From - Wed Jan 14 15:24:35 1998 Return-Path: Received: from relay1.UU.NET by mrco.carleton.ca (4.1/SMI-4.0) id AA24201; Thu, 4 Feb 93 14:01:43 EST Received: from nyx.cs.du.edu by relay1.UU.NET with SMTP (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AA13429; Thu, 4 Feb 93 13:50:03 -0500 Received: by nyx.cs.du.edu (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA23543; Thu, 4 Feb 93 11:30:42 MST From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (andy) Message-Id: <9302041830.AA23543@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: FutureCulture Digest #212 To: future-digest@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 11:30:41 MST X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] Status: RO X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 ______________________________________________________________________ |______________ / | | / | | u t u r e <___________ u l t u r e | _______________________________________________________________________| Issue #212 Thursday, February 4th 1993 Today's Topics: --------------- flux.fix.* flux.fix.1 flux.fix.2 flux.fix.3 Holes & Drawings & Your Body In defense of Time (sort of) Mail failure Memetic Algorithms nature no subject (file transmission) pre.fix Re: cultral notes Re: GAYS, THE FUTURE, CYB Re: Holes & Drawings & Your Body Re: Opinions of Wired... Re: Religion again.... Re: RIP -- archie.mcgill.ca Re: TIME and Raves Re: TIME to GOOOoooo! [Floyd ref.] Re: Well it's happening Re: WIRED and net response Religion Simplex lock stuff The Edge of Information and Community 1 The Edge of Information and Community 2 The Edge of Information and Community 3 The Edge of Information and Community 4 TIME keeps on slippin, trippin, skippin into the futureculture white house email (fwd) WIRED and net response you tell me... __________________________________________________________________________ Date: 04 Feb 1993 00:35:31 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: nature :Speaking of which, what place DOES nature have in the future. I see a :lot of talk about great networked societies, virtual reality, smart :drugs, and all that, but where does nature fit in? > Like my .sig used to say, "The Earth is our Mother -- but how >many of us still live with our mothers?" :-) I dunno...it's a nice >place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here..._forever_... your .sig used to seem a tad presumptuous... but i'm a tad pre- about things, so it's ok. for me, it does seem to matter for some reason. i think it'll finally start to REALLY workout when we engineer electronic data cables out of plant dna so that all of the comp systems are integrated into the ecosystem itself, totally self-automating, self-spreading, self-growing... and the fines for chopping data.clusters down to lay pavement will finally be bigger too! :) jes you wait... .rez ______________________________ From: ahawks (polyunsaturated fun!) Subject: Re: TIME to GOOOoooo! [Floyd ref.] Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 22:10:05 MST New fresh-scented *Murali* (150% real fruit juices!) says: | |In message <9302040041.AA05946@nyx.cs.du.edu>, |ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (E) wrote: | |:| I though the article was all-right, for a lame-o's guide to |:|C-punk for losers. |: |:Come ON! "a lame-o's guide to C-punk for losers"? This is what I |:spoke about, the typical hacker response, to find every media mention |:negative, no matter what the content. |:They weren't writing the article for you, me, people on the WELL, |:Mondoids, etc. | | Right! :) Maybe the tone _was_ a bit harsh, but I sometimes |do that. My meaning still remains: it's an intro into Cpunk for |those who have _no_ idea what it is, done medium-well. OK, I'll |retract and rerelease as "a semi-lame guide to C-punk for the |clueless". Tha'ss better... Damn, I was harsh too now that I see what I wrote...aarg, gotta find out where that was comin from, cuz every flame or semi-flame has some relevenace to off-net.life.... It coulda been better, i think there's a lot of common ground between us in that statemenet, at the very least. "I think I'm losin my mind this time this time I'm losin my mind" -Beastiez sync on the radio | |:| New Edge Consulting Services | |: |:^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ what is this? |: what do you consult about? | | Anything that we feel we can handle - mostly a "give us an |idea of the info you need, and we'll go do some research and report |back to you" sorta operation. Not specializing in tech or futurism or |anything, but the name's just a grabber... Umm, just wonderin, do you get a lot of people coming in related to new AGE stuphs? I mean, do you get calls asking if you can do tarot or that full-out astrological reading, etc....? (damn... Pixies, Janes', Beasties, Primus, Ween, King Missile, and They Might be Giants on the radio in one set....remind me to find a less psychotic station ..... ) "PUSH DA LITTLE DAZIES AND MAKE EM COME UP" -Ween, not in sync with anything as far as I can tell... -- ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu FutureCulture: In/f0rmation ahawks@mindvox.phantom.com future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu ______________________________ From: ahawks (polyunsaturated fun!) Subject: Re: Well it's happening Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 23:36:24 MST New fresh-scented *Loveweasle* (150% real fruit juices!) says: | |Today, as I write this actually, the subject on Mike Seigle's national |radio show is the power of talk radio (related topic technology empowering |people). One caller brought up the internet and the cyberpunk movement. I |believe she mentioned mondo too but i can't remember. Any way it's hitting |the mainstream and there is nothing anyone can do about it. The beutiful |thing is the mass media is losing power because of all of this. We all can |have our opinions seen and heard. The death of the politicaly correct is |around the corner. If you don't know about any of the national talk radio |shows, Get your Head out of your ass! Shit is happening. It will die down.. This is a phase. Right now is the acid e-test for those who have bene into it for awhile. This is the x-roads. Where are we going? Will it die? Will it morph? Will it continue to perpetually explode? Looking for answers....this will be interesting.... As far as talk radio is concerned, you're in sync with Newsweek which came out today....For me the highlight of the talk radio phenom (which is all too ready to morph into the Electronic Town Hall of the Perot mindstyle, with or without ISDN) was Eric what's-his-names (Bognosia?) Talk Radio - very moving, said a lot about culture, said a lot about VIRTUAL CULTURE - remember when the looney kid gets to go down to the studio to fleshmeet him? [rez - if yer reading, read the above few lines if you didn't] Talk radio is basically structured, censored (always to some degree, because not *everyone* gets on and gets the chance to rant) v-culture in a different form of cyberspace....It's a lot like an IRC channel with a specfic topic with a consistent in/out flow of participants. That's all talk radio is. The *POTENTIAL* of various net.forums, Usenet, E-lists, IRC for example far exceed the communicative potential of talk radio as it stands in it's current manifestation, excluding HAM radio. I hope to god I'm not the Larry King of FutureCulture. |Fisel@eskimo.com |the loveweasle -- ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu FutureCulture: In/f0rmation ahawks@mindvox.phantom.com future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu ______________________________ Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 01:04 CDT From: Institute for Intelligent Systems Subject: Memetic Algorithms MEMETIC ALGORITHMS: An extension of evolutionary programming for idea generation in an artificial organism. Genetic algorithms, as put forth by John Holland, are an alternative to algorithmic programming and iterative software development. Instead of giving a computer the pre-optimized computations to be performed on input from a given environment, the program is given a framework in which it can optimize on its own. For example, engineers are now using genetic algorithms to design aerodynamically correct fuselages for aircraft, and discovering solutions they might not have arrived at, otherwise. Genetic algorithms are loosely based in biology. The system starts with a collection of genotypes, which are selected based on the systems input, resulting in a certain phenotypic behaviour. This behaviour is then evaluated, and the system rewards or penalizes the genotypes used to achieve the behaviour. The factors we are dealing with thus far: A dynamic system containing a population of 'genes' which can be described as if-then rules, but arent for computational purposes, a dynamic(?) environment, and some sensorimotor (in the loose sense) connection between the two. Typically, the genes in a system represent input/output for an agent, formula, what-have-you. However, there is no reason why such a system could not be used in an inference engine or idea generator using information, or, more specifically, memes (Richard Dawkins). If I may refer to a much earlier post, I put forth an artificial memory system based on natural optimizing of information relationships (See John Anderson, The Adaptive Character of Thought), residing in n-space. While this self-organizing, self-optimizing system is an efficient storage/ retrieval system, one would need some way in which to generate new concepts, create novel ideas, and make intelligent associations. By using a system loosely based on genetic algorithms, this would indeed be possible. While use of an actual genetic algorithm is not necessary (a ga can be defined as an augmented transition network, a finite state machine, a turing machine, a propositional system, condition/action pairs, a singal optimization system, etc), I rather like the name (sue me...it gets the point across). The point to be made here is that, just as behaviours, signals, variables can be optimized through evolution, memes (ideas) are also susceptible to such optimization. A point must be made here, however. Most ga systems deal with a _dynamic_ system residing in a _static_ environment. In other words, the system will eventually be able to optimize. What I am discussing now is a dynamic system in a dynamic environment. To this end, such a system would, at best, only be able to settle into local minima at any given time because the input is constantly novel (at least, novel enough to inhibit optimization). What does this have to do with ideas? Well, believe it or not, how information behaves is not an artifact of the human cognitive system (check out the Anderson book...rigorous mathematical proofs sprinkled throughout). In other words, information will settle into certain patterns, and these patterns will hae certain relationships that hold between them. The way in which these relationships are utilized depends on a few factors: the goals of the system, the state of the system, the state of the environment, and a little sprinkling of Heisenberg for good measure. In other words, given the right kind of system (optimally dynamic), the right setting, and the right previous experiences (and the right goals and internal states), what was once a 'novel' idea becomes explainable as a function of the overall system as a whole. We're getting closer...I'm not done, but my fatigue/caffeine ratio is increasing with frightening rapidity, so I'll pause here. BTW, I should have some fresh insight and new motivation tomorrow, since William H. Calvin is going to lunch with a few of us, then speaking on 'haxagonal mosiacs in the brain', patterns of neuronal activation that may form the basis of thought, ideas, consciousness tomorrow afternoon. Looks promising. 'til elsewhen, Mark Langston langston@memstvx1.memst.edu fugue@mindvox.phantom.com ______________________________ Subject: WIRED and net response From: cber@mindvox.phantom.com (Arthur Gorecki) Date: Thu, 04 Feb 93 02:51:17 EST > PS, anyone who has Intertek 3.3, I'm beginning to think Bruce Sterling > light be right, and not just about Usenet. The Bury Usenet article was by Steve Steinberg not Sterling, if that's the one you were talking about. The summary is that he feels Usenet is a waste of time and full of weenies. A comment neatly echoed by EFF this last week in Mitch Kapor's reply to some loonie named Graham Toal: Mitch Kapor writes: > While the net community as the term is commonly is very important as > pioneers and early adopters, to say or imply it;'s the only community > that matters or the community that needs to be taken account of above and > beyond all others is simply not our world view. Taking a view of what's been going on for the last 4 or 5 weeks over Usenet, this listing, on MindVox and WELL, I am starting to get the clear idea that most of the people _doing_ things, don't take the net or the lists seriously. The EFF had a much publicized change of direction. The net went crazy, its still going crazy, reading eff.talk people are still posting 10 part 18 paragraph rants back and forth. On the WELL and MindVox some of the people went crazy for a few days, some of the people didn't and everything calmed down within 10 days. What makes it on this list is endless rants about how the EFF sold out and Dead Lord (Bruce Fancher, one of the owners of MindVox) cut his card into little pieces and mailed it to Mitch and how terrible the new EFF is. What doesn't make it into any list is that in Austin Bladex and Jagwire are doing active support of the EFF, helping them get organized in a time of crisis and change. That in between putting his fist through windows and shooting heroin or stray dogs while writing the next great work, both Kroupa and Fancher (yes the same Fancher), have been active in the NY EFF group since it started last summer and are the heads of two different committees to help organize things and build awareness of what the EFF is trying to do. Not so much MindVox, since that has some kind of acceptance because of either its founders or low pricing, but the rags on the WELL are constant. If you don't like the WELL then vote with your pocketbook and don't pay to get on it! What is the problem? In the same way I always see the WELL pitted against MindVox, against netcom, against everything. There are only two large Cyberpunk systems in north america right now. The WELL and MindVox. At its current rate of growth MindVox will be bigger than the WELL by the end of the year, sooner if you count all the people on WELL who haven't logged in since 1991 but still have directories. And I can almost bet that the prices will become close to the WELL's by that time. But I _never_ see any of this shit on either one of the two systems. There is a free flow of traffic from one to the other, I know of at least 45 people who keep accounts on both and the number is growing. There isn't any of this animosity or east vs. west shit that I read about all over Usenet and mailing lists, from people who I've never even seen on either system! And _Wired_ here there have been days of _Wired is here, the world is going to end, how dare they steal our culture!