There are few more iconic figures in the digital community than Stewart Brand, the effervescent founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, The Well, The Long Now Foundation and the guy who almost single-handedly connected the counterculture with cyberspace. So it was a real thrill to sit down last week with Stewart at The Economist‘s excellent Innovation event in Berkeley to talk about the origins of the gift economy, what the hippies got wrong (sex, the family & optimism), why the US and Europe have become so timid and how all the innovation is now coming from the south.
This is the first of a series of conversations that I’ll be running all week from the Innovation event. Later interviews will include Clay Christensen on the innovator’s dilemma, Vivek Wadhwa on racism in Silicon Valley and GE’s Beth Comstock on the oldest start-up in the world.
Born 14 Dec 1938, Rockford, Illinois, USA. 1954-56, Phillips Exeter Academy. 1960, Graduated in Biology, Stanford University. 1960-62, Active duty, U.S. Army officer. Qualified Airborne and took up skydiving. Taught basic infantry training and worked as photojournalist out of the Pentagon. 1962, Studied design at San Francisco Art Institute and photography at San Francisco State; participated in legal LSD study at International Foundation for Advanced Study, Menlo Park, California. 1963-66, Researched, photographed, designed, and performed multi-media event, “America Needs Indians.” Spent time on Warm...
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
