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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   42645 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 8, 2025

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And lurking in the background, with both of them, is the deeper reality that many of us (I certainly include myself here) are spending more and more of time as floating eyeballs attached to brains with floating fingertips, living mostly in the screen.

I came across this idea in the last few years and the implications are terrifying. The way it was out was that when you are online and invested in your online persona, you are essentially projecting your consciousness, your soul, out of your body and into a different dimension, a dimension where there is zero distance between you and all manner of hostile and corrupting influences. Other people, of course, but also alien artificial minds and egregores many times more powerful than you. And perhaps other emergent entities that we still do not yet understand. Since the space feels so "real" and meaningful to many, the online persona can often feel more real than the meatspace persona, and so the online persona, the one subject to an unknown array of corrupting forces, increasingly dominates and directs the actions of the meatspace persona. This is not just a long-winded way to say "people get radicalized online." It's not "radicalization" in the same way that visiting the wrong mosque might get you caught up with Al Qaeda or whatever. It's a much deeper andore profound psychological transformation.

The way it was out was that when you are online and invested in your online persona, you are essentially projecting your consciousness, your soul, out of your body and into a different dimension, a dimension where there is zero distance between you and all manner of hostile and corrupting influences. Other people, of course, but also alien artificial minds and egregores many times more powerful than you. And perhaps other emergent entities that we still do not yet understand.

Sounds like the kind of space where one could use some Gellar fields.

The Gellar device emits a wave called a Gellar field, essentially creating a bubble of real space around the ship.

Scrolling your phone with one hand in the grass.

invested in your online persona, ... projecting your consciousness, your soul, out of your body

It happens with any and all identities. As an individual, you cede self-sovereignty to the identities you wear, subconsciously or consciously making decisions based on them and their caricatures. Teenagers' phases embracing one or more identities too strongly is a perfect example. (N.b. this is often explicit and isn't bad, e.g. Christianity trades your fallen self for salvation. Heaven's 2 steps away, on your ego