July 2012 | Technoccult

MonthJuly 2012

Is Child Porn On Darknets Actually A Sign Of A Healthy Society?

July 31, 2012 / Klint Finley

I just covered Cryptosphere, a forthcoming darknet, for TechCrunch. Here’s a bit from the end. On the Hacker News thread about Cryptosphere, one commenter laments the fact that darknets end up being used for child porn, pointing out that religious heretics of the past could really have used such a system. Another commenter responds:

Child pornography producers and consumers are similarly persecuted, though clearly with much more sound reasons.

At least in western countries, there aren’t a lot of instances of repressed communication that need to be conducted across a channel like this — especially few legitimate ones. This is not to say that such a system isn’t useful; just that I believe the fact they’re so full of child pornography and the like is actually, in a roundabout way, an indicator of a healthy society.

“Burning Water” By The Anti-Group Conspiracy

July 31, 2012 / Klint Finley

“Burning Water” is an experimental film by The Anti-Group Conspiracy, a multimedia, uh, group founded by Clock DVA’s Adi Newton. Here’s the artist statement:

Film / Soundtrack “Burning Water, Meontological experiment Developed and directed by Adi Newton, develops new forms of visual expression. In this project which took five years to develop and film,specially constructed-lenses enabled filming through moving and fluid water. Inspired by the use of multiple montage techniques employed by Kenneth Anger. Especially in his inauguration of the pleasure dome. Each image in the film is taken from specific occult areas, symbols and images, and involves up to quintuple exposures of the film i.e. five montage-levels, at the time of construction a modified special computer software was adapted to treat the entire edited film and finally achieved the result. A film which relates directly to the subconscious levels of the mind, a kinetic Rorschach-test, an exploration of the resurgent atavistic and sentient symbolic systems, used by Austin Osmon Spare,
The Absence of architecture enables the mind to form new connections
“Burning Water” is an alchemical and technological enquiry into sub-states of being. A meontological visualisation beyond analytical analysis. ADI NEWTON 1986

(Thanks Julieta Randall)

For more information check out this interview with Newton.

Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker Over Fabricated Quotes

July 30, 2012 / Klint Finley

Science journalist Jonah Lehrer, whose articles I have linked to from Technoccult in the past, stepped down from the New Yorker today after admitting to fabricated Bob Dylan quotes in his book Imagine. Here’s Lehrer’s statement, as quoted by Julie Bosman for The New York Times:

“Three weeks ago, I received an email from journalist Michael Moynihan asking about Bob Dylan quotes in my book ‘Imagine,’ ” Mr. Lehrer said in a statement. “The quotes in question either did not exist, were unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes. But I told Mr. Moynihan that they were from archival interview footage provided to me by Dylan’s representatives. This was a lie spoken in a moment of panic. When Mr. Moynihan followed up, I continued to lie, and say things I should not have said.”

“The lies are over now. I understand the gravity of my position. I want to apologize to everyone I have let down, especially my editors and readers. I also owe a sincere apology to Mr. Moynihan. I will do my best to correct the record and ensure that my misquotations and mistakes are fixed. I have resigned my position as staff writer at The New Yorker.”

Full Story: The New York Times: Jonah Lehrer Resigns From The New Yorker After Making Up Dylan Quotes for His Book

(via Coe Douglas)

The Original Crash!, Starring JG Ballard Himself

July 30, 2012 / Klint Finley

Before the Crash novel, JG Ballard wrote a short story of the same name. In 1971 Harley Cokeliss made an adaptation of that story:

More info:

Ballardian: Crash! Full-Tilt Autogeddon

The Paris Review: J. G. Ballard, The Art of Fiction

(via Metafilter)

Before James Bond There Was Duckworth Drew

July 27, 2012 / Klint Finley

Above: Derek Jacobi as Duckworth Drew on The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.

The latest issue of Wired has a small write-up by Marco Calavita on British novelist, propagandist and “paranoid xenophobe” William Le Queux and his creation Duckworth Drew, a char,acter who may have influenced Ian Fleming’s creation of James Bond. ~~The article isn’t on Wired’s website yet~~, is online here now, but there’s surprisingly little about the Duckworth Drew character on the web.

From a Telegraph article on espionage:

What a strange bunch those early fictional spies seem now. One might expect that spy stories would feed on reality, but surely no reality can ever have touched Duckworth Drew of the Secret Service, the 1903 creation of William Le Queux. This was a man “upon whom rested the onerous and most perilous task of obtaining the well-guarded secrets of other nations and combating the machinations of England’s enemies”.

Duckworth Drew carried drugged cigars and poisoned pins to knock out the enemies of state long enough to read the secret treaty lying on the desk. England’s enemies reciprocated. Otto Kremplestein, chief of the German Secret Service, used to pop over the Channel to fox hunt in the shires as a cover.

From the Wikipedia entry on invasion literature:

William Le Queux was the most prolific author of the genre; his first novel was The Great War in England in 1897 (1894) and he went on to publish from one to twelve novels a year until his death in 1927. His work was regularly serialised in newspapers, particularly the Daily Mail, and attracted many readers. It is believed Ian Fleming’s James Bond character was inspired by Le Queux’s agent “Duckworth Drew”.

