Talk:Stewart Brand

sentences from steward brand about environmentalism -
i don't want to lose pieces of information. general ideas are summarized (or have to be ) and I move here the complete text from the books of Brand:

Urbanization: Traditionally, cities have been seen by Environmentalists as a major source of pollution, and dangerous in its lack of harmony with nature. However, there are some who believe that the Environmentalist movement should embrace the vertical orientation of population, and have shifted criticism towards suburban sprawl.

Nuclear Power: Among its harshest critics, nuclear power has long been associated with extremely harmful waste and potential disaster. But Environmentalists such as Stewart Brand have advocated nuclear power as being atmospherically clean, and argue that it is significantly safer than it was 50 years ago.

Genetic Engineering: In light of new genetic technologies, it may be possible to engineer both cattle and agriculture to sustain higher yields with less waste. However, there is a great deal of cynicism about technology in the Environmentalist movement, with genetically modified foods raising a great deal of concern in particular.

Hunting: The rights of animals have long been associated with the Environmentalist movement. However, other Environmentalists argue that there can be a powerful coalition with hunters and fishers who enjoy a safe, clean, and protected wilderness. They also note that individual hunters are less of a threat to the biosphere than more systemic abuses. However, for many environmentalists, cooperation with hunters and fishers simply goes against their fundamental principles.

Partisanship: Critics have noted that the current strategy of supporting individual candidates with strong environmental credentials is ineffective if that candidate is part of a political party that is largely anti-environment. Others are reluctant, however, to suggest that this means they should unconditionally support a rival political party, especially since what is generally true of a party is not true of all its members. There are also concerns that partisanship may saturate the goals of the environmentalist movement with other goals of that political party, and otherwise undermine the legitimacy of the cause.

If someone has a working contact for Stewart, please let me know. hkhenson@rogers.com, Keith Henson 18:37, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Whole Earth Catalog - Internet
I understand the point that the Whole Earth catalog sought to be a general reference and that in that sense it was analagous in function to the Internet, but I think to say that the catalog anticipated or was a precursor to the Internet any more than any other printed catalog or reference book is pushing the point a bit. --Nowa 11:51, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Well logo.gif
Image:Well logo.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 05:27, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

Whole Earth
Greetings. Which of the images in Earth belongs in this article? We had the "blue marble" from 1972. I have seen a cover of a 1968 Whole Earth Catalog (I think in this video) that impossibly has that image. Currently I have added the first photo of Earth but omitted another first, this Earth rise. Any opinions? -SusanLesch (talk) 03:05, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes, it is in that video at 12:33 with a caption that reads "1968 to 1974" so the date could be 1972. Except the source for thinking about this earlier is Brand himself at the Smithsonian which pictures a cover dated 1968 with a blue marble on the cover. I don't believe somebody here. -SusanLesch (talk) 16:06, 24 May 2011 (UTC)
 * User:Liberatus gives us a source!. Thank you very much. I leave it to a photo expert to add the right image here. -SusanLesch (talk) 19:44, 16 November 2012 (UTC)

More needs to be said about "How Buildings Learn"
"How Buildings Learn" is a very nice commentary on architecture by an amateur, however, the most important point Stewart writes about is his recanting of geodesic domes which he advocated in Whole Earth Catalog. The book deserves to have more written about it. 143.232.210.45 (talk) 21:08, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

American Indian section should be deleted
The "American Indian" section of this article is odd: Brand isn't really known, in any substantial or defining way, for work about/with native peoples: they crop up in his various works in the manner which they appeared in a lot of stuff from the 1960's, as a sort of token. By this rationale, every bio of a 60's figure should include such a section. I'm sure he's mentioned African-Americans in his works: should there be a section on them as well? He mentions Costa-Ricans, Africans, Norwegians, Maori, Aboriginies, New Zealanders, etc. in his works as well...should they have sections as well? You see my point, I hope. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.110.123.197 (talk) 22:13, 29 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Done. That's a great comment, thank you. -SusanLesch (talk) 16:11, 24 May 2011 (UTC)

