"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold," wrote W.B. Yeats. I don't know about the centre, but the tendency of things to fall apart is pretty universal, ultimately due to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Anyone living in a society or involved with technology must therefore be interested in the concept of maintenance -- keeping systems working. In his book&nbsp;<a href="https://press.stripe.com/maintenance-part-one" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One</a>, Stewart Brand looks at the challenges and rewards of this concept.Blog post with transcript: <a href="https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/01/19/341-stewart-brand-on-maintenance-as-an-organizing-principle/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/01/19/341-stewart-brand-on-maintenance-as-an-organizing-principle/</a>Support Mindscape on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.patreon.com/seanmcarroll" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Patreon</a>.Stewart Brand received an undergraduate degree in biology from Stanford University. He was the founder, editor, and publisher of the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Whole Earth Catalog</a>, which won a National Book Award. He founded the journal&nbsp;CoEvolution Quarterly&nbsp;and the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_WELL" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">WELL</a>&nbsp;electronic community, and was a co-founder of the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.longnow.org/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Long Now Foundation</a>. He has been called "<a href="https://www.npr.org/2025/07/11/g-s1-76555/from-hippies-to-techies-stewart-brand-is-the-20th-centurys-top-influencer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the 20th century's top influencer</a>."<ul><li><a href="https://sb.longnow.org/SB_homepage/Home.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Web site</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/Stewart-Brand/author/B000AQ4GYA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amazon author page</a></li><li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Brand" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></li></ul>

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341 | Stewart Brand on Maintenance as an Organizing Principle

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