1204 lines
64 KiB
Plaintext
1204 lines
64 KiB
Plaintext
\qix\aboutvr
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\qix\biblio
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\qix\cvrmisc
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\qix\plasmate
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\qix\nov92\181192
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and notes on CafeNet from the folder of Pippin [transcribed by Qix]
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\qix\aboutvr
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about "the Scriptures":
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although portions of the Scriptures may be available in printed form, I
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envision them as being primarily an *on-line* phenomenon, an ever-growing pool
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of information, stories, perspectives, and strangeness to which people
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contribute and add, available through BBSs, ftp sites... a body of text far
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larger than can fit within any one book, but which will be available
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electronically to all, and which will be the "memory bank" or "knowledge base"
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to which GAIA 2000 will refer...
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if this definition were to be generally accepted it would mean that
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*anything* posted to Usenet (for example) would become part of the Scriptures,
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which perhaps demonstrates that this is a silly definition. Even postings
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urging people to reject GAIA 2000 would be part of the Scriptures, in the
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fashion that people who reject the Discordian revelation are Discordian Popes
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(of the House of the Rising Hodge, I think).
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about 2000 vs 2012:
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Arguelles contrasts the Western/Babylonian/Christian calendar to the Mayan
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calendar: the Mayan calendar is allegedly in tune with the "cosmic seasons",
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or something like that, whereas the other is an invention of a patriarchal,
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business-oriented culture out of tune with the universal cycles. Etc. In this
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case, GAIA 2000 could be seen as a *premature* attempt to immanentize the
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Eschaton, doomed to failure since the true "singularity" (in W.I.T.'s sense,
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of a moment from which a new revelation will emerge) occurs December 2012,
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whereas GAIA 2000 sets its deadline according to the first calendrical system.
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Maybe the world *did* change fundamentally July 26, 1992, and we just
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haven't noticed in what respect it did. I *think* that was the day that V/R
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Scriptures first went online somewhere.
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about GAIA 2000 as `Earth Summit in cyberspace':
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USENET is already in a sense an ongoing metaconference on all possible
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topics; if GAIA is somehow `Internet-mediated', what might distinguish it from
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the ongoing meeting of minds occurring through Usenet all the time?
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An important feature of the Event was to be that anyone could reach anyone
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else and interact with them in real-time. If `the Event' is to happen
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"properly", this state of affairs ought to be reached some time before
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December 31 2000, so that people are able to do whatever it is they wish to do
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on that occasion. People have to have access, and they have to know that
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*something* is coming up on that date.
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One possibility is to make December 31 2000 some sort of `deadline for the
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realization of desires' concerning the state of the world, much as Greenpeace
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has done. This sets up the challenge for people to imagine what the features
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of a better world might be, lets them know that millions of others are seeing
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(and perhaps rising to) that same challenge, and provides a date on which to
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take a look around and see how they've gone.
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\qix\biblio
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QIX'S RECOMMENDED READING (as at 12 August 1992)
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1. *The Fringes of Reason*. a Whole Earth publication
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2. Hakim Bey. "T.A.Z."
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3. Avital Ronell. "The Telephone Book".
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"Crack Wars".
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Also interview in RE/Search #13.
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4. Barbara Marx Hubbard. "The Evolutionary Journey".
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"The Hunger of Eve".
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5. Ayn Rand and Objectivism.
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Murray Rothbard.
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6. Bob Black. "The Abolition of Work".
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7. Celia Green. "The Human Evasion".
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"The Decline and Fall of Science".
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"Advice for Clever Children".
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8. Terence McKenna. "Food of the Gods".
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"The Archaic Revival".
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(with Dennis McKenna) "The Invisible Landscape".
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9. Ivan Stang, editor: "The Book of the SubGenius".
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"High Weirdness by Mail".
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"Three-Fisted Tales of `Bob'".
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10. E.E. Rehmus. "The Magician's Dictionary".
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11. ? Ravenscroft. "The Mark of the Beast". see also Rudolf Steiner
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12. *Principia Discordia*.
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13. Jacques Vallee. "Dimensions".
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"Confrontations".
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14. William Irwin Thompson. "At the Edge of History".
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"Passages About Earth".
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"Evil and World Order".
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"Darkness and Scattered Light".
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? "The Time Falling Bodies Take To Light".
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? "Pacific Shift".
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"Gaia: A Way of Knowing" (ed.)
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"Imaginary Landscape".
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? "Gaia 2" (ed.)
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? "The American Replacement of Nature".
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15. Jose Arguelles. "The Transformative Journey".
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"The Mayan Factor".
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16. Jeremy Griffith. "Free - The End of the Human Condition".
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OR "Beyond the Human Condition".
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17. Stanislaw Lem. "Imaginary Magnitude".
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"A Perfect Vacuum".
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"One Human Minute".
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"Solaris".
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18. Hans Moravec. "Mind Children".
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K Eric Drexler. "Engines of Creation", + new book. Foresight Update.
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Grant Fjermedal. "The Tomorrow Makers".
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Jerry Pournelle. "A Step Farther Out".
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19. William Gibson. "Neuromancer", "Burning Chrome".
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Bruce Sterling. "Schismatrix", "Crystal Express", "Islands in the Net".
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Vernor Vinge, "Marooned in Real Time".
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?, "The Hole in the Zero".
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20. Olaf Stapledon. "Star Maker".
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"Last and First Men".
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21. Greg Bear. "Blood Music".
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"Eon".
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"Queen of Angels".
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22. H P Lovecraft (various).
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23. Gene Wolfe, "The Book of the New Sun".
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24. ? Stelarc.
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25. FM-2030 aka FM Esfandiary. "Optimism One".
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"Upwingers".
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? "Telespheres".
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"Are You a Transhuman?"
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26. Robert Anton Wilson. "Cosmic Trigger", vols 1 & 2.
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"Prometheus Rising".
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"Quantum Psychology".
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"The New Inquisition".
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"Reality is What You Can Get Away With".
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"Masks of the Illuminati", "Illuminatus!" trilogy
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"Schroedinger's Cat" trilogy
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"Coincidance"
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"The Illuminati Papers"
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27. Aleister Crowley (various). eg "777", "Book of Lies", "Eight Lectures on
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Yoga"
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? Kenneth Grant.
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? G I Gurdjieff.
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U G Krishnamurti.
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28. Christopher Hyatt. "Undoing Yourself".
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"Undoing Yourself Too".
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29. Timothy Leary. "Neuropolitique".
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"Info-Psychology" (formerly "Exo-Psychology").
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"The Politics of Ecstasy".
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"The Intelligence Agents".
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"The Game of Life".
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30. "In Pursuit of VALIS", concerning Philip K Dick.
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31. Postmodernism, poststructuralism.
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"An Introduction to Superstructuralism".
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Foucault, Baudrillard, ? Deleuze and Guattari.
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32. Roger Penrose. "The Emperor's New Mind".
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Stephen Hawking. "A Brief History of Time".
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Richard Feynman. "QED".
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Douglas Hofstadter. "Goedel Escher Bach".
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F David Peat, "Superstrings and the Search for the Theory of Everything".
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"The Philosopher's Stone".
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James Gleick, "Chaos".
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Barrow and Tipler. "The Anthropic Cosmological Principle".
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James Lovelock, books on "Gaia".
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33. ? Stan Deyo. "The Cosmic Conspiracy".
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and "similar" books.
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34. James Joyce. "Ulysses", "Finnegans Wake".
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35. Gerald Edelman's trilogy on neural Darwinism.
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books by the Churchlands.
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36. Nietzsche, ? Schopenhauer.
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37. ? Garry Reith, "Neutron Gun".
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38. "Gnosis", "MONDO 2000", ? "Now What" (Waves Forest)
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39. "State of the World".
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Murray Bookchin, "The Ecology of Freedom".
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40. R Buckminster Fuller. "Critical Path"
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"Grunch of Giants"
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41. Kevin Solway (various; available as shareware).