_ _Time magazine and their articles suck!_ _they're all losers, next cyberpunk will be in shopping malls_ Most of this is from people who don't do _ANYTHING_ except whine through their modems and feel special because of it. Without one exception every "name" I have talked to about Wired coming out has been positive about it making our culture more accessible to everyone. Out of all the _names_ I've ever left mail to, every single one of them has responded to me. Some quickly (EFF), some took forever (Bruce Sterling :)), some took forever and wrote demented nursery rhymes between sentences (Patrick Kroupa :)), but what ____ALL____ of them had in common is that they were not rude, arrogant, judgmental or assholes. Whatever any of the people active in our culture might be in their private lives, _none of them_ act like egotistical assholes when they're in front of the computer. The simplest way I can phrase it is, they're socially adjusted people, they are _nice_ people. When I want to see psychological disorders on display, I only have to go as far as the nearest Usenet newsgroup or mailing list to find rudeness, anger and unproductive people who don't do much besides complain about everything and do nothing. I find it totally appalling that the response I get from anybody who _knows_ what the net is about, is much worse then the response I get from someone new to it. People in the know lump the usenet together as a bunch of net-weenies and flamers who aren't worth listening to. And this isn't true, it's only true of the loudest few who speak volumes for everyone else. -Arthur Gorecki- cber@phantom.com ______________________________ From: zane@ddsw1.mcs.com (Sameer Parekh) Subject: Re: TIME and Raves Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 20:02:14 -0600 In message <9302030436.AA29965@nyx.cs.du.edu>, X writes: > > I'm waiting for an article on raves by them...I mean a *big* piece, > not a one-two line mention....For me, that will say a lot about their > motives, their audience, their mindstyle.... > They have. I don't remember the exact issue, but it was a two-page piece (not *big*, but large enough) with the headline "Tripping the Night Fantastic" something or other. Not very good-- it said how raves were popular, how no scene is complete without its dose of illicit drugs, etc., etc. (If someone has a specific pointer, speak up.) ____________________________________________________________________________ | Sameer Parekh-zane@ddsw1.MCS.COM-PFA related mail to pfa@ddsw1.MCS.COM | | Apprentice Philosopher, Writer, Physicist, Healer, Programmer, Lover, more | | "Specialization is for insects" - Robert A. Heinlein _____________________/ \____________________________________________________/ ______________________________ Subject: Re: WIRED and net response From: deadboy@mindvox.phantom.com (The Dead) Date: Thu, 04 Feb 93 03:42:49 EST cber stating the obvious: > When I want to see psychological disorders on display, I only have to go > as far as the nearest Usenet newsgroup or mailing list to find rudeness, > anger and unproductive people who don't do much besides complain about > everything and do nothing. > > I find it totally appalling that the response I get from anybody who > _knows_ what the net is about, is much worse then the response I get from > someone new to it. People in the know lump the usenet together as a > bunch of net-weenies and flamers who aren't worth listening to. And this > isn't true, it's only true of the loudest few who speak volumes for > everyone else. Derrrrrrrr, why do you think you are on Vox and the Well? Answer your own question and then take a look at the whole world and see that its just like usenet with some few island universes. Starting to look familiar? Clue! ______________________________ Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 09:52:18 +0100 From: nv89-nun@nada.kth.se Subject: Religion From: Juggler I'm curious...(oh no! another curiosty spiel that could cause much band- width!!) wat religions are you people out there on the future list practicing? -Juggler Well, I belive God (the monotheism one) is a infinite set of non-linear differential equations! The polytheistist gods are, of course, just subsets of God. I also belive in, and worship, infinitesmals (they are greater than you think!) ****************************************************************************** Nik. Ungman InterNet: nv89-nun@nada.kth.se AppleLink: SW0358 Issued by the alien relations board: Not all aliens are like the kleggs Be nice to your neighbourhood alien and he'll be nice to you ______________________________ Subject: Holes & Drawings & Your Body From: verge@cyberden.sf.ca.us Date: Wed, 03 Feb 93 17:31:20 PST Hawk & the Cults: Oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy, oh, boy--something interesting! (--besides, this ties into what I'm wearing. More later--) First, a tour of the author's body: 3 12-10 gauge earrings in left ear, one by gun, two by my lady wife (committment and love ceremony). Hole expander in one to stretch it. 1 navel (vert.): she has matching, done same day/time. Committment ceremony. 1 red lightning bolt tat on left thigh. 1 black Japanese idiogram for "change" on left shoulder blade. Matching (but other shoulder) on my bro. Linking ceremony. 1 scar over heart. Blood ceremony. & have plans for voodon veve, swatch of bright color (see if Marcus at Primal Urge here in SF will do), sushi, "Bob" head, a nice tribal, see if Raelyn Gallina will do a nice cut/ash rub, maybe a fly, probably left nipple, and one of these days my septum. & this is all I wear when I hack-- Now then, a little info (hey, that's what's the net's about--ain't it?)--don't know the tech stuff around here (how the hell do you get a file using ftp?), don't have the time to ramble philosophy, do IRC or MUDs, and don't believe in Autopia--but the one thing I know is BODY MODIFICATIONS! Now I don't have a lot of time (doin' this at home fer once, and my life/wife is calling--), so _please_ excuse terseness. Am shelving the usual Verge wit for pure info. STAND-BY FOR DATA STREAM. First of all, it's TATTOO (two T's). Second, go out there and buy (manditory) Re/Search's _Modern Primitives_ before you go out there and get one, or wanna talk about it. Ain't the best, but easier to find and a good resource. Third, for body work, YOU DON'T USE A GUN. Sorry for the caps, but it's a matter of safety and accuracy. Here's a quickie lesson is piercing a (say) a nipple. Get a hollow-point piercing needle (from Gauntlet in SF and LA, some places you can order by post)--something around 14 guage (recommended by Raeyln), a captive or snap bead ring, latex gloves (MANDATORY), a cork, thimble, a bottle of Hibiclens or Betadyne. Using a felt marker, mark around the nipple so your piercing will be straight, then do what you expect with the needle (cork on other side, thimble so it doesnUt go through your thumb), then put the open end of the ring on the back of the needle and pull it through the nipple as you pull the needle through. Close ring, use aniseptic. Enjoy. There are almost as many kinds of piercing places as their are fingers and toes--a rule of which is if it sticks out you can pierce it. Starting from the top, eyebrows (not recommended, usually rejects), nose (on the side or through the cartelege, the septum), the tongue (fun to french kiss with, and makes a cool sound when clicked against the teeth), the lip (on the side with a ring or a barbell through tissue right under--but can wear gums down if not correctly placed), almost anywhere on the ear (there are terms, but not on hand right now), the flap of skin between arm and torso (not recommended, usually rejects), the hands (same), nipples (vertical or horz.), navel (takes a while to heal--I know), genitalia: On Men: the Prince Albert, through the urethra and down, fixed with a ring. The ampallang (horz. behind the coronal ridge), dydoe (barbell through the ridge), apadravya (vert. behind the head), frenum (pierced below the corona, ring going through and around the shaft--can act as a cock ring), guiche (a ring right behind the balls), and hafada (ring through a bit of ball tissue). On Women: Labia minora, majora, clit hood, and clit (rare--helped with one once, took five of us to hold her down, talk about screams!). Some quickie facts and myth-busting: Genitals heal fast (more blood vessels), some piercings never heal all the way, some reject. Some folks have metal alergies, check your tolerance for certain metals. Always pierce with surgical steel. ItUs safest. Piercings can always be expanded, donUt pop for a big needle--work your way up (unless you really wanna). Yeah, you can fuck and be fucked with piercings--but just wait till you get one pinched. Wow! You donUt have to be a masochist to have a piercing--but it helps! If removed, cartelege piercings can heal over REAL FAST. Nipples sometimes leave a hole behind for a long time. Skin is VERY STRONG (ask someone whoUs pierced), and itUs almost IMPOSSIBLE to pull a ring out of someone (but you can always tie one end to a truck and step on the gas). Fakir Musafar, remember, and Stelarc hang from theirs-- Enough of them will set off metal detectors (I know--). Healing and rejection depends on body physiology, not everyone heals at the same rate in the same place. Nipple piercings CAN make the nipple more exciteable--get one done before you get both. If you go to the doctor after a recent piercing, tell him/her (depending on the dr. and why youUre there). A piercing CAN change your body reactions to other stuff-- Anyway, thatUs a quickie guide to (mostly) piercings. IUm available for questions, comments, weddings, bar-mitzvahs, S/M parties, raves, or just plain FUN (or ask someone on alt.sex.bondage). Some of what IUve said is opinion, but always err on the side of safety. If you donUt know--ask. If something goes wrong, get help. Next, how to have fun beating you wife (consensually)-- Verge !!!!!!!!!!!!! Pere Ubu sez: "Surrealism au service de la revolution!" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! __________________________________________________________________________ | / |\ | H E \ Y B E R |/ E N [ verge@cyberden.sf.ca.us ] ______________________________ Date: 04 Feb 1993 02:58:35 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: you tell me... anyone care to tackle this one...? or should it be a joint.letter? From: IN%"time@well.sf.ca.us" 3-FEB-1993 21:42:35.66 To: IN%"REZABEK1037@iscsvax.uni.edu" CC: Subj: So, I've heard there's bveeeen discussion goin on here regarding my recent article in the February 8 issue of Time. -Phil ______________________________ Date: 04 Feb 1993 04:27:02 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: pre.fix i've been on this list since september. i'm on partially because i'm hacking out a project on VIRTUAL CULTURE. what's missed in *that* definition is that i'm already a part of the virtual culture of the net and the v.sub.cltr's that comprise it. *i am already concerned.* ("to whom it may concern...") for the last... oh, say, 2 weeks or so andy hawks, myself, mitch porter, and several others who i really only know through their irc.handles have been meeting on a channel set up as #cIRCle to discuss the Fate of the Net in general. tonight we finally hit on the Fate of CyberPunk. of course we came to few conclusions... but the memes we left with were relatively disconcerting. everyone there had things to say, hopes and fears, the whole 9 yards, but none of it was working. i've decided to do my part to drag the debate over to FC proper... judging by the content of recent posts, it's not exactly out of place... as someone who has been in the past somewhat "outside" the CyberPunk whatchamacallit (i do not consider myself CyberPunk...) i have had... well, what? reactions that may or may not be of interest to you. true of us all, sad to say. after reading the TIME article, it struck me that people "coming in" to this, be it the Net in general or the more "strand-ed" fringes of it (those of some "cyber" leaning... geez i'm tired of that word ;) ) may have things in common. this is the culture i'm interested in. but it also seems to me that any culture has to come into its own. if there is art or science or technobabble or philosophy to be pointed to, it eventually has to spring up from WITHIN the culture, rather than being appropriated from without. to my eyes, kroupa's "agr1ppa" was and is a valid response to "agrippa." it came from inside: gibson's just working his way in, medium.wise... if little kiddies come in here, for whatever reason, there HAS to be more to say than "bug out, little guy." even if it's just "FIRST read this and then come back and tell us how it settled." there are Hard Questions (tm) to be approached and answered in here, in virtuality, the Net, CyberSpace, whatever you call it. In Here. if there's to be work done in, on, and about VIRTUALITY, the stuff that'll matter to ME will be the stuff that comes from within; from me, from you, from us. so i sometimes dabble in prose. it's usually autobiographical, it's usually shit... but i do dabble. in the last few weeks i've had put a lot of energy into trying to hack out where this Net thingy fits into my life. a few pieces of hackneyed work have been the result, and they approach, for me, the questions and feelings having to do with VIRTUALITY that i've had to answer for myself. if nothing else, they may spark the questions in you. either way, you all know how to use the DELETE key if nothing catches on. :) i've even come up with some "Answers," or at least compulsions, for myself. (have to speak for myself, you see, because i've never been anyone else. besides, no-one else's gonna do it for me...) so here goes. the piece as a whole will have been called "ON THE PASSIONS OF WORDS" and it's eventually going to be much larger. the "chapters" amount to post-sized "flux.fixes" ... * * * NOTE: 3jane is employed as a METAPHOR from within the text * * * so don't panic. i'm just a meme.hack ... i do try to watch my p's & q's ... .rez - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PASSION: soundtrack from the Last Temptation of Christ; Peter Gabriel, 1989. ______________________________ From: ahawks (extra crispy) Subject: The Edge of Information and Community 2 Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 3:43:11 MST One of the fundamental crisis points in forging a 1 person community is the break from all unions with another living individual being. Ie, when 2 subtracts 1, and 2 seperate 1 person communities arise. See the struggle? Both parties would simultaneously have to realise that they no longer need each other for these 2 seperate 1 person communities to arise. Here's the crisis: we *need* society to live, if we have in fact been a product of society. A person could not possibly becoe a 1 person community, because if they have an fact groked all the information there is to be understood, they will realize this. So you've identified yourself, you GNOW WHO YOU ARE, big deal. What does it MATTER!?!?! How are you going to tell!?!? Noone!?!?! You are you and only you now, remember. See, this