Searching for patterns in the noise...
Aggregating transmissions from the collective conscious...
Predicting the Future from what emerges.

 

 

Attention! This is an important message from the Future! Humanity has been mediated! Life in our near future is fast becoming one big global disinformation campaign. As the observant intelligence engineer knows, we have entered a post-truth era of fake-news and electronic intrusion. Our individual privacies and freedoms have become a commodity. Politics has become a reality television show. Popular or “Pop” culture now drives society. Take heed, for choices made today, drive the future...

Welcome to the World Entertainment Wars. The resistance has already begun!

 

 

 

Item: Contingencies...

Tek-Gnostics’ “Pop Future” explores the possibilities and probabilities of our near future, as seen through the collective lens of mass and social media. The prime directive of Tek-Gnostic’s Pop Future is to provide analysis, insight and commentary on the “high strangeness” that is our Brave Noö Future. We pursue our prognostication of the future through critical observation of mass media, as interpreted through the applied art of synchromysticism… the art of realizing meaningful coincidence in the seemingly mundane. In our explorations, it is precisely through the recognition of synchronicities that the ways of universe are revealed to us.

Advances in mobile communication technologies and their global availability have exposed otherwise insulated individuals and cultures to the manipulations of those who would control media content. The power of mass media in the hands of the few, poses significant risk to the freedoms of the many. This monopoly on media is a threat to personal autonomy… for in the words of Jim Morrison: “Whoever controls the media, controls the mind.” 

With this knowledge, we look for ways to “break the spell” that the black-media-magicians have cast upon an unsuspecting public. We look for the tools and opportunity to push back against mass media programming, to act as Culture Jammer, while developing strategies to better prepare for an uncertain future. Given the revolutionary and game-changing potential that information technologies put in the hands of the individual, the outlook is increasingly in our favor... if we are willing to fight for it.

We move to take personal responsibility for building a better tomorrow. We do not expect assistance from institutions of the old paradigm. We look to none but each other in this endeavor, for in the words of John Perry Barlow... “The future's here... we are it... we are on our own.”

 

 

 

Item: Welcome to the Future

Humans have striven to foretell the future ever since the first soothsayer rolled out a “fistful of bones” to interpret their meaning. Forecasting ritual has been with us since the end of the Paleolithic era. Over time, the archaic soothsayer gave way to the oracle and oracular institutions, which became the early mystery schools. In turn, the ancient mystery schools slowly gave way to organized religions. As such, divination and religion have always been intertwined.

Occurring on a parallel timeline with the oracular mystery schools was the ancient tradition of theatre. The earliest theatric performances were “high ritual” and ceremony. They presented the sacred mysteries to initiates and spectators. Thus modern theatre (and modern stage magic) has its roots in presenting or demonstrating the mysteries.

Divination, ritual and theatre are arguably the foundation of archaic culture. The understandings of such, by the general population over time, took the form of: legend, music, oral histories, proverbs, superstitions, jokes and tall tales. Taken together, these understandings became popular beliefs, or folklore. In our modern era, folklore is rapidly being replaced by popular or “pop culture.” Accordingly, today’s mass-media, entertainment-driven culture is built upon a foundation of ancient ritual, designed to predict the future.

Early in the 21st century, the archaic tradition of seeking meaningful, synchronistic information through oracularity... utilizing the artful abilities of the oracle... re-emerged as if in response to the rise and proliferation of pop culture. The term “Synchromysticism” was coined by Jake Kotze in August of 2006 for an article posted on his website Brave New World Order, who defined it as: “The art of realizing meaningful coincidence in the seemingly mundane with mystical or esoteric significance.” Thus, the cycle of divination, ritual and theatre “comes 'round again” in our modern “infotainment” era.

Predicting “what is about to go down” has never been more important. Prognostication has never been more necessary than it is today in terms of strategic planning. Find below articles and artifacts pertaining to Spaceship Earth's Popular Culture and the rhymes and reasons for monitoring our near, or “Pop Future.” Welcome to the future kids...

