In the wake of long-time Burner, cyber-pioneer, Grateful Dead lyricist, Electronic Frontier Foundation founder, and cattle rancher John Perry Barlow’s recent passing, we will remember him and Timothy Leary with someone who knew both men for many years: Robert Forte. Barlow and Leary were at the epicenter of the counter-culture, and spent their careers surrounded by intelligence agents. Were they working for We The People or The Man? Or both?
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John Perry Barlow first went to Burning Man in 1994, and has been a key shaker and mover of the event ever since.
He has shared a stage with his friend Larry Harvey many times, notably in a session called The Founders Speak at Columbia University in 2013.
John Perry Barlow, left, on stage with Larry Harvey at Black Rock City
He passed away peacefully in his sleep after a long battle with illness. He died on the 22nd anniversary of his famous Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace.
He wrote 57 songs for the Grateful Dead, and founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Obituaries at Rolling Stone, EFF, Variety, Ars Technica, Jambase
Barlow was definitely one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever met. He touched the lives of many Burners and technologists. He managed Dick Cheney’s first electoral campaign, and John F Kennedy Jr was sent to Barlow’s Bar Cross Ranch to “straighten him out”. He went from trying to blow up Harvard and hanging out at Timothy Leary’s Millbrook Acid Castle to consulting to the intelligence community.
His interview with Larry Harvey and Tech Crunch’s Mike Butcher in London kicked off my whole Shadow History research project.
A couple of his best interviews:
John Perry Barlow, Cognitive Dissident (Wesleyan Alumni magazine)
The Legend of John Perry Barlow, Jambase (via Internet Archive)
RIP Barlow, true pioneer of the electronic frontier. You will be missed.
John Perry Barlow at Bob and Natascha Weir’s wedding, Mill Valley 1999