is where individual philosophy and persuasions definiely come in to play. Once you get there, let's call it The Edge, where The Edge = a 2 person community seeking to become 2 1 person communities, it's up to you. It REALLY is. You're you and that's all you are. You will have seperated yourself from everything else, including not only every living thing, but the ideas of God or infinity, or whatever. You will have ABSOLUTELY defined yourself. That's it, you're done. Now, The Edge, naturally, is a fearful place because we are all products of society. So, we must ask ourselves, why the FUCK, then, if we are all products of society, why do we all on some level of being seek to define ourselves ABSOLUTELY. We are NOT absolute individuals, because we are all relative to each other (maybe even relatives of each other, "the stuph of life", depending on your religious and philosophical outlook), because we exist from and about each other. Why then, are we on the road to knowhere, the road to The Edge? Kinda scary. The Edge of course is a relative place. Some never reach it, some live there, some die there, some approach it and turn away. I have lived there, I attempted suicide there, I have approached and walked away many times, and I think I know maybe too well what The Edge looks like. For me, real-time interactive forums like IRC, as mentioned in the previous post, provide an opportunity of getting close to The Edge once more. I hang out there a lot. Hanging out on this Edge, hanging out on IRC. This is all bullshit until you reach that relative point, relative to yourself in society and all your information, so I can't write this crap down and say "don't go over the edge, don't live on this edge". I don't even want to hand out those warnings. However, I hav come to a self-realization that states this: Turn around, dumbass. Stop hanging out over here. Walk the other way. Instead of definining yourself as you, define yourself as part of the whole, are define the whole. Togetherness, Community are important things to you, being a product of them of course. For myself then, I will start at forums like IRC, as far as the net is concerned, and turn 180 degrees in the opposite direction. When I encounter other people from now on, walking the opposite direction towards the Edge, I will saw "Walk with me, please. Join me. Let's go this way. I know you're walking that way, but let's just retrace our steps back this way. Together." This is how we begin to forge a new community, the Community. This is what i want to do. My trajectory is set. I am turning around in the face of chaos, turning towards post-sngularity, a sort of monistic state of Life, The Universe, and Everything. Inevitably, I will become confused along the path in my constant dealings with people travelling in ALL directions. This is my stupidity, this is my fault. That, and I might venture to say you as well, that we may become misguided in terms of are True Trajectory. Let's work together then, relative to each other, to redisover that true trajectory. My destination may not be the same as yours, and that is fine. I will not try to change your destination if you do not try and change mine. If you do not want to join me, that's cool too, because I guess you're one of those that has to discover for himself the truth behind "to each his own". ______________________________ From: ahawks (extra crispy) Subject: The Edge of Information and Community 1 Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 3:43:10 MST With the continual rise in new means and methods of communication, the inevitable result is MORE communication, MORE forums. With this wider selection of forums to choose from, the opportunity exists for people to CHOOSE or rather feel forced to choose, those forums which are relevant to them as an individual or member of varying communities. For example, compare television of the 1950s to television today. In the 50's, one citizen might at best have 5 stations to choose from. Now, an average citizen has 55 channels to choose from. We realize that as far as this reality is concerned, we all die eventually. Death. Time is limited. Because time is limited, we choose to make decisions, or rather feel forced to choose to make decisions regarding our information intake. If I have 55 channels available, all with a different mindstyle or approach, and I am choosing which channel(s) to watch, and I know my time is limited, I will on some level of the conscious or unconscious mind select that channel, that information, which is somehow most relevant to me in my limited ime on the earth. We should define relevant here as "feel a connection with on some level in the current space and time". This may be entertainment, this may be news, this may be Julia Childs. The conenction may be made out of a desire to expand my senses or knowledge or a desire to deprive the extension of my senses or knowledge. When knowledge becomes shared, communities develop. For example, I will watch World News Tonight, because I am a citizen of the world, a member of world society, and no matter how much I wish to affirm or deny the fact, my every action affects the world, and I am affected by every action in the World. If a 10 year old boy in India gets arrested for selling opium, it may not seem like that affects you. But, ultimately, on some level it does. This is further enhanced because th Unknown exists. IE, maybe you could have met this boy, but sine he is in jail you can't. A tree being cut down changes an ecosystem and the atmosphere, etc. When we say "oh, 1 tree doesn't matter" we are basically denying the effects of change to ourselves on some level, and it is so interesting to find out where people's references are in terms of "what affects me v. what doesn't", ie, the inevitable unconscious and conscious line drawing that occurs in humans in society. So, anyway, we have these communities. Let's refer back to the cable television analogy. When I watch TV, then, I have 55 seperate or not-so-seperate communities to align myself with. I have 55 channels of information, of knowledge, to choose from. One of the definitions of community, in simplified terms, is "similarity or identity". By sharing in the knowledge or information of one particular channel, I am sharing similar knowledge and can thus identify myself with having that knowledge, thus I am a member of that info-community. We must recognize, then, that any definition of community based around geography or spacial limitations has absolutely no relevance under this model given our ability to transcend those limitations via modern methods of communication such as the telephone or satellite dishes. Fairly soon, you will not have 55 channels to chose from, you will have 555, if ISDN pulls through and becomes a reality. See the evolution? 5 -> 55 -> 555. 555 seperate communities to choose from. In the cable tv model, however, there is one vital aspect which is denied on a fundamental level, and that is the ability to communicate interactively with those who present the knowledge to you. Ie, as technology stands as far as cable tv is concerned, I *do* have the choice to choose my communities, but I do *not* have a choice to carry on meaningful discussions with the harbringer of the information within the context of the time it is presented. Ie, I can't tell Julia Childs "you fool, you put too much paprika in the chicken". I can't tell Peter Jennings "now do a report on Somalia, and I can't interact with him as to the biasedness, say, fo a certain report *as* the report is happening. Television is not, however, a one way street. You do have opportunities to interact on some level regarding what information is presented and how it is presented, whether it be by calling/faxing/writing a letter etc. Yet, the inability to interact in real-time with the information presenter as the information is being presented limits the free flow and exchange of information and ideas. Now, let us turn to Virtual Communities. BBSes have long been likened to houses. In fact, any self-respecting BBS user has read an ettiquette file which inevitably contains the line "remember, when you are on a BBS, you are in a person's home, so don't do or say anything you wouldn't want said in your home." BBSes, then, if the anology holds true, consist of fairly private exchanges among a relatively small group. Let us turn to the Internet. Inter- is an appropriate prefix in this case, because the Internet is, basically, the world of networks -- international, literally consisting of many nations, and within those nations exist many states/provinces/territories, those territories may further be seperated into cities, smaller communities, and ultimately an individual in a particular house (as designated, possibly, by a specific email address). Now we will look at one of the more popular large communities and communicative forums on the Internet, and that is Usenet. Usenet is basically your 555 channel cable hook up. Thus, you have some channels (newsgroups) that appeal to a wider audience, a larger community, than others. Some are like CNN, some are like public access cable. However, the means of interactive communication in a Usenet newsgroup is far greater than compared to television. Yet, it is still not real-time! There is nothing I can really do, if I am sitting at my computer in Colorado, to prevent someone in Japan from posting a specific message to a specific newsgroup. However, I still have the choice of which communities I want to align myself with, and I also have the added choice of added interactivity with that community. I can whip up a message and sent it off to a particular newsgroup, or a few, and know that wihin hours or days it will be across the world. Then, those who also align themselves with that community have the opportunity to read my message, or to ignore it, and respond. Thus begins the seemingly infinite ricochet of communication within the community. Newsgroups are created and change, consensus interest is lost or gained, just as in the cable television analogy. If a community is too specific within the context of other existing communities, it will probably not survive. If it is too large, it will spawn one or more subset communities. Thus, if we want these communities to continue to be worthy information providers and receptors, we would assume that one would start with fairly large communities, and become moe specific as needed. This is reflected in the Usenet hierarchy. [which I won't explain but I hope evryone knows about] Now, sometimes, these newsgroups prove too strict, too lenient, or "off-target" in the structure of the community. Thus, what might usually occur, is a grass-roots "revolt" or a grass-roots "movement" to encourage a new community, when common identity or the sharing of knowledge is realized. The communities I am referring to here are e-lists, or electronic mailing lists if you're anal. The structure of these communities is unique in that, compared to Usenet, it offers the potential for more specialized knowledge or information, thus a more specific group identity or focus, thus truly more of wha we might refer to as a "community" feeling persists. Genrally, mailing lists also offer more interactivity through this community-feeling and the fact that e-mail general provides a quicker turn-around rate than Usenet. Thus, you have more specific conversations by a more specific group, and the rate of exchange and information processing is much quicker -- ideas seem to evolve quicker, threads may rise and fall quicker and be consensly more "substantive", etc. Ok, refer back to the 5 -> 55 -> 555 anology. Do you see what's happening as far as the Internet is concerned in parallel with this? As television technologies have increased, and allowed for more forums of communication, specialization has also increased in regards to the community identities. The same thusly is true for the Internet. Usenet is *actually* the 5, e-lists are *actually* the 55, so what is the 555? Highway 555 of the Internet is manifest in seemingly real-time interactive "chats". These are available through a variety of channels, including: Unix talk, MUDs, Internet BBS chat systems, and IRC. For this rant I will focus on IRC because it's what's pissing me off. So, back to the cable analogy we have 555 channels of non-real-time-interaction communities to choose from. Imagine those 555 channels with real-time interactiveness. *every* person who's got the 555 channels can interact with any of them. Now, add the aspect of any individual can add any channel he/she wishes, at any time, so you might feasibly have a huge number of channels, say 555^10. THIS is IRC. Do you see the trend devloping in terms of specialization? If you do or if you don't, I refer you back to what I iniitally spoke of in regards to every action affects you on some level. Seemingly, it might be possible to have every individual with a net.account start his/her own IRC channel. 