Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2000 23:40:37 -0800 (PST)
From: oconnell-AT-oz.net (Mark O'Connell)
Subject: Re: Virtualization as Hominzation


>on virtual heterogenesis vs borg beehive
>
>   In a chapter I am writing on postmodern dreaming, I have begun exploring
>how the Star Trek series is dealing with the Net via the encounter with the
>Borg.  This is,  how the encounter with the Borg aptly describes the series
>fearful realization that they hadn't really dealt with virtualization and
>its effects on the everyday habits and life of the individuals.  The Borg
>represent many of the fears of those who suspect the Net as the harbinger
>of simulation society and fear being assimilated.  To cope with this, the
>Borg are reduced to a sexual object (Seven of Nine) and the focus of the
>show is now to "humanize" this Blonde Borg Bombshell.
>   But in fact, the series is about to end as it no longer functions as a
>vision of the future and is about to become seen by the current generation
>like we now view Buck Rogers.
>
>   -Richard

There is so much extraodinary speculation about the web and about
virtuality. Like, we will all be consumed by this amorphous reality that is
without bounds, and that operates with or without our agreement. There is
the implicit suggestion that we have no choice, which is bullshit. The web
and virtual realities are becoming a metaphor for our little piece of time
the way "Night of the Living Dead" was for the fifties. A metaphor for
homogenization and blind acceptance and subsumation (is that a word?) (in
the 50's it was being eaten alive by your zombie neighbors, I guess not
much has changed, except that the metaphors have gotten a bit dryer...).
None of this is the product of the web, but of our economic/political
situation. We certainly don't need the web to make us borg like. From my
view the web actually holds some possibilities for undermining the
situation. It has created an alternative to the stranglehold on the
distribution of media held by major corporations. They'd like to block it
I'm sure, but they may not be able to. This is potentially significant.

Mark O'Connell
oconnell-AT-oz.net