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“Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world”

Oh, the irony. If only words could sum up what I think about this. Someone is frantically rolling in his grave right now…

Found @ EHPO.

And he’s somewhat immature about it.

Yet another reason to become fan of the pickle.

Edit – it is claimed that this is a hoax. Consider yourselves warned.

Had a good chat over dinner tonight, with Len. It was basically about ‘more perfect systems’ for this world and how they could be put in place. My personal vision is a very interconnected world of interdependent communities that are grouped around certain core beliefs. People would live more within a tribe-like group of around 200 people as a close community, instead of the many communities we live and participate in right now (work, free time, neighbourhood, etc.). This doesn’t mean that you don’t interact with people outside your tribe, but I’m getting into specifics…

A thing I have always struggled with, when it comes to utopic ideas, is how do you get there if you take the current society as a starting point? The last time I thought about this question is quite a while ago and I have since gotten more tech-oriented and I believe technology within the next few decades will radically alter global human culture. So probably this ‘more perfect system’ would come into place by being enabled by technology.

What if at some point we decide that it’s too risky to use our real bodies to interact with the world, such as suggested in the film Surrogates. There are already people who are trying to call a halt to handshaking, because it’s just too risky. Imagine if in the next few decades there are more and more viruses like SARS, bird flu, swine flu, etc. coming up, constantly threatening mankind’s health. Imagine if technology keeps growing exponentially… If we could put our bodies in safe suspension and create an avatar that interacts with a world that’s just as real as the current one, but organized in a more perfect way… I thought: “that would be great! Because we would know that the virtual world that our avatar lives in is not real, so we would be more relaxed about our (virtual) life circumstances”.

And then I thought… “but what if the reality our avatar lives in does become vital to us… what if we identify so much with that reality, that we forget about the actual reality where our consciousness lies”… And then it struck me: “what if this happened before?”

Who’s to say it didn’t.

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” – Albert Einstein

“A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering.” – Gautama Buddha

Last week I read about Die Antwoord on the Birthday Party Berlin blog. The first time I watched their video, I was immediately convinced I had witnessed something I needed to share, to spread. Apparently I wasn’t the only one… One week later and the blogosphere is blowing up with posts about Die Antwoord.

In one day, they have doubled their Facebook fans from 5.000 to 10.000 and it seems like they’re still picking up steam, with blogs like Boing Boing, Dlisted and Mad Decent writing about them. Why is that? It is very simple. Die Antwoord is unique. They offer something fresh, in a remarkable way… In the digital age, where we can share all the music we want, being remarkable is THE most important characteristic for a band, group, musician, producer, etc. You have to be worth talking about.

So what did they do? Not much. They created a unique concept (or maybe this is just an extension of their personalities), uploaded their songs to YouTube, do a lot of performing and try to get people to spread the word. That’s probably why they give away music at live shows: “First 100 zeflings thru the door get a free hand-drawn full-length $O$ album (16 tracks) burned by die fokken rap-rave meesters NINJA en YO-LANDI.”

That’s it! Do something remarkable, connect with the fans and give them a reason to buy. Their album is due soon on Magnetron Music and I expect it to sell quite well for a debut, but of course it will be downloaded for free much more often… The “reason to buy” for now is going to be their live performances until they’ve built a considerable fanbase and they can start applying freemium on a bigger scale.

So who else are doing this? In The Netherlands we have an act which is quite similar, which also generated a lot of buzz when they first came to the scene; De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig. They’re actually label mates of Die Antwoord, just like a bunch of other great acts.

Another act that the music industry can learn from in my eyes, is MENEO, although MENEO is a bit less reachable for fans. Same goes for belladonnakillz.

Anyway, to conclude this post… I suggest you head over to the website of Die Antwoord and listen to their album. You can stream it in its entirety on there.

ONE TO WATCH!