"We got the skunk funk, givin' up the soul power" The Anarchives Volume 2 Issue 5.4 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... --/\-- Information Leviathan / / \ \ Order and Power ---|--/----\--|--- In the Information Age \/ \/ /\______/\ by Jesse Hirsh IBM's getting bigger, but hey aren't we all. As if growth hasn't been the motivational force behind the industrial economy. And you know it was developments in media that enabled it all. Communication is the cornerstone of any civilization. Now if you can find a large piece of grass in your respective urban deserts, bend down and put your ear to the ground; you hear what i hear? ground's changing jack right beneath your feet listen closely; can you hear the pulse the ground's going and it's taking you with it Here comes part two of the study of Derrick DeKerckhove's new book The Skin Of Culture. Brother Jay gets hold of the copy next, and you know the man's gonna lay it down; like many others he's been feeling the change. DeKerckhove calls it skin of culture, 'cause its something to feel. McLuhan said that shit about "in the electronic age we wear all mankind as our skin," we are all the leviathan, and we all feel what the leviathan feels. Perhaps we're still disoriented a bit, 'cause relatively speaking we still young. But what happens when the child matures? "Nets, internets and ethernets are growing in rapid spurts like the brain of an infant leviathan." (DeKerckhove pp. 54) Feel the power of youth, the power of creation, the power of an uncertain and potentially volatile future. "The Net is a monumental computer all by itself, with astounding organic memory banks and parallel processors today numbering over twenty million, tomorrow a billion coprocessors. Why would anyone want to call that a highway? The internet is really a brain, a collective, living brain clicking as you read. It is a brain that never ceases to work, to think, to produce information, to sort and to combine." (DeKerckhove pp. 55) Damn does this baby have intelligence It knows before it happens And if it knows before it happens, then it can make it happen. What happens to time when it becomes virtual? "Neural networks represent a radically new departure in computer technology. It is a new generation of computer intelligence bringing us ever closer to emulating the human brain." (DeKerckhove pp. 142) First you extend yourself perhaps only a little, But then the experience is so pleasing you extend more And you can't get enough, So you keep extending. Of course you didn't think about yin and yang, and equilibrium And the interactive nature of communication 'Cause when you give you get, extend and be extended unto Create the wholly electronic bond. "'Unlike most computers, a neural network learns from its mistakes'" (DeKerckhove pp. 144) Don't look back jack Maybe you've extended too far, and what you had ain't no more Of course it's fixed now, better than ever, got your new upgrade Feels the same as normal; but what's normal? "And it comes from below, from the underground, the subconscious level of our collective intelligence. Just like the subconscious level, it is made of way too much data for all of it to be filtered at the conscious level. this is why larger units of processing and distributing are necessary." (DeKerckhove pp. 55) Driven to succeed, gotta be the best Can't let your leg go obsolete; get the upgrade jack Do your part in the construction of the new world's wonder "The fact that we are indeed embarking on a course of total control over nature is abundantly demonstrated by our recent predilection for the vocabulary of artificial reality. Words such as "virtual" reality, "cyber" space, "real" time, "artificial" life, and "endo-" and "nanotechnologies," are enjoying a vertical growth curve. They are clear linguistic symptoms of a "cyborg" trend that seeks to blend organic and technical realms." (DeKerckhove pp. 83) Plug them into your neurodes and harness the power Be one with the global entity, Submerse into the global conscious Lose yourself in the total perspective vortex "The new electronic media are becoming intermediate environments, accessing the intimate reality of our private psyches and providing a bridge to the outside world. They effect a kind of social mediation in a single continuous extension of our personal powers of imagination, concentration