Stuff You Should Know - What are smart mobs?

Episode Date: August 28, 2008

With the benefit of wireless technologies like cell phones and text messaging, large groups of people are able to coordinate their actions with amazing precision. Check out our HowStuffWorks article to learn about smart mobs and civil disobedience. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro children and how those five girls changed everything. Listen to Unreformed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Stuff You Should Know is brought to you by Visa. We all have things we like to think about. Online fraud shouldn't be one of them because with every purchase, visa prevents, detects, and resolves online fraud. Safe, secure, visa. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. Josh Clark, Chuck Bryant here, Josh and Chuck,

staff writers for HowStuffWorks.com. What's up, Chuck? The dynamic duo. That's exactly right, Chuck. Right, that's us. Chuck, I was reading the other day as I do once in a while. Right. I try to keep the brain going. And I came across a really sad article.

What turns out, July 1st will forever live as a day of infamy. How? I mean, is it your birthday? No, July 15th is my birthday. July 1st, 2008 was a day when two great underground pop culture icons were killed in one fell swoop. Have you ever heard of a guy named Ron English? No, I don't know Ron. Now, I think there's a coach out there, a college football coach, defensive coordinator named Ron English. This is not the one I'm talking about.

Different guy. Okay. This guy is this dude who is considered the father of adjut pop art. It's like pop art, like Warhol, but with like a social or political message behind it. This guy created like MC Super Size with this gangster parody of Ronald McDonald. Right, I think I've seen that. Did you see the one where he merged Obama's face with Abraham Lincoln's beard and hat? I did see that. Yeah, kind of creepy, but cool. So that's Ron English, okay? And he's this real underground.

He kind of hijacks the sides of buildings. He's putting these billboards. He works of art up when he's not supposed to, and he's just kind of creating controversy. Public protests slash pop art. Yes. He actually accepted money from the Ray-Ban company to create a building wrap, this work of art. And then Ray-Ban proceeded to pay a smart mob, a group of people, to just show up wearing Ray-Bans and all stare at this building wrap for like 15 minutes on that day. So in one fell swoop, Ray-Ban basically killed or at the very least totally co-opted Ron English. Right. And smart mobs, which is really sad because the first smart mob on record

had to be dispersed by the Delta Force at the Battle of Seattle. So I love marketing people. I love them because they're definitely not the apocalyptic horse people of the end of an underground trend ever, are they? No, and far be it from them to turn a really cool underground thing into commercial advertising, they wouldn't do that. They keep it going. So yeah, money, root of all evil, and end of all underground culture. But that Battle of Seattle I mentioned, do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, the protest at the World Trade Organization Summit in I think 99 in Seattle? We should probably tell people what exactly we're talking about when we mentioned smart mobs. Yeah, it's not something that most people don't know about these.

Well, basically what it is is just a group of people, usually protesters, or originally there were protesters, who are also called flash mobs based on their ability to assemble and disperse really quickly. Yeah, it's really kind of cool. It's very cool. There's this guy named Alex Steffson, I think is his name. He edited the user's guide to the 21st century and he wrote of smart mobs that basically any city in the world can be shut down by 10,000 swarming protesters. Right, block off streets, police from taking action. And the reason that these mobs are so successful is because they are all linked using readily available technology, text messages, cell phones, that kind of thing. So they're getting directions from some central mastermind,

puppet master, you know, somebody in his black turtleneck in the dark room. Exactly, yes, yeah, that guy. And he is aware, he's sending them messages saying like cops are coming, disperse, reassemble, you know, at this park. Right. And so they're always one step ahead of the cops. Yeah, I imagine this looks really neat. I mean, I don't think we've ever seen like a big wide shot of a smart mob, but I think it just goes from like what looks like a crowd of people. And all of a sudden, instantly, they're just walking along like they're just minding their own business. But they've lost the one common thread and that was that protest at that moment. They're no longer protesting, they're just people on the street now and they have nothing in common and

