Stepping Out of the 5GW Debate: Peace Out, Thanks Much
Posted May 31, 2008 11 comments
I had a great time doing it, but my interests have moved beyond 5th Generation Warfare and I really have no more to contribute. My vision is too wide and too weird, and I'll be moving my future writing on the subject to another venue, which will be launching soon. What I laid out in Invisible Warfare is something I'm going to let ferment for a few weeks.
It's not fair for me to keep discussing these concepts as "5GW," and it's not smart, either. I can only accomplish 2 things: first, confusing my intended audience with excess terminology, and second, infuriating those who were already covering 5GW years before I started writing about it.
I would like to thank the following authors: Tim Stevens, Bryan Finoki, Mark Safranski, Shane Deichman, Chet Richards, Fabius Maximus, John Robb, Purpleslog, Subadei, Curtis Gale Weeks, tdaxp, Smitten Eagle, Wiggins, and everyone at Coming Anarchy.
MEANWHILE: I'm building a thinking aid called the Invisible Experiment with the goal of "rethinking conflict and remixing concepts." I'm taking single "slices" of concepts and data and using a tag cloud to navigate. Currently less than 100 entries and I'm aiming for 333 before I'll consider this puppy operational.
Up Next
Rather than put the site on hold, I'll be returning Skilluminati to it's roots -- the study of social control. I'm working on a physics approach, considering social conformity as entrainment. I'm hoping that's still interesting and useful to the folks who've been reading. I'm very thankful for all the feedback and brainfood from you folks.
Spread the Research:
Filed in: 5GW Project 2008
Next entry: Wars, on Drugs: Highlights from "Drug Intoxicated Irregular Fighters"
Previous Entry: Dreaming 5GW: Invisible War
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Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.1. Tim Stevens on May 31, 2008 at 2:49 AM permalink
Man, the same day as Ex bows out of Abu Muqawama ... Good luck, and I look forward to hearing more of your plans and ideas.
2. Clay Richards on May 31, 2008 at 9:10 AM permalink
You were definitely bringing a unique yet confusing twist to the 5GW discussion.
I think your use of 5GW ideas might have been better used in a different context, i.e. rather than becoming a 5GW blog, the idea of a Skilluminati blog that takes from whatever theory/tactics/etc is at hand as needed actually resonates more strongly than attempting to redirect the 5GW discussion.
I felt like I was with you yet it also felt like you were saying “I’m a 5GW warrior too!” when 5GW is being positioned as a direct threat to individuals on the ground, including individuals like yourself.
I didn’t follow any arguments you may have had, I’m assuming they were in the comments sections of various blogs, but I can imagine they weren’t taken very well since they assume a perspective that many of these people wouldn’t share, combined with an attempt to flip an already established perspective in a manner that was ultimately incommensurable with the world views of those with which you were attempting to dialogue.
But as long as you keep going, you’ll get somewhere, cause movement is life!
3. Thirtyseven on May 31, 2008 at 3:16 PM permalink
Well, I was definitely not attempting to direct any discussions—sounds pretty boring to both of us, I’d imagine—I’m just digging as always. 5GW was just another project, and it helped synthesize a lot of threads for me.
4. Curtis Gale Weeks on May 31, 2008 at 6:48 PM permalink
Very weird comment, Clay. Has me wondering if you are referring to the pseudo-5GW proposed by John Robb—what he created after 5GW began to be a topic in earnest on the blogosphere but did not develop from his idea for Global Guerrillas (the better to tie them together)? Or else, Hammes’ idea of SEI’s using WMD?
Certainly, the main focus at Dreaming 5GW and tdaxp has always been to develop a theory which would allow positive problem solving. I.e., 4GW has developed as a threat, so how do we create a 5GW to combat 4GW.
5. munzenberg on May 31, 2008 at 11:50 PM permalink
Mate, I wouldn’t worry about the whole “being too weird” aspect. Plenty of useful ideas have come from what others perceive as “weird” sources. Useful mathematics came from pythagorean cults. Aspects of chemistry came from Alchemists. Isaac Newton also believed in apocalpytic prediction within biblical chronology, alchemy, and other ideas.
6. Harflimon on Jun 01, 2008 at 8:17 AM permalink
5GW is just a label. You spent too much time trying to explain what it is and how you fit into the hive mind more than discussing the meat of any subject. I don’t care about twenty bloggers trying to make a community around a concept. Constructing a bunch of party lines isn’t fun to watch. Not to say that they don’t have interesting things to say, but they’re trying to fit them into different boxes which can be pushed. Freely examine information don’t try and regulate it. I can place my own labels if I feel it necessary.
I don’t care about overview terms, it’s semantical.
7. Thirtyseven on Jun 01, 2008 at 9:57 AM permalink
^^Yeah, the next project will be focused on where Invisible Experiment is headed—gutting the metadata and working with what’s actually useful.
8. PurpleSlog on Jun 01, 2008 at 1:15 PM permalink
“infuriating those”
I wasn’t infuriated. I enjoyed your posts.
I hope you will re-consider and at least post occasionally on the subject.
9. Jay@Soob on Jun 04, 2008 at 10:56 PM permalink
What PurpleSlog said. Infuriated might be better replaced by excited. The subject is so niche that any “external” insight is celebrated, not maligned.
Harfilmon:
“5GW is just a label.”
Really? Could you qualify that assertion a bit?
10. harflimon on Jun 05, 2008 at 12:26 AM permalink
Sure, does it actually exist in the world? If so, what does it look like, how does it work.
It’s just a concept based on the collective discussions of people on the internet talking about warfare.
Could I not take everything you people discuss and call it 21GW? What makes me wrong and you right in that situation? Nothing besides a semantical disagreement of what generation of warfare we are at.
11. Thirtyseven on Jun 05, 2008 at 3:13 PM permalink
I will still be very focused on conflict and the “Invisible Warfare” model, so there will be more brainfood on the way.
I’m closing comments on this because of spambots. Thanks to everyone who let me know it was interesting.