It’s probably a mistake for the subject of an entry to read any of the discussion, but I did, so I’ll add some grist to the mill here. My involvement with Indians began in 1963, half a decade before they became a hippy hobby. Back then the only non-anthropologists interested in Indians were (I later learned) Gary Snyder, Marlon Brando, and Ken Kesey. A new book HIPPIES, INDIANS, & THE FIGHT FOR RED POWER, by Sherry L. Smith, begins with my story with Indians and weaves it through the rest of the book. A short version of that story is on pages 235-238 of my WHOLE EARTH DISCIPLINE. The bio page of my website mentions that I created and performed a multi-media show called “America Needs Indians” from 1963-1966. My first published writing was “The Native American Church Meeting” in Psychedelic Review 9, in 1966. As noted in the entry, I married an Ottowa Indian, Lois Jennings, that same year. The Smithsonian Institution invited me to write an article for THE HANDBOOK OF NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS titled “Indians and the Counter-culture, 1960s-1970s.” It finally appeared in 1988 in Volume 4 of the Handbook: HISTORY OF INDIAN-WHITE RELATIONS. Kesey once said to me, “Whatever else you do in your life, you’ll always be known as America-Needs-Indians Brand.”  --Stewart Brand  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.5.112.19 (talk) 22:36, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Political orientation/criticism?
I note that there's criticism of Stewart Brand on the internet, alleging that his leanings serve corporate and/or libertarian interests at the expense of the environmentalism he professes. If this argument does exist in print, and has some validity, I think it'd improve the balance of the article.

Here are some links from a quick google search:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aunofficial&client=firefox-a&hl=en&q=cache:b53829Tu2XcJ:http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/romantic_chasm.html+stewart+brand+libertarian+criticism&ct=clnk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/georgemonbiot/2010/nov/05/stewart-brand-pesticide

https://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/25-3 66.91.63.239 (talk) 06:26, 16 September 2011 (UTC)

Post-2011-Japanese-tsunami thinking?
Re: Whole Earth Discipline: One main topic area of the book is Brand's reasoned appeal in favor of (and to assuage readers' fears about) nuclear power-plant utilization and proliferation. But now we've lived through a year in which the world public has been barraged by media reportage depicting the effects of earthquake & tsunami on a nuclear plant built and used in a disciplined, modern society - raising issues, to be sure. By any account, what happened in northern Japan has been a huge tragedy. How isolated an event this is remains to be seen. So I'd think readers of this article will wonder what Brand is saying nowadays. If anyone has info on this, it might be worth ammending the article.Joel Russ (talk) 23:50, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Organization/layout
I wonder if there is a better way to organize this section with the section headings. It seems kind of hard to follow currently. Anyone else feel similarly or have any ideas? AdventurousSquirrel (talk) 00:25, 9 August 2012 (UTC)
 * Hi, AdventurousSquirrel. My suggestion is to stuff our desire for order. Just forget it. If there is an exception in the U.S. to rigorous cataloging it is Mr. Brand. -SusanLesch (talk) 20:02, 17 November 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Stewart Brand. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20050518140354/http://www.massivechange.com:80/PDF/INF_StewartBrand.pdf to http://www.massivechange.com/PDF/INF_StewartBrand.pdf

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 09:19, 18 October 2015 (UTC)

Reference item 6 - Brand, Stewart. "Photography changes our relationship to our planet". Smithsonian Photography Initiative. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
Note - The Smithsonian link does not work. I found the following on the Wayback Machine. This is my first recommendation on Wikipedia.

https://web.archive.org/web/20090327075119/http://click.si.edu/Story.aspx?story=31 Tom Christoffel - Northern Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA (talk) 04:25, 7 February 2017 (UTC)

Brand and consciousness, info, creativity & world reshaping
Just a few bits of info about S.B and his outlook on emerging prospects for creative world changing. Quotes from publications that sometimes use direct quotes from S.B. himself:

from Andrew G. Kirk, Counterculture Green

“His views on sustainability, ecology, and quality of life were shaped by the world of ideas in which he had enmeshed himself: photography, computers, engineering, design, military service, ecology, music, art, and science…” pg. 42

