Friday, February 8, 2013

PBP: Cyberization

(Screenshot from the film "Ghost in the Shell: Innocence")

I would like you to ponder the vehicle by which you are reading this. Not your eyes and brain, but your computer and the internet: electronic pulses through fine wires, and waves in the very air. (Note: I am not a computer scientist. This is my layman's understanding.) It is truly a web, spun by and for humans, but it operates outside of us, reliant on your device of choice and the systems behind it. Do you ever wonder what your computer thinks of the data it processes for you? Maybe not much, at present, but maybe 20 years from now...Well, I look forward to seeing what will happen.

How does this fit in with my spiritual practices? For one, I rely pretty heavily on the Internet for information and discussion. (I'm doing that now.) But beyond that -- I feel like I'm walking two paths at once, that of technophile, and that of the nature-lover (but hopefully not idealizer). On one hand, this separation from and meddling with the rest of the world worries me, and on the other, I'm fascinated by what new doors computer and the internet will open. Maybe I just read too much science fiction...

Grah, this post didn't turn out like it was supposed to. It was supposed to be lyrical and more insightful, but then my wrists started hurting, the screen tired out my eyes, and it became 5:00 p.m. on the duedate. Better luck next time, self.

3 comments:

  1. That in and of itself may say something about cyberization: painful wrists, eyestrain from a computer screen, and a due date. Not really the natural lifestyle many of us Pagans envision for ourselves!

    Silvernfire

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  2. I'm not sure I would put so much spiritual spin on the internet. Not that it isn't amazing, but it's really just connections. It's like saying our relations, yours and mine, had a spirit, and then extending that to all connections between all people everywhere. That's really all the internet is - connection.

    Appreciation of technology doesn't have to go against nature. It is not naturally occurring, but it isn't like it's completely alien or demonic or something. It's using things we know about the world. Nature has been compressed, infused, and modeled after. Just think of it as man emulating nature, and acting on MAN's nature - to invent and all that jazz. We, and by extension our impulses, are part of nature too! You can't separate us and our desires from nature any more than you can really separate our mind from our body. They are one system, one thing.

    Besides, you can always turn it off.

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    Replies
    1. Eh, you're probably right. I wrote the majority of that post while deep in what I can only call "Ghost in the Shell" mode: in the movie, technology and Motoko's spiritual development are tied together, and sometimes I feel like humanity is heading in that direction. I agree with you on the rest.

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