 

Item: Babylon Bandwidth - by Jack Heart

Babylon (bab•uh•lon) - noun

1.  Any rich and magnificent city believed to be a place of excessive luxury and wickedness.
2.  The state, the system, particularly when corrupt or authoritarian. Also the police, as they are the agents of the threat of force that the state derives it's power from.

Bandwidth (band•width) - noun

1.  The transmission capacity of an electronic communications device or system; the speed of data transfer,
ie: a high-bandwidth Internet connection. The smallest range of frequencies constituting a band within which a particular signal can be transmitted without distortion.
2.  Mental capacity; intelligence.

 

 

“See their dreams and aspirations...
crumble in front of their face.
And all of their wicked intention...
to destroy the human race.

So come we go chant down Babylon one more time.
Come we go chant down Babylon!”

- from "Chant Down Babylon" by Bob Marley

 

 

Human experience is, to an ever increasing extent, being mediated by various information technologies. A specific information delivery technology, such as print, is defined as a: medium. Collectively, these info techs are referred to as: media. Indeed, the last 500 years of human history has been defined by breakthroughs in media. The printing press, the telephone, motion pictures, television, personal computing & the internet, cell phones & wireless devices... and the most recent rise of social media... have all mediated or “come between” humans and their desired data.

These information platforms deliver our “content” with ever increasing immediacy. As this content is now instantly made available, our attention turns to those in control of content and it's flow.

Modern media, defined here as the communications, entertainment and advertising industries, are suspect in that they dictate the content being delivered to the public. Media moguls within the entertainment industry control content, who in turn are influenced by advertising agencies that (along with their clients) bankroll the production costs of entertainment programming. Communications companies deliver, via their networks and a tech-driven  array of wireless gadgetry, data rich content, created to a great extent by the entertainment industry.

This powerful media triad... communications, entertainment and advertising... secure political favor through the power of the lobbying industry, which controls what increasingly has become a “Reality TV” form of government. As opposed to other powerful industries seeking influence over our government such as the Arms Industry or Big Oil, the media triad's primary commodity is the manipulation of the people's perceptions... through content. Seeing an opportunity, our government seeks a “Quid pro quo.” As such, these industries wield enormous power and influence and cannot be trusted by virtue of the age-old adage that absolute power, corrupts absolutely.

Take television (please!). There is a reason why TV executives refer to shows they produce as “programming.” There is a reason why advertisers pay small fortunes for commercials and for product placement in films. Their intention is simple. They desire to program the masses to do their bidding. Overtly, they want the masses to buy their products... but covertly... they want the masses to think the way they want them to think. They want people to think like good consumers.

When exactly, was the importance of citizenry overshadowed by the convenience of the consumerism, in the eyes of the PTB? When did the citizen become the consumer?

The masters of the airwaves clearly see the US citizenry, at least those with disposable income, as consumer, not a citizen. They will stop at nothing to broadcast their disinformation... to impose their version of reality to suit their nefarious, capitalistic agenda. This deceptive content of control we label: “Babylon Bandwidth.”

Here is a subtle and formidable adversary.

Historically, at least since WWII, the US political infrastructure has been bureaucratic in nature. Recent political events have rapidly moved away from bureaucratic business as usual, to a more disruptive model. This change came about, in part, due to the rise of social media. Recent campaign cycles were driven more by social media (twitter, facebook) than traditional news media. Traditional media, driven, first by the big 3 television networks, then by cable news, were structured around a bureaucratic model. Social media is more disruptive in nature. It's strength is immediacy, at the cost of accuracy.

This is a game-changer for how people get their news. Social Media News is decentralized. It acts as more of a disruptive insurgency than a bureaucratic orthodoxy.

Pop Phenom
There is, however a major component of content delivery and control that the media masters desperately struggle with. This is the all-important phenomena known as... “Popular Appeal.”

