Thank you for this Katherine. I'm encouraged to see that so many have read this and agree, at least in part, with your observations.
As one who's watched the progression of the internet since it's inception I'd offer one possible, and hopefully useful, model to evaluate just what it's become.
The branches of esoterica I've studied suggest the astral plane is simultaneously receptive and formative, amplifying and reinforcing what it receives. This gives your observations real meaning to me.
The internet behaves, despite any initial intentions, like a gollem. An artifical construct conjured for defence and conquest. One inherent feature is that the gollem must be fed, sometimes turning on its conjurers when resources run out. It resembles other constructs like intrest bearing debt or fractional reserve banking in this way. When I look at the rise of AI with it's demands on resources, appropriating those needed by actual humans, I see a conjured construct turning on its creators. A Frankenstein of enormous proportion.
Of course all of the above is most likely just the raving of an unrepetant hippie prone to magical thinking.
Oh god. It cost me £5 to get here from Mary Harrington's blog and I just paid for a year's subscription, mostly for the IOS article linked at the beginning. I'm almost scared to read the other articles now :D
"The Internet was the electronic elsewhere. It was a parallel world, complete with its own geography, culture, and rules. We’ve never just “used” the Internet."
I wonder if there were earlier examples of this to be found in ham radio. Users physically spread, but coming together in a given broadcast range. Specific language and etiquette. I seem to recall some story from elementary school featuring a crippled child who found a great community in the world of ham radio, a community that his parents did not understand but became the real for the boy.
For your discussion of the changeling, derealization and depersonalization seem important symptoms to address. I assume there is work on how derealization has changed as media has evolved (a person can't feel like they are watching the world as a movie when they have never been to the cinema). Are those who spend a lot of time projecting themselves into the Astral Plane of the Internet more susceptible to derealization and depersonalization?
In the UK, pre-Internet we had CB radio which was very similar in some ways to Twitter but due to the proximity (there was no much range for CB) you were much more likely to meet up with people IRL. It was the first place I experienced a self I preferred to my real body and so was naturally one of the first of my friends to be lost in cyberspace (from where I recently returned to find all my old real friends dead or distant....)
Although it's not from ham radio, your comment made me think of Mats Steen who spent much of his life wheelchair-bound due to a medical condition. Although his parents believed he led a lonely and isolated existence, after his death they discovered he had developed community and deep friendships 'inside' World of Warcraft, where he was known as the character Ibelin Redmoore.
"my inner life follows the rhythms of televisual, serialized storytelling, each moment an “episode” building toward a dramatically satisfying ending."
I'm glad it's not just me! I grew up watching a lot of anime, and even though I've watched very little in recent years, I still find that it impacts how I think about and visualize my life. (Edit: and upon thinking about it, my thinking and writing style is definitely shaped by the late livejournal/early tumblr fandom space - who knows if I'll ever be able to shake that.)
The quotations you chose for describing the internet were haunting and perfect. And the end of this was spot-on. I'm excited to read whatever book it's an introduction to.
Holy Fuck, Katherine. That’s far and away the best understanding and evocation of what the internet was that I’ve ever read. (I got my first modem and dialup account in 1986, which is to say that I’ve read them all.) Having now read this, I don’t think it was possible before; I think we’ve been waiting for someone to have grown up online, to have had that experience at the center of their self, before it could be wrapped into those words. Let us know when we can pre-order the book. I’ll be at the front of the line.
You've brilliantly touched on the ethereal with your words, thank you! I've been drawn to folktales and ways humans have described 'the beyond' lately, and I do think it is because our persistent time 'online' shifts our consciousness to the liminal.
Gary Lachman! My man. Damn, you really are doing your best Art Bell. Have you read Lewis Ungit at all? He did a book on hallucinogenics and demons, but he’s got a great substack post on how the Metaverse is hell that intersects nicely with your interview with the QAnon Shaman.
I call it "Selfastalgia" - the distress caused by technologization of the psyche mixing with our human homesickness for an inner world we can never return to.
Thank you for this Katherine. I'm encouraged to see that so many have read this and agree, at least in part, with your observations.
As one who's watched the progression of the internet since it's inception I'd offer one possible, and hopefully useful, model to evaluate just what it's become.
