satisfying to watch the repo men take away his car and furniture, 'cause you twipped his credit rating?
Some Adepts use the Web to look for answers to the great mysteries. Since the Net is a repository of nearly all the information that exists, if there's clue to an answer, it'll be here somewhere. Who really runs the Spy's Demise, and why? Where's the Web's operating system, and can it be hacked? What *really* happened to Alan Turing? Are Turing and his computer really running around in the shad- ows of the Web? Was James McPherson really consumed by Paradox, or is he running around in here somewhere, with his MEGA Pen in hand? Who's going to win the war for reality, and will we manage to lead everyone down the true path to Enlightenment? These are some of the questions I think about. Theoretically, the answers are here somewhere.
Don't forget, however, the most common reason for spending time in the Web: Here, it doesn't matter what your meat body's like — you can be anything you want to be. Maybe you're overweight or pizzafaced, or possessed of Godzilla-breath. Doesn't matter. Maybe you're weak, or scarred, or black, female or gay; those things don't say dick about *you,* but lots of people get twigged about 'em anyway. The meat market is a mirror-hall of bullshit vani- ties, but you can leave them all behind in the Web, 'cause no one sees you unless you want 'em too. There's comfort in anonymity. It's like that commercial on TV a couple of years ago: "There is no race; there is no gender. There is only the power of the mind." Damn straight.
I see it this way: The Web is a place where "mind over matter" is more than a catchy phrase or a magick trick. It's the essential rule of life. Here, you are what you will yourself to be, and the limit is a whole lot higher than the sky.
Okay, kiddies, that wraps up my show. I hope you each take home a little something that sticks with you. I'm sure I'll run into each of you again here and there. Until then, remember to back up your data, keep your eye out for the Technocracy, and don't expect decent conversation from a Digital Doll.
[Address 1023.1023.1023.9 no longer available] [Address 628.19.933.1004 no longer available] [Addre...]
[Exiting conference...]
Instead of looking for an image of the uni- verse, instead of looking at photos of stars, I want to try to play the universe.
— Dr. Fiorella Terenzi
Like everything in life, it all comes down to the question of "Why?" Why do we tinker with circuit boards and peripherals, trying to build the perfect machine? Why do we slowly cook our retinas with the gear we use to see the Web's glory? Why do we put up with the shit the Traditions give us? I bet you'll find as many answers to these questions as there are Virtual Adepts. Everybody's got his own reasons for how he lives his life, but there are some common things you can boil a lot of those reasons down to. First, there's the party line of Ascension and Enlight- enment. Things are comin' to a head, boys and girls, and the writing's on the wall. If you know how to read it, it's spray- painted in Day-Glo letters 10 feet high. When the fit hits the shan, we want to be ready to whisk everyone away to Reality 2.0, the virtual reality we're building in the Web. The Great Crash threw a monkeywrench into the works, but we're getting things back online as fast as we can, so we can be ready when the big day comes.
In the meantime, though, there's a lot of cool stuff to do in the Web, and a lot of whacked out shit to see. You want to explore Mount Fiji? Somebody's formatted a sector to look like it. You want to feel what it's like to fly ? Visit a Constraint Realm where everybody's a bird. You can see and explore *anything* in the Web, 'cause the shape of the world here is limited only by the imaginations of those who mold it.
You can also take advantage of the fact that just about anything there is to know is somewhere in the Web. Want to spy on someone to find out what she's up to? Dig long enough and you'll find out; anything you need to know is here. Technocrats are especially vulnerable — they're always filing reports and keeping records of everything they do. (Even if the NWO spin doctors get their hands on it, a persistent Adept can always uncover the truth.) Once you find the information, there's a lot you can do with it. Somebody pissed you off in Meatsville? Why bother with a fist fight or a magickal duel when it's so much more
On this particular expedition, we shall travel to a vast, desolate, white expanse stretching onward to the horizon in all directions... a place where you could gain nothing or lose everything and no one would ever know.
— Cacophony Society newsletter, advertising Burning Man 1990 as "Zone Trip #4"
If you don't know how to get "there," you'll never see it, or understand it.
Oh, yeah, the "Webber community" is a lot like the "Net community" back in RealSpace, but hey, there are more differences than anyone would like to admit. It's true that a meat-only hacker can log on to the Web's more esoteric sites and have a lot of fun, but to get the real pie you've got to take the dive and go "there" — straight down and into wonderland.
Let's check the depth real quick, first. Wouldn't want to hit your head on the edge of the pool, wouldya? Grab the hand of this beautiful icon (it's from Burne Jones'
Nimue, why do you ask?) and ride with me down into the
Information Sea.
BTW, don't ask about the bottom of the pool — far as I know, it doesn't have one!