Whats going on here?
Gyre.org is a database of links, resources, and citations that track and explain the next technological and military revolutions. This project is also an attempt to expand the concept of the weblog beyond a linear, chronological collection of links and into a more useful research tool.
So what should I be doing?
I imagine that the typical Gyre.org visitor will have an interest in one of the technological focus areas such as "space expansion" or "biological warfare" and will visit periodically for the news updates. The site is updated daily with new articles and resources so a user could bookmark a category home page and use the site as a weblog of new articles and resources.
My hope is that visitors will take advantage of the relational database to explore topics in other realms. For example a user interested in India's plans to develop the moon would see links related to the effect the research into rockets would have on the current political situation with Pakistan. This link could then lead our user to investigate the effect it would have on Chinese space ambitions, or U.S. missile defense plans, or India's satellite efforts, etc. Its certainly not perfect and the resources are continually being refined and 'recoded' but I've found it very useful to explore.
I'm trying to get in touch with Dr. Soand So about an article. Can you forward a message for me?
Sorry, I don't have the contact information for any of the authors listed in the database. Try linking to the actual article and looking for their contact information there, 99% of the authors make their email addresses available.
Who is behind this? Who provides your funding?
My name is Greg Schnippel and I'm a policy wonk / web developer based in Washington, D.C. I started this project as a way of organizing my research about 7 years ago and its grown and mutated since. Server costs and site maintenance are all out of my own pocket.
Over time, I'd love to involve more people in this project. I'm working on building submission tools to allow visitors to submit news or resources and I'm investigating the idea of adding persistent comment areas to each object or topic.
Whats the signifigance of the name "gyre"?
The exact definition is "a circular or spiral motion or form; especially : a giant circular oceanic surface current" (which explains the hurricane imagery throughout the site). It is also used prominently in the famous poem "Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats:
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Thats a rather pessimistic, apocalyptic view of our future, isn't it?
When I started this project, I had a very pessimistic perspective on technology and international security, always fearing the worst-case scenarios for every new development. For example, I was one of those people who was trying to convince all of his friends and relatives that the Y2K bug could cause mass disruptions or much worse. After Y2K fizzled, I had to rethink a lot of my assumptions (and eat all of that surplus canned food). I've since adopted a cautious optimism towards our future and have re-directed my research towards trying to understand the strategic and sociological frameworks that would allow us to determine which 'threats' are worthy of our attention. I like this quote from Antonio Gramsci, Italian political theorist and activist (1891-1937): "I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will."
The dual-imagery of the gyre kinda works for the goals of this project: the chaotic "slouching beast" of Yeats and the violent gyre of the hurricane as it spirals towards order. This project is about understanding and tracking the maelstorm of technological change.
What software/package are you using to run this site?
The old system was a custom set of scripts that I wrote to accomodate the tagging and taxonomy system I needed. However, it creaked from age and strained under the growing number of entries. I ported the entire site over to Drupal 5.x to take advantage of its advanced taxonomy handling to be able to do bulk cleanups on the database.
The topic lists looks like my debate backfiles! Did you compete in two-person debate?
Absolutely. I competed actively in competitive two-person debate on the national level in high school and college for almost 8 yrs and my favorite tub had an expando-file for every topic on the left-navigation. This site is a nicotine patch for my debate addiction - I can continue to keep up to date on all of my favorite debate topics without having to cut "bipart" cards all night in some god awful Motel 6 room. Its also helping me digitize my tubs of evidence so I can stop carrying around that dusty nuclear disarmament file from 1992 "just in case".
If you are actively competing in two-person debate (or if you understand what I mean by debate addiction), please drop me a line. I'm working on creating a special email update list for items that may be of interest to two-person debaters.