinge and the story fragment above. I sometimes overlook how involved Mac was with Transhumanism, though, in the end, it was probably his most compelling influence, evidenced by this page also found on his website.

(Thanks to David Pescovitz and Mark Frauenfelder for inspiring this interesting mash-up.)

UPDATE: Also, for those who may have missed it, a recent interview with author William Gibson by Frauenfelder can be found here, There is also a heads-up to the recent "Scientific American" Gibson interview in this post by Cory Doctorow.