Category Archives: digitalness

nitemares on the web

I have to admit that i find it more unbearable to deal with the Internet every day. Rather than being a utopian environment, it brings out the collective worst in humanity. And yet hides the abusers behind a digital curtain, allowing them to be unapologetic and invasively abusive without any form of regulation to stop them. I’ve noticed a trend in my mail lately…. It used to be the case that my email was filled with messages about crazy new ideas, potential, excitement, check this out, wow, yippee. Good conversations, engaging thought, people becoming aware of the digital realm and its possibilities. Lately, it’s become the same bitchy environment that i live in on a daily basis. The he-said she-said has gotten out of control and the abuses are horrifying. My email is no longer primarily positive, but primarily negative or concerned. And for good reason.

On today’s list of interesting additions:
– spammers have stopped being apologetic ’cause the regulation just ain’t working, so they won’t suffer the consequences
– Microsoft is moving to a mandatory panopticon, with no user choice
– video games reduce brain activity (and what about TVs?)
– Carnivore continues to get more vicious
– surveillance is not just a sci-fi idea

Ok.. that’s enough. At least there are still some things out there to make me smile:
– a VW bug transformer!
– mathematical/multi-dimensional legos!
– Google’s mirror

contextual lightening bolt

I just had one of those thoughts that makes me go yay! Y’know – when something clicks and things make a bit more sense.

Postmodern theorists constantly refer to the fragmentation of the individual, seeing it as a modern day crises. This has always bothered me because the individual is not inherently fragmented, only their social presentation of self, or their social identity. The individual has a coherent sense of self, yet they negotiate multiple social selves depending on a given context. With little consciousness, people can quickly evaluate the context of a given situation, determine which facet of their identity they wish to convey, and construct a face from which to perform this identity.

The crises of self doesn’t come from the fragmentation, but the increasing loss of control over the contexts of a given situation. Technology has made it possible such that contexts collapse – spacial, temporal and personal. People don’t know how to properly perform their social identity because they’re not sure to whom and for when they are performing. Architectural cues no longer indicate what is appropriate – are they being recorded? at what time is this conversation being had? Contexts are collapsing.

One place where this is increasingly obvious is in fashion. Postmodern theorists see fashion as proof that the people are in a crises state. There are no longer social rules for when to wear what clothing, retro has gotten to a point where it’s nuovo, and fashion looks like the collapsing of all time, fabrics, and social roles. Perhaps this is not a crises in the individual, but a recognization that contemporary society flaunts collapsed contexts.

Yet while we hail such collapsing, we are simultaneously confused by it, particularly as we have increasingly separate roles in our lives. Society requires us to present an acceptable social identity in all situations, but in a collapsed world, this means presenting an identity that is uniformly acceptable, across all time/space/people. Such requires homogeneity. Perhaps the crises in the self is a rebellion against such a generic norm, where there is no individuality. People aren’t afraid of their fragmentation, they are afraid of the collapse of it.

access to websites

Ok… so, i’ve never been a fan of web profiling by corporations for advertising agencies. So, for most sites, i use one of two tricks. Either, i use cypherpunk [most sites can be accessed with cypherpunk/cypherpunk or something similar, allowing you to go in as a group]. The other thing that i tend to do is choose the top choice of all items, with 20500 as my zipcode (White House). So, often i am a male executive in the financial sector, living at 20500 making <$20,000 a year. I don't want their adverts; i will not comply; i am not a sheep. Well, today i heard about another way to get to NYTimes (since i keep having to make new cypherpunk accounts - latest is c1ph3rpunk): random account generator.

Also, on a related note, i really like one of the cypherpunk links, an interesting old research bit on using crowds to create privacy online… If you are part of a group, you’re activities become the conglomerate.

closing of internet

FIRE CLOSES CHINESE INTERNET
“A fire in a Beijing Internet Cafe has prompted officials to order the closure of 2,400 cafes around the city, ostensibly for safety inspections. The closures, however, coincide with a nationwide crackdown on Internet cafes meant to tighten government control of Web use. While the government encourages the use of Internet to promote commerce, it contends that the minds of children and teen-agers are being polluted with pornography and subversive material. The Chinese government requires Internet cafes to track customers’ Internet usage – a law not enforced by thousands of cafes. It is expected that only 200 of the Internet cafes closed will be allowed to reopen.”

Wow… what will this result in?