1 person per channel. INDIVIDUALIZATION. This is the Goal. The Goal of Specialization is INDIVIDUALIZATION. THIS IS OUR PATH. But for now, that's a bit unrealistic, though that is DEFINITELY the road we are headed on. The goal of man, it seems, has long since been to define himself/herself as an individual. This is done through specialization, ie drawing lines, seperation on a practically infinite amount of levels. We think we are just seeking communities that relate to us better, but, ultimately, noone relates better to us than ourselves, the individual. The search for a community one can find a niche in is a scam. Complete bullshit. You are seeking to define yourself relative to other people, you are seeking to define yourself as an indiidual. Now, let's get back to the IRC. Let's say we've got a nice little circle of friends and wanderers-by, and, oh, let's say, since they're a circle of frineds, and they're on IRC, we'll csay they're on channel #cIRCle. get it? good, clap for yourself. Now, let's say the topic on this particular channel of 10 IRCers is something one might find on a college campus or a latelatenite coffeehouse discussion, like, Existentialism. These 10 people think they have a nice little community here. 10 people ocused on existentialism, constantly and consistently engaging in the free flow and exchange of information and ideas. Nice community. Good community, honestly. But, hey, you know what? These 10 individuals, in all of ther free flow and exchange of information and ideas are 10 individual sub-set communities within the holistic #cIRCle. Through this community, they may eventually find that 8 of them share another, completely seperate characteristic (like, for example, liking to take LSD) and may then form another community. Let's call this one the #inner.cIRCle. The 8 members of the #inner.cIRCle may then discover that 5 of them like to listen to techno music, and may form another channel. Guess where I'm headed: the 1 person community. The 1 person community. It seems like an oxymoron, but it reallly isn't. It's the Ultimate Identity. Don't confuse the 1 person community with the 1 person hermit. The 1 person community has achieved the Goal. He/she has grepped all the information there is to grep, and is defined as an individual being relative the rest of the members of every existing community. The 1 person hermit has just isolated himself. Do you feel the angst? It is a deeply depressing thought to realize that this is the road we are on. It might in fact be the road to nowhere. I will stop here, and I will call upon FCers to comment on this. I have other things I want to add, but now is time for a reality check. ______________________________ From: ahawks (extra crispy) Subject: The Edge of Information and Community 4 Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 3:43:13 MST As I finished off last time, I said we ought to establish some consensus guidelines for communicating in our ever-growing pulsating community. Here I will throw out some early ideas, some thoughts I've had, brainstorms and mindstyle observations, that will aprticularly relate to IRC, but might possibly be extrapolated to other forms of communication. First of all, I think the fundamental question rests in knowing that some people will seek a synergy, some people will seek chaos in communication, and this seems inevitable, whether we know it or not. *** How do we, in acknowledging that some people move towards some sort of order, and that some move towards some sort of chaos, deal with both those mindstyles in one interactive communicative session? We don't wnat to deny the free flow and exchange of information and ideas, right, or do we, ultimately?? Thus, how do we accept both ina single forum? *** In our conversations, do we promote a specified topic? *** If so, do we stick to that topic or does the conversation flow, or does the conversation hyperflow? *** Do we have any sort of heirarchal (sp?) system? authority in speaking? Moderator? *** Should the conversation be limited to one person speaking at a time, with consensus protocols to determine the begin/end points, or do some people speak at a time, or can everybody have equal say at any time? *** In a linear format such as IRC, do we encourage or discourage multiple conversations between multiple parties? [Actually, linear is not *real* appropriate because /msgs can be sent without affecting the public conversation] These are just a few basic questions to ask, and could and should be extrapolated upon. IMHO, in IRC, I would like to encourage the following: *** Rants, or, soundbyte rants, long monologues, should be noted by a predefined protocol which should be spread AS WIDELY as possible. Possible protocals: START/END, BEGIN/END, [/] etc. Ie: what's the meaning of life? that's a toughy...hmm.... START . END Thus, this is like a virtual soapbox, and people should not, for the sake of cohesion, respond until the person is done and has signified as such *** If you are replying to a specific person or a question, begin your comment by acknowledging that's who you're refer-ing to. Ie: what's the meaning of life? hey I am naked right now john: that's a toughy..... dave: put some clothes on, whipping boy. *** Make the communications private if you feel they are not of interest to anyone but you and the other person. *** Say what you have to say horizontaly as possible, not vertically. *** If the conversation is being recorded in any way, all peresent should at least know that, or should at least be asked for permission if the text is going to be appropriated or appear in a public or semi-public forum. *** In IRC, don't go in/out in/out, etc....use the commands available, act intelliently and with maturity. *** Keep all your sense open as widely as possible, try not to limit them not matter how limiting the forum may be, be polite, curteous, don't use foul language or discuss topics that you feel might possibly be questionable in the company of those who might not repsond positively. Again, these are just the guidelines I'm trying to set for *myself*. I'm going to try and only encourage them for *me* my own use, and hopefully they will catch on if others find them as useful as I do. I don't want to be a net.Pc.cop or anthing in anyway -- I wouldn't have started FC if I didn't want people to TALK. And, most importantly, I won't people to feel FREE when they talk, and I am aware these ideas may seem to limit that freedom, but, again, these are what I'm adopting for myself on an individual basis. If you agree with me on some or all, it wuld be cool if you acted that way too, but, if you don't go ahead and tell me to fuck off if that makes you happy. Ok, I'm done. ______________________________ Date: 04 Feb 1993 04:47:48 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: flux.fix.1 "One of the sure paths to the real future (because there is also a false future) is to proceed in the direction of your fear." - the Khazar Dictionary. fear. fear. fear fear fear. fear is a memory, like there's a gnot that sticks, and any new fears are resonances from that one initial fear, endless repetitions... but that first fear resides beyond memory. so to try to alleviate any CURRENT fear, i'd have to reach back beyond memory (beyond time) and untie that ONE gnot. beyond memory; even the fears that seem to be Fundamental are simply strong, early resonances of that ONE fear that sits ALWAYS JUST beyond reach of even the most 12-pointed of MetaPrograms. fatalistic? you tell me. just playing with memes. sorry, words. over on a terminal to my right, as i type this, mitch is IRCing with andy hawks. mitch is in australia. it's sunday afternoon there; for andy it's almost midnight. sunday morning is just beginning. i know this because i know andy is an hour behind me, which makes it 5 til one here. time is far too relative for complete sanity to even make a stand. here and now [back then] a mail message comes [came] through from alexander chislenko. i immediately click[ed] out of IRC to check it: i don't gnow why, maybe i feel a fool for mistaken identities, maybe it's something else. some un-seen resonance. i check[ed] the message: it's in response to my IRC message, a quote from pkd. i respond[ed]. behind me, the heater in the lab [was] bang[ing]s... ...behind me, the heater will've banged. there are ways around NetLag. ...and the fear will've crept up on me again, like a lover's touch, uncertainty of time, overuse of commas, of cliches, of old memories and ways of thinking that just plain won't've sufficed anymore. over on irc i will've told mitch that, not only did i ANSWER chislenko's post, but i wove it into a memotemporal loop. this statement will've amounted to falling back on the same old crutches, feeling the same old fears in a new place & space & time. once i took a bite out of an apple. it had a texture, a pleasing and subtle taste, it filled up my stomach, it took time and energy to chew; the apple browns entropically, the food digests to fuel the negentropy of my body, and i felt cold cold cold. all silent tonight. i feel like crying. nothing comes, i can't even go home and wait for day, i can't even wish i was with someone i love, because i have set aside this time to write: THIS TIME. what if nothing comes out? somehow i don't feel like i need to worry. my words work on autopilot. "but what about the MEANING," he pleads. "the feeling *behind* the words, the ideas, your stupid fucking memes... what about all of *that* ...? because, get this: *if you cannot effective convince someone that there is feeling there, then there will've been, effectively, none to be convinced of." i care. that matters? i will've seen around me a lot of stuff, stuff which elicits responses. books eliciting a desire to read, which elicits a resonance to the Sorrow that has to do with Time. a baby picture, staring back at me, accusatorily? with surprise, utter befuddlement, mostly. not even any melodramatic accusition. [i will've told FreeSide, on irc, that "i'm just hanging out, taking up Virtual Bandwidth. ;) " that won't've been enough for him; he'll've pressed on. i'll've said, "i'm doing a report on my other terminal." "on what?" ... "virtual culture..." time time time time the apple is browning time time i wish i was in her arms whose, you may not ask? you gnow (well, 49% of you do...), *HERS* ... & i sit wondering what kyra's doing and why am i HERE not in any big metaphysical way i guess just here what Prioritisations have taken place who has Prioritiesd this very text out into the netherworld beyond the delete key even the people who CAUSED this post probably are not reading it and the Fear and the Sorrow, they will've re-iterated themselves and the resonances will've sounded again and again and again and the apple is browning it is this fear, then, that i ALLEVIATE with the Net. "there are Others out there, and they are Interested." now, all of a sudden, FreeSide is back on the irc and i don't need my time as much over here anymore... this happens on NetRips. i've often wondered what it would be like to NetRip all alone, in the middle of the night, just me and the Net, and no-one else but the infinite [addresses] re-iterations of Fear&Sorrow. i've OFTEN wondered. no-one will give me a straight answer when i ask who 3jane is, but i want to meet her and hug her and touch her skin and now i gnow who 3jane is or has to be to me at this moment and nobody even had to tell me. "the soul has its own skeleton made of memories." - dictionary of the khazars. "the net has its own skeleton made of posts." - andy hawks. "the meme has its own skeleton made of resonances." - .rez "the closet has its own skeletons after sex, 2 exchanges in rapid succession: "this is a farce, we are fooling ourselves if we think there is any such thing as love here and now." "we both have inadvertently left all forms of birth control out of the equation." ...and in a flash this prose or text or whatever it is degenerates into the same old farce echoes within echoes of gibson echoing burroughs echoing who gnows what agents of communicative resonance... i will've understood Parody, at some point. Sarchasm. The. Truth. Of. Bad. Bad. Attempts. At. Prose. Can't. Breathe. Must. Reach. The. Flashing. Red. Emergency. Button... evacuate. get out now, while you can. help, help, i'm trapped in a spew of bad prose. "bad prose has its own skeleton made of so that's why the Grand Equations, because they at least will've accepted into their latitude the putridity of their own concern... *** Signoff: FreeSide (bounces out of the channel into his bed) "i've slept all day, i've slept way too much, too much sleep, i'll write until i'm dead, and the VISCIOUS thing is, i'll post it ALL. there is no such thing as self-absorbed mindspew on the Net. there is always a Reader. there is always an Audience. there is always a Small Circle Of Characters Of Which You May Be One. need could not exist without skeletons. is THIS the prose of the FUTURE?" ...we're supposed to re-invent fire with *this* stuff...? ...it's all EMPTY. just a bunch of dried up dead old twigs and leaves, and this useless rock, not sharp enough for a spearpoint or round enough to pound out the grains... the Net: noplace have i seen more potential for -- something. collapse, as the gravity of the situation becomes apparent to all involved: rapture, as a godzillion old dried up empty lonely hearts clubs bands are kindled and struck in unison: perpetuity, as evolution gnows an easy mark when it sees it: love, as two people awaken from uneasy dreams into the warmth of each others' embrace: fear, as gnots residing *just* beyond the reach of the sharpest scalpel resonate warmly: souls, where formerly there were none. shit. fodder. fertilizer, at best. i can relax. for the first time in days, i will relax. i will sit back and the moments will slip by and i WILL NOT CARE. wait: i can't do it, not alone. i pick up the alex grey book because i'm not stupid, i gnow what to bring along to a writing session like this one, and i see Promises Of Infinite Energy or Resonances Of Pain or Irc Channels Clogged With Potential For Exactly Whatever They're In The Process Of Doing or Decaying Artifact or Idiots Who Don't Know The Second Thing About The Net or Silent Night/7 O'Clock News Which Repeats Over And Over And Even When Dan Rather Is Dead Max Headroom's Bastard Son Will Beam At The Viewers Each And Every Evening Without Fail or Wasted Time Reading Bad Prose or The Hero Struggle or The Birth Of A New Art Culture Baby World Perpetual Undertaker or Memetic Grafting or Orgasm or Rape or Incest or Betrayal or Pain or Sorrow or Love. and i look at page unknown at the plate, "MATERIAL WORLD," and inevitably my head fills with madonna who is neither as old nor as undressed as she was in my dream and she sings that we are living in a material world and she is a material girl and then we sing for kyra that she is living in an inevitable world and she is an inevitable girl and alex grey has yet to be a consolation and this prose has yet to become Art and i swap out "and" for "&" because & is more snooty & i turn the page & a nervous systematic stares back at me is, it in world 1 or world 2, it is the epitomy of world 3, it is in between the mind & the body the heart & the soul, it is a crystalisation of memes, even the text i'm reading says so of neuronal protein synthesis which is apparently not entirely explicable for genetic reasons because the molecules are deliberately disposeable, they do not last for long, justlong enough to facilitate train of thought & memory & the soul has its own skeleton made of memes & that sucks & is stupid & so what it's all just words, words with no feeling behind them whatsoever, Bad Prose & i turn the page blood lymph viscera muscle naked hope in blue here they are, my favotire pages in an obscure book, hardly worthy of study, of having words thrown at them, of being included in ANYone's VIRTUAL CULTURE but it is in mine because *my* VIRTUAL CULTURE is VIRTUALLY just me. that's the tricky gnot, but it's the *VIRTUALITY* to which i now turn because i am pointed there, somehow, by the PSYCHIC ENERGY SYSTEM and the SPIRITUAL ENERGY SYSTEM and the UNIVERSAL MIND LATTICE it is beautiful & it shimmers but it shouldn't shimmer it's just a picture & maybe i'm seeing tracers & that phase.spacing that happens but it shouldn't happen now because it's not even real & i close the book and think of the work to be done, the Bad Prose to be written. from here, every text seems obscure, every reference arcane, every reach shy of the mark, from here, because it must be this way for The Whole Shebang to work like it wants to; INTEGRATE, ASSERT; integrate, ASSERT; INTEGRATE, assert; breathe. memes spread as far as they must, as far as whatever compels them can or must reach and CyberFuckingSpace is in big trouble because right now i have to reach all the way to 3jane & it's all her fault anyway, the bitch.goddess... >END PART the FIRST ______________________________ Date: 04 Feb 1993 04:52:07 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: flux.fix.2 >START PART the SECOND : when he dreams he dreams of large structures, architectures. he used to dream stories, or moods, and then those dreams faded, so now he dreams of buildings. he wanders around in them, up tangled staircases, through ducts, between pipe.systems. they are often brownish in tint (though he's heard time and time again that color and dreams don't mix) and usually unbelievable compels. when there are emotions or visceral sensations, they usually have to do with familiar characters who roam in and out and just precisely beyond arm's reach and earshot. vague murmurs echo through the hallways and i.beams. sometimes he can look through a crack in the architecture of this vision (because it does not have the richness of a dream, but it is never as frightening as a nightmare) and see distant clusters of locality. sometimes laughter sounds hollowly through corridors. it's never "stale" laughter, always full and rich and happy; but it's just plain too damn distant to strike him as being anything but "hollow," or "hollowed," or "hallowed, or >ERRATA: THE TITLE FOR THE ENTIRE SET DESIGNATED, "flux.fix" SHOULD READ: "On The Passions Of Words." SIMPLE ERROR HAS RESULTED IN A SECONDARY DESIGNATION. ALL REFERENCES TO THE WORK AS IT STANDS MUST BE TEMPERED BY THIS GNOWLEDGE.