as such can't be beaten, you know, with riot shields and batons. Right, because they can be, but you know, it shouldn't be at that point. That's one of the problems with a quote unquote peaceful protest of the past is everyone shows up in this one place, cops usually even know about it beforehand. There's going to be a rally there. And they're all just parked there in some like city park or street corner. And you know, the cops can effectively just surround them and do whatever they want, tear gas, mace, you name it. Yeah, yeah, they do a lot of that stuff. But with the smart mobs is neat because they just break up and all of a sudden the cops are like, hey, where they go, yeah, and then they're two blocks away. Exactly. And the way that they're

the mastermind, Mr. Black Turtle neck is keeping tabs on the the the cops is through a method called surveillance. Right. It's the it's the opposite of surveillance. It's basically I think it means looking looking above from below something to that effect. Right. And it's basically the public sector keeping an eye on the government sector or the security sector. It's like Rodney King beating being videotaped. Perfect example of surveillance. Right. And another example is this group called the European Information Society Group. Basically, they run around, they're just a loose assemblage of people who have camera phones, video phones. And they they'll like if there's a state run hospital in Britain or something that is that has really un un

acceptably unsanitary conditions, they'll they'll film this and put it on YouTube. And it's with this, you know, quick dissemination of information. All of a sudden, the British government is acting to clean this hospital up or clean its act up depending on what they were just taking a task for. Yeah, it's really kind of cool. A lot of good can come out of these and and they're, I don't think they've had a violent flash mob. They have actually. The guy who came up with this term, his name is Howard Reingold, and he's this futurist. He he's one to definitely keep an eye on whatever he's talking about is usually going to come about in the next five, 10, 15 years. Right. So he coined the term smart mob and he said in an interview later on that he deliberately

chose the word mob. I think I quote because of its dark resonances. Right. And there have been instances where where flash mobs have broken out for the purpose of violence. Like, I think the what year was it? There was the Miss World pageant in 2002 in Nigeria. Right. There was, I guess, a local newspaper wrote an article praising the pageant, and it was sent around among the Muslim community. And through text messaging, violence basically broke out 200 people died because of it. It's kind of a that's a loose association with a with a flash mob, but it it can happen. And even if it hasn't fully happened, you know, it the potential is. Well, sure. Anytime you get a bunch of people together in protest, they're probably worked up over

something. Yeah. And even if they have peaceful intentions, cops come around and one thing leads to another. And you know, before you know it, violence could be breaking out. You know, Reingold actually that he went around the world and started noticing these these smart mob and flash mobs were already in existence before he coined the term. And he realized that for protest or civil disobedience to be able to survive, it was vital that smart mobs exist. Right. Or else it would just be all surveillance, no surveillance. And we would all just be using cell phones just to call our friends or mama, mother's day or that kind of thing, right, the way that they were intended to. And out of this kind of inspiration, this hacker mentality

of like, OK, I've got this device. Let's see if I can make it do this. Right. That will keep governments in check, essentially, for the next for as long as we have this technology readily available. Right. And as long as we're a consumer driven, capitalistic culture in the West, these this technology always will be available. Yeah, great. It's not going anywhere. It's like an oraburros, a snake eating its own tail. Right. But in a really cool way. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. So do you know about some of the fun smart mobs? Yeah, the funds. Those are my favorite smart mobs. Yeah, give me an example there. Well, I know in New York, well, it's just sort of using the same technology, but they're not in protest of anything. It's just groups of people gathering

to do kind of crazy things in front of people. So it's sort of a performance art, much more than protest. But I know in New York City, a group of people went to a toy store, maybe FAO shorts. That's where I would go if I was in New York. And they all they all jumped on the floor and started trembling at this big giant. Yeah, they were like dinosaur bowing bowing before it. Yeah. It was and then they disassemble and they're gone and New Yorkers are probably left standing there or the tourists probably New Yorkers aren't even watching. Yeah. Yeah, lots of I heart New York t-shirts just looking around like what was that. So that was a cool one. And I think in London, they did one where all these people showed up at a furniture store and started laying around

