this mercury is particularly retrograding
06.03.2026 19:47
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this mercury is particularly retrograding
The augmentation of human intellect is much more interesting than artificial intelligence… the first Internet had more capacity than what milnet integration forced it to become… technology always advances beyond what we can comprehend, and then backtracks to what we are capable of using.
I recently chatted with @rushkoff.com on Team Human to discuss about my new @mitpress.bsky.social book, The Unseen Internet. We talked about the esoteric wallpaper of the internet, meme magic, AI, and a whole lot of technological woo...
The counterculture spent the 90s trying to destroy consensus reality. It worked.
We just didn't have a plan for what came next.
Stream and subscribe my conversation with @shirachess.bsky.social:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWOp...
This is murder. ICE routinely deposits released detainees far from their home just to be cruel. It’s standard practice. To do this to a blind man on a wet cold winter day in Buffalo is to know you are potentially sending him to his death.
I mean I can't imagine why people would not want to scan their face to get on the internet
When paired with AML reporting, such suspicious analysis can quickly lead to the unjust termination of bank accounts. And that seems to be exactly what Persona was built to do.
Persona also appears to come with the the potential to flag you to the financial system and get you debanked.
Oops. Turns out Persona, Discord’s age-verification service, was secretly screening selfies against government watchlists AND accessible by the feds. It's backed by Peter Thiel.
“The state wants to see everything. The corporations want to see everything. And they've learned to work together.”
Just to be clear Shira's book The Unseen Internet is published and you can purchase it. Our collaboration about Mondo 2000 is not yet published. You can't buy it yet.
Newly released records show a U.S. citizen was shot and killed in Texas by a federal immigration agent last year during a late-night traffic encounter that was not publicly disclosed by the Department of Homeland Security.
From the generation who brought you the terms meatspace and meatsack
quite honestly, I very much enjoyed listening to Carroll reflect on his many years of experimentation — this is a great conversation
This Sunday, 2/22 I'll be livestreaming with @drangelapuca.bsky.social about all things dark academia:
www.youtube.com/live/TFx1WDU...
Of Internets, seen and unseen
open.substack.com/pub/josephma...
Joseph Matheny writes about the new book The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse by my friend and coauthor (of a not yet published book) Shira Chess
@shirachess.bsky.social
'The Unseen Internet' is a new book that seems interesting @shirachess.bsky.social - www.rawillumination.net/2026/02/the-...
oh you don’t
Me too, moon. Me too
Latest thoughts from Dr. Chess on current “doomer discourse” around the death of books:
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
This post is really taking off. I know the Thanksgiving detail is grabbing, but I would encourage everyone to also read the full article about this family’s struggle at Dilley.
They’ve been locked up for 130+ days.
I spent hours with them on Zoom this week, and their story deserves to be heard.
This is something the Nazis used to do to Jewish children in the camps. It happened to a man I knew when he was a child in Auschwitz. The camp guards thought it was funny as hell.
“He very clearly came over to assist me and the other woman as we were being hurt,” she recalled. “My first recognition that he was present was feeling his arm around my waist and me looking at him and feeling very grateful that he prevented me from falling onto the sidewalk.”
Me holding a copy of my new book THE UNSEEN INTERNET.
Today my newest @mitpress.bsky.social, THE UNSEEN INTERNET, is officially out in the world.
Here’s the argument:
At the dawn of cyberculture a lot of people on online were intentionally doing magic. And now it feels like we’re all kind of doing magic.
It’s Friday the 13th! If you are looking for the uncanny today, I’ve got you covered (with @mitpress.bsky.social )
Adoption -- adoptees get a *different* life, not necessarily a Better one
There was a point deep in the timeline of the personal computer’s development when the goal of “A.I.” was to”augmented intellect” (think bush’s desk) and not “artificial intelligence” (today’s wayward golems).
This pivot toward Roko’s Basilisk seems to lack foresight, and may prevent afterthought.
the issue isn’t tools or users — it’s not bad apples or bad barrels it’s bad barrel makers, an environment of disabling technologies that impede subject agency