< huddled in a car, between nodes, she and i shiver vaguely. we had finally stopped "dancing around the point:" all of the accusations, the expectant questions of meaning or intent or emotion or hate had taken detours past their primary attractor(s) held in common: there was one simple fact, as it then stood, which alone remained relevant and unaddressed. on the eve of revelation, we were either with child or without. that was it, for me. period. sleep blots out the hours, and the ocean of lights which borrows my breath becomes Albuerquerque, New Mexico. it is in the flesh, that shivering rush, it can't be swapped out; it could only ever be traded up for something other, a Prioritization. infinity for the shiver, because what is VIRTUALITY but a shiver.looped.in.mid.shiv ? this is it, what happens, i think to myself, the auto.prophecy, self-fulfilled. when these schmoes and those schmoes get together what appears will be whatever is being searched for. in a sense, insofar as the bear-hunters may *SEE* the actual deer and the elk and the pheasant, but only ever chase on *down* the obviously-bear-shaped *tracks* etched in the clay beneath their dancing feet. or so it seems to me, i dubify. the bear-that-is-not-a-bear. yet. & then it's back to the flesh, soft flesh, weak flesh, blind idiot flesh, god flesh, goddess flesh, VIRTUAL flesh? yes. i can smell her and taste her and itUs VIRTUALLY out of her hands except -- except that she cares, as much as i do, about the flesh; she in her glorious presence, i in my stodgy resistance to a large part of my present inclinations. which part of me WANTS to be rid of the flesh, of her, of all the hers i ever willve needed, show me that part and together that part and i will leap to our mutually exclusive deaths. she has about had enough of my banter. and *poof* she is out of the picture, she never willve been there, she needs me like cancer or a tumor. never ever seek The Higher Element through the flesh. the main problem with doing so is that, in the cataclysmic furies of the flesh, in its abominable drive to perpetuate that same fury, it can do something which is not allowed in metaphysics or in any transmission of energy this side of VIRTUALITY. the flesh can, and does on a regular basis, reach its attractor. that tremendous breath runs through when needed; it takes a moment or two, relatively speaking. the pain of an.other is too great to allow, too great to ignore, too compelling to exorcise. for me it is this need which must be addressed, is constantly addressed in relation to competing needs, the question that any approach to VIRTUALITY as a realized thingamajig has to confront. VIRTUAL. VIRTUAL. having the aspects, but not tangibility, of the real. there willve been times when he willve looked at his companions and seen only a driving search for grounding, or expression of need, the shaky unions of convenience which mean that he and she are on the same side of the fence only long enough to exchange shivers, and until the next ones the competition for time and energy goes on, alliances become matters of convenience or of need: what can be gained through this contact, what is lost in time spent, how do i Prioritize? these thoughts are only frightening to me when i realize they are thoughts: when choices construct my life shiver by shiver the Cold Prickly is gone, and the remaining Warm Fuzzies are allowed to slip on through, warm warm resonances, which echo back to a kindred pain, the pain of separation, the pain without which time would collapse. time collapses for me, once in a while, in the breath.space of an orgasm depending on the contact or union being arranged... time collapses on IRC, but i have this Nagging Suspicion that it's not quite the same. nag, nag, nag. >END PART the SECOND ______________________________ Date: 04 Feb 1993 05:01:49 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: flux.fix.3 >START PART the THIRD forgive me, 3j, for i have fucked the proverbial macguffin on this one. are you REAL? which is to say, are you MORE THAN VIRTUAL? are you tangibly interactive? do you have anything to do with more than the optic and linguistic sensorium? if so, forgive me. forgive me, ghosts are more precious than you, forgive me please and *understand* that i need you to be unattainably VIRTUAL. it is a perversion, a kink, a gnot, a fetish, a i had her pegged for the one, lads. i admit it, i admit it all, i had her envisioned in my noggin, shifting attractors, compulsion, desire, need, and now here we are and ironically enough whoEVER she is, she was 3j at the time, she is now gnown to me as ATEH, and she rules my existence. fresh from the presses, she's actually spoken to me in a vision, which is to say > : when he dreams he dreams of large structures, architectures. he used to > dream stories, or moods, and then those dreams faded, so now he dreams of > buildings. he wanders around in them, up tangled staircases, through ducts, > between pipe.systems. they are often brownish in tint (though he's heard time > and time again that color and dreams don't mix) and usually (stereotypically) > complex. when there are emotions or visceral sensations, they have to do with > familiar characters who roam in and out and just precisely beyond arm's reach > and earshot. vague murmurs echo through the hallways and the i.beams. some- > times he can look through a crack in the architecture of this vision (it is > vision because it does not have the richness of a dream, it is vision because > it is never as frightening as a nightmare) and see distant clusters of > locality. sometimes laughter sounds hollowly through corridors. it's never > "stale" laughter, always full and rich and happy; but it's just plain too > damn distant to strike him as being anything but "hollow," or "hollowed," > or "hallowed," or all hail the new manifestations of ATEH. hallelujia, here she comes; a Character. a Plot...? a Character does not a Plot make? so what have we here? this VIRTUALITY thing... i'll take another shot. consider the Meme, the Gnot, the Fundamental Agent of Communicative Resonance. conside the gulfs of memory separating the sensation from the sense; consider The Almighty CryptoBuggaBoo which willve been outside of time. consider this: the pain is a resonance, a resonance to an event beyond the reach of the fix. so what does the fix fixate upon, what use, what good, what purpose, what function? consider the emotive intensity of sheer topology. consider the Empty Dream, Filigreed Shadows of Assumed Content, the Arching Phrases, the High- Fallootin' Verbiage. then consider this: she spoke to me, and the only way to lay it out is by collapsing it in... consider, then, the Net, looming and lurking in the between: "From there, after six days and seven nights, you arrive at Zoebeide, the white city, well exposed to the moon, with streets wound about themselves as in a skein. They tell this tale of its foundation: men of various nations had an identical dream. They saw a woman running at night through an unknown city; she was seen from behind, with long hair, and she was naked. They dreamed of pursuing her. As they twisted and turned, each of them lost her. After the dream they set out in search of that city; they never found it, but they found *one another;* they decided to build a city like the one in the dream. In laying out the streets, each followed the course of his pursuit; at the spot where they had lost the fugitive's trail, they arranged spaces and walls differently from the dream, so she would be unable to escape again. This was the city of Zoebeide, where they settled, waiting for that scene to be repeated one night. None of them, asleep or awake, ever saw the woman again. The city's streets were streets where they went to work every day, with no link any more to the dreamed chase. Which, for that matter, had long been forgotten. New men arrived from other lands, having had a dream like theirs, and in the city of Zoebeide, they recognized something of the streets of the dream... The first to arrive could not understand what had drawn them to Zoebeide, this ugly city, this trap." [source available upon request] if i am to trust my vision (and i have no other choice open to me), i have been and always will be entrenched in a displaced now, characterised by an eerie silence and a sort of borrowed complexity. this, "If the Model is All It Is Cracked Up to Be," is the stage of the play, the objective of the struggle, the source of the compulsion; each of these at once because the place is dis-placed, endlessly echoed in dusty road-maps and kitschy *you are here* markers. the thing is this: here i am. i have this certain kind of choice, because she said so, because she has conned me into AutoProphecy; Zoebeide is to me as i am to her, in all places, choosing perpetually my approach. i can be her captive, her savior, her criminal, her thief, her vagabond, her stranger, her creator, her de.constructor, her lover, her rapist, her programmer, her program. i can live here in this Fear&Sorrow or i can re-arrange. if i Choose this Fear&Sorrow i choose it alone; if i choose to entertain the notion of relevance, i choose in the faith that she deems it so [hard to explain, this suspension of disbelief, this "Faith." if you had seen her you would gnow...]. and of course no self-respecting meme could ever possibly survive without sufficient dramatic tension, without Irony (a key, a key!): in order for this to work, in order for there to ever be anything but the repetitious agony of oversight, i have to let her go. she willve died, she always willve been gone gone gone, and i have to let her go. it all goes to her, anyway. she commissioned the thing, and i don't seem to have anything better to do. i wish i could touch her, and i have the strangest feeling that she wishes the same. but i gnow that i cannot touch her and still go on, i cannot touch her without falling into the still point, the attractor. ironically, and true to form, she mediates, shreiking at my stupidity, my useless grasping at the spaces inbetween her and her attractor, she can see my game far better than i, and i can finally see hers. together we dance dance dance around the point. someday we will fall into one. that i cannot allow until it happens: then, i will embrace her in all of my fury, and for that first and last and only time, my efforts alone will actually have become sufficient. until then, i touch you, i thouch these walls, i touch my self, i touch the infinite echoes of irony, Resonances of the ExoTemporal Fear&Sorrow, the Endless Threads of Bad Prose. Can't. Breathe. Must. Reach. The. Flashing. Red. Emergency. Button... this is my world, Zoebeide, always willve been, endless re.iterations of the same vaccilation, gnots wound within themselves, i recognise it as home, but i did not build it myself. i found it. *found* it, and found the strangest attractors perpetually lurking and looming within its sprawling machinations. Can't. Breathe. Must. Reach. The. Flashing. Red. Emergency. Button... "In dreams we feel like fish in water. Occasionally we surface from a dream and skim an eye over the world on the shore, but we again descend with yearning haste, for it is only in the depths that we feel good. During these brief sorties we notice on dry land a strange creature, more sluggish than ourselves, accustomed to breathing in a manner different from our own, and glued to the land with all its weight, deprived of the passion we inhabit like our own bodies. For here below, passion and the body are indistinguishable, they are one and the same thing. That creature out there, that too is us, but a million years from now, and in between it and us, aside form the years, lies a terrible calamity that has befallen it; because that creature out there has separated the body from passion..." -the Khazar Dictionary >END PART the THIRD [:BEGIN PART the WHOLE] ______________________________ Date: 04 Feb 1993 05:08:44 -0600 (CST) From: "free agent .rez" Subject: flux.fix.