Calavita notes that Drew’s boss is named “MM,” and this knowledge base of fictional crime fighters lists Drew’s boss as “Marquis of Macclesfield.”

Duckworth Drew isn’t mentioned on the Wikipedia entry on Le Queux nor the entry on spy fiction.

You can buy Secrets of the Foreign Office from Amazon.com. Surely this is in the public domain – can anyone find the text online?

You can read more about Le Queux here.

Journalism and Right Speech

July 25, 2012 / Klint Finley

Books like The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel and The Information Diet by Clay Johnson examine the responsibilities of journalists and other information producers and what the public should expect, and demand, of its news and information outlets.

I just came across, via the Wikipedia entry on the Noble Eight Fold Path of Buddhism, a quote from The Abhaya Sutta on “Right Speech.” I think it has a lot to say about what we as journalists should write and what you as the public should demand:

In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial, unendearing and disagreeable to others, he does not say them.
In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, yet unbeneficial, unendearing and disagreeable to others, he does not say them.
In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, yet unendearing and disagreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them.
In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be unfactual, untrue, unbeneficial, yet endearing and agreeable to others, he does not say them.
In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, but unbeneficial, yet endearing and agreeable to others, he does not say them.
In the case of words that the Tathagata knows to be factual, true, beneficial, and endearing and agreeable to others, he has a sense of the proper time for saying them. Why is that? Because the Tathagata has sympathy for living beings.

Wikipedia puts it: “In every case, if it is not true, beneficial nor timely, one is not to say it.”

Or, for modern times: Write, and/or read, things that are true, timely and informative. Don’t troll. Don’t spread rumors. Don’t read gossip. Don’t create or click on linkbait. Don’t read substanceless content just because it affirms what you already believe.

This fits nicely with “The Essence of Journalism is Verification” (from the Principles of Journalism) and Clay Johnson’s summary of his thinking: “Consume deliberately. Take in information over affirmation.”

Technoccult Interview: Open Source Buddhism with Al Jigong Billings

July 25, 2012 / Klint Finley

Many Technoccult readers have probably seen Hermetic.com. Maybe you even got your first taste of Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare or Hakim Bey there. What you might not know is that the site’s founder, Al Jigong Billings has given up the site to focus on what he calls “Open Source Buddhism.” I recently talked with Al about what Open Source Buddhism is, how it differs from other contemporary the Pragmatic Dharma movement and the secular mindfulness movement, and how he gravitated from Neopaganism to Buddhism.

My Hypothetical Batman Reboot

July 23, 2012 / Klint Finley

I saw Dark Knight Rises yesterday. I liked it, but the politics don’t sit well with me. As Grant Morrison has pointed out, Batman is a very odd sort of fantasy – a billionaire who wears a rubber suit and goes around beating up poor people.

I’m not going to spend time over analyzing the newest film, and the Batman mythos in general. Instead, inspired by Aaron Diez’s Hypothetical X-Men Reboot and China Miéville’s Rejected Iron Man Pitch, I decided to think about what I would do if I were to give Batman a complete reboot. Here’s what I came up with. This is, of course, not authorized by DC Comics or Warner Bros or anyone else.

More on Technology Critic Jacques Ellul

July 23, 2012 / Klint Finley

Doug Hill explains Ellul’s work on technique and its influence on Ted Kaczynski and (indirectly) Kevin Kelly:

So, what are Ellul’s ideas on technology? His most central point was that technology has to be seen systemically, as a unified entity, rather than as a disconnected series of individual machines. He also argued that technology is as much a state of mind as a material phenomenon, in part because human beings have been absorbed into the technological complex he called “technique.”

Ellul defined technique as “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.” While technique isn’t limited to machines, machines are “deeply symptomatic” of technique. They represent “the ideal toward which technique strives.”

These quotes hint at Ellul’s conviction that technique has become almost a living entity, a form of being that drives inexorably to overtake everything that isn’t technique, humans included. The belief that humans can no longer control the technologies they’ve unleashed – that technique has become autonomous – is also central to his thought. “Wherever a technical factor exists,” he said, “it results, almost inevitably, in mechanization: technique transforms everything it touches into a machine.”

Full Story: The Society Pages: The Unabomber’s Favorite Philosopher (and Mine)

Previously: Jacques Ellul, Technology Doomsdayer Before his Time

Compare and contrast with: The Discipline Of Do Easy

The Number of Armed Conflicts Increased Strongly in 2011

July 18, 2012 / Klint Finley

From PhysOrg:

Last year, the number of armed conflicts in the world increased markedly, with the strongest increase taking place in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is the conclusion in a new report by researchers at the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), published in the Journal of Peace Research. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has presented the statistics to the UN General Assembly in his report on international mediation. […]

Following a year (2010) that signaled hope for a more peaceful development, the number of conflicts increased by nearly 20 percent, from 31 to 37. Last year’s jump in conflicts deviates from the long-term trend line, which shows that the world is gradually becoming more peaceful.

Full Story: PhysOrg: The Number of Armed Conflicts Increased Strongly in 2011

(via Social Physicist)

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