From one of our greatest chroniclers of technology and society the definitive biography of
iconic serial visionary Stewart Brand from the Merry Pranksters and the generation-defining
Whole Earth Catalog to the marriage of environmental consciousness and hacker capitalism and
the rise of a new planetary culture-the story behind so many other stories Stewart Brand has
long been famous if you knew who he was but for many people outside the counterculture early
computing or the environmental movement he is perhaps best known for his famous mantra "Stay
Hungry. Stay Foolish." Steve Jobs's endorsement of these words as his code to live by is
fitting Brand has played many roles but one of the most important is as a model for how to
live. The contradictions are striking: A blond-haired WASP with a modest family inheritance he
went to Exeter and Stanford and was an army veteran but in California in the 1960s he was an
artist and a photographer in the thick of the LSD revolution. While tripping on acid on the
roof of his building he envisioned how valuable it would be for humans to see a photograph of
the planet they shared from space an image that in the end landed on the cover of his Whole
Earth Catalog the defining publication of the counterculture. He married a Native American
woman and was committed to protecting indigenous culture which connected to a broader
environmentalist mission that has been a through line of his life. At the same time he has
outraged purists because of his pragmatic embrace of useful technologies including nuclear
power in the fight against climate change. The famous tagline promise of his catalog was
"Access to Tools" with rare exceptions he rejected politics for a focus on direct power. It
was no wonder then that he was early to the promise of the computer revolution and helped
define it for the wider world. Unlike most people who make a mark in one field Brand has a
life that can be hard to fit onto one screen. John Markoff also a great chronicler of tech
culture has done something extraordinary in unfolding the rich twisting story of Brand's life
against its proper landscape. As Markoff makes marvelously clear the streams of individualism
respect for science environmentalism and embrace of Eastern and indigenous thought that flow
through Brand's entire life form a powerful gestalt a California state of mind that has a
hegemonic power to this day. At its best it is the wellspring for a true planetary
consciousness that may be the best hope we humans collectively have. Story Locale: Northern
California