and action. They function largely like a second mind one soon to be endowed with more autonomy than we might care for." (DeKerckhove pp. 209) Ooops, you did it again jack Extended yourself too far Now your stuck again, lost that sovereignty thing Gave your real freedom for some of that 19.99 virtual freedom. Designer drugs and technology replace a smoke and mirrors illusion of democracy. "The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behaviour that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda." (Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent pp. 1) Now some of these motherfuckers, when they get access to new media, they don't fool around. The tap the elements of power and control inherent in all media, and exploit them in the means of creating empire. Propaganda and straight out programming have been the dominant characteristics power has taken in relation to media. "TV must zap the zapper before he or she zaps the channel." (DeKerckhove pp. 11) Television, perhaps the most successful mass indoctrination tool, penetrates and violates the populace, physically altering the sub-conscious and therefore conscious of its victims. And you best believe we all the victims; we're all niggaz to the man. "Television evokes Orienting Responses that are woven into the fabric of our neuromuscular system." (DeKerckhove pp. 12) The nerves are embedded within our skull; electrons rammed into our minds, leaving fingerprints so deep that most become instant addicts and dependents. "When we read, we scan the books, we are in control. But when we watch tv, it is the tv scanner that 'reads' us. Our retinas are the direct object of the electron beam. When scanning meets glancing and makes eye contact between eye and machine, the machine's glance is the more powerful. In front of the television set, our defences are down; we are vulnerable and susceptible to multi-sensory seduction." (DeKerckhove pp. 14) Seduction by power, global power That draws us closer, until we within the range of electronic gravity The force that binds and holds for millennia "The simple explanation that tv talks to the body rather than the mind says much more about television overriding our critical faculties." (DeKerckhove pp. 15) Television homogenizes reality, and computers create it. "Television and computers conquered the industrialized world, carving and shaping the corporate psychology according to their own highly distinctive criteria which, in turn, formed and informed distinctive policies within the culture that helped to develop others." (DeKerckhove pp. 130) Corporate culture reigns. The heroes of cultural movements past and present are bought off. The easiest way to deter threats is to absorb them. The reasoning behind universal suffrage was to eliminate the boat rockers by putting the rebels in the boat. It's time to learn how to swim jack. "we are all more or less programmable, if not genetic mutants." (DeKerckhove pp. 175) Nature became human when the man learned to read, but then the man took nature and sold it to balance the books. Little did man realize that the human was nature and when he sold nature he sold himself. We all got duped, sold in the great slave trade of civilization, so now the books balance all of us. We relinquished our responsibilities to responsible government, then the government relinquished its responsibility to free trade and the will of the market. "Television provides all of us with a psychotechnological moral envelope. By selecting the topics of our moral consciousness, it also does some of our thinking for us. Armies of reporters and advertisers help to sort out what's worth saying and what isn't. We are interwoven into a mass psychology that selects our issues for us and unifies us in convergent opinions. TV doesn't take chances with public morality. When a controversial issue comes up, such as whether to question or even defy a government decision, North American and European TV stations appear to be endowed with a sort of automatic system of standardization and self-censorship. The news on one channel is often identical, item for item, to what's being reported on another." (DeKerckhove pp. 207) We are lost in an urban wilderness of conformity and irrelevant choice. We feel the change, but do we have full consciousness? "reality is technology-dependent, it changes