We're All Niggaz To The Man The Anarchives Volume 2 Issue 4 The Anarchives Published By The Anarchives The Anarchy Organization The Anarchives tao@lglobal.com Send your e-mail address to get on the list Spread The Word Pass This On... --/\-- Synthetic Conscious / / \ \ Evolution Of The Machine Age ---|--/----\--|--- \/ \/ by Jay Terpstra /\______/\ "Obviously they [computers] can be made to simulate the process of consciousness, just as our electric global networks now begin to simulate the condition of our central nervous system" (Marshall McLuhan, 1964). Not that cyber technologies are evil, but rather their immense capacity as a means to totalitarian domination is a danger to human kind. During the last great Industrial Revolution, the factory subverted human to machine. The tools or media of the factory economy were run by hand/eye coordination. During what McLuhan calls industrial automation or cybernation, humans have been subverted to data banks. In this process, humans make cyber humans. Derrick de Kerckhove, Director of the McLuhan centre says within a decade a large majority of people will be familar with artificial intelligence (1995). With the future technologies working at the speed of light and promising a domineering global totality, it is crucial to keep a human check through the storm. "Be mindful about how the tool shapes the task" (Ursula Franklin, 1995). "The old ground rules of point-to-point logic will break down. And holism will then emerge as a dominant form of thinking, governed by a considerably smaller group of management elite" (McLuhan, 1989, 121). "Information workplaces" employ mainly "processors" and concentrators", both of which move data (Ibid, 105). Losing private identities to a collective whole gathered through technology means greater capacity for commercialsm. Horizontally infinite, electric technology can round up masses of consumers for conscious to conscious indoctrination. "Caught up in the hybrid energy released by video technologies, he will be presented with a chimerical "reality" that involves all his senses at a distended pitch, a condition as addictive as any known drug" (McLuhan, 1989, 97). Electric technologies have obsolesced specialism (Ibid, 96). The product, which is already the Christ of consumer civilization emerges stronger and more dominating than before because instant result has overtaken step-by-step process. The process is now the many results. Ursula franklin calls the information landscape civic landfill (1995). Information garbage serves the advantage of a capitalist system. The industrial revolution replaced humans with machines and the information revolution replaces mechanical machines with conscious machines. Capitalism accumulates by nature and expands by necessity. Electric technologies enable this to occur at the speed of light obsolescing nature. McLuhan explains this process to be the independence of space and simultaneousness of time (McLuhan, 1964, 301). These technologies are as McLuhan states, right hemisphere technologies that are holistic as opposed to sequential. However capitalism is a brute left hemisphere force that dominates the interaction of the right and left hemispheres, ensuring the authoritarian outcome of what is for now horizontally accessable technologies. In other words in a capitalist economy the vertical structure of the control of capital dominates the electronic environment. The survival of liberal-capitalist states is the result of bull-shit or propaganda through forms of doublespeak and gargle. The Eastern block was too overt. Cybernation is never ending instant access or interaction with a myriad of knowledge. Just as the value of the dollar gave baseball artificial turf, concrete and retractable roofs, so will cyber consumers be convinced to buy big bucks worth of virtual reality. The fastest growing industry in the U.S. is plastic surgery. Artificial identity enhances the domination of capitalists who always look at resource over environment. /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_______________________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\______________________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~ a@@a ~~~~~~~~~~ a@@a ~~~\_____________________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~ s@@@@ ~~~~~~~~ S@@@a ~~~~~\____________________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~ `%%@@@.~~~~~~~,%%@@' ~~~~~~~\___________________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~ `@@@@a,~~~~~ @@@@@' ~~~~~~~~~\__________________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~~ `@@@@a ~~~~,@@@@@ ~~~~~~~~~~~~\_________________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~~~ `@@%%@,~~ a%@@%' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\________________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~~~~ `@@@@@,~ @@@@@ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_______________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@@@S.a@@@@a ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\______________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ `@@@@a@@@@s; ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_____________/~~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ a@;%%;@;%%;;a, ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\____________/~~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~~~~~~ a@@@a';a@@@@@@@@@a. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\___________/~~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~~ a@@a;@@@@@';@@@@@@@@@@@s. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\__________/~~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~ @@@@@;@@@@@'%;`@@@@@@@@@@a ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_________/~~~~~~~~~ /~~~~ s@@@@;@@@@@';%@s;a@@@@@@@S ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\________/~~~~~~~~ /~~~ a`@@@@;`@@@';%@@s;a@@@@@@@@ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_______/~~~~~~~ /~~~ SS`@@@';;%;;s@@s;a@@@@@@@@' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\______/~~~~~~ /~~~~ S;;%;;;%%%%@%%a@@@@@@@@@a ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_____/~~~~~ /~~~~~ S@@@@@@@;%%%%%%;@@@@@@a'~ ASCIIvision (sm) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\____/~~~~ /~~~~~~ S@@@@@@@;%%%;@@@@@@@@ ~~ by Bubba Pearson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\___/~~~ /~~~~~~ 'SS@%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%@@ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\__/~~ /~~~~~~~ SsssssssssssssssssSS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~\_/~ "His body will remain in one place but his mind will float out into the electronic void, being everywhere at once in the data bank... He loses his sense of private identity because electronic perceptions are not related to place" (McLuhan 1989, 97). Are split personalities (natural ones and cyber ones) healthy or will it lead to what McLuhan calls the roboticization of civilization? Beneath all the clutter and chatter of this intensified technological era is the grip of imperial hegemony. Franklin urges people to be critical of those controlling the technologies because abundant information is largely irrelevant. To a politician and businessman that makes talking and selling easier and less risky. With abundant knowledge, ignorance is no longer a defence but ill-intention is part of the present political-economic landscape (Franklin, 1995). "What knowledge there is will be available to all. So, in that sense, everybody will be nobody. Everyone will be involved in robotic role-playing including those few elitists who interpret or manage large-scale data patterns and thus control the functions of a speed-of-light society" (McLuhan, 1989, 129). In the age of information, "human hardware" is obsolesced (Ibid, 127). A balanced human world on the other hand is body/mind and place/time united in natural form and progression. The highway is for gamblers, better use your sense. Take what you have gathered from coincidence. The empty-handed painter from your street is drawing crazy patterns on your sheet. The sky too is folding under you, and its all over now baby blue" (Bob Dylan, 1965). TAO keeps rockin'