Watch this amazing commentary on social evolution by Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, Michael Wesch, then read on:
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
As I was checking my gmail to find the link to this vid that a colleague sent me, I noticed that the ad-pane on the side had referenced the content of the email to assist me in my shopping/research needs. Neither is this the first time that I have noticed this phenomenon, nor is it scary to me that my personal info is being used in this manner; especially after viewing material as moving as the above.
When I was a teen reading William Gibson novels (creator of the term cyberspace) I used to dream about a time when humans could mesh with technology and any sensory/communicative treasure was a mere thought away. While we are a long way off from realizing VR or having cables sticking out of our skulls, we are being conditioned and conditioning the neural-net for symbiosis.
This thing that pretends to be a toy does so in order to trick humans into playing with it, to addict. When we play we shine. We can plug into the muse, or whatever one may call that collective id.
The human mass organism is subconsciously conspiring to get back that extra-sensory ability that we may have had eons ago, and this is the tool. The web is more than a series of wires and nodes. It is a different face for the timeless ether the Stygian witches tapped, a crystal ball, a meditation on the beauty of our ugliness.
We are as great & horrible, caring & efficiently cold and wildly astounding as the universe that spawned us. Look into the shimmering void and see yourself.
in honor of this post, anyone that asks me for a gmail account will be given one while they last. i am not a shill, i just have tons of them to give away.
just leave me a comment on this or any future posts.
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