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42. The Travelling Scriptures of the Church of V/R.
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\qix\cvrmisc
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by end of the century gaia2000 may have metamorphosed into something very
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specific eg something like the earth summit but carried live to the world
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with its participation via the internet and other media, some sort of meeting
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of minds meant to bring together the different virtualities
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where would alpha and omega fit into such a scheme? the ultimate ao might be a
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sort of performance on my part..
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try to explain the *origins* of religious texts, occult traditions etc, in
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terms of : w.i.t's idea that moderns are literally misreading old cultures;
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plus cognitive theory etc, ought to be able to explain where information might
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come from, hwo a voice of god might structure itself etc..
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g2000 in mold of nwnm or earth summit: look at bmh's syncon ideas
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(...ooo000ooo...)
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1 august 92.
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at present v/r is a bunch of files on tracey's bbs, and a slightly smaller
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selection on an ftp site in w.a., + some vague impressions spreading word-
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of-mouth. what might it become..?
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i see it as primarily inhabiting the internet. whatever other media it might
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spread to, the [inter]net is its true home, and a v/r / cafe-net aim is to
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bring the net to the streets, so everyone can see it there.
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some version of the scriptures may appear at different locations on the net,
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and once there is an ugyldig node people will be able to send us responses,
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contributions etc. also may serialize scriptures / write other stuff for mag
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[eg thru circle].
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gaia2000 and alpha/omega. the development of these ideas is still my
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responsibilty. gaia2000 i think is becoming perhaps more concrete - might lead
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to an internet-mediated 'earth summit in cyberspace', with popular
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participation on a global scale.
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at present alpha/omega looks like this:
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net outline -> album -> novel -> movie -> ... -> EVENT
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( -> 1989-2012 ??? )
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how might i explain/justify it? `alpha and omega is an attempt to imagine the
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nature of a gaia2000-instigated event, which is everything at once, and the
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consequences of it [onto 2012]. the reason for ao's progression through
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different media is to help bring the 'thing itself' into being, by making it
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progressively more and more imaginable...
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so the album/novel/etc becomes a seed or propagator of the idea of the
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*possibility* of such an event, and the internet the medium of its
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"organization". "this book you hold, if you are reading it before dec 31.2000
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is one means whereby the possibility of this event is circulated..."
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where does the 24part structure etc of a/o fit in? cf vr1: maybe the event
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will just be me doing some sort of performance art, so to speak, for the world
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i have two particular 24fold "things" to fit in, one is timothy leary's
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3x8 circuit model, the other is my 1989 to 2012 progression - 1989 is already
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"agreed upon" as having been a pivotal year, 2012 comes from thompson
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arguelles mckenna - most convincing thing for me here is timewave zero, if
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i am to think that there really is "something" in this i want to see it
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make a prediction - i would also like to see a sort of archaeo- or paleo-
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cognitive explanation of why the mayan calendar has the structure it does.
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one idea was that 24 hr sequence serves as a global initiation - into what?
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initiation must be structured - so leary's model would act as a sequence of
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24 [neurological tarot, out of game of life - see also uq book on tarot as
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sequence of archetypes..]
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also idea that 24 yrs '89 to '12 somehow recapitulate for global society the
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24 stages - '89 birth of global consciousness, '92 birth of ??what -next
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circuit in any case. this of course is "numerology" just as "bad" as
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1998 = 3x666 etc. still it would be funny (if it was "true")...
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and if it *doesn't* mean anything, what are the ontological implications
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of the possibility of such creativity? [ie the fact that it is possible to
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stitch together correlations and "make a meaning" from them - what does that
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imply about the universe and our relationship to it?]
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panspace - where does that fitin???
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problem i have with ao / gaia2000 relationship is that the whole 24part
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leary/mckenna stuff may be too esoteric and plain WRONG or so much so that
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what definitely appears to be the positive potential of gaia2000 [independent
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of ao.o] might be lost as a/o details might detract or distract
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HOWEVER - what is the gaia2000 idea *independent of ao*? it is the idea of a
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global convergence/conference/event etc mediated via the internet. if its
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going to happen, it has to happen *at some time*. so may as well set dec 31
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2000 as "the date" /"deadline" what have you. it's certainly more likely than
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1995, and it's closer than 2012, and it *is* the start of the new
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[christian] millennium - which leads to a point requiring further contemplatin
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, how will this idea "plaY" IN CULTUREs with other calendars......
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if gaia2000 were to lead to an earth summit in cyberspace WHAT WOULD BE ON THE
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AGENDA??????? one thing to make up in advance would be a [planetary] "wish
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list"..
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ie "no hatred wars or poverty", "sustainable development", "anarchy",
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"new world order of democratic capitalism", etc....
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so it sort of sets the timer for a moment when there could be a massive
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mobilization of the world to "do" something/lots of things, if people can
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only decide beforehand what it is they want to do..
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(...ooo000ooo...)
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2 august 1992.
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if late 2012 really is the date of the "singularity", what is going to happen
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then? i imagined that the world might be transformed, blood-music-fashion,
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into a giant computer a la golem xiv, trying to understand the nature of (its
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own) existence and the historical process which brought it into being; or that
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some means of destroying the universe [false vacuum bubble etc] was developed
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and some final battle took place over its activation; or i imagined while
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in trafalgar square that perhaps the universe is collapsing [s dali, quoted in
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3fisted tales] and so all of space will be "rolled up in a little ball" by
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2012, in which case we may have no choice but to try and escape through the
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singularity, or something like that; such a scenario might combine janor's
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"universal fuck" + leary's fusion with the metaphysiological circuit at the
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last stage, + the apocalyptic notion of "time intersection"...
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arguelles, mayan factor, predicts "a projection into realms presently
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inconceivable", which seems to have something to do with everyone using their
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"light bodies" all at once...
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apart from my own pattern building [1989-2000; 2001-2012] *why* does 2012 have
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this apocalyptic expectation attached to it? for most people, mayan calendar.
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but mckenna says he hit on dec 2012 "independently"... i would like to know
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more about the process whereby he arrived at that date...
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from "archiac revival":
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p162 Terence could you identify Philo for us and tell us who he was?
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...made it his business to travel around the hellenistic world discussing all
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the major cults and religions and cosmogonic theories of the day..
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original wandering jew? also sounds like PHILO drummond..
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p22 my notion of the posttransition felt experience is that it is a domain
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where appropriate activity is the path of least resistance... in this current
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realm tao and ego seem impossibly opposed.. in the posttransition world, it's
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possible that there will appear to be only ego, and there will actually be
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only tao... the kingdom of heaven...
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conceivably this is what gaia2000 is trying to bring about? but idea that
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2000 represents a failure, owing to forcing the issue, and that 2012 is the
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real date when it has to happen...
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also sounds like Age of Slack...
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what's the role of everyone who's already died in the cosmic scheme of things?
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[assuming there is one..]
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there is always the posthumanist/existentialist strain - the emptiness of the
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cosmos is absolute. pure freedom. hassan i sabbah.
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not sure where fm2030 would place his own outlook.
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2012 as start of age of maat - equilibrium.
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texts are virtualities through which one can 'see' new or old worlds;
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subgenius represents a reality which one might 'enter into' [crossing the
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boundary into the new form, r.a.w's schrodinger's cat]; gaia2000 is an attempt
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to stitch virtualities together????? community of shattered egos
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the vacant horror of existence [see above] - both ronell. full of phrases like
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these.
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*
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what is relationship between imagination, will, reality? eg idea that ufo's
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are 'created' by unconscious psychokinetic wish-fulfilment. suppose such a
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thing is possible, and a striebertype alien/visitor is created, is the visitor
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selfaware? if so where does it think it came from?
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each person sees 3d space from a different pointofview in a very mundane
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sense - i think i am here, that guy typing off to the left sees *his* screen
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in front of himself, etc. how do these 3d virtualities relate to the
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[hypothetical] 3d reality? is it possible to have a reality model which
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somehow represents all the 3d virtualities & if so is there any need to
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postulate a 3d reality as well, independent of observers with 3d virtualities?
