NY 2003

Putting Knowledge to Work®
June 7-12, 2003

Stewart Brand Futurist 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 10th Sponsored by

Stewart Brand first came to prominence in the early 1970s with two magazine articles. One, "Fanatic Life & Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums," appeared in Rolling Stone in 1972 and the other, "Unbinding-Conversations with Meta-naturalist Gregory Bateson," appeared in Harper's in 1973.

He expanded on these in a 1974 book from Random House called, Two Cybernetic Frontiers. The book, which looked at Gregory Bateson and cutting-edge computer science, had the first use of the term "personal computer" in print and was the first book to report on computer hackers.

In 1984, he joined Larry Brilliant, Matthew McClure, and Kevin Kelly in founding The WELL (Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link), a computer teleconference system for the San Francisco Bay Area. It now has 9,000 active users worldwide and is considered a bellwether of the genre. The system has received a number of accolades, including the 1988 Community Journalism Award from Media Alliance, 1990 Best Online Publication Award from Computer Press Association, and 1994 Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award. It is now owned by Salon.

In 1986, Brand became the visiting scientist at the MIT media laboratory. A year later he authored a book called, The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT, by Viking Penguin. The book, which is in its seventh printing, has been translated into Japanese, Korean, German, Italian, and Spanish (Spain and Latin America versions).

Brand joined Peter Schwartz, Jay Ogilvy, Napier Collyns, and Lawrence Wilkinson in 1988 to found the Global Business Network. He founded and ran the "GBN Book Club" from 1988 to 2000. GBN explores global futures and business strategy for 90 multinational giants such as Ford, Bechtel, Shell, Morgan Stanley, Hewlett Packard, Swedbank, Dupont, Federal Express, along with government clients such as DARPA. Many of GBN's scenario techniques can be found in the book The Art of the Long View. He still spends a quarter of his time working for GBN.

In 1994, Brand wrote, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built, from Viking-Penguin (US) and Orion (UK). The book received the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. SPNEA Prize. It is now in paperback.

In 1995, Brand joined Danny Hillis of The Long Now Foundation. The core projects are building a 10,000-year Clock (designed by Hillis) and tools and services toward a 10,000-year Library (such as the Rosetta Disk). Also on the board are Kelly, Peter Schwartz, Brian Eno, Douglas Carlston, Esther Dyson, Paul Saffo, and Michael Keller. Brand serves as president.

Brand authored another book called, The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility, in 1999. The book, published by Basic Books (US) and Orion (UK) is a mosaic of essays exploring the meaning and uses of a 10,000-year "now."

In 2001, Brand joined Kelly and Ryan Phelan of the All Species Inventory to find and document all of life on Earth in 25 years. A year later, he and Kelly, formed the Long Bets Foundation to foster accountability in long-term thinking.

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