This biography of Steward Brand a great job communicating the freewheeling atmosphere of technology， activism， environmentalism and exploration that led Brand to thrive in the communal North Beach area of San Francisco and pioneer important innovations like the Whole Earth Catalog and the Long Now Foundation that have inspired a whole lot of technologists， environmentalists and writers （Steve Jobs famously mentioned Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog in his "Stay hungry， stay foolish" exhortation This biography of Steward Brand a great job communicating the freewheeling atmosphere of technology， activism， environmentalism and exploration that led Brand to thrive in the communal North Beach area of San Francisco and pioneer important innovations like the Whole Earth Catalog and the Long Now Foundation that have inspired a whole lot of technologists， environmentalists and writers （Steve Jobs famously mentioned Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog in his "Stay hungry， stay foolish" exhortation at Stanford in 2005）。 Markoff details many of Brand's forays; into LSD， into art and photography， into Native American culture， into the Beat movement。 All of these came together to create a unique iconoclast who pioneered many early aspects of technology， networking and environmentalism while never being part of the mainstream himself and not being afraid to take on the same movements he launched when he thought they were becoming too hidebound; his embrace of nuclear power is an example。The best image I have of Brand is that of a tree sending saplings out everywhere， with each sapling taking root and sprouting a whole new， unique world of its own。 In many ways he exemplifies the zeitgeist of responsible stewardship of technology development and environmentalism that should be a blueprint for us as we march half-blind into the age of AI and genetic engineering。 Now in his 80s and having lived on his Sausalito boat for a long time， Brand remains a one of a kind。 In many ways his story is the story of America and especially California coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s， and John Markoff does an excellent job recounting it。 。。。more