Steve Fox Rides Again

Readers of the hydroponics article in MOTHER NO. 29 will recall Jim DeKorne's praise of a pamphlet entitled Hydro ponics!, written by Steve Fox and printed in Albuquerque in 1971. Unfortunately, that booklet proved to be no longer available (as noted in MOTHER NO. 31) and attempts to get in touch with its author were fruitless.

Well, we've finally tracked down the elusive Steve Fox (now based in Bel Air, California), and he's not only alive and well but up to his ears in any number of projects . . . all oriented toward the technology of the future. And if you think "technology" is a dirty word, please read on.

By now, some facts are fairly obvious to most of us: Yes, Virginia, there is an energy crisis, and yes, some critical materials are harder to come by than they used to be, and no, the gunk that gushes out of all those smokestacks and discharge pipes really isn't doing much to improve our air and water. Fine . . . but the question is, how do you react?

For many of MOTHER's readers, the answer is to drop out of the whole filth-spewing, energy-gobbling mess and become a non-consumer as far as possible by returning to the lifestyle of a simpler age. Steve, though, has chosen another way: not withdrawal but involvement, in the hope of guiding today's industries toward a more sophisticated, less destructive technology of the future. In his words "We really have to dispense with all the counterculture rhetoric, as I see it, and integrate our approaches with those of the corporate matrix . . . not just through compensatory and environmental legislation, but by actually running the corporations ourselves!"

Apparently, Steve means what he says . . . because he's recently entered the field of long-range corporate planning. His firm, 21st Century Technology, offers consultant services—guaranteed—on specific problems or goals (legal questions, multinational expansions, safety engineering, diversification possibilities, you name it). In addition, the new company carries out market research and provides instructional and promotional materials in a variety of media (including in-house short courses—cassette or instructor-taught—in many areas of high-level technology).