<nettime> death of the internetwork

[brian carroll <human {AT} architexturez.com>]

	constellations of IP addresses

	star number 005.134.240.15

	brightness of 100 Megabits

	cybernetic network rising

	an interstellar wave of bits

	microscopic particles, waves

	of matter, energy, information

	masking in the mind's eye

	a heaven above, a hell below,

	a purgatory of being and non-being

	mirroring existence, of nature

	to act, react, asymmetric, simulated

	a way to go forward, back

	hosted in this time-space machine

	routers, switches, servers,

	suspending the judgement of the deity

	a medium of exchange, ideology

	experts coding all words and ideas

	far, so far away from the real

	as paradise is found, and lost again

	in a super-human adam and eve, .com

	spectors magnifying each data set

	ghosts coursing through the veins

	of wires and cables, to curse

	a curse of freedom, a curse of death

	to the network, to the star, IPO

	and for a moment, all is possible

	but so improbable is the task,

	as fascism creeps in on this,

	our dying internetwork

	...

	the unregistered domain,

	the hope, unrequited, undone

	with cartographers mapping

	electronic civilization, as

	if it were alive, breathing

	as if chaos and change exist,

	in this totalitarian artifice

	a walk outside, clear the mind

	seeing people rotting on the street

	coughing against the polluted air

	lost in a wasteland so vast,

	all details disappear

	grand designers

	gods and goddesses, preaching

	the web, preaching the future

	prophets on this, our dying

	internetwork, a vision so

	broad, of such a signal,

	a circus of daily bread,

	at your command, they say

	voices, in my head, haunting

	more and more, as the future

	looks like a perfected past

	one without a flaw, makeup

	and all, televised, broadcast

	there is no freedom left, as

	the unborn are already cast

	as slaves

 	...

	with thunder and lightning

	charging atmospheres of mind

	electromagnetic storms

	shutting down media and power

	of the individual e-states

	a virtual nature arises,

	its shadow orchestrating scores

	mountains fall, waters boil

	all bow to an epic seizure,

	blood spilling from mouth

	transforms into an oily wine

	the last beat, last breath

	of the monster of life,

	the network clenches itself,

	squeezes tight then sighs,

	turning limp as another

	star in the network dies

	...

	black hole, swirling

	the topology of protocol

	the death star, once

	a heaven, sometime in

	the past, extinguished

	of all difference, of

	all change, of all life

	now, a commercial, an

	episode, fakery and deceit,

	decrepit, the futurists

	taking their paycheck

	from this virtual eden,

	now a morgue of lost souls

	of dead sights, links

	between people broken

	added to the compost heap,

	the network now a cemetery

	a constellation of stars

	intertwined in a story

	of civilization, what

	it once was to have been,

	what it is someday to become

	...

	"look Grandmother," said the

	little girl, "look deep into

	the sky- there's the Internet."

	...





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