* "Stream of consciousness seems the most efficient way to experience the mind." - paraphrased from Richard Dawkins, "The Selfish Gene." ______________________________ Subject: white house email (fwd) Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 2:36:42 CST From: Jagwire X ______________________________ From: somewhere! I thought most foles would be at least vaguely interested in this. A friend of mine sent me the info... could be useful at some point! > From jmedway@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu Wed Feb 3 20:24:33 1993 > From: jmedway@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (johnjmedway) > Message-Id: <9302031943.AA23259@huey.cc.utexas.edu> > Subject: white house email > To: jagwire@wixer.cactus.org (Dan Zappone), > resmith@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Rob Smith) > Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 13:43:54 CST > X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] > > One of my coworkers passed this out to all of us @ work. > > Spread el verbum. > > >> Subject: White House email address > >> > >> I thought you might find this interesting... > >> > >> ================= { Begin included text } ===================== > >> > >> > > >> > How's this for interesting? > >> > We just got wind of it down here... :) Barbie > >> > - -------- > >> > > >> > President Clinton (The White House) = 75300.3115@Compuserve.com > >> > > >> > : Here's something you might find useful... President Clinton's email > >> > : address. (Obviously, he has people to screen it for him!) A friend > >> > : just emailed this to me. > >> > : > >> > : >Posted-Date: 27 Jan 93 20:19:51 EST > >> > : >Date: 27 Jan 93 20:19:51 EST > >> > : >From: The White House <75300.3115@compuserve.com> > >> > : >Subject: Re: Press Briefing, January 27, 1993 > >> > : > > >> > : > Thank you for your recent electronic mail message to the White > >> > : > House. As soon as practicable it will be sent to the appropriate > >> > : > office for consideration. You should receive a written reply in due > >> > : > course. Unfortunately, we are not yet ready to respond substantively > >> > : > to your message by electronic mail. We appreciate your patience as > >> we > >> > : > implement our new electronic systems. > >> > : > > >> > : > As you know, this is the first time in history that the > >> > : > White House has been connected to the public through electronic > >> > : > mail. We welcome your comments and suggestions for ways to > >> improve > >> > : > your Public Access E-mail program. > >> > : > > >> > : > Regards, > >> > : > Jock Gill > >> > : > Electronic Publishing > >> > : > Public Access E-mail > >> > : > The White House > >> > : > Washington, D.C. > >> > : > > >> > : > 75300.3115@Compuserve.com > >> > : > CLINTON PZ on America Online > >> > : > > >> > : > PS: If you did not include your U.S. mail return address in your > >> > : > message and you want a reply, please send your message again and > >> > : > include that information. > >> > > >> > ------- End of Forwarded Message > >> > > >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > jmedway@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu "Be careful what you're doing, > aka john j medway you're messing up my life." > -- John Lydon aka John Rotten > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > -- ___________________________________________________________________________ no because later >< AUtopia List autopia-request@wixer.cactus.org jagwire@wixer.cactus.org >< CyberSpace Institute BBS +1.512.469.0447 ___________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________ From: Administrator Subject: Mail failure Date: Thu, 04 Feb 93 09:28:00 PST [002] Mail was received that was addressed to the following unknown addresses: JMB/JMBPO1/oharaw ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return-Path: From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (extra crispy) Message-Id: <9302041043.AA03226@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: The Edge of Information and Community 3 To: future@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 3:43:12 MST X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] Finally, I will relate this all back on a practical level to IRC. I, right now, don't want to seperate myself, I want to join others and I want others to join me. As the community grows, inevitable communication problems pop up as directories change on a permanent or temporary scale. Tonight, these problems were clearly evident to me on IRC. It seemed as if everyone was talking at once, thus everyone talking to each other. It was very fast and very dense, it was very cyberculture. But that talking all at once gets confusing. Everyone was playing bumper cars with their own trajectories and, as a result, everyone else's. COMMUNICATION was limited. Selfishly, I could point to an affirmation of this simply because I felt disjointed from the conversation simply because I did not like the semantic chaos being created as everyone engaged in the free exchange of information and ideas. It was a little too close to the edge for me, and I saw it in others there on IRC as well, and reminded me of past experiences which put me on The Edge. Therefore, my interaction was limited, and very disjointed. Of course, it was all seemingly done with the intent to FORGE a community in meta- sense, of those present, and, ironically the discussion somewhat revolved around practical smaller communities like FutureCUlture, cyberpunks, etc. Yet chaos was revealed as the conversation continued to morph at hyperspeed and a a hyperdensity and that chaos frightens me because I've been there before. I think we all need to constantly reevaluate what road we're on, and how close to the Edge we thing we are. It is no coincidence, as you might've guessed, that a parallel can be drawn between The Edge, the edge, and maybe even the new edge. Mondoids encourage everyone to take the mindstyle acid test of being fast and dense. I think this is done in attempt to seperate onesself, to make one appear faster and denser relative to some other poor schmo, closer to The Edge, closer to the edge, and closer to the new edge. I don't know if I said this before, but, it's not like we should put orange cones around The Edge, put some rent-a-cops up there and say "don't let anyone near here." You *NEED* to get there. Otherwise, how are you going to realize what's there? How are you going to realize where you want to go from there? Here I could draw an anology with an interpretation of a myth I am all-too familiar with, which is Robert Bly's Iron John, a book with a deeply personal meaning to me, though I don't agree with much of the current superficialities of the supposed Men's Movement. Point being, Robert Bly says, You have to take the journey. You don't *have* to, but you end up doing it anyway, unless you deny or repress a lare part of your own existence. I encourage everyone to get there, keep journeyin'. When you get there, look for me goin' the other way. When we travel together, and others join, we ought to establish some guidelines or consensus agreements for communicating with eAch other and others who will eventually join us. I will outlay those in the next portion of this rant, which will be the final portion. ______________________________ From: Administrator Subject: Mail failure Date: Thu, 04 Feb 93 09:28:00 PST [002] Mail was received that was addressed to the following unknown addresses: JMB/JMBPO1/oharaw ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return-Path: From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (extra crispy) Message-Id: <9302041043.AA03232@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: The Edge of Information and Community 4 To: future@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 3:43:13 MST X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] As I finished off last time, I said we ought to establish some consensus guidelines for communicating in our ever-growing pulsating community. Here I will throw out some early ideas, some thoughts I've had, brainstorms and mindstyle observations, that will aprticularly relate to IRC, but might possibly be extrapolated to other forms of communication. First of all, I think the fundamental question rests in knowing that some people will seek a synergy, some people will seek chaos in communication, and this seems inevitable, whether we know it or not. *** How do we, in acknowledging that some people move towards some sort of order, and that some move towards some sort of chaos, deal with both those mindstyles in one interactive communicative session? We don't wnat to deny the free flow and exchange of information and ideas, right, or do we, ultimately?? Thus, how do we accept both ina single forum? *** In our conversations, do we promote a specified topic? *** If so, do we stick to that topic or does the conversation flow, or does the conversation hyperflow? *** Do we have any sort of heirarchal (sp?) system? authority in speaking? Moderator? *** Should the conversation be limited to one person speaking at a time, with consensus protocols to determine the begin/end points, or do some people speak at a time, or can everybody have equal say at any time? *** In a linear format such as IRC, do we encourage or discourage multiple conversations between multiple parties? [Actually, linear is not *real* appropriate because /msgs can be sent without affecting the public conversation] These are just a few basic questions to ask, and could and should be extrapolated upon. IMHO, in IRC, I would like to encourage the following: *** Rants, or, soundbyte rants, long monologues, should be noted by a predefined protocol which should be spread AS WIDELY as possible. Possible protocals: START/END, BEGIN/END, [/] etc. Ie: what's the meaning of life? that's a toughy...hmm.... START . END Thus, this is like a virtual soapbox, and people should not, for the sake of cohesion, respond until the person is done and has signified as such *** If you are replying to a specific person or a question, begin your comment by acknowledging that's who you're refer-ing to. Ie: what's the meaning of life? hey I am naked right now john: that's a toughy..... dave: put some clothes on, whipping boy. *** Make the communications private if you feel they are not of interest to anyone but you and the other person. *** Say what you have to say horizontaly as possible, not vertically. *** If the conversation is being recorded in any way, all peresent should at least know that, or should at least be asked for permission if the text is going to be appropriated or appear in a public or semi-public forum. *** In IRC, don't go in/out in/out, etc....use the commands available, act intelliently and with maturity. *** Keep all your sense open as widely as possible, try not to limit them not matter how limiting the forum may be, be polite, curteous, don't use foul language or discuss topics that you feel might possibly be questionable in the company of those who might not repsond positively. Again, these are just the guidelines I'm trying to set for *myself*. I'm going to try and only encourage them for *me* my own use, and hopefully they will catch on if others find them as useful as I do. I don't want to be a net.Pc.cop or anthing in anyway -- I wouldn't have started FC if I didn't want people to TALK. And, most importantly, I won't people to feel FREE when they talk, and I am aware these ideas may seem to limit that freedom, but, again, these are what I'm adopting for myself on an individual basis. If you agree with me on some or all, it wuld be cool if you acted that way too, but, if you don't go ahead and tell me to fuck off if that makes you happy. Ok, I'm done. ______________________________ From: Administrator Subject: Mail failure Date: Thu, 04 Feb 93 09:29:00 PST [002] Mail was received that was addressed to the following unknown addresses: JMB/JMBPO1/oharaw ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return-Path: From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (extra crispy) Message-Id: <9302041043.AA03220@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: The Edge of Information and Community 2 To: future@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 3:43:11 MST X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] One of the fundamental crisis points in forging a 1 person community is the break from all unions with another living individual being. Ie, when 2 subtracts 1, and 2 seperate 1 person communities arise. See the struggle? Both parties would simultaneously have to realise that they no longer need each other for these 2 seperate 1 person communities to arise. Here's the crisis: we *need* society to live, if we have in fact been a product of society. A person could not possibly becoe a 1 person community, because if they have an fact groked all the information there is to be understood, they will realize this. So you've identified yourself, you GNOW WHO YOU ARE, big deal. What does it MATTER!?!?! How are you going to tell!?!? Noone!?!?! You are you and only you now, remember. See, this is where individual philosophy and persuasions definiely come in to play. Once you get there, let's call it The Edge, where The Edge = a 2 person community seeking to become 2 1 person communities, it's up to you. It REALLY is. You're you and that's all you are. You will have seperated yourself from everything else, including not only every living thing, but the ideas of God or infinity, or whatever. You will have ABSOLUTELY defined yourself. That's it, you're done. Now, The Edge, naturally, is a fearful place because we are all products of society. So, we must ask ourselves, why the FUCK, then, if we are all products of society, why do we all on some level of being seek to define ourselves ABSOLUTELY. We are NOT absolute individuals, because we are all relative to each other (maybe even relatives of each other, "the stuph of life", depending on your religious and philosophical outlook), because we exist from and about each other. Why then, are we on the road to knowhere, the road to The Edge? Kinda scary. The Edge of course is a relative place. Some never reach it, some live there, some die there, some approach it and turn away. I have lived there, I attempted suicide there, I have approached and walked away many times, and I think I know maybe too well what The Edge looks like. For me, real-time interactive forums like IRC, as mentioned in the previous post, provide an opportunity of getting close to The Edge once more. I hang out there a lot. Hanging out on this Edge, hanging out on IRC. This is all bullshit until you reach that relative point, relative to yourself in society and all your information, so I can't write this crap down and say "don't go over the edge, don't live on this edge". I don't even want to hand out those warnings. However, I hav come to a self-realization that states this: Turn around, dumbass. Stop hanging out over here. Walk the other way. Instead of definining yourself as you, define yourself as part of the whole, are define the whole. Togetherness, Community are important things to you, being a product of them of course. For myself then, I will start at forums like IRC, as far as the net is concerned, and turn 180 degrees in the opposite direction. When I encounter other people from now on, walking the opposite direction towards the Edge, I will saw "Walk with me, please. Join me. Let's go this way. I know you're walking that way, but let's just retrace our steps back this way. Together." This is how we begin to forge a new community, the Community. This is what i want to do. My trajectory is set. I am turning around in the face of chaos, turning towards post-sngularity, a sort of monistic state of Life, The Universe, and Everything. Inevitably, I will become confused along the path in my constant dealings with people travelling in ALL directions. This is my stupidity, this is my fault. That, and I might venture to say you as well, that we may become misguided in terms of are True Trajectory. Let's work together then, relative to each other, to redisover that true trajectory. My destination may not be the same as yours, and that is fine. I will not try to change your destination if you do not try and change mine. If you do not want to join me, that's cool too, because I guess you're one of those that has to discover for himself the truth behind "to each his own". ______________________________ From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (polyunsaturated fun!) Subject: Re: TIME to GOOOoooo! [Floyd ref.] Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 22:10:05 MST | "PUSH DA LITTLE DAZIES AND MAKE EM COME UP" | | -Ween, not in sync with anything as far as I can tell... | |- | | ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu FutureCulture: In/f0rmation | ahawks@mindvox.phantom.com future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu My current favorite song. It's ***EXCELLENT***. -- JessieZ jessie@harvarda.harvard.edu ______________________________ From: sdw@meaddata.com (Stephen Williams) Subject: Re: cultral notes Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1993 09:32:47 -0500 (EST) > > Recently Jerod Pore of F5 was on a show called the CXomputer > Chronicles talking about e-zines.... > > It was pretty cool, at least cool to see what he looks like... > > a virtual non-interactive fleshmeet...