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*
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even though i am not working at a job or at a school/uni, i feel as if i spend
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too much time doing things i would rather not be doing, or rather that i am
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not doing some things i would like to be. i feel primary restriction on this
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second class of things is money, so simplest thing would be to make v/r
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partly commercial and say, by buying our journal/whatever you help to pay for
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us to do certain things [buy books, interview various individuals, etc]
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ok. could make one aim of v/r publication "expansion of all our
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virtualities." we at v/r have heard of certain things, individuals etc.. who
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we cannot easily reach. money will help us eg to contact terence mckenna and
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ask him, *when* did you decide on dec 2012 as date for immanentizing the
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eschaton? and will help us get a copy of timewave zero.
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interview celia green, etc.
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*
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it seems to me that global anarchy could be fairly "safe" if everyone knew it
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was coming...so to speak. how could the coming of anarchy be negotiated or
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eased into play? ao-type strategy [anticipates the antipation of the anticip-
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ation of the real thing] + ever larger and more frequent TAZs [culminating in
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a PAZ]...permanent autonomous zone...
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what does a.o the event have to do with transition from leary's 1st 4 to 2nd 4
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circuits? gaia2000 is supposed to mark end of dominator culture end of
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hierarchies etc etc all of which rely on existence of domesticated primates
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activation of 5th circuit appears to amount to dedomestication, so end of
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dec 31 2000 could lead to "hippification" of the planetary population :)...
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i have viewed online scriptures of v/r as a place where people might post
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crazy thoughts etc and certainly much of it has this interesting but
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discordant appearance, but there will have to be some degree of stitching
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together also at some point, picking and choosing of parts to develop and
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emphasize.. chaotic proliferation followed by weeding...
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archaic revival p215
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I guess I'm a soft Dark Ager. I think there will be a mild Dark Age. I don't
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think it will be anything like the dark ages that lasted a thousand years; I
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think it will last more like five years and will be a time of economic
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retraction, religious fundamentalism, retreat into closed communities by
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certain segments of the society, feudal warfare among minor states, resource
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scarcity, and this sort of thing. But I think it will give way in the late
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nineties to the global future that we're all yearning for, and then there will
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be basically a fifteen-year period where all these things are drawn together
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with progressively greater and greater sophistication, much in the way that
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modern science and philosophies have grown with greater and greater
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sophistication in a single direction since the Renaissance. Sometime around
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the end of 2012 all of this will be boiled down into a kind of alchemical
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distillation of the historical experience that will be a doorway into the
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life of the imagination.
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2012-15=1997,date of SubGenius takeover according to "dateline for dominance"
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;)
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what is the attraction of the "nothing matters" school of thought? it means
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you can take all the time you want to, since it's all futile in the long run..
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what is the relationship between creation and destruction? stabilities seem
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to be destroyed to make way for new complexities?
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(...ooo000ooo...)
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3 august 1992.
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re terence mck's claim that ayahuasca promotes group telepathic experiences:
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he says one person can leave off describing the scene being beheld and another
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will take it up "Everyone is seeing the same thing!" what might be happening
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here is that ayahuasca promotes synaesthesia [the crossing of the senses -
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whatever that feels like] - and since everyone is hearing the same thing,
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and seeing what they hear [this is the synesthetic effect], then it is as if
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telepathy is occurring - but it must be mediated by hearing and then the drug,
|
|
presumably.
|
|
|
|
what's the point of suicidal openness, or doing things "in public" [eg airing
|
|
strange thoughts on the net etc]? the point is to try to force the rate of
|
|
change by pioneering the expression of certain thoughts or the performance of
|
|
certain actions. if someone is *seen* to do something for the first time, it
|
|
then becomes more imaginable to others that they themselves could express
|
|
their true feelings or act on their true desires. of course, this process of
|
|
gradual pioneering may lead in directions that one judges undesirable - eg
|
|
war, serial murder have both become "familiar".
|
|
|
|
|
|
\qix\plasmate
|
|
|
|
13-11-92 qut linklab 2.21am etc. [using qedit for once!]
|
|
written only a few hrs after 121192, nickiu and kelly long gone [an hour ago?]
|
|
have just been looking at disk b, where i have the relatively small no.
|
|
of gavinfiles that i have actually transfered to disk thus far.
|
|
3 major groupings: net fiend - rez - scott. [+other stuff like otis, cog,
|
|
futfaq] i am thinking in terms of trying to bring together some of the
|
|
virtual worlds i have explored so far, or whatever i am to call them.
|
|
there's mine - netfiend + a.o - which i presume i will make available in
|
|
the form of qixbio, and then a.o itself; there's general leri-dialog &
|
|
in particular rez - leri will probably become a supercategory, according
|
|
to various threads & leri also includes scotto with whom i haven't talked
|
|
as much as rez; and gerold pirl, and mike gourlay.. [& solan@no?]; and then
|
|
there's private correspondence with scott. also correspondence with lizi,
|
|
although he did make his public domain note so, point is, if at some future
|
|
stage i was to try to 'share' notes or resources or something, scott's are
|
|
the ones that would require mopst consultation [with him] since they are
|
|
email. i need a good name for the different net affinity groups, meme-
|
|
clusters etc that exist, and which i am trying to involve in some sort of
|
|
symbiotic relationship or other form of communication. take this to
|
|
leri-l? mindmelds?? mindfields? maybe memes aren't alive, but we need
|
|
some other concept for this idea of a groupmind sort of thing which can be
|
|
considered semiautonomous. something with 'net' and or 'cog' in its name.
|
|
cf cyborg. netorg? cognet? netmeld? maybe there's a word already in the
|
|
lerifaq. metamind. cognitive domain. netamind? i'll call them domains for the
|
|
moment. domains i know of, which i want to bring into visible contact:
|
|
mitch-scott
|
|
jeremy-scott
|
|
mitch-lizi
|
|
mitch-rez (a subdomain of leri)
|
|
and there seems to be something on alt.satanism / alt.destroy.the.earth
|
|
involving corleyj/locklin/lizi/perhaps semhaza/and i wonder if tagi is a
|
|
part of this? find out this morning maybe. should add alt.horror.cthulhu
|
|
to the above list. and judex to the list of names. it's a small world
|
|
after all.
|
|
of the people i've spoken with a bit, scott definitely seems to have the
|
|
biggest agenda, although i'm still not in the full picture. know next to
|
|
nothing about tagi and semhaza.
|
|
so, as far as 'bringing together in one place' what i've already mentioned
|
|
goes: if jeremy & scott were to join leri, that would potentially make
|
|
jermey-mitch-scott triangle a subdomain of leri ie it could be conducted
|
|
within the 'space of visibility' that leri offers. so leri provides the
|
|
advantage of a 'space' of sorts where such things can be discussed, but has
|
|
the disadvantage that any discussion there is 'exposed' by the presence of
|
|
so many minds and so many other threads.
|
|
[domain concept i want to add before i forget to record it: idea that each
|
|
person *in RL* is a potential source of 'leaks' in the integrity of a domain
|
|
[when considered in its excluding aspect, ie as a place that is not
|
|
universally accessible to inspection], eg i show things to fellow elder gods,
|
|
blab to flatmates or people like caroline&co about aspects of life on the
|
|
net, etc; and regionally each of us is in a similar situation, ie scott in
|
|
mass, leri people in iowa, etc. is juxlus ever going to do his leri-map?]
|
|
another thing with leri: magick/occult, cthulhoid/thelemite topics are not
|
|
high profile at present, although they pop up occasionally, eg daath, "bob",
|
|
& scotto in discussing tremendum and terence mckenna mentions tibetan buddhism
|
|
& shamanism. contrast here is with the alt.horror.cthulhu/alt.satanism axis,
|
|
a lot of the traffic of which i think would be along such lines. these
|
|
topics would probably alienate some of the leri people who may have reasonable
|
|
drug experience but are relatively ignorant of these conceptual systems. [so
|
|
what is under consideration here is the future consequence of an 'importation'
|
|
of ?'occult' memes into leri discussion.