Although each agency controls their individual output, it's relative success or failure is dependant upon how it is received by the viewing public. To be effective, output must be popular. To be popular, it must resonate on a deeply emotional level with the masses. Try as they might, the media masters cannot consistently predict or control popular appeal. Consequently, each individual media mogul is forced to react... to constantly re-adjust their messaging, in response to popular sentiment.

Popularity is an intangible and more importantly, an ineffable commodity. If enough people are enamored with a media phenomenon... for a long enough period of time... it becomes a trend. This is of course the “holy grail” of the media industry. A trend, reduced to it's most basic component, we define as a Meme. Since advertising effectiveness and hence advertising revenue is dependant upon mass appeal, significant research and development resources are budgeted to study such memetic trending. For this reason, the collective output of the media industry is significant on a cultural level, as it mirrors the culture being targeted.

Close examination of the combined collective output of modern media tells us much about our global citizenry. By virtue of what is being marketed to us, modern media reveals perceived trends in how we think, feel and react to events of consequence in our world. Indeed, it illuminates collective characteristics of our consensual reality… our collective consciousness, as reflected by the manipulations of the above mentioned media masters.

In this regard, popularity of media output becomes an indicator of what resonates, what “grabs the attention” of specific, or in the words of the marketing magicians... “target” populations. By scrutinizing how we are being marketed to, we gain more insight into who we are as a culture.

By waking up to Babylon Bandwidth, we begin to understand the extent of media manipulation. Just as the messianic character Neo (from the Wachowskis' 1999 film: The Matrix) woke up, so too do we in our awakening, begin to realize “how deep the Rabbit-hole goes.”  

Today, as information technology evolves more rapidly, the media masters begin to lose control of the medium. Social media has to a certain extent, de-centralized modern media, diluting Babylon Bandwidth's hypnotic power. The perceptive and vigilant citizen can, in effect, use modern media to their advantage by gleaning trends in the media-stream.

In considering trends, specific pieces of media content lose importance. In the words of Marshall McLuhan... the medium is the message… a medium itself, not the content it carries, becomes the focal point of significance. Realization of these trends allow us to sharpen our predictive faculties in contemplating the future. By examining trends in media for purposes of prediction, we logically place emphasis on a popular or “Pop Future.”

Synchronicity & Synchromysticism
Pop Future... or the perceived trending in entertainment,  infotainment and information services, as evidenced via the world wide web and social media platforms such as facebook, et al... is a culturally powerful predictive tool. We intend to fight back against Babylon Bandwidth, using these and other such tools to our advantage. We will examine all available data-streams for the purpose of predicting possible, probable and prescriptive outcomes to present day scenarios, as they pertain to personal autonomy.

 

We will examine the complex intertwining advancements and expectations in the hard sciences such as astronomy, physics &  biology, as well as other disciplines of relevance such as, psychology, sociology and anthropology. Additionally, we pursue intuitive disciplines, peering through the lens of the new and relatively esoteric interdisciplinary system known as Synchromysticism.

Synchromysticism is heavily influenced by the study of the collective unconscious as pioneered by Dr. Carl Jung. Jung was the founder of analytical psychology. He emphasized understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, religion and philosophy. One of his most notable ideas is the concept of synchronicity. Jung created the term synchronicity to describe the alignment of “universal forces” with the life experiences of an individual. Jung believed that many experiences perceived as coincidences were not merely due to chance, but instead reflected the creation of an event or circumstance by the alignment of such forces. In difference to these forces, consideration is given to the power of mass media and its influence on humanity’s psyche.

Pop Future seeks to illuminate the mysterious universal synchronicities, as mirrored by mass media, to better understand the forces that are at work, shaping our newly emerging global culture. By searching for patterns in the noise... by aggregating  and analyzing transmissions from the collective conscious... we will harness the resulting information to our advantage... forecasting the Future from what emerges.

Find below a collection of in-house and third party links that may prove useful in our memetic endeavors...

 

 

 

 

 

 

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