ControlledChaos
Nature is analog, ever flowing and continuous.
In the 80s and 90s, a very early advocate of the use of the internet and other digital technology was Terrence Mckenna. He believed that we were creating a cyberspace that would be sort of our own manmade version of nature's hyperspace, that the cyberspace and hyperspace would play off of eachother as we accelerated forward into a future that would show the end of history as we know it. To McKenna, history had failed and we were in the final sprint to the next step in our existence, whatever that may be.
To understand his idea of cyberspace, you must first understand McKenna's view of hyperspace. He described it as a land of sort of loose energetic and symbolic associations; the playground of the imagination. This is where all of our childhood dreams and fantasies go, the image of our soul, our personal art and poetry; a place that is a summation of everything we express ourselves and identify with, visually shown to us, and accessed through natural entheogens like DMT and mushrooms.
Parallel to this was his view of what the internet or this cyberspace would be. To him, it would be much like hyperspace; rife with poetry and images and metaphors and these sort of loose collections of things that represent humanity on both an individual and collective level. This cyberspace, he postulated, would drag us finally over the threshold. He also believed that much like psychedelics, the internet would dissolve cultural and identity boundaries resulting in a more collaborative less ego/preconceived bias driven world. So, did it happen? Did we create a cyberspace parallel to hyperspace? The internet today is a very different place than it was when he was saying this stuff, so was he prophetic? The answer is complicated.
In some ways, McKenna's prediction was correct. If you look at the way some communities and individuals function online, they are kind of using it to approximate their own personal hyperspace by putting their art and what represents them and a piece of who they are in that hyperspacian way out there. In that way, it definitely is being used in that manner. Additionally, the proliferation of memes and cultural archetypes and symbols (think pepe the frog, the 'boomer/zoomer' meme, ect) is somewhat like the collective mind of humanity coming up with ways to represent certain ideas or sentiments in a hyperspacian vein. McKenna didn't necessarily say that everything in hyperspace is 'good', after all... So perhaps the same applied to his idea of cyberspace. Also, he was correct that especially in regards to nationality, the internet did connect different peoples from all over in a way that probably promoted human understanding over prejudice.
On the other side of the coin, I don't think that this cyberspace is being utilized the way he envisioned it would be. While there are certainly some aspects of internet culture and life that do intersect with his notion of hyperspace, the internet also created a lot of problems and in some way made human interaction of a lower quality- the rise of political propaganda and polarization/extremism has been largely driven by the internet and has made many people more closed off from half of others than ever before. Many people with a selfish or hateful agenda utilize the internet to propagate it, and this hurts people further traumatizing which would also go against McKenna's vision. Additionally the aforementioned memes and archetypes and tropes online may resemble hyperspacian symbolism on a superficial level but often these memes and archetypes create more labels and boxes that prevent open and true commication as well. You can see the very clear effects of these issues on most popular platforms. This forum is a refreshing oasis in a vast space of closed off, untrue, and assinine commication seen online.
Sure it could be driving us to a critical mass as McKenna predicted, but it doesn't seem to be of a particularly transcendental nature. It seems like it's just giving people more excuses to justify the same issues Mckenna was laying out to us decades ago, except now at the click of a button. So unfortunately, I would say his prediction hasn't went down too well.
Of course, the internet story isn't over yet, and neither is the story of humanity. More and more people are discovering the other side so to speak and it is spreading slowly but surely. But we must remember that those spreading the opposite are there too and more numerous and powerful. Therefore, to best utilize the internet I offer to you all a simple suggestion - You must shine so brightly that your light infects others and they can shine and spread the light too.
What we have is a very powerful force, and very powerful ideas. They can make a change and reach people. But we must be clever and we must fight like hell. Because why would the universe give just hand the good ending over to us when we didn't try our hardest within our mortal capabilities? Thanks for reading everybody, and I hope this made you think. Good evening.
To understand his idea of cyberspace, you must first understand McKenna's view of hyperspace. He described it as a land of sort of loose energetic and symbolic associations; the playground of the imagination. This is where all of our childhood dreams and fantasies go, the image of our soul, our personal art and poetry; a place that is a summation of everything we express ourselves and identify with, visually shown to us, and accessed through natural entheogens like DMT and mushrooms.
Parallel to this was his view of what the internet or this cyberspace would be. To him, it would be much like hyperspace; rife with poetry and images and metaphors and these sort of loose collections of things that represent humanity on both an individual and collective level. This cyberspace, he postulated, would drag us finally over the threshold. He also believed that much like psychedelics, the internet would dissolve cultural and identity boundaries resulting in a more collaborative less ego/preconceived bias driven world. So, did it happen? Did we create a cyberspace parallel to hyperspace? The internet today is a very different place than it was when he was saying this stuff, so was he prophetic? The answer is complicated.
In some ways, McKenna's prediction was correct. If you look at the way some communities and individuals function online, they are kind of using it to approximate their own personal hyperspace by putting their art and what represents them and a piece of who they are in that hyperspacian way out there. In that way, it definitely is being used in that manner. Additionally, the proliferation of memes and cultural archetypes and symbols (think pepe the frog, the 'boomer/zoomer' meme, ect) is somewhat like the collective mind of humanity coming up with ways to represent certain ideas or sentiments in a hyperspacian vein. McKenna didn't necessarily say that everything in hyperspace is 'good', after all... So perhaps the same applied to his idea of cyberspace. Also, he was correct that especially in regards to nationality, the internet did connect different peoples from all over in a way that probably promoted human understanding over prejudice.
On the other side of the coin, I don't think that this cyberspace is being utilized the way he envisioned it would be. While there are certainly some aspects of internet culture and life that do intersect with his notion of hyperspace, the internet also created a lot of problems and in some way made human interaction of a lower quality- the rise of political propaganda and polarization/extremism has been largely driven by the internet and has made many people more closed off from half of others than ever before. Many people with a selfish or hateful agenda utilize the internet to propagate it, and this hurts people further traumatizing which would also go against McKenna's vision. Additionally the aforementioned memes and archetypes and tropes online may resemble hyperspacian symbolism on a superficial level but often these memes and archetypes create more labels and boxes that prevent open and true commication as well. You can see the very clear effects of these issues on most popular platforms. This forum is a refreshing oasis in a vast space of closed off, untrue, and assinine commication seen online.
Sure it could be driving us to a critical mass as McKenna predicted, but it doesn't seem to be of a particularly transcendental nature. It seems like it's just giving people more excuses to justify the same issues Mckenna was laying out to us decades ago, except now at the click of a button. So unfortunately, I would say his prediction hasn't went down too well.
Of course, the internet story isn't over yet, and neither is the story of humanity. More and more people are discovering the other side so to speak and it is spreading slowly but surely. But we must remember that those spreading the opposite are there too and more numerous and powerful. Therefore, to best utilize the internet I offer to you all a simple suggestion - You must shine so brightly that your light infects others and they can shine and spread the light too.
What we have is a very powerful force, and very powerful ideas. They can make a change and reach people. But we must be clever and we must fight like hell. Because why would the universe give just hand the good ending over to us when we didn't try our hardest within our mortal capabilities? Thanks for reading everybody, and I hope this made you think. Good evening.