|
|
* * * * *
|
|
back from a toilet trip. it would be germane to now note that i am almost
|
|
certainly going to forward this to scott somehow, & perhaps others mentioned;
|
|
& it would also be appropriate to recall the june/july posting i made shortly
|
|
after returning from my travels overseas, which listed perhaps 12 groups
|
|
which were to be brought together... i shall dig around a bit and see if i
|
|
have a reough copy of the text anywhere on disk...
|
|
|
|
ok, in transcribing my 'travel diary' i got as far as iowa, which means i have
|
|
the draft text of the usenet posting [though not the actual final text] & not
|
|
the groups that i listed, but i can probably remember those. this is what i
|
|
wrote while traveling, by way of trying to create the conditions for these
|
|
groups to come together [in a joking-serious tone] & as a way of introducing
|
|
v/r... [just in my sig, mentioned v/r..]
|
|
|
|
Planet Earth is only a few months away from two historic events (although they
|
|
may turn out to be historic *non*-events). One is the Earth Summit, taking
|
|
place in Rio de Janeiro in the first two weeks of June, at which the
|
|
"powerbrokers" and would-be powerbrokers of the world shall meet for the UN
|
|
Conference on Environment and Development, ostensibly to lay the ground rules
|
|
for global governance in the '90s. I read in a newspaper that Maurice Strong,
|
|
who I think is a (former?) high-ranking UN bureaucrat whose brainchild the
|
|
Summit is, wants it to be "a success or a dramatic failure". So if the outcome
|
|
of the Summit is not enough as far as its UN organizers are concerned, they
|
|
may somehow appeal to the peoples of the world (eg through CNN), bypassing
|
|
governments, saying "Your rulers have failed you..."
|
|
The other event is more obscure as yet: the (predicted) `Time Shift' of July
|
|
26. Supposed to be the climax of a 5-year period of change initiated by the
|
|
Harmonic Convergence of 1987, after the Time Shift `telepathy will be the
|
|
norm', and money, drugs and oil will somehow become useless, according to Jose
|
|
Arguelles' exposition of the Mayan paradigm he expects to replace
|
|
`materialism'. If all of this happens, it will obviously be a momentous event;
|
|
if it doesn't happen, it will still be important, since it will be the first
|
|
failure of a millennial-style prediction to which are attached the hopes of
|
|
people _all_over_ the planet.
|
|
So two (non)-events are looming: between them they may spell the end of
|
|
politics and religion as we have known them. In such times we need to pool
|
|
all our intelligence, in order to work out what the hell is going on. To this
|
|
end I nominate the following individuals and groups as Alternative World
|
|
Overlords. I say unto you, readers of the groups of the "alt" hierarchy,
|
|
between them these people are the brain-trust of our species: they *must* be
|
|
brought together in dialogue or conflict or something; or else our world may
|
|
descend into the Ugyldig from whence it sprang.
|
|
|
|
and the groups/people would have been:
|
|
avital ronell
|
|
barbara marx hubbard
|
|
upwingers [fm2030]
|
|
foresight institute [k eric drexler]
|
|
falcon press [wilson leary hyatt]
|
|
stanislaw lem
|
|
celia green [institute for psychophysical research]
|
|
jeremy griffith [foundation for humanity's adulthood]
|
|
lindisfarne [william irwin thompson]
|
|
original cyberpunks [gibson sterling etc]
|
|
subgenius foundation
|
|
terence mckenna
|
|
i'm pretty sure there were only 12.
|
|
so if i were to stick to this list for the moment ['biblio' is a bigger & much
|
|
more complex version of the same thing], how am i going by way of finding
|
|
internet links to these RL 'domains'?
|
|
avital ronell -> pmc-list, pmc-talk. just starting to explore this one but
|
|
she's on the editorial board.
|
|
barbara marx hubbard -> ??? haven't seen her mentioned anywhere, haven't
|
|
pursued it.
|
|
upwingers -> ? i am *sure* fm would be on the net somewhere, but have yet
|
|
to find where. extropians is definitely the closest we come to an
|
|
'upwingers' group or list
|
|
foresight institute -> pretty much as above, except sci.nanotech is a
|
|
usenet focus.
|
|
wilson/leary/hyatt -> ?? leri-l. wilson mentioned in alt.satanism faq. and
|
|
'where' was wilson.on.cis 'recorded'? leary alleged to lead discussions
|
|
on the well sometimes. hyatt introduces the whole thelemite / western
|
|
tradition meme-complex, so alt.magick.
|
|
stanislaw lem -> ??? haven't tried. rec.arts.books? comp.ai? in a sense the
|
|
cyberpunks are, finally, the 'movement' exploring some of lem's themes,
|
|
but lem has a different approach, & other concerns [including surprisingly
|
|
subgenius-like ones at times].
|
|
celia green -> ??? no sign of her either and haven't really tried.
|
|
philosophy groups? alt.paranormal?? + physics connection.
|
|
jeremy griffith -> ??? even more unknown. an up-and-coming influence
|
|
compared to all these other people. more an oz task for me - which
|
|
suggests interesting future encounters between his memes and kevin
|
|
solway's.
|
|
lindisfarne -> this one is just getting underway with my recent xposted
|
|
inquiry. john mccarthy made a brief reply, one other guy is reading a
|
|
w.i.t. book, and guy in email is attending a n.y. 'symposium' _right_now_.
|
|
lindisfarne would already appear to be a sort of global intellectual
|
|
fellowship, so to a great degree thompson has been trying to bring minds
|
|
together in a similar fashion.
|
|
original cyberpunks -> well, alt.cyberpunk. bruces@well.sf.ca.us is most
|
|
visible net connection. what is mike@highlite.uucp involved with?
|
|
andy hawks, future-culture. scream baby seems to have lots of connections.
|
|
subgenius foundation -> if this is taken to refer to 'free' or 'weird'
|
|
religions in general then these are a dime a dozen on the net - subgenius,
|
|
discordian, church of spam, v/r, kibology, etc. [i would be interested to
|
|
have a sort of map of the relationships between kibo, mdw, sramming etc,
|
|
since they are all in communication thru email as well as on the net, no
|
|
doubt. kibology i think hasnt got the intellectual substance of anything
|
|
else here, but it is important within usenet as a highly visible cultural
|
|
icon of sorts - it is unique in that respect. this is a future factor.] in
|
|
terms of network of online subgenii, online operation mindfucks, corleyj
|
|
is starting one of the latter, & perhaps subgenius-l is the closest to a
|
|
seriously organized subg grouping (and it's just like a smaller
|
|
alt.slack). HOWEVER, if we talk actual SubGenius FOUNDATION - ie the real
|
|
organization - not sure about their degree of online participation. two
|
|
leads: janor h. on mars bbs last year, and phenomicon people - in
|
|
particular the guy who seems to know 'swinging love corpses'.
|
|
terence mckenna -> LERI-L. no other candidate needed. leri-l encompasses
|
|
much more than mckenna, but it is certainly the only mckenna forum on the
|
|
net, and a very well-informed one at that.
|
|
|
|
so if i'm talking bringing domains together OR at least constructing a picture
|
|
of their *existing* relationships so that everyone can become aware of what
|
|
ALREADY EXISTS, what happens if i have a go at stitching together all the
|
|
netstuff listed above? !...
|
|
|
|
PMC-TALK, Extropians/sci.nanotech, leri-l, alt.magick/alt/satanism,
|
|
alt.cyberpunk, scream-baby/future-culture, subgenius-l. that's not
|
|
comprehensive, but it's already a pretty wild mix. so what would i be trying
|
|
to achieve by bringing these different domains into visible contact? to
|
|
facilitate memetic crossover, to assist in the birth of a synthesis. they are
|
|
already crossing over in my head and in the heads of others, in a somewhat
|
|
chaotic fashion; but i have only finite resources & critical and creative
|
|
capacities; by distributing - in a computational sense - the 'load', there is
|
|
a better chance of coming up with something productive.
