Member-only story
Our tools do not receive our intentions; we receive the intention of the tool. So much of the ‘information’ we think of ourselves as choosing or pursuing, pursues us, wins our attention. Cybernetic theory was really a self-prophecy: the soul has devolved into a node in a system of feedback. The Present Age is a Kierkegaardian nightmare: the System is firmly in control, the Individual has been co-opted, bribed, won-over, incorporated. One question no one is asking (but should): why are lockdowns so successful? Why are people so patently obedient? The answer is that they had no choice but to obey: obedience is guaranteed by the closed loop of the system’s intentions. When my family member disagrees with me about the relative safety of interacting with people on the ‘outside’ — I don’t get a conversation: I get a NYT article. The loop is closed around my neck; I’m swiftly hung for questioning conventional wisdom.
