This is also the year the rabid wingnut fringe of the internet went completely mainstream. I feel a touch of perverse pride in having been tracking it from years before, although I՚m not sure why – if I was a professional pundit or prognosticator, detecting important ideas early should raise my reputation. But to be honest I had no idea these maniacs would turn out to be important, rather than just amusingly weird in a repulsive sort of way.
As is my practice, here՚s an attempt to cobble together some thematic unity after the fact:
The departed
- Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert both
- So many beloved artists: Gene Wilder and Leonard Cohen have been linked to in the past, but I also felt Prince and Bowie and Carrie Fisher just yesterday.
- Political hope
Politics and darkness
The sacred, work, play
Technology and geek culture
I declared a goal of writing about goals, but didn՚t end up doing much about it, at least not publicly. Lots of half-written ideas, waiting for the proper framework or format or moment to be fully articulated.
Prince gets the last word:
Life is just a party and parties weren՚t meant to last.