every time new technologies invade it. A worldview based on print is challenged and weakened by the appearance of television, just as a worldview based on broadcast television is deeply threatened by computer networks." (DeKerckhove pp. 169) We're perhaps just beginning to get a grasp on what happened back then; but what about know, why is the present and future reality so elusive. "inconspicousness - things want to hide, to meld into the background." (DeKerckhove pp. 96) We know we're dealing with a movement in the ground; a movement so dramatic and transformative, that perhaps it slips by unnoticed. We've caught the commercials, but they're always in rhymes and riddles. "The trend to discretion may, in some cases, come from a sort of self-regulated strategy. Electricity is going undercover, so to speak, not only because it partakes of the nature of the human nervous system, but also because a baseline technology works best when it remains unquestioned and undetected." (DeKerckhove pp. 98) This trend of inconspicousness will only increase. The institution will only continue to dissolve into all nooks and neurodes of our society. Integration and convergence will only increase as time gallops forward. "We need more, not fewer global metaphors to begin to recognize our planet not only as our home, but as our very body." (DeKerckhove pp. 173) Implosion hurtling us together into a cataclysmic future of single identity. "A new human is in the making." (DeKerckhove pp. 217) A human constructed on exploitation and domination. Best believe you better get your shit together jack, and i and i do mean quick! " If information is truly the staple of today's economy, it might be useful to keep in mind that information is the only substance that actually grows with use, rather than depleting like our natural resources. We are looking at an economy of abundance. This economy will only occur when the infrastructure allows universal access. Universal access itself willl come by nature or by force, the sooner, the better. However, it may take a political and social revolution. Just as the old monarchic power structures had to be toppled over and 'beheaded' to make room for the body of the people in the democratic process, the present establishment of communications and information control may have to be zapped out of existence. The transition has begun quite peacefully thanks to the increased sophistcation of domestic production technologies and the increased need for production." (DeKerckhove pp. 58) turn off the boob-tube; it ain't doin' ya any good exert your influence and identity in the electronic environment be sure to participate in the fight for your life as the global 'you' begins to rise, get off your ass and mobilize we gotta go on the lam, so watch out for the man he will be after your ass, there's no hiding in the mass all you've got is your love and the love of the people i and i slipping out of babylon let it go down in the flames of change stand up for your rights free your brain... TAO rolls 'em fat /* by Loki D. Quaeler - copyfree 1995 */ #include "forgery.h" /*~~[ call_socket ]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Connect to port MAILPORT on host 'hostname', returning the socket value. Return -1 on any errors. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*/ int call_socket(hostname) char *hostname; { struct sockaddr_in sa; struct hostent *hp; int a, sock; char realHost[MAX_HOSTLEN]; sprintf(realHost,"%s",( (strcmp(hostname,NULL_STRING)) ? hostname : DEFAULTHOST )); #ifdef DBUG printf("Entered call_socket, hostname = %s\n", realHost); #endif if ((hp=gethostbyname(realHost))==NULL) { errno=ECONNREFUSED; return(-1); } bzero(&sa, sizeof(sa)); bcopy(hp->h_addr, (char *)&sa.sin_addr, hp->h_length); sa.sin_family = hp->h_addrtype; sa.sin_port = htons((u_short)MAILPORT); if((sock=socket(hp->h_addrtype, SOCK_STREAM, 0)) < 0) return(-1); if(connect(sock, &sa, sizeof(sa)) < 0) { close(sock); return(-1); } #ifdef DBUG printf("Exiting call_socket correctly, socket = %d\n", sock); #endif return(sock); } /*~~~[ readln ]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Read all characters from socket s until a newline. Put resulting string in buf, ignoring all after the BUFSIZ'th character. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*/ int readln(buf) char *buf; { int to=0; char c; #ifdef DBUG printf("Entering readln\n"); #endif do { if(read(s, &c, 1)<1) return(0); if((c >= ' ') || (c <= 126)) if(to) or hit return to use only the\n address: "); gets(fromAlias); printf("~ Message-Id (ex: 199502240059.QAA02505@ese.UCSC.EDU): "); gets(messageId); printf("~ Enter the body below, enter ctrl-d on a blank line to end text entry.\n---------\n"); body = (char *)malloc(2); sprintf(body,"\n"); while (gets(inputString) != NULL) { if (! strcmp(inputString, SMTP_EODATA)) sprintf(inputString,"%s.",SMTP_EODATA); body = (char *)realloc(body,((strlen(body) + strlen(inputString) + 2) * sizeof(char))); strcat(body,inputString); strcat(body,"\n"); } clearerr(stdin); printf("\n---------\n~ The application will attempt to contact the default relay server,\n %s, you may enter another machine or hit return now: ", DEFAULTHOST); gets(relayHost); printf("\n**This is the last chance to back out.\n\tContinue with the forgery Process (yes/no)? [no]:"); gets(inputString); if (strcmp(inputString,"yes")) { printf("Process was aborted.\n"); exit(0); } printf("-----\nContinuing...\n"); /* build data body chunk */ printf(" Building data body...\n"); if (! strcmp(dateString,NULL_STRING)) { time_t dummyT; dummyT = time(NULL); strftime(inputString,BUFSIZ,"Date: %a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S\n",localtime(&dummyT)); } else sprintf(inputString,"%s %s\n",DATE,dateString); dataBody = (char *)malloc(sizeof(char)*(strlen(inputString) + 1)); strcat(dataBody,inputString); if (! strcmp(fromAlias,NULL_STRING)) sprintf(inputString,"%s %s\n",BODYFROM,posedClient); else sprintf(inputString,"%s %s <%s>\n",BODYFROM,fromAlias,posedClient); dataBody = (char*)realloc(dataBody,(strlen(dataBody) + strlen(inputString) + 1) * sizeof(char)); strcat(dataBody,inputString); sprintf(inputString,"%s %s\n",SUBJECT,subjectLine); dataBody = (char*)realloc(dataBody,(strlen(dataBody) + strlen(inputString) + 1) * sizeof(char)); strcat(dataBody,inputString); sprintf(inputString,"%s %s\n",BODYTO,recipient); dataBody = (char*)realloc(dataBody,(strlen(dataBody) + strlen(inputString) + 1) * sizeof(char)); strcat(dataBody,inputString); sprintf(inputString,"%s <%s>\n",MSGID,messageId); dataBody = (char*)realloc(dataBody,(strlen(dataBody) + strlen(inputString) + 1) * sizeof(char)); strcat(dataBody,inputString); dataBody = (char*)realloc(dataBody,(strlen(dataBody) + strlen(body) + 1) * sizeof(char)); strcat(dataBody,body); printf(" Attempting to contact mail relay...\n"); if (! contact_relay()) { printf(" Not able to connect to relay host.. Process halted.\n"); exit(0); } else printf(" Relay contacted, connection accepted...\n"); /* speak that protocol slang */ printf(" Exchanging protocol slang...\n"); sprintf(buf,"\n"); writeln(buf); readln(outputString); sprintf(buf,"%s %s\n",SMTP_OPENING,primaryHost); writeln(buf); readln(outputString); /* don't error check hello - inconsequential, and may throw a 500 if it is smtp friendly due to extraneous socket junk left over from handshake */ sprintf(buf,"%s<%s>\n",SMTP_FROM,posedClient); writeln(buf); readln(outputString); if (strstr(outputString,BAD_NEWS)) printf("\t ~~ Unrecognized command at %s\n", SMTP_FROM); sprintf(buf,"%s<%s>\n",SMTP_TO,recipient); writeln(buf); readln(outputString); if (strstr(outputString,BAD_NEWS)) printf("\t ~~ Unrecognized command at %s\n", SMTP_TO); sprintf(buf,"%s\n",SMTP_DATA); writeln(buf); readln(outputString); if (strstr(outputString,BAD_NEWS)) printf("\t ~~ Unrecognized command at %s\n", SMTP_DATA); /* monitor force feed of body into buf.... */ printf(" Passing the body of mail...\n"); writeln(dataBody); sprintf(buf,"\n%s\n", SMTP_EODATA); writeln(buf); readln(outputString); if (strstr(outputString,BAD_NEWS)) printf("\t ~~ Unrecognized command at end of data send.\n"); printf(" Closing connection...\n"); sprintf(buf,"%s\n", SMTP_CLOSE); writeln(buf); readln(outputString); if (strstr(outputString,BAD_NEWS)) printf("\t ~~ Unrecognized command at end of data send.\n"); else printf("Received good acknowldegment\n"); close(s); printf("------\nFinished... copy of sent message follows\n------\n%s\n------\n",dataBody); exit(0); } int contact_relay() { char serverSpew[BUFSIZ]; int i; if ((s=call_socket(relayHost))==-1) return 0; do { readln(serverSpew); } while ((! strstr(serverSpew,GOOD_CONNECT_STR)) && (! strstr(serverSpew, ALT_GOOD_CONNECT))); return 1; }