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"All fiction is propaganda, and the fiction we like is the propaganda we believe in, and the fiction we don't like is the propaganda we don't believe in."
- Samuel R. Delany

Bohemias  
  A place where the ordinary rules of society don't apply; the "next big thing" often comes from these places.  

I've been wondering what happens when every culture and subculture on Earth has been mined for icons and archetypes (for use in cartoons and movies), foods and flavors (for use in recipe books and theme restaurants) and music. It took some of these cultures thousands of years to develop into something interesting.

They were a crucial aspect of industrial civilization in the previous two centuries. They were where industrial civilization went to dream. A sort of unconscious R&D., exploring alternate societal strategies. Each one would have a dress code, characteristic forms of artistic expression… And they did, frequently, have locales with which they became associated. But they became extinct.
Technovelgy from All Tomorrow's Parties, by William Gibson.
Published by Putnam in 1999
Additional resources -

Why? Because we started picking them before they could ripen. Authentic subcultures required backwaters, and time , and there are no more backwaters in our completely and instantly connected world.

What can we do to encourage the undisturbed growth of culture? Maybe John Brunner had the right idea with paid avoidance zones in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from All Tomorrow's Parties
  More Ideas and Technology by William Gibson
  Tech news articles related to All Tomorrow's Parties
  Tech news articles related to works by William Gibson

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