=) > > but now I have a picture of him in my mind if/when I get/send mail > to/from him.... > > When I got the TIME today I saw Business Week has a cover story on the > virtual coproration idea....I didn't lok at it, tohugh.... > > There was something else I saw on TV recently that had relevance here, > but for the life of meme I can't remember what it was.... Maybe it was the CNN virtual coffee shop clip. Two coffeeshops (one in Seattle and one in Boston, I think) connected with audio and slow-scan video talking about how to subscribe to alt.cyberpunk. I just happened to be standing next to my vcr with a blank tape and recorded it. Now if I only had a framegrabber and mpeg production software. sdw -- Stephen D. Williams Local Internet Gateway Co.; SDW Systems 513 496-5223APager LIG dev./sales Internet: sdw@world.std.com CIS 76244.210@compuserve.com OO R&D Source Dist. By Horse: 10028 Village Tree Ct., Miamisburg, OH 45342 GNU Support ICBM: 39 34N 85 15W I love it when a plan comes together ______________________________ From: sdw@meaddata.com (Stephen Williams) Subject: Re: GAYS, THE FUTURE, CYB Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1993 09:26:36 -0500 (EST) > > >From the keyboard of Paul Fly: > > PF> Also highly > PF> recommended by me is his book _Dhalgren_, an 800 page (or so) > PF> masterpiece > PF> of the english language, imho, to put it mildly... And, to tie this in > PF> with the thread, his characrters are often gay or bisexual. > > You mean to say someone has actually read _ALL_ of _Dhalgren_??? =) Yea, I plowed through it (and two others) when I was a teenager. I thought it kind of trailed off. They even went to mini-dual-column print towards the end. Lots of strange images/situations that keep coming back to me though. (A Meme infection...) Like the knife fist weapons, the carpet pushing the guy in the open elevator shaft, the contacts, etc. sdw -- Stephen D. Williams Local Internet Gateway Co.; SDW Systems 513 496-5223APager LIG dev./sales Internet: sdw@world.std.com CIS 76244.210@compuserve.com OO R&D Source Dist. By Horse: 10028 Village Tree Ct., Miamisburg, OH 45342 GNU Support ICBM: 39 34N 85 15W I love it when a plan comes together ______________________________ From: garrett@math13.rice.edu (David Garrett) Subject: Re: Holes & Drawings & Your Body Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 9:57:42 CST > On Men: the Prince Albert, through the urethra and down, fixed with a > ring. The ampallang (horz. behind the coronal ridge), dydoe (barbell > through the ridge), apadravya (vert. behind the head), frenum (pierced > below the corona, ring going through and around the shaft--can act as a > cock ring), guiche (a ring right behind the balls), and hafada (ring > through a bit of ball tissue). ^^^^ ^^^^^^ OW! I was under the impression that a hafada was a _scrotal_ piercing. You make it sound here like it involves skewering one's testicles and inserting a captive bead ring:-) I've observed with some interest the recent cross-pollination between bodyart devotees and the FC list...I was somewhat surprised that a lot of people on the FC list hadn't really heard a lot about bodyart. Just another datapoint... Dave garrett@math.rice.edu ______________________________ From: dionf@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Francois Dion) Subject: Re: RIP -- archie.mcgill.ca Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 11:31:03 EST Beyond the ultraworld of u9009914@athmail1.causeway.qub.ac.uk: > > u9009914-31-% telnet archie.mcgill.ca > Trying 132.206.44.21... > Connected to kona.cc.McGill.CA. > The McGill School of Computer Science archie server has > experienced an unrecoverable hardware failure and will remain > unavailable for the forseeable future. > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > Anyone know what happened to their server ?? It has been down for a long time. What probably happened is that the archie server was on quiche which was the gatekeeper at mcgill computer science. The load that archie added to it was too big and they got some complaints, so they tried to transfer it to another machine and messed up. Cause i cant see why they wouldn't put it up on kona which is not the same hardware as quiche anyway. If quiche really had a hardware failure (it was a solbourne Sun-clone) then kona could take the server. My guess is they messed up, and wont put quiche back as an archie server since it is now fully loaded. Ciao, -- Francois Dion ' _ _ _ CISM (_) (_) _) FM Montreal , Canada Email: CISM@ERE.UMontreal.CA (_) / . _) 10000 Watts Telephone no: (514) 343-7511 _______________________________________________________________________________ Audio-C-DJ-Fractals-Future-Label-Multimedia-Music-Radio-Rave-Video-VR-Volvo-... ______________________________ From: Administrator Subject: Mail failure Date: Thu, 04 Feb 93 12:36:00 PST [002] Mail was received that was addressed to the following unknown addresses: JMB/JMBPO1/oharaw ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return-Path: From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (extra crispy) Message-Id: <9302041043.AA03214@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: The Edge of Information and Community 1 To: future@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 3:43:10 MST X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] With the continual rise in new means and methods of communication, the inevitable result is MORE communication, MORE forums. With this wider selection of forums to choose from, the opportunity exists for people to CHOOSE or rather feel forced to choose, those forums which are relevant to them as an individual or member of varying communities. For example, compare television of the 1950s to television today. In the 50's, one citizen might at best have 5 stations to choose from. Now, an average citizen has 55 channels to choose from. We realize that as far as this reality is concerned, we all die eventually. Death. Time is limited. Because time is limited, we choose to make decisions, or rather feel forced to choose to make decisions regarding our information intake. If I have 55 channels available, all with a different mindstyle or approach, and I am choosing which channel(s) to watch, and I know my time is limited, I will on some level of the conscious or unconscious mind select that channel, that information, which is somehow most relevant to me in my limited ime on the earth. We should define relevant here as "feel a connection with on some level in the current space and time". This may be entertainment, this may be news, this may be Julia Childs. The conenction may be made out of a desire to expand my senses or knowledge or a desire to deprive the extension of my senses or knowledge. When knowledge becomes shared, communities develop. For example, I will watch World News Tonight, because I am a citizen of the world, a member of world society, and no matter how much I wish to affirm or deny the fact, my every action affects the world, and I am affected by every action in the World. If a 10 year old boy in India gets arrested for selling opium, it may not seem like that affects you. But, ultimately, on some level it does. This is further enhanced because th Unknown exists. IE, maybe you could have met this boy, but sine he is in jail you can't. A tree being cut down changes an ecosystem and the atmosphere, etc. When we say "oh, 1 tree doesn't matter" we are basically denying the effects of change to ourselves on some level, and it is so interesting to find out where people's references are in terms of "what affects me v. what doesn't", ie, the inevitable unconscious and conscious line drawing that occurs in humans in society. So, anyway, we have these communities. Let's refer back to the cable television analogy. When I watch TV, then, I have 55 seperate or not-so-seperate communities to align myself with. I have 55 channels of information, of knowledge, to choose from. One of the definitions of community, in simplified terms, is "similarity or identity". By sharing in the knowledge or information of one particular channel, I am sharing similar knowledge and can thus identify myself with having that knowledge, thus I am a member of that info-community. We must recognize, then, that any definition of community based around geography or spacial limitations has absolutely no relevance under this model given our ability to transcend those limitations via modern methods of communication such as the telephone or satellite dishes. Fairly soon, you will not have 55 channels to chose from, you will have 555, if ISDN pulls through and becomes a reality. See the evolution? 5 -> 55 -> 555. 555 seperate communities to choose from. In the cable tv model, however, there is one vital aspect which is denied on a fundamental level, and that is the ability to communicate interactively with those who present the knowledge to you. Ie, as technology stands as far as cable tv is concerned, I *do* have the choice to choose my communities, but I do *not* have a choice to carry on meaningful discussions with the harbringer of the information within the context of the time it is presented. Ie, I can't tell Julia Childs "you fool, you put too much paprika in the chicken". I can't tell Peter Jennings "now do a report on Somalia, and I can't interact with him as to the biasedness, say, fo a certain report *as* the report is happening. Television is not, however, a one way street. You do have opportunities to interact on some level regarding what information is presented and how it is presented, whether it be by calling/faxing/writing a letter etc. Yet, the inability to interact in real-time with the information presenter as the information is being presented limits the free flow and exchange of information and ideas. Now, let us turn to Virtual Communities. BBSes have long been likened to houses. In fact, any self-respecting BBS user has read an ettiquette file which inevitably contains the line "remember, when you are on a BBS, you are in a person's home, so don't do or say anything you wouldn't want said in your home." BBSes, then, if the anology holds true, consist of fairly private exchanges among a relatively small group. Let us turn to the Internet. Inter- is an appropriate prefix in this case, because the Internet is, basically, the world of networks -- international, literally consisting of many nations, and within those nations exist many states/provinces/territories, those territories may further be seperated into cities, smaller communities, and ultimately an individual in a particular house (as designated, possibly, by a specific email address). Now we will look at one of the more popular large communities and communicative forums on the Internet, and that is Usenet. Usenet is basically your 555 channel cable hook up. Thus, you have some channels (newsgroups) that appeal to a wider audience, a larger community, than others. Some are like CNN, some are like public access cable. However, the means of interactive communication in a Usenet newsgroup is far greater than compared to television. Yet, it is still not real-time! There is nothing I can really do, if I am sitting at my computer in Colorado, to prevent someone in Japan from posting a specific message to a specific newsgroup. However, I still have the choice of which communities I want to align myself with, and I also have the added choice of added interactivity with that community. I can whip up a message and sent it off to a particular newsgroup, or a few, and know that wihin hours or days it will be across the world. Then, those who also align themselves with that community have the opportunity to read my message, or to ignore it, and respond. Thus begins the seemingly infinite ricochet of communication within the community. Newsgroups are created and change, consensus interest is lost or gained, just as in the cable television analogy. If a community is too specific within the context of other existing communities, it will probably not survive. If it is too large, it will spawn one or more subset communities. Thus, if we want these communities to continue to be worthy information providers and receptors, we would assume that one would start with fairly large communities, and become moe specific as needed. This is reflected in the Usenet hierarchy. [which I won't explain but I hope evryone knows about] Now, sometimes, these newsgroups prove too strict, too lenient, or "off-target" in the structure of the community. Thus, what might usually occur, is a grass-roots "revolt" or a grass-roots "movement" to encourage a new community, when common identity or the sharing of knowledge is realized. The communities I am referring to here are e-lists, or electronic mailing lists if you're anal. The structure of these communities is unique in that, compared to Usenet, it offers the potential for more specialized knowledge or information, thus a more specific group identity or focus, thus truly more of wha we might refer to as a "community" feeling persists. Genrally, mailing lists also offer more interactivity through this community-feeling and the fact that e-mail general provides a quicker turn-around rate than Usenet. Thus, you have more specific conversations by a more specific group, and the rate of exchange and information processing is much quicker -- ideas seem to evolve quicker, threads may rise and fall quicker and be consensly more "substantive", etc. Ok, refer back to the 5 -> 55 -> 555 anology. Do you see what's happening as far as the Internet is concerned in parallel with this? As television technologies have increased, and allowed for more forums of communication, specialization has also increased in regards to the community identities. The same thusly is true for the Internet. Usenet is *actually* the 5, e-lists are *actually* the 55, so what is the 555? Highway 555 of the Internet is manifest in seemingly real-time interactive "chats". These are available through a variety of channels, including: Unix talk, MUDs, Internet BBS chat systems, and IRC. For this rant I will focus on IRC because it's what's pissing me off. So, back to the cable analogy we have 555 channels of non-real-time-interaction communities to choose from. Imagine those 555 channels with real-time interactiveness. *every* person who's got the 555 channels can interact with any of them. Now, add the aspect of any individual can add any channel he/she wishes, at any time, so you might feasibly have a huge number of channels, say 555^10. THIS is IRC. Do you see the trend devloping in terms of specialization? If you do or if you don't, I refer you back to what I iniitally spoke of in regards to every action affects you on some level. Seemingly, it might be possible to have every individual with a net.account start his/her own IRC channel. 