Magic, Cyborgs, 'Limitless,' and so on.
Apr. 23rd, 2011 02:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolven7Gorillaz - [Dracula]--- So, I realise that many of you still don't have the time/money/inclination to see Limitless, and I really want to talk to you about my analysis of the film. (The Reverend Horton Heat - [It's a Dark Day]). So what I'm going to do is take the central conceit of my analysis and spin it out, without talking about the film. That way, no spoilers. Sound good? Good.
In writing my analysis of the film, I realised something central about the concepts of magic and cybernetics, and why I see the two as linked. I summarised it, thusly:
Dethklok - [Dethharmonic]--- So we're talking about this necessary paradox of thought, where the active individual must recognise the interconnectedness of the components of the systems (and the systems of systems) in which they find themselves taking part. Recognising that, while we are, in one sense, bending the system to our will, we are also bending ourselves to fit into the system. That the mutual approaching of one and the other must necessarily change both.
The Dresden Dolls - [The Sheep Song]--- But, in a very real sense, nothing is "changed" at all. Nothing but the perspective one has on the components and their connections. The ways in which they feedback into one another, the ways in which power, or influence, or usefulness, or data, or information flows from one to the other to another to another and so on and back again, are all dependent on how we frame our understanding of what each of these things "is," "does," "means," and the same for each of those relationships.
Portishead - [Deep Water]--- It's about the way we see and define all of it, which means that, magician or cyborg, we engage in definitional action as the majority of-- or at least the precursor to-- all other action.
Autechre - [V-Proc]--- Maybe it's much more simple than this. Maybe it's just that the world (reality as we can understand and approach it) is a system of systems, and each component of each of those systems is itself a system of systems, and so on. But we draw limiting lines and say "this system of systems is Me" or "a Tree." We've talked about this before, yes? This constant adjustment of where the lines of you end and begin, and what the "you" doing that adjustment can do and learn, because of it. Not because we have to, mind you-- we'd do it unconsciously, if we didn't think about it (not an unilluminating tautology)-- but because we want to, and can.
Attrition - [Waste Not, Want...More]--- Every adjustment comes with unintended consequences. Changes that we couldn't predict, couldn't forsee. The question is, how quickly can we then adapt to these new parameters? How quickly do we integrate the new information, and recover a sense of direction? How quickly can we alter the intent of a spell or an evocation, or an invocation or a hypersigil to map onto the very effects it's bringing about?
Android Lust - [Fall to Fragments]--- The ability to constantly consciously adapt, and to have that be such a natural reaction as to be able to have it run as autonomic nervous function, unless and until something goes wrong, and needs your direct attention.
Living. Being. Breathing and swimming in change and adaptation, creating it everywhere you go, as a basic part of your existence. (Covenant - 12[Theremin (Club Edit)]). And then tweaking what that means, how that intersects with the world, how you add to the experience of life and the universe, and nature. Changing how your adaptation aids not just you, but everything and everyone else around you.
Cyborgs don't change the environment, they change the self to suit the environment. Magicians don't have to be seen as "forcing" the hand of the universe, but rather that they find/create that particular perspective on the infinite nature of reality such as to attain the way in which the universe already contains what they need.
Black Ark Psychedelick Soul And Jazz Revue - [Thee Eye Inside]--- Perspective, reflexivity, recursive loops, and changeless change.
Thoughts?
In writing my analysis of the film, I realised something central about the concepts of magic and cybernetics, and why I see the two as linked. I summarised it, thusly:
When asked why I look at cybernetic technologies and magical practice as being so intertwined, and I think this might be as close as I can get to [explaining] it: Magicians and Cyborgs are both about being able to consciously approach reflexively adapting systems--thought, nature, society, etc--insert ourselves into them, and bootstrap ourselves into being/becoming, through that interface. They are about the discrete individual as a part of an interconnected system.
Dethklok - [Dethharmonic]--- So we're talking about this necessary paradox of thought, where the active individual must recognise the interconnectedness of the components of the systems (and the systems of systems) in which they find themselves taking part. Recognising that, while we are, in one sense, bending the system to our will, we are also bending ourselves to fit into the system. That the mutual approaching of one and the other must necessarily change both.
The Dresden Dolls - [The Sheep Song]--- But, in a very real sense, nothing is "changed" at all. Nothing but the perspective one has on the components and their connections. The ways in which they feedback into one another, the ways in which power, or influence, or usefulness, or data, or information flows from one to the other to another to another and so on and back again, are all dependent on how we frame our understanding of what each of these things "is," "does," "means," and the same for each of those relationships.
Portishead - [Deep Water]--- It's about the way we see and define all of it, which means that, magician or cyborg, we engage in definitional action as the majority of-- or at least the precursor to-- all other action.
Autechre - [V-Proc]--- Maybe it's much more simple than this. Maybe it's just that the world (reality as we can understand and approach it) is a system of systems, and each component of each of those systems is itself a system of systems, and so on. But we draw limiting lines and say "this system of systems is Me" or "a Tree." We've talked about this before, yes? This constant adjustment of where the lines of you end and begin, and what the "you" doing that adjustment can do and learn, because of it. Not because we have to, mind you-- we'd do it unconsciously, if we didn't think about it (not an unilluminating tautology)-- but because we want to, and can.
Attrition - [Waste Not, Want...More]--- Every adjustment comes with unintended consequences. Changes that we couldn't predict, couldn't forsee. The question is, how quickly can we then adapt to these new parameters? How quickly do we integrate the new information, and recover a sense of direction? How quickly can we alter the intent of a spell or an evocation, or an invocation or a hypersigil to map onto the very effects it's bringing about?
Android Lust - [Fall to Fragments]--- The ability to constantly consciously adapt, and to have that be such a natural reaction as to be able to have it run as autonomic nervous function, unless and until something goes wrong, and needs your direct attention.
Living. Being. Breathing and swimming in change and adaptation, creating it everywhere you go, as a basic part of your existence. (Covenant - 12[Theremin (Club Edit)]). And then tweaking what that means, how that intersects with the world, how you add to the experience of life and the universe, and nature. Changing how your adaptation aids not just you, but everything and everyone else around you.
Cyborgs don't change the environment, they change the self to suit the environment. Magicians don't have to be seen as "forcing" the hand of the universe, but rather that they find/create that particular perspective on the infinite nature of reality such as to attain the way in which the universe already contains what they need.
Black Ark Psychedelick Soul And Jazz Revue - [Thee Eye Inside]--- Perspective, reflexivity, recursive loops, and changeless change.
Thoughts?
The Black Ark Psychedelick Soul And Jazz Revue
Date: 2011-05-11 09:52 am (UTC)BAPSJR
Re: The Black Ark Psychedelick Soul And Jazz Revue
Date: 2011-05-11 03:29 pm (UTC)