|
|
the crossover of domains here is a quantum leap up from what i was discussing
|
|
before, as i was mostly thinking of connections between groups of 2 or 3, and
|
|
my only 'semipublic' domain was leri-l, whereas in the list that begins this
|
|
paragraph there are 7+ such 'very leaky' domains. there is a problem here of
|
|
dissipation of purpose. in my original list i was trying to bring together in
|
|
one place all the most interesting/provocative thoughts that i had
|
|
encountered, to see what was born of their commingling, beyond confusion and
|
|
wonder. such comminglings, although not of precisely the same domains, are
|
|
already happening on leri, but the unstructured nature of it leads me & i
|
|
suspect most or all people to switch off to at least half of it - tune out
|
|
from threads which are too far away from their present concerns. as a result
|
|
there is a certain amount of dissipation, i think - ie even if something new
|
|
comes of a dialogue on a certain topic, it only occasionally has leri-wide
|
|
ramifications.
|
|
[a parenthetical addition: i have not mentioned theoretical physics or
|
|
dynamical systems theory yet, and yet these two bodies of concepts - probably
|
|
better-defined than any i have mentioned so far - ought to be part of the
|
|
memetic stew i wish to brew as well. support comes from the recent thread on
|
|
leri associating the two - it's not just my fondness for these topics which
|
|
makes them relative to Whatever It Is i'm working towards here.
|
|
further note: jbaez is an interesting person. see him mostly in sci.physics
|
|
and sci.math, but he shows up regularly in alt.drugs and posted about voynich
|
|
ms. to alt.horror.cthulhu, so his conceptual world is definitely broad...
|
|
so someone else to try to involve, in something?]
|
|
i think it's time i introduced an element of purpose here. i am hoping not
|
|
merely to create a map of existing relationships, but to facilitate the birth
|
|
of something new - new ideas and perhaps a new world. to use the language of
|
|
memes and meme-complexes for a moment, one way to look at it would be to
|
|
conceive of the end-result as a meme-scheme [in hofstadter's sense of paradigm
|
|
framework etc] which can encompass and supersede [at the absolute level] those
|
|
that exist now. i want to connect this to philip dick's notion of a
|
|
"plasmate", a living body of information which can pass from a text into a
|
|
mind which will act as its host; the resultant is a "homoplasmate" in dick's
|
|
jargon, a human who is a host for the information. dick's plasmate had to do
|
|
with his idea of what esoteric christianity is about, i think, whereas it
|
|
seems to me that (say) extropian ideas would be a component of a late20thc
|
|
plasmate, so i can't say that "my" plasmate and his would be the same, but the
|
|
metaphor of a LIVING BODY OF INFORMATION that spreads through different media
|
|
[the meme/virus analogy] is a useful one.
|
|
ok, so a concise restatement? by bringing about this memetic crossover - which
|
|
at present is a mostly chaotic process which at times hints at great things to
|
|
come - i hope to give birth to a plasmate which will circulate throughout the
|
|
noosphere, transforming human perceptions and thus human actions.
|
|
why would i want to transform human actions? because it seems to me that the
|
|
world we have now is 'radically unsatisfactory [because]...the human condition
|
|
is a dump.' [bruces] this is the primary consideration, we are finite and
|
|
ignorant, and it is my impression that people hide from things, choose
|
|
frivolous and relatively purposeless pursuits, because they have accepted that
|
|
they will always be thus. whereas the whole notion of the SINGULARITY suggests
|
|
something quite different: that we are at a unique historical juncture, in
|
|
which there is an opportunity, with luck and hard work, to escape the
|
|
historical human condition - to be transformed both 'physically' and
|
|
'existentially', for want of better terms. but at the same time there are all
|
|
sorts of uncertainties and possible dangers, the possibility of error both in
|
|
a practical and an intellectual sense - the wrong step might be taken, or we
|
|
might have an incorrect worldview - which is why i insist on all these
|
|
ingredients.
|
|
|
|
ok, to take another leap and relate this to 'alpha and omega': if i really
|
|
hurry, could the plasmate, or a proto-version of it, be born before the year
|
|
is out, or at some point in the very near future? because this could be a new
|
|
statement of what i am trying to do with a.o specifically: make it the textual
|
|
vehicle of the plasmate [as the book of the subgenius is supposed to be]. the
|
|
book would point beyond itself in two ways: to the later a.o forms [movie,
|
|
event], but also to the internet itself, and the sea of information therein
|
|
which could not be touched upon in a single text. thus a text like this, even
|
|
if it were not excerpted and made part of the canonical a.o, could implicitly
|
|
be a part of it in the sense that it is a text closely related to the Final
|
|
Draft.
|
|
|
|
this has been a very interesting exercise.
|
|
...
|
|
ok, have just been scanning this text, and i think it would go well, not in
|
|
a.o, since this is all stil inchoate whereas a.o is meant to be the Real
|
|
Thing, but in this hypothetical qixbio that i might make available by ftp.
|
|
recent ingredients might include:
|
|
semper story of my travels
|
|
diary of a net fiend [the drug aspect of my life]
|
|
conspiracy posting and lizi's response
|
|
this file
|
|
and other ingredients, no doubt. [chart of time from leri-l]
|
|
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
|
|
i also want to note that as i was writing out the list before, of internet
|
|
correlates to my list of 12 RL 'domains', that i felt a slightly fearful/
|
|
fascinating apprehension of the *reality* of this, the irreversible and
|
|
unpredictable nature of bringing them together. played out on a global
|
|
scale, this of course is a familiar worry to me; in trying to immanentize
|
|
the eschaton, what if you fuck up and bring about the Bad version rather
|
|
than the Good one? [debates about Good and Bad put aside for the moment.]
|
|
---------------------------------------
|
|
ok, who do i send this to? at this stage i think only scott [@titan] and
|
|
rez, although certainly scotto [@leri] would understand what it was about,
|
|
since he's seen all my postings to leri-l - i just think rez because he's the
|
|
one i was actually debating the merits of a book with, etc. probably quite a
|
|
few leri people know enough to work out what i'm talking about here, so
|
|
perhaps this whole thing might get posted to leri at some stage, or a
|
|
streamlined version or something. i'll have to send scott l. a copy of the
|
|
leri "chart of time" where i expounded a.o so he knows what i'm talking about
|
|
re the idea of a book, and maybe chart of time & this document together could
|
|
serve to introduce the idea to [certain!] people not on leri.
|
|
probably include some form of the lerifaq file as well, just to explain
|
|
singularity etc.
|
|
-------------------
|
|
after another break [now 4am], looking ahead. let us suppose that the a.o
|
|
*structure* in time,
|
|
book -> movie -> event - 24 hrs at the end of 2000
|
|
actually happens, and provides a sort of framework within which whatever
|
|
the final memetic mix is, propagates. how prominent will we, as individuals
|
|
- myself, scott, rez, etc - be in whatever historical events occur during
|
|
2000? might one of us end up being a new leary or mckenna, for example? could
|
|
someone involved in this enterprise / the leri enterprise / whatever it turns
|
|
into, have some degree of 'secular' power ie political influence or privilege,
|
|
lots of money, high managerial position? this is relevant to me even on the
|
|
level of writing fiction, because i need to have some idea of how "prominent"
|
|
the people who initiate such a process are by the time it is reaching its
|
|
culmination.
