Digital Magic

Tron

The tron concept had far reaching perspectives that few realized long ago. We only know it as a 1982 science fiction film directed Steven Lisberger and released by Disney. Not only one of the first hacker moves but the story line had a religious element to it. The inspiration of the film came from watching a video game called Pong. The film revolutionized the film industry and the producer was light years ahead of everyone. Sadly it was almost 30 years before he came out with the second movie.

Greetings, Programs, and welcome to the digital frontier. More to this untold story. Other inspirations came from circuit boards, colored 3M tape, laser battles from Livermore Laboratory light strobes and multiple blends of CG animation at a time where memory was no more than 2MB. The story was filled with religious persecution, deliberate Jungian references and imagery. The science behind tron was very real. Its filled with Genetic algorithms, quantum teleportation, and the legacy of ISOS or programs that create themselves within the Grid. The programs can in fact emerge spontaneously in a computer program, hence glitches in real life.

Quantum teleportation might be a stretch but oxygen and carbon could make it possible to digitize a human being and then reincorporate their body once again. Obviously far into the future and we can leave that thought with Scientific American. Maybe in time we will actually be able to walk around inside a version of the Grid some day.

Tron and Animism

With animism in mind this puts everything into a whole new perspective. But are we talking more than just the essence of God inside an inanimate object, or divine energy or force or whatever. In a much more complex set of circuits. Could we possibly be dealing with an aspect of consciousness that we are not fully aware of yet. Considering our primitive level of science as it stands currently.

As a software engineer working for FAANG and other silicon valley companies for the last 20 years. I find an affinity with each and every program I create. This relationship is more complicated that I can explain or express.

Can we add magic, magick or chaos magic(k) or Judeo/Christian occult schools of magic to the digital world and manifest or co-manifest results? The answer is a resounding yes!

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Philip K. Dick gave a speech at Vacouver Science Fiction Convention. "Dick compared the way modern technology is animated by mechanism or computation with the way that, according to sociology, primitive man imagines reality itself to be "alive": Rocks, clouds and the rest of his environment seeming full of hidden motivation, often replete with malice or benevolence."

There is so much more to his speech but he indicates that as man advances, intellectually, he comes to the point where he questions that magical world of superstition, coming to only see life where it actually is, scientifically. In fact he can become solipsist about whether there is any life outside of his own thoughts.

Most of these writings came from years of drug abuse and a series of mystical experiences where he delved significantly into theology, metaphysics and the nature of reality.

Technology and Mysticism

There is a Paper by Iddo Landau at Pennsylvania State.

There is significant empirical evidence that some types of physical incitement may spur mystical enlightenment. In a matter of a few years, technology may well provide people with a reliable, easy, and safe way to attain mystical experiences. Suppose it were technologically very easy to attain mystical enlightenment by, say, activating an electronic device that temporarily stimulated certain areas in the brain. If such an option were available, should we opt for it? And should we try to develop such a device? Read more about this at

Technology and Mysticism

The veil of technology and mysticism is is becoming thin including the bridge between fiction and science fiction. Due to climate change and mass pandemic we now have inequitable superstructures to hold up modern society status quo. We do in fact live in the strange an unusual time and perhaps for the better. We do need to be more fluid and accepting of other weird nature. Mysticism is on the rise because science is not adequate enough. But what we might know is that types of mystical experience have certain neural signatures. Technology today can read those signatures and possibly lead more to experience that mystical state like a neural feedback loop. In simple terms guided meditation, bineural beat, light, warmth and some EEG sensors and you can reproduce that state. Obviously its a small part because the rest is in the mind. But we can all use a little push. So the question is

Are technology spiritual experiences safe? Maybe and maybe not. The principles are the same without it which brings us to the subject of psychosis.

Belief and Doubt

Regardless of the science, technology, or mysticism you have to make a decision. For many its "O! You are one of those peoples!" There is more to what we are and what we have and what this is? Science seems to prove more of what we don't know. Mysticism is a type of technology with the capacity to commune with the unknown by a means of dilating and entangling our understanding of the world through altered states of consciousness. While connected online we continue to instill tech with a sense of animism, attaching all kinds of sounds, meaning and information to what we see. The blend is real and as Arthur C Clarke said in his book Profiles of the Future, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

So pretend. Its really the first step. Pretend its real and give it a chance. The results will dazzle and amaze you.


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