“Even as he was training to become an ecologist, Brand maintained his fundamental belief in the power of people to fix big problems.” pg. 34

From: "Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Catalog, the book that changed the world" by Carole Cadwalladr

"'We are as gods and might as well get good at it,' wrote Brand on the title page of the Whole Earth Catalog. Up until now, he noted, power has been in the hands of "government, big business, formal education, church". But now "a realm of intimate, personal power is developing – power of the individual to conduct his own education, find his own inspiration, shape his own environment and share his adventure with whoever is interested. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the Whole Earth Catalog."

“While scientists like Doug Englebart (who had, like Brand, taken part in LSD-assisted creativity sessions) came to believe that computers would be part of that. They were were developing the hardware while Brand was articulating a vision of how they might be a new tool to empower ordinary people: small scale, democratic and free." (note Doug Englebart was a good friends of Brand)

“'Lots of people try and change human nature but it's a real waste of time. You can't change human nature, but you can change tools, you can change techniques.'" And that way "'you can change civilisation'".

[above quotes from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/05/stewart-brand-whole-earth-catalog ]

From: "The invention of Google before Google — a radical mail-order 'Catalog'" by John Markoff

"Art Kleiner, editor in chief of Strategy+Business, who worked at CoEvolution Quarterly, a follow-on to the catalog, pegs Brand’s contribution as not just providing people with access to tools, but also instilling in them a deep faith in human progress. 'It was the idea, ‘Let’s take this baby, humanity, out on the road and see what it will do,’' he said."

[above quote from https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-markoff-stewart-brand-whole-earth-catalog-20180328-story.html ]

I plan to cite these publications to support a re-introduction of a short passage that was previously in the S.B. article here on Wikipedia.

Anti-metric stance
Brand was famously anti-metric-system in the 1970s. This seems worth mentioning. Hopefully with fewer expletives than float around in my head. Aldenrw (talk) 03:16, 29 November 2020 (UTC)

De-extinction project
https://www.weareasgods.film/ I just watched this film, We Are As Gods (2021). While it provides a full and fascinating biographical account of Brand’s life and work, it focuses on his current controversial project of restoring ecosystems by bringing back extinct species like the wooly mammoth. I don’t see that aspect of his work covered at all in the current article. I am new to this side of Wikipedia, so would someone out there like to take this on? Ladyalight (talk) 02:59, 21 July 2023 (UTC)

S.B. during Jerry Brown's first California governorship
Revirvlkodlaku removed the section about Brand being appointed by Jerry Brown as a special advisor, since it was not referenced. However, that episode in Brand's life is a fact. I'm pretty sure a citation can be made — reliable info to be found in John Markoff's detailed bio of Brand, Whole Earth, (2022, Penguin hardcover). Sorry, can't supply page numbers because I don't own a copy, but borrowed it from the local library a few months ago.Joel Russ (talk) 15:43, 28 July 2023 (UTC)
 * @Joel Russ, I'd be happy to put that content back in the article, but I think it should be referenced. Revirvlkodlaku (talk) 01:14, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Your work is commendable, and I respect your reason for the deletion. If I had Markoff's book, I'd make the citation. However, the library I borrowed it from is about an hour's drive from my home, so... I only mentioned the book because I thought some Wikipedian might grab a copy of it sooner than I'd get to it to find the reference.Joel Russ (talk) 02:40, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
 * @Joel Russ, that's fair, and thanks for being gracious about it. Let's leave this here and see what happens. Cheers! Revirvlkodlaku (talk) 03:18, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
 * From 1977 to 1979, Brand served as "special advisor" to the administration of California Governor Jerry Brown.
 * The book is difficult to navigate and the footnotes aren’t useful. The dates aren’t clear and neither is the language.  According to Markoff, Brand held the title of special assistant for more than a year during his paid position, and informal advisor before and after that position.  The more interesting thing about this part in his life, is that the paid position with the state led to Brand abandoning his more narrow libertarian beliefs, as he now believed good government could work (per Markoff). The relevant page numbers are noted in the index: 98, 225-227, 230, 231, and 348. Viriditas (talk) 04:38, 29 July 2023 (UTC)