on all the couches and things, which I don't know. That's a bit lame. If you ask me, it was, it was definitely the one of the lame ones I've run across. But it was cool. The one of my favorites was one that took place in Rome, where the people were instructed to go to this bookstore. And all these people converged on it and were told to insist that the people who worked at the bookstore helped them find books that didn't exist. Right. And God knows how much time they wasted doing that. Right. And probably didn't sell a single book. I wouldn't think so. Because smart mobbers are notoriously poor. You know, Steve Martin actually technically you could make a case that he started the first smart mobs. Do you know about his early stand-up? Actor, comedian Steve Martin? Yeah,

that's Steve Martin. Yeah, I know about his early stand-up. I didn't King Todd and the arrow to the head. Oh, this is even earlier than that. I mean, this is like undiscovered Steve Martin days. Basically, he used to, he'd be at like a comedy club or whatever doing his bit. And all of a sudden he'd just stop and be like, who wants fries? I'd love some McDonald's. He'd get everybody down to McDonald's, right? Everyone in the club would follow him down. He's doing his bit, you know, the whole time. Then he gets to the counter and he's ordering for everybody, you know, ends up with like an order of like 60 cheeseburgers and like 80 orders of fries. And he keeps changing it, you know, and asking about what they want. And then finally ends up just buying

an order of small fries and that leads everybody back to the club. Yeah, so it sounds like the people that suffer. It sounds like people that suffer from this are the business owners. Exactly. And I think that's part of it. It's kind of nice to say like, you know, we are the consumers, but we also are more powerful than you'd like to let us believe we are, you know, commanding or demanding a little respect, perhaps. Yeah, very much so. Oh, I miss that Steve Martin. How could you not? Instead of the one who does the father of the bride. Good Lord. I'm with you. Well, as it turns out, Steve Martin is in the same echelon these days as Ron English and SmartMob's now they've all maybe you could make a case of sold out. So sad to see all three started out great,

but it kind of makes you, makes you wonder what's next. We'll be keeping an eye out for it. Right. Maybe we should go start one up right now. I think we should as well. And stick around while Chuck and I are assembling our own SmartMob to find out what article on howstuffworks.com reminds them of his childhood after this. Stuff you should know is brought to you by Visa. We all have things to think about. Like say, what's the best site to buy a new leather jacket, or whether to buy the three or six megapixel camera. But thankfully, we don't need to think about online fraud, because for every purchase you make, Visa keeps an eye out for fraud with real time fraud monitoring. And by making sure you're not liable for any unauthorized purchases. How's that for peace of mind? Safe,

secure, Visa. Okay, so Chuck, tell us what is it? What article on the site reminds you of your childhood? Right, you don't even know this. I don't. Actually, this is a surprise to me, too. It's actually an article that was featured today written by freelance writer Ed Grabbianowski, who's been with us for a while. Is that how you say Ed's last name? I threw it out there. That's how it's spelled. It sounds right, yeah. I call him the Grabster. Right on. How jet packs work? Nice. Yes, I saw that on the website. Yeah, that takes me right back to my childhood and the G.I. Joe jet pack that I had. You have a jet pack of your own? Well, it was for the doll. Oh, gosh. I'm a little older than you, but the old G.I. Joe's were tall 12-inch dolls.

Yeah, I came in right after those. I'm a big fan of the shorter, what, four and a half inches? Yeah, I don't even. Those don't exist in me. Yeah, they're good. So I had the little jet pack, I had the submarine, and you could attach the jet pack on the string, and it was fun for a five-year-old. That's great. Well, so Chuck revealed what article reminds me of childhood, and that he was apparently born in 1962. You can learn all about jet packs and all sorts of other wacky childhood adventurous stuff on HowStuffWorks.com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at HowStuffWorks.com. At the Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, and how those five girls changed

everything. Listen to unreformed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for murder in Miami. Talk about walking into the devil's den. Listen to murder in Miami on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.