If you take a bit of a spin through the Square Mile in London, you will be filmed every centimetre of the way, and it’s not even that interesting.
The whole place is packed with CCTV cameras. They’re everywhere… not as concentrated as the British Railway Stations, (where dozens of them cling to the poles like birds of prey) but The City is CCTV central.
The implication… “we can see you but you can’t see us”. It’s an unblinking black eye… or a million black eyes with wires spaghettiing back into… if not a police-state, then the police-part of the state. It’s things going on behind closed doors. It’s fear. It’s Big Brother… the sensory omnipresence of opaque hierarchy. This is the symbol of modern hierarchical power – it’s the lens of a CCTV camera.
Well I’ve got bad news for you Sunshine.
Check this out:
Especially about 2 minutes in.
Notice something?
Fucking EVERYONE has a camera.
The implication : Every single lens is a direct line to the web. It’s the sensory omnipresence of the universal mind… and isn’t hidden, it’s wide open to the world and it’s watching.
The lens of a CCTV camera is an opaque threat – there’s no way of knowing what’s at the other end. The lens of a human-held camera is fundamentally, qualatatively different – we all know exactly what’s on the receiving end… It’s the web. It’s youtube. It’s millions, billions of people – creating what Robert Axlerod describes as “The Shadow of the Future”… it’s what Mike Wesch likens to Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot”. It’s the world. It’s us.
So there it is. It’s hierarchy vs network again – the defining conflict of the era… and although The Black Spaghetti Monster has violence and secrecy on it’s side… man, it is so much smaller than The Blue Spaghetti Monster.
We are big.
So you behave yourself because we’re watching.
On Addiction
And The Void Mooned Back...
The Spirit Of The World
A Machine to Steal Souls
More Anti Digital
Thync
Robotic Sensory Loops and Whatnot
Cartestian Robot Roundup.
Post-Scarcity Link-Dump
Servo Bender
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