Archive: February, 2007

(or, how to save the world by thinking long-term)

Anyone growing up around environmentally aware adults between 1968 and 1998 will have seen a copy of the Whole Earth Catalog. Published by San Francisco eco-activist, Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Catalog was huge, both physically and philosophically. Printed on tabloid sized 11×14 inch paper, some editions were over an inch thick.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs credits the Whole Earth Catalog as a conceptual forerunner of the search engine. Indeed, it was Brand’s desire to help people find any information they might find useful to themselves that inspired him to publish the massive catalog. Jobs’ comment fits well with a more famous one attributed to Brand, “Information wants to be free.” Unfortunately, the cost of publishing the Whole Earth Catalog forced him to charge $4 per issue, a significant sum of money at the time.

Stewart Brand has always found himself slightly ahead of his peers in his thinking and in the products of his work. As a magazine publisher in the mid-1970’s, Brand fostered or introduced many of the most respected voices in modern American literature including, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gary Snyder, Lewis Mumford, Karl Hess, and the future editor of Wired Magazine, Kevin Kelly.