Twitter came in 2006, and next the Apple iPhone in 2007. So what i had experienced in the ultra-wealth environment of 1999 started to become everyday-people Twitter of the world. And that lead to my 2009 prediction of the Arab Spring and my travel to Africa in 2010. But I didn't know of Rick Roderick's 1990's lectures then, I focused on Marshall McLuhan and Finnegans Wake, going from 1970 backwards to 1924... I didn't in 2009 look to Neil Postman's dire warnings from New York City pressure cook

As an autistic computer nerd, I am unusual in that I don't play video games. Even though I didn't discover / diagnose with autism until age 38, I didn't really like video games even when I had a Commodore 64 at age 15 in 1985. I was into social media back then, even programmed + sold a social media app like Reddit - organized by topic (like subreddits). I had social media two-way radio (base station with big antenna) before computer at age 13.

A non-gamer computer nerd autistic male is unusual

I have spent over 100 hours on a 3 hour film, Interstellar 2014, and some TV shows (True Detective) reading discussions. But I don't memorize films or TV shows. I tend to be interested in how people interpret then and their symbolic meanings.

I guess for me video games of arcade type are either too repetitive / and I find hand-eye coordination exhaustive or modern games I tend to be more interested in the story than the gameplay mechanics. YouTube and forums discussing game satisfy that for me.

yha, I changed topic. But I figured it is somewhat relevant to explain why I traveled to Africa and taken such an interest in Neil Postman since 2014.

Lots of people in 2024 now hate Twitter and what Twitter has become. I think Mastodon and Bluesky haven't escaped it. I think smartphone notification / information overload / distortion is what Neil Postman was describing with different tech but NYC life in 1980's 1990's. Neil Postman's words are far better than my own.

Maybe only now in September 2024 am I facing up to an overlooked understanding... maybe 2009 Arab Spring prediction I am too focused on my personal travel to Africa... and even overlooking my Russian encounters in Indonesia (there were many Russians i met in Bali).

If I consider Rick Roderick 1993 and Neil Postman 1985 / 1990's hitting USA so hard in 2007 with Twitter and Apple iPhone, the shock to Russia must have been extreme! #WarAllAgainstAll Surkov 2011 must have felt like Bellevue 1998.

Domestic Russia may have been hit very hard in 2009, 2010 too (like #ArabSpring2010 ) - to a point that CIA vs. Kremlin all got confused by the Arab Spring in not understanding WHO caused it. The underlying cause being predicted in "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology is a book by Neil Postman published in 1992".

Did Surkov crack the monomyth 2011 in revenge to smarpthones and Twitter, thinking that the CIA / Hillary Clinton did a media invasion of Russia for pro-democracy?

Has all this anti-NATO, "War of All against All", Ukraine invasion "goal not to win war, but destabilize perception" been a mistake?

Because Twitter may have been USA at first, but it was far more reaching than that - and the smarrtphone has as much to do with China hardware and electronics as USA. Digital cameras and phone cameras came from all over the world, the USA was not a leader there (Japan and others more).

Whatever autism reaction I was having to Bellevue, Washington Paul Allen Group "Wired World" culture in 1998 / 1999 was a burnout that I wouldn't wish on anyone. It "seemed nice" on the surface, but there was a kind of tension that the rapid wealth and rapid change brought upon people. And I think Microsoft Windows ME product shows that too (and IBM's intention with OS/2 was to have MULTIPLE vendors of OS/2 like MS-DOS, not ONLY Microsoft being source of Windows, like hardware chips licensed)

I'm crying as I write these posts ("This is the night of the expanding man. I take one last drag as I approach the stand: I cried when I wrote this song").

As the punch line of all this is that only now in September 2024 has the idea come together in my mind that the Arab Spring prediction I had in 2009 might have been an even BIGGER shock wave in 2008/2009 to Russia domestic society. And that is why I think #SurkovAndPutin made a huge mistake in 2011 in thinking the CIA was the cause... no.

I felt a burnout in 1998, 1999 in Bellevue Washington that was 10 years before I found out the details of autism / Asperger's syndrome. And I left corporate office culture work in 1999 after that experience, working from home since 1999 and I made travel a much bigger part of my life.

The burnout I felt in 1998 + 1999 Bellevue Washington I saw forming at #SXSW Austin in 2008, 2009 among the city population and Twitter + facebook. 2008 SXSW was WILD

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