 * While Markoff 2022 supports some of the content, it looks like the original edits came from the article "Learning from the West Coast: Long-Termism and Change: An Interview with Stewart Brand" by Peter Murray, In Alex Lifschutz (Ed.) (2017). Loose-Fit Architecture: Designing Buildings for Change, page 28. Anyway, that’s the source that supports the old material, however it should be supplemented with the revised Markoff material as well and added back. Viriditas (talk) 04:54, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Revirvlkodlaku, about the "special advisor" position: besides the Markoff book, please look here:
 * https://ballotpedia.org/Jerry_Brown_(California)
 * Found it with a Google search. Scroll down to the section Governor of California (1975-1983)
 * I know you are also concerned about the section about the Co-Evolution Quarterly, as well. Andrew G. Kirk's 2007 book Counterculture Green has considerable info on both these items of Brand's involvements.
 * Revirvlkodlaku, I realize some Wikipedians have an important role to locate unreferenced information. In the case of Stewart Brand, if you are interested in Brand as a subject, seek out the Markoff book. Cheers!Joel Russ (talk) 19:06, 29 July 2023 (UTC)
 * Revirvlkodlaku, I realize some Wikipedians have an important role to locate unreferenced information. In the case of Stewart Brand, if you are interested in Brand as a subject, seek out the Markoff book. Cheers!Joel Russ (talk) 19:06, 29 July 2023 (UTC)


 * @Joel Russ, I don't have a close interest in the topic. I mainly do copy edits, remove unreferenced content, add tags, etc. I'm not trying to pass the buck, by the way, but could I ask you to re-add the content, together with references, if you've found some? Thanks! Revirvlkodlaku (talk) 03:23, 30 July 2023 (UTC)

Unreferenced sections concerns
Regarding the recently utilized templates indicating unreferenced sections (containing factual info, in my estimation): Most or all substantiation, and hence references, can be provided by page citations from John Markoff's 2022 extensive & intensive biography of Brand, Whole Earth, (2022, Penguin hardcover). I've read the book & reviewed it on Goodreads, however I do not own a copy (borrowed it from the public library).

Current image, not great
I feel the image on the current iteration of this article conveys a misleadng impression, and isn't inviting. Please compare it to images used in other Wikipedia biographical articles.

It's true that, if we live long enough, we each become old. But the current image of Brand makes him look moribund. His life has not only been characterized by curiosity, intelligence, creativity, and originality, but by physical vitality as well. One would never suspect this last attribute when looking at the image that's integral to the article's introduction ("first impressions" and all that).

Of course, some of the article's previous iterations incorporated considerably more youthful images of the man. But, forgetting those, I'll suggest going back to this one: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stewart_Brand_in_2020.jpg#file

What do you think?Joel Russ (talk) 21:37, 14 October 2023 (UTC)


 * @Joel Russ I agree with you, the current image isn't great, whereas the one you've suggested as an alternative is far better. Nice use of the word "moribund", by the way! Revirvlkodlaku (talk) 02:32, 15 October 2023 (UTC)


 * why not File:Frontiers Cocnert Nov 2010-0491 (5155112565).jpg? It's in better resolution and in colour. Artem.G (talk) 15:22, 15 October 2023 (UTC)
 * There are, actually, a lot of good photos on commons. File:Stewart Brand (49625464416).jpg this one is also good and not b&w. Artem.G (talk) 15:27, 15 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Yeah, those are good ones, Artem.G.
 * I switched images. I haven't done this on an article before, so if my technique wasn't the best or is incomplete in some way, I welcome improvement.Joel Russ (talk) 17:44, 15 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Revirvlkodlaku, good pic.👍🏼