The one about “Connected”

Shaviro’s style of writing in very indicative of the hyper-linked nature of the very network he writes about.  He jumps from topic to topic quickly and in most cases barely grazing the surface of the topic.  This style of writing would be better suited for a digital format, as each concept could be linked, literally to its respective source or at least additional information regarding each concept.  There is so much information in the first few sections that at first glance I was overwhelmed with a wealth of topics to dig into.

Shaviro frequently refers to science-fiction novels which initially delighted the nerd in me because it solidifies a belief that science fiction allows for a uniquely objective viewpoint of society as a whole.

Science fiction is an existential metaphor, that allows stories to be told about the human condition.  As Isaac Asimov once said, ‘Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today — but the core of science fiction, its essence … has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all. “

By tearing through several science fiction novels Shaviro allows the casual reader an opportunity to see the underlying themes that the majority of scientifically sound science fiction stands on.  The section of the reading that stood out the most to me was the section regarding the internet and the virtual world.

“Ese Is Percipi” (To be is to be perceived.)

“If our minds contain nothing but atomistic perceptions–which is to say, ideas or representations–then it is superfluous to posit, in addition, a material world out there that would be independent of these ideas … Mental representations themselves are enough… ” (83)

George Berkeley’s take on this notion is to negate the material world altogether.  This view, as Shaviro mentions, is not very well receieved by contemporary philosophers but in the realm of cognitive science, specifically, artifial intelligence, this idea has grown legs.

Given that the nature of the human brain and the computer are synonymous, at least in terms of the way they approach data. “… Cognitive scientists conceive minds, on the model of digital computers, as information processors that work by performing logical operations upon internal representations of external phenomena” (83).

Shaviro rephrases Berkeley’s argument to claim that our experience is always already virtual (83).  “You and I, we humans, we mammals, we animals, inhabit a virtual world … the brain works as a sophisticated virtual reality computer” (Dawkins 1198, 275, 278).

This theory in a nutshell is that objects only exist in the minds that perceive them.  When no one is observing objects, those objects does not cease to exist because logic dictates, that “there must some other mind wherein they exist” (Deleuze, 201).  For Berkeley, this “other mind” is God but in terms of the virtual this “other mind” is the Network.

Shaviro states, in what I find to the most amazing line I’ve read in sometime, “For the network is God, the unsleeping omni-voyeur.”

This notion that we strive to create digital representations of ourselves on the internet as a way of justifying our existence in the Network further solidifies my understanding of why Second Life, and any online environment inline with it, are so popular.  The inherent desire of the modern human being is to stand out, to be recognized, to be noticed.  In a very crowded world the digital realm allows for a new method in which to substantiate one’s existence in the eyes of God & subsequently the rest of the voyeurs prowling around on the internet.

“To be online is to already be perceived.”

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