|
|
in terms of people who have a place in existing institutions, when i think
|
|
of my previous lists i think extropians and [to a lesser degree] pmc (a lesser
|
|
degree because the humanities are simply not as much of a cultural influence
|
|
as science and technology). there may well be extropians or
|
|
extropian-sympathetic people on advisory councils to the american government,
|
|
u.n. etc by 2000, and if extropian memes are a major component of the
|
|
plasmate [remember, plasmate denotes the final body of memes that will
|
|
propagate together - there is an assumption that there will be a somehow
|
|
harmonious hybrid of all this and more] then any such 'high-up' extropian may
|
|
well know about & be influenced by the 'weirder' aspects as well.
|
|
in terms of people from my list of RL domains, barbara marx hubbard has
|
|
thought a lot about running for president, so she may well be a significant
|
|
figure by the time the real events roll around. fm also, owing to his history
|
|
of involvement with the un.
|
|
the others could perhaps become culturally influential - eg mckenna being
|
|
sampled by the shamen, william gibson becoming a household name, etc. in a
|
|
sense what i'm asking here is, *who will be* the individuals who will embody
|
|
some of these ideas as far as pop culture is concerned? it seems to me that
|
|
for an idea to circulate there's got to be someone who is its representative
|
|
in the world of humanity. since drexler, ronell etc are already public
|
|
figures, the question is already answered with respect to *their* ideas; but
|
|
assuming that something genuinely novel comes of this crossover process i've
|
|
been hyping, who will stand for that? i think that as far as the idea of
|
|
'alpha and omega' the book etc. itself, i have to take full credit/blame
|
|
there, if i'm going to be the damn author [unless it assumes some
|
|
collaborative form which i find presently unimaginable, seeing how
|
|
*individual* a vision it still is] ; but as far as reality goes, the most that
|
|
a.o would do is set a deadline and a sort of temporal structure for this
|
|
hypothetical Event at the end of the century - the content & outcome would NOT
|
|
follow any script - i'm not that smart. that's why i have envisioned the
|
|
ending of a.o as being a big question mark, so to speak, saying 'you have now
|
|
had certain possibilities opened to you, you know how much time remains - what
|
|
do you do now....?' but that question mark will not last past dec 31, 2000.
|
|
either the whole thing doesnt take off, in which case i'm left looking for
|
|
another avenue, or it does and it assumes a definite form and outcome on that
|
|
date. possible forms might be, say
|
|
a global extropian-type movement
|
|
a global green/back-to-nature movement
|
|
[or some odd combination of these]
|
|
a mystical, new-agey sort of transcendence - cf hopi indian prophecies
|
|
a 'cthulhoid apocalypse' [eg the star beings come to devour our souls]
|
|
[these are the extremes of the 'occult' scenario, so to speak]
|
|
global love peace and harmony [ie only 'social transcendence']
|
|
global despair and destruction - intentional self-annihilation
|
|
[a 'punk apocalypse' - the extremes of ?social change]
|
|
business as usual - muddling through, nothing in particular happens.
|
|
everyone goes back to work the next day.
|
|
mass enlightenment - the Truth is communicated to everyone - global
|
|
enlightenment [distinguishable from global happiness] {but would this
|
|
Truth be more like green or griffith?}
|
|
|
|
in all of those different events the 'key players' would be different sorts of
|
|
people - in some politicians would be pivotal, in others gurus, in others
|
|
technicians of different sorts, etc.
|
|
i have gone a bit off track from my intent, which was to ask, 'which of
|
|
"us", now - people "we" know personally on the net - could end up a cultural
|
|
icon, world politician etc?' but i have no particular answers.
|
|
but the point is, that if something resembling this course of events does
|
|
happen, we, or some of 'us', may find ourselves in crucial positions.
|
|
----------------------------
|
|
a final thought: written half an hour later, after going for a walk thinking
|
|
& eating - one of my goals is the elimination of all fear between people,
|
|
especially fear of divulgence of information. i have written elsewhere about
|
|
the idea that when one person performs an action, it makes it more thinkable
|
|
for others to do the same, and that this is how (eg) openness about sex,
|
|
drugs, politics, religion etc has progressed, in steps taken by pioneers
|
|
that were then popularized by others. it was to this end that i have wanted
|
|
to be open on the internet in particular - thus i have imagined making
|
|
diaries available via ftp, & the like. it occurs to me that perhaps kibo was
|
|
the first person to be completely free in this sense - the first not to
|
|
"hide his shining star" - in which case kibology really may be the way of
|
|
life in the 21st century! ie kibo was the first to take a step which the mass
|
|
of humanity will later follow, in the global information culture of the
|
|
future. (and in what fashion could the first person to take such a step, do
|
|
such a thing, other than as an enormous joke? to do it with earnest intentions
|
|
- "i'm going to tell the world all about myself because i want to set an
|
|
example of openness etc" - i don't think would work; the negative reaction
|
|
would be too much.) kibo may be just as important as he makes himself out to
|
|
be.
|
|
|
|
\qix\nov92\181192
|
|
|
|
18-11-92 wednesday morning 4 am link lab.raining outside & i'm stuck here.
|
|
what are major recent events? on sunday went to TISEA in afternoon, was
|
|
fairly interesting; then in evening got amilings from loompanics and
|
|
waves forest,which i thought was better still.
|
|
yesterday and today i havebeen at uq rather than griffith..heard from lupo
|
|
again after thinking he'd disappeared. leri-l fairly quiet lately ,it's as
|
|
if everyone has withdrawn from the frenzy of trying to follow everything a
|
|
few weeks back.
|
|
i have been wondering lately,whether i'm still learning, because at times it
|
|
felt as if everything purposeful i was doing on the net was in order to
|
|
spread memes i already know about,rather than learn of new ones. but then i
|
|
look at a.o - the draft miniversion saved 9 ?oct i think - and i think, gee
|
|
thatwas a long time ago. what has happened, basically since the compilation
|
|
of high weirdness by email, is that i am linked into the internet in a
|
|
really new way, to a degree that hasnt happened before, even when i was
|
|
regularly bbs'ing. the internet [the "CyberVoid"] is now the ...thing...
|
|
into which i am pouring most of my efforts,and out of which various
|
|
responses return to me.
|
|
with most of my communicating being espeak,my use of the language is
|
|
changing very swiftly. also the change in my thoughts that i had noticed,
|
|
that so many ofmy thoughts had to do with online activities and people.
|
|
this is a whole universe i am entering here. or i am entering into a new
|
|
intellectualrelationship with the same universe,by becoming part of a
|
|
domain in which all action involves interaction. my intelligence and
|
|
knowledge is potentially augmented by the net,both as a form of
|
|
accelerated experience and as a superresource made upof millions of other
|
|
networked humans.
|
|
it is interesting: eventually i will cut back on net use, introduce some
|
|
sort of regularity and discipline to what i do on the net, whereas at the
|
|
moment it is all chaos interspersed with spurts of purpose which leadto
|
|
the completion of tasks at hand. by formulating a precise relationship
|
|
between myself&the net- "i will readthese groups, answer this mail, complete
|
|
this projectetc" - i make it easier to act purposively with regards to the
|
|
net but i fallbehind in the growth of myimplicit knowledge of what's going on
|
|
on the fringes.[although it is questionable that a lotof that info is really
|
|
worth knowing anyway. eg is it important to be in on every injoke from
|
|
talk.bizarre to alt.peeves?]
|
|
high weirdness by email could be seen as my portrait of the net,or the net
|
|
as i encounter it given the choices i make. eg the emphasis on alt topics.
|
|
the 'plasmate' diary entry was a start of a step in the next direction...
|
|
yes, ok,i am starting to conceive of phases to my recent intensive times
|
|
on the net, which started with getting email and newsposting privileges.
|
|
[how was it that i first heardof nyx?] the progressive development (of
|
|
important new steps) was something like nyx, future-culture, leri-l,
|
|
then lots and lots ofmailing lists,and all this culminated in high weirdness
|
|
by email,which is the work of amind going in a dozen different directions.
|
|
phase two is one of 'rconvergence' and will involve re-relating things and
|
|
if necessary PRIORITIZING [rez'sfavourite word].
