Extended Nervous System 1.0
Reading William Gibson’s blog and thinking about his discussion of ATMs as part of his extended nervous system, I decided to start mapping mine. I began with the interface I spend most of the day with, my Mac - then to the WiFi router, then the cable modem, then the cloud, then the servers and the ‘others’. There’s so much more to add… And strange that it really did come out looking so hierarchical - I was expecting it to be more rhizomatic. Perhaps I’m not representing it correctly - or maybe that which was born of ARPANET actually IS more hierarchical than it seems. After all, the military designed it…
(If you visit Gibson’s blog - take note of the strange structure of the interactivity - rather than allowing comments on the blog, there is a separate message board which he clearly reads and comments on in his blog. Any thoughts on this?)
FlashPilgrimage
In response to text messages, hundreds of participants wore white and crossed the Brooklyn bridge, boarded Subways and made their way (many unknowingly) to Coney Island. Joining the event without understanding the purpose and following this crowd, I had the distinct impression that I had been swept up in some religious ceremony. This congregation of believers could have been a ritual occurrence - and this only one instance. I found great pleasure in following and not knowing. Wondering if I’d wandered into the pilgrimage of a new techno-cult. The events were characterized by a frenzy of costume, face paint, electronics and the sudden appearance of music, fire dancers and magic elixers when we arrived at meeting points as directed by text message and guides carrying flags.