The branches of esoterica I've studied suggest the astral plane is simultaneously receptive and formative, amplifying and reinforcing what it receives. This gives your observations real meaning to me.
The internet behaves, despite any initial intentions, like a gollem. An artifical construct conjured for defence and conquest. One inherent feature is that the gollem must be fed, sometimes turning on its conjurers when resources run out. It resembles other constructs like intrest bearing debt or fractional reserve banking in this way. When I look at the rise of AI with it's demands on resources, appropriating those needed by actual humans, I see a conjured construct turning on its creators. A Frankenstein of enormous proportion.
Of course all of the above is most likely just the raving of an unrepetant hippie prone to magical thinking.
Oh god. It cost me £5 to get here from Mary Harrington's blog and I just paid for a year's subscription, mostly for the IOS article linked at the beginning. I'm almost scared to read the other articles now :D
"The Internet was the electronic elsewhere. It was a parallel world, complete with its own geography, culture, and rules. We’ve never just “used” the Internet."
I wonder if there were earlier examples of this to be found in ham radio. Users physically spread, but coming together in a given broadcast range. Specific language and etiquette. I seem to recall some story from elementary school featuring a crippled child who found a great community in the world of ham radio, a community that his parents did not understand but became the real for the boy.
For your discussion of the changeling, derealization and depersonalization seem important symptoms to address. I assume there is work on how derealization has changed as media has evolved (a person can't feel like they are watching the world as a movie when they have never been to the cinema). Are those who spend a lot of time projecting themselves into the Astral Plane of the Internet more susceptible to derealization and depersonalization?
Also, very cute to think of the Default Toddler.
In the UK, pre-Internet we had CB radio which was very similar in some ways to Twitter but due to the proximity (there was no much range for CB) you were much more likely to meet up with people IRL. It was the first place I experienced a self I preferred to my real body and so was naturally one of the first of my friends to be lost in cyberspace (from where I recently returned to find all my old real friends dead or distant....)
Although it's not from ham radio, your comment made me think of Mats Steen who spent much of his life wheelchair-bound due to a medical condition. Although his parents believed he led a lonely and isolated existence, after his death they discovered he had developed community and deep friendships 'inside' World of Warcraft, where he was known as the character Ibelin Redmoore.
"my inner life follows the rhythms of televisual, serialized storytelling, each moment an “episode” building toward a dramatically satisfying ending."
I'm glad it's not just me! I grew up watching a lot of anime, and even though I've watched very little in recent years, I still find that it impacts how I think about and visualize my life. (Edit: and upon thinking about it, my thinking and writing style is definitely shaped by the late livejournal/early tumblr fandom space - who knows if I'll ever be able to shake that.)
The quotations you chose for describing the internet were haunting and perfect. And the end of this was spot-on. I'm excited to read whatever book it's an introduction to.
Have read it twice. Have cried twice. I also think the phone in particular holds fairy tale qualities…. Cannot wait to read your book.
Thank you Gwen
I loved reading this
Holy Fuck, Katherine. That’s far and away the best understanding and evocation of what the internet was that I’ve ever read. (I got my first modem and dialup account in 1986, which is to say that I’ve read them all.) Having now read this, I don’t think it was possible before; I think we’ve been waiting for someone to have grown up online, to have had that experience at the center of their self, before it could be wrapped into those words. Let us know when we can pre-order the book. I’ll be at the front of the line.
Thank you!
You've brilliantly touched on the ethereal with your words, thank you! I've been drawn to folktales and ways humans have described 'the beyond' lately, and I do think it is because our persistent time 'online' shifts our consciousness to the liminal.
Gary Lachman! My man. Damn, you really are doing your best Art Bell. Have you read Lewis Ungit at all? He did a book on hallucinogenics and demons, but he’s got a great substack post on how the Metaverse is hell that intersects nicely with your interview with the QAnon Shaman.
I haven't! Thanks for the rec.
It's all true.
I call it "Selfastalgia" - the distress caused by technologization of the psyche mixing with our human homesickness for an inner world we can never return to.
Now I'm going to become what you've described, American Hypermodernity - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI9UqRZwa50&t=12s
Keep up the great writing Katherine!
PS. Watch The Substance and Lawrence Lek's Sinofuturism if you haven't seen them. :)
This is incredible, and has found its way to me at the perfect time.
“You not addicted. You are cursed.”