|
|
<just made a quick toilet trip, during which it occurred to me that phase ?3
|
|
- getting aheadof myself here -must involve linking up my FleshAcquaintances
|
|
with the net in general.i havetalked about bringing the net to ;'the masses'
|
|
etc but to the extent to which i am trying to bring computers to non-CS
|
|
people, it is specific people,my friends who i want to have access to the
|
|
net world.. so this i hope will come of cafenet,and perhaps l's house of
|
|
the happy hobbit. thus also might my net circles encounter my brisbane ones.>
|
|
the culmination of phase 3 will most likely be alpha.omega the ?usenet post/
|
|
net-trip; and in terms of the development of a.o the new step will be the
|
|
full integration of ...??? the reality of internet intothe picture.ie i am
|
|
linking it [the novel] up with a vastly complex entity whose specificities
|
|
i havetrulybeen learning only in the past month.
|
|
i'm now going to have a go at constructing a net chronology for my
|
|
activities of the past month and a bit, so i can get a clearer perspective on
|
|
what'sbeen going on.
|
|
|
|
...DONE! an overview from september to mid-november:
|
|
10 Sep - 1 Jan deadline
|
|
18 Sep - ftp'd hacker mags - idea that ao.post not wholly 'live'
|
|
23 Sep - spending time on BBS's from QUT
|
|
27 Sep - 4-disk series
|
|
1 Oct - 'checking' Samba
|
|
2 Oct - 'try to get on to FutureCulture'
|
|
3 Oct - regularly copying items from QUTNews - compiling ao.post
|
|
8 Oct - NEW HOME
|
|
9 Oct - Samba working - 4 brief newsposts
|
|
12 Oct - V/R letterhead
|
|
14 Oct - Posted re High W b E - using Macs (at commerce,i presume)
|
|
15 Oct - FUTFAQ, OTIS
|
|
[somewhere in here,T16]
|
|
21 Oct (NOW ON NYX) - ANTHLAL correspondence - on extropians, leri-l
|
|
24 Oct - UQcom, samba wiped everything
|
|
1 Nov - have done H W b E, Diary of a N F, alt.necromicon FAQ, ScottL corr
|
|
lists: obj, extr, leri, anarchy, subg, fut
|
|
thinking of qix-l; scott, rez, maybe mike wiik and lizi as 'future partners'
|
|
6 Nov - busted at UQcom -> G.U.. Con to DestEarth,singularity threads.
|
|
'my heartis with leri'. would have posted CFDalt.qixnews soon after
|
|
12 Nov - K&N first look at News - W I T mail, jeremy meets GOO
|
|
13 Nov - PLASMATE, qixbio
|
|
17/18 Nov - this very moment NOW
|
|
|
|
so i have been on nyx for maybe one month. and nyx has been the truly *crucial*
|
|
factor in being able to do anything at all on the broader net eg contribute to
|
|
leri,assemble hwbe. [it's funny how similar this is to the end of last year,
|
|
with a rush of change, only there the ?facilitator was acid rather than the
|
|
net.] i am now at a point where it really is appropriate to focus consciously
|
|
on some specific tasks. my main tangent at present would appear to be the
|
|
singularity essay for extropians/leri - making that point; watching for a
|
|
while for thompson/green feedback;and getting waves forest out on the net.
|
|
a little further down the track i might want to have as much of my other
|
|
'essential reading' online as possible. thus finding a scanner becoming more
|
|
and more urgent.once it'sthere online it can be referred to and cannibalized
|
|
by future etexts. also realistically i think within a month the leri-l
|
|
institute shouldhave a report on timewave zero,so that will start to come
|
|
into place. so 3 items: singularity, getting more texts 'out there', and
|
|
TWZ.oh! and knot theory/interiority etc as well. and a newsgroup with
|
|
richard raby - it would be much easier for me,at least to keep track of
|
|
my usenet traffic thatway,i think that was the ultimate motive for
|
|
alt.qixnews, so all my different threadswould be visibly together in at
|
|
least _one_place.
|
|
also start assembling canonical texts for qixbio. i guess this will be one
|
|
of them.
|
|
|
|
OK,rain is lighter and so is sky and i may go soon [5.45 am]. a final note:
|
|
i think the most appropiate place for all this stuff would be volume 2
|
|
[volume 3?] of the travelling scriptures. so it would naturally encompass
|
|
semper
|
|
netfiend
|
|
lizicon
|
|
131192 [plasmate]
|
|
181192 [thisfile]
|
|
(after all, "semper" is already there). plus qix92.not and qixatuq.not for
|
|
additional background info. i am a bit concerned at taking over the church
|
|
of v/r entirely for my own purposes, or flooding the scriptures with what
|
|
i've written, but i don'tthink lara will mind since she wants them to grow,
|
|
etc. if this proposed addition happens, though.. it is interesting to think
|
|
what the next one will bring, since from here my main projects are completing
|
|
the next version of high weirdness by email,and then the usenet version of
|
|
alpha and omega.. both of which are *related* to scripture, but neither of
|
|
which can actually be incorporated directly intom scripture, i think.
|
|
which means thatthe *next* volume will most likely be the work of abulafia
|
|
pippin & co, a few months from now when they've read all this & all sorts of
|
|
things may have happened.who knows what it will be by then?
|
|
|
|
******* EARLY CAFENET MATERIAL *********
|
|
|
|
Note: what follows are for the most part Pippin's notes, drafts of various
|
|
documents related to the CafeNet enterprise, etc. As of this writing I have
|
|
been busy with my activity on the net (see above) & have not at all been
|
|
involved with the progress of CafeNet; but Pippin has graciously lent me her
|
|
notes, & I hereby transcribe them in the hope that they may assist and inspire
|
|
someone in some other part of the world who wishes to `bring the Internet to
|
|
the street'. -Qix
|
|
|
|
ORIGINAL NOTES
|
|
|
|
\pippin\cafe1
|
|
|
|
Mitchell's dream is to bring the Internet to the people in the street.
|
|
We, the Church of V\R and Gaia 2000, propose CafeNet, a network of computers
|
|
in coffee shops across Brisbane, and eventually, across Australia. In its
|
|
final stage, CafeNet will provide full Internet access comparable to
|
|
Compuserve or Aarnet for people not associated with an institution and who do
|
|
not have lots of money.
|
|
We propose stages of development for CafeNet.
|
|
|
|
Stage 1.
|
|
|
|
This will involve one stand-alone computer, in a popular cofee shop. The
|
|
computer will be a 386 or a 486. A 386 can be purchased for $1000. The 386
|
|
will be the file server, and it will have about 5 terminals attached to it.
|
|
This will give users the first taste of real-time contact over the computer
|
|
medium.
|
|
Users can leave messages for each other or contribute to an electronic
|
|
forum.
|
|
A modem would give outside computer owners an opportunity to ring up the
|
|
coffee shop and contribute or talk to the coffee shop users.
|
|
|
|
Stage 2.
|
|
|
|
We will then introduce FidoNet to the coffee shop. FidoNet will give Cafe
|
|
users the opportunity to participate in international conferences and to send
|
|
and receive international mail. Users would probably have to pay for this,
|
|
about $35 per year.
|
|
or UUCP could be used for a Newsfeed and International Mail. This will cost
|
|
$1000 per year from UQ. I *think( FidoNet will be easier to organize.
|
|
if FidoNet is used, another modem, 144K, should be purchased. These canbe
|
|
purchased from Netcomm for $6-- if Netcomm know that it is for a BBS.
|
|
E-mail can be sued to "sell" the Cafe to business. Overnight mail. Faster
|
|
than airmali, but not faster than fax.
|
|
|
|
Stage 3.
|
|
|
|
This stage could be interchanged with Stage 2.
|
|
Virtual Cafes will be set up in other coffee shops. 5 terminals, preferably,
|
|
another modem for outside users and a file server for each. The file servers
|
|
will be connected via 2 multiplexers, $1000 for a good one, or over ISDN (?)