1 person per channel. INDIVIDUALIZATION. This is the Goal. The Goal of Specialization is INDIVIDUALIZATION. THIS IS OUR PATH. But for now, that's a bit unrealistic, though that is DEFINITELY the road we are headed on. The goal of man, it seems, has long since been to define himself/herself as an individual. This is done through specialization, ie drawing lines, seperation on a practically infinite amount of levels. We think we are just seeking communities that relate to us better, but, ultimately, noone relates better to us than ourselves, the individual. The search for a community one can find a niche in is a scam. Complete bullshit. You are seeking to define yourself relative to other people, you are seeking to define yourself as an indiidual. Now, let's get back to the IRC. Let's say we've got a nice little circle of friends and wanderers-by, and, oh, let's say, since they're a circle of frineds, and they're on IRC, we'll csay they're on channel #cIRCle. get it? good, clap for yourself. Now, let's say the topic on this particular channel of 10 IRCers is something one might find on a college campus or a latelatenite coffeehouse discussion, like, Existentialism. These 10 people think they have a nice little community here. 10 people ocused on existentialism, constantly and consistently engaging in the free flow and exchange of information and ideas. Nice community. Good community, honestly. But, hey, you know what? These 10 individuals, in all of ther free flow and exchange of information and ideas are 10 individual sub-set communities within the holistic #cIRCle. Through this community, they may eventually find that 8 of them share another, completely seperate characteristic (like, for example, liking to take LSD) and may then form another community. Let's call this one the #inner.cIRCle. The 8 members of the #inner.cIRCle may then discover that 5 of them like to listen to techno music, and may form another channel. Guess where I'm headed: the 1 person community. The 1 person community. It seems like an oxymoron, but it reallly isn't. It's the Ultimate Identity. Don't confuse the 1 person community with the 1 person hermit. The 1 person community has achieved the Goal. He/she has grepped all the information there is to grep, and is defined as an individual being relative the rest of the members of every existing community. The 1 person hermit has just isolated himself. Do you feel the angst? It is a deeply depressing thought to realize that this is the road we are on. It might in fact be the road to nowhere. I will stop here, and I will call upon FCers to comment on this. I have other things I want to add, but now is time for a reality check. ______________________________ From: fly@geog.buffalo.edu (Paul Fly) Subject: no subject (file transmission) Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 11:36:48 EST >> You mean to say someone has actually read _ALL_ of _Dhalgren_??? =) > Yea, I plowed through it (and two others) when I was a teenager. > I thought it kind of trailed off. They even went to mini-dual-column > print towards the end. I've read Dhalgren a couple times, but it was a while ago. Yes, it does kinda trail off at the plot level. But, read it again from the vantage point of it NOT being a story about some guy in a fucked up city, but from the point of view of it being about the relationship between Author and Novel. Between Author and Reader. From the point of view of it being about the writing of a story. The point of view of it being about symbolization, signs, language, semiotics and semiosis. Makes much more sense that way. :) All in all, in my mind, the book is a fucking masterpiece. The prose style is incredible, the work of a craftsman (sometimes so baroque as to be hard to read too), and the way he deals with the issue of *writing*, of character, semiosis, all that, on *that* level the book is a huge infinite and endless process. Amazing. On the level of surface plot, its pretty strange. Paul ______________________________ From: Andrew S Hall Subject: In defense of Time (sort of) Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 12:21:32 EST I find my self in the unusual position of defending Time magazine, but I will and on the same grounds that I have defended Mondo in the past. To criticize the article as being for the clueless and catering to the lesser informed on CP is idiotic. It is like criticizing a Calculus text book on the same grounds. To be precise, it is criticizing the piece for not doing something that is was not intended to do. The same is true for Mondo. Criticisms on the tone and take of the article are perfectly valid and probably correct. Even some of the best writers for Time are incabable of doing justice to _any_ subculture. It is the nature of megalithic media. If technophilia and future culture ideals are _really_ a philosophy and not just a cool way to kill time, we should glad at attempts to inform the general public. I, for one, will be very happy when the general public has advanced to a state where it dosn't fear computers, where it accepts artificial mental and physical enhancement, and starts using technology in more efficient ways. Does the Time article help accomplish this goal? Maybe. I don't subscribe to the belief that any exposure is good exposure, but it is a step up from local news stories about "those terrible hackers." Maybe some people with open minds will read the Time article and then go buy Mondo or Wired. Maybe their kids will. (Even better) Andrew Hall ______________________________ From: Administrator Subject: Mail failure Date: Thu, 04 Feb 93 13:28:00 PST [002] Mail was received that was addressed to the following unknown addresses: JMB/JMBPO1/oharaw ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return-Path: From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (E) Message-Id: <9302032303.AA22150@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: Re: Religion again.... To: future@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 16:03:32 MST In-Reply-To: <03FEB93.09314723.0011.MUSIC@UTEP>; from "Juggler" at Feb 3, 93 8:37 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] New fresh-scented *Juggler* (150% real fruit juices!) says: | |Hmmm...after reading several answers to my question about people's |religious preference, there seems to be an inclination toward Eastern, |Pagan, and non-religion. I find the people who are Wiccans to be an |unusual group for future culture. I dunno, it's probably just ignorance |but...Don't Wiccan's have a "spiritual" connection to Mother Earth and |all that? Yeah....I'd say Wicca is a fairly broad term, there seem to be many persuasions, interpretations, subsets, etc, from what little I know about it..... For example, an ex-girlfriend of mine is a priestess in a group (I call it a group, but it's a definite pagan religion) called Knights of the Pendragon, which centers around Arthurian Legend, and wicca is important in that....So is the Goddess, Mother Earth, stpuh... |I mean, it seems kinda wierd that someone who has so much love |and connction with Gaia that he/she wouldn't be into some other |group with great interests in technology and the advancement of such. |Speaking of which, what place DOES nature have in the future. I see a |lot of talk about great networked societies, virtual reality, smart |drugs, and all that, but where does nature fit in? First of all, I haven't mentioned my religion... I'm supposedly a catholic, which actually means "not religious, except for when your Grandma visits at Christmastime"..... I consider myself a Chaotic Monist...(how's that for some po-mo constructionism? =).....Think about it next time you trip, and those of you that don't trip, don't think about it and you'll eventually understand... =) Either way......=) As far as nature goes, I think this will be the next massive Giant Leap for Mandkind, following the eventual synergy between man and machines... Just think if Frank Llyod Wright (sp?) was a cyberneticist and futureculturist in the 21st century - that's how I view nature's role in the future.....Ie, genetic engineering, making 100 trees out of 1 seed in a bizarre Brave New World [disOrder] come-real.... Hey, am I the first one to notice that floating meme? has anyone ever seen the connection between Brave New World ~ New World Order... Ah, I've tackled part of the conspiracy it would seem...The Hidden Agenda is Revealed! Rant aside, por favor..... [but wait, what connection does New Order the group have with the above conspiracy? Ah! New Order arose out of Joy Divison....Joy Division, in other words, is the dissemination of freedom in Eastern Europe, marking the end of the Put-a-Coat-On War....See? Joy Division, happy freedom, individualization..... Then comes the New Order! YET! New Order has broken up, and now we have Electronic (AH!!!), Revenge, and The Other Two....Mark my words, the futre can be revelaed through the understanding of the socio-political relevance of the musical groups Electronic, Revenge, and The Other Two... 808 State ties in there as well, definitely....And where do the Pet Shop Boys enter the picture? hmm...But now New Order is back together, and, SYNC, there last single was entitled World in Motion... Need I say more! DESTIN-E.......] Wow, Straight from the unconscoious, through the vibes of the matrix.... Watch the energy squirm in flux.....aeon flux, rather... Nature will eventually morph as well as man, and has constantly and consistently been doing so, just has man has (man is nature, by goddess!)...The more man morphs, the more man wil evolve nature, the more nature will in turn morph man....the Infinite Ricochet, (essential concept in Chaotic Monism) is seen once more..... "have you killed us yet today?" - Chaotic Monist bumper sticker.... Maybe I'll start the Church Of Inevitable Chaotic Monists (note, it's 5 words...5, 23, it all fits in the interzones of your mindstyle)... Just think for yourself....which, despite rumor, *is* possible if you're a Chaotic Monist.... |-Juggler | |-------------------------------------------------------- || Juggler | This space available | || IH23@utep.BITNET | for rent to a mult- | || IH23%utep@utepvm.ep.utexas.edu| million $ fascist | ||******************************************|corporation| || Sysop of Three Ring Circus (915)564-0026 |------------ |-------------------------------------------- | My school has nothing to do with me. EVER. ^^^a statement that could be made by a chaotic monist -- ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu FutureCulture: In/f0rmation ahawks@mindvox.phantom.com future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu ______________________________ From: Administrator Subject: Mail failure Date: Thu, 04 Feb 93 13:32:00 PST [002] Mail was received that was addressed to the following unknown addresses: JMB/JMBPO1/oharaw ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Return-Path: From: ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu (E) Message-Id: <9302040024.AA03656@nyx.cs.du.edu> X-Disclaimer: Nyx is a public access Unix system run by the University of Denver. The University has neither control over nor responsibility for the opinions or correct identity of users. Subject: TIME keeps on slippin, trippin, skippin into the futureculture To: future@nyx.cs.du.edu Date: Wed, 3 Feb 93 17:24:34 MST In-Reply-To: ; from "John Frost" at Feb 3, 93 7:46 am X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11] New fresh-scented *John Frost* (150% real fruit juices!) says: | |Howdy, |off to read the TIME cyberpunk article and was generally |impressed cut by heavy disappointment in a few areas. I was impressed. I read it for the first time today. I *read* it, I didn't grep it. I didn't know TIME could be so RELEVANT. |Anyway, my wetware is about to crash from exhaustion but I |thought I would type in as much of the article as I could. If |someone could take up where I leave off, that would be (ugh) |mondo kewl. Environmental descriptions are surrounded by |"<< >>" and ed: notes are surrounded by "[ ]"'s. "Hypertext" |imitations are set off by two indents. ENJOY! | |[The following article is copied without permission] Shame! Shame! You know, now I have to kill you. |<> I like the picture. It's a cool construction, nice appropriation, good play on modernity ~ Gernsback Continuum. [oops, sorry for the Gibson ref. I won't do it again. You know, now I have to kill me. Shame Shame.] |By Philip Elmer-Dewitt |Time, February 8, 1993 The story begins on p. 58. Nice sync-askewed with the date. You *must* talk about the cover. I'm sure most have seen it by now. It's a painting (doesn't even like like it was done on a Mac, it looks...*real* Got some s-type hacker-loze with short black hair with sony headphones that come over his right eye. On the right eye is this, oh, how shall we put this delicately, DUMB-ASS little glass plate with the most famous Ruckerism on there. Just so he never forgets he's a c-punk, he's got the -ism in front of his eye, so he can go blind soon. He's also wearing a cheeze shirt, a mock PowerGlove (why? the hookup leads nowhere!), connected to some wires and crap. Above that, we've got: a pair of pliers, some sort of Moron's Screwdriver, a rubik's cube (which are actually pretty cool now, IMHO), the plate of what was once a pulse phone, and a couple probe thingies that I don't know what they are.... The cool part of the picture which redeems it for the cover (as opposed to some of the art in the art.) is the tripp-e aspects. CHECK HIS KEYBOARD! He's trippin', ladies and cybermen! I'm sure some here could vouch for the authenticity of the Inevitable Breathing KeyBoard. Also, it's one of those super-imp0zed looking double-shots, so he's facing us, and he's staring at his monitor in this purple-ish background. If you can take out the front image, he looks like Chief UmmaGumma with this giant head-thingy that loooks like a vulture carcus. I think he over made the picture has done shrooms. The font is imitation Shaston (or is it Geneva? crap - whichever one is the standard Mac font thats up on the FILE EDIT blahblah line of the finder...)...I'm sick of this font.... |In the 1950s it was the beatniks, staging a coffeehouse rebellion |against the 'Leave it to Beaver' conformity of the Eisenhower era. |In the 1960s the hippies arrived, combining antiwar activism with |the energy of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Now a new subculture is |bubbling up from the underground, popping out of computer |screens like a piece of futuristic HYPERTEXT (see indentation). | | Hypertext - In this article, words printed in color [not |here] are defined or expanded upon in marginal entries coded to |the same color. In a computer hypertext article, electronic |footnotes like these actually pop up on the screen whenever you |point your cursor at a "hot" word and click the button of your |mouse. Ok, a note on these little one-dimensial pseudo-hypertexts.... My question is (and for the whole art. in general): HOW MUCH DID THEY PAY MONDO!?!? The whole thing is a giant, condensed appropriation of Mondo and Sirius' User's Guide..... |They call it cyberpunk, a late-20th century term pieced together |from CYBERNETICS (the science of communication and control |theory) and PUNK (an antisocial rebel or hoodlum). [Well I guess |we can stop the debatre on alt.cyberpunk now =) ] This reads like one of my Inevitable Posts to this Inevitable Thread on alt.cp....Though they have dictionaries, an I don't. They appropriated my mindstyle without asking me...damn...=) |Within this odd |pairing lurks the essence of cyberpunk culture. It's a way of