|
|
cabling. This can be connected for $600.
|
|
This will enable users in different cafes to talk to each other in real
|
|
time.
|
|
This is when CafeNet will be a proper Network.
|
|
Cafe Fileservers can be converted to UNIX or a UNIX Clone to make them more
|
|
compatible for the Internet.
|
|
A MUD would make things more interesting.
|
|
|
|
Stage 4.
|
|
Virtual cafes will spread to otehr cities.
|
|
But how would they be connected?
|
|
|
|
Stage 5.
|
|
Connect CafeNet to the Internet.
|
|
We don't know how we will do this either. Possibly via FalNet who connect
|
|
Cmopuserve, but we would charge users a yearly rate and ont an hourly rate.
|
|
|
|
Welcome to CafeNet Press F1 for help.
|
|
|
|
SOME NOTES
|
|
|
|
write letters to hardware companies to grovel for stuff in exchange for
|
|
advertising "your hardware will be seen by a large range of people..."
|
|
CPU manufacturers, modem makers, hard disk makers, LCD manuf's.
|
|
Digital, Sun, Western, Apple, HP, Motorola, Silicon Graphics, NeXT,
|
|
Commodore 3 or 4000, Compaq, IBM
|
|
|
|
|
|
* Picture terminal in a coffee shop
|
|
* lo-tech definition of CafeNet (subscribers)
|
|
* Physical Liabilities ie computers, who owns them; electricity arrangement;
|
|
extra phones
|
|
* Benefits. Why you should allow these things in your shop. Disadvantages.
|
|
Getting rid of people.
|
|
|
|
Leave client alone.
|
|
It is going to become a martyr.
|
|
Have a bean.
|
|
|
|
* Questionnaire
|
|
* Flyer
|
|
- explaining CafeNet
|
|
* Bound Booklet
|
|
- explaining CafeNet
|
|
- mechanics
|
|
* letters for hardware firms
|
|
|
|
DRAFT INTRODUCTION TO CAFENET
|
|
|
|
Your lunch break arrives. After briefly tidying up, you head for the door.
|
|
Your favourite coffee shop beckons so you enter looking for a strong cup of
|
|
fresh coffee, a sandwich and a chance to relax with all thoughts of work far
|
|
behind. The waiter chats with you briefly when you order and then you sit
|
|
down, savouring the rich aroma of the coffee. Your attention starts wandering
|
|
around the room until you notice a computer placed discreetly against a wall
|
|
with a banner:
|
|
"Welcome to CafeNet"
|
|
displayed over an intriguing animated background.
|
|
|
|
Perhaps at this point your interest is pricked. Pull it toward you. Connect
|
|
to CafeNet. Connect to a network of people around Brisbane, around Australia
|
|
and around the world. From here you can find information and poinions of any
|
|
topic under the sun. You can join in and air your views in an electronic forum
|
|
where your voice matters no less than anyone else's. Meet people who share
|
|
your opinions. Discover the people who disagree and why. Continue discussions
|
|
privately with electronic mail. Leave messages for others. "Talk" to friends
|
|
who are connected to CafeNet simultaneously. Join in interactive games with
|
|
possibly dozens of other people at once. There are many possibilities, but the
|
|
bottom line is it can be a lot of fun if you get involved.
|
|
|
|
Find out how it feels to be connected to a dynamic and diverse network of
|
|
people, information and imagination. The larger network of CafeNet is but a
|
|
small part beckons you from the farthest corners of the world. In the New Year
|
|
you will be able to broaden your horizons and join this chaotic mass of
|
|
humanity.
|
|
|
|
DRAFT CAFENET QUESTIONNAIRE (for the purposes of market research)
|
|
|
|
CafeNet is a proposed small business intending to provide communications
|
|
services using electronic data links. These services are electronic mail
|
|
around the world (overnight), local and worldwide discussion forums,
|
|
information services, multiple player games and electronic "chatting".
|
|
|
|
This questionnaire is to determine whether the people of Brisbane would sue
|
|
these services.
|
|
|
|
1) Would you be interested in these services?
|
|
|
|
2) If so, would you pay 10, 25, 50 or ___ dollars as a yearly subscription
|
|
fee (with no additional costs) for these services?
|
|
|
|
3) Where would you find it conventient to use these services? eg a library,
|
|
coffee shop, nite club, pinball parlour
|
|
|
|
4) Would you sue these services in a coffee shop?
|
|
|
|
5) If you are not interested in these services is it because:
|
|
a) these services are already provided by someone else
|
|
If they are, who are they and what services do they provide?
|
|
|
|
b) they simply hold no interest for you
|
|
c) computers make you uncomfortable
|
|
d) none of the above
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thank you for your time.
|
|
|
|
DRAFT CAFENET BLURB FOR AROMAS (Brisbane coffee shop)
|
|
|
|
Imagine a man walking into Aromas. He sits down and looks across the table,
|
|
and sees a computer staring back. He thikns that a coffee shop is a strange
|
|
plave to find a cmoputer. He is intrigued though, and slides over the seat to
|
|
investigate.
|
|
|
|
What is CafeNet?
|
|
|
|
CafeNet is a proposed network of computers in coffee shops across Brisbane.
|
|
CafeNet will provide an electronic mail service, discussion groups, and "chat"
|
|
system, an information service, and multiple player games. CafeNet will be
|
|
part of the greater global network of cmoputers called the Internet.
|
|
|
|
Aromas would not have to buy any cmoputers. Aromas would only have to allow
|
|
CafeNet computers to live in its space. CafeNet would use Aromas' electricity
|
|
if an agreement about reimbursement could be arranged. CafeNet will have to
|
|
connect more telephone lines to the shop, but this will be at CafeNet's
|
|
expense.
|
|
|
|
What CafeNet will do for you.
|
|
|
|
CafeNet will create its own culture of progressive, intelligent people, and
|
|
Aromas will be seen to be a part of this culture. This could be a disadvantage
|
|
if this culture is perceived to be undesirable. Another benefit is the
|
|
association with easy-to-use computer technology and the other businesses with
|
|
which CafeNet will be in contact. CafeNet will attract people to Aromas, and
|
|
they will drink coffee.
|
|
|
|
Another disadvantage could be in people coming in to Aromas and wearing out
|
|
their welcome. That is cmoing in, buying one cup of coffee and then sitting
|
|
there for hours playing on the computer. There are a number of ways around
|
|
this. One is to limit the amount of connect time for each day. Most people
|
|
will out of courtesy buy coffee because it is a coffee shop. Then there are
|
|
those people who like to socialise in Aromas whether there are cmoputers in
|
|
there or not.
|
|
|
|
Please think about this as being a way to expand the clientele of Armoas and
|
|
provide a useful service. Feel free to discuss this with myself and my
|
|
partner, or even to ask for a guided tour of the Internet. That is the least
|
|
that we can do.
|
|
|
|
PIPPIN'S FLOWCHART [transcribed by Qix from her notes]
|
|
|
|
2
|
|
1 write .......................................interviews...........
|
|
vision . . .
|
|
. 5 buy PC .
|
|
write . and modem . 4
|
|
3 initial . . software
|
|
business... 6 subscribe development
|
|
plan . . . 8
|
|
. . .
|
|
4 demo . 7 market research .
|
|
model...... . .
|
|
. 8 finalize business plan .
|
|
. . .
|
|
4 buy 386 . .
|
|
$ $ . .
|
|
. .
|
|
scrub up.................................apply for bank loan......
|
|
. 9
|
|
.
|
|
.
|
|
|
|
B E F O R E L O A N
|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
A F T E R L O A N
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 submit loan application........NO..........find a real job
|
|
. write scriptures and novels
|
|
.YES GRADUATE !!
|
|
.
|
|
receive loan
|
|
.
|
|
11 buy $$$ hardware..
|
|
. .................[sketch of a rocket launching]
|
|
12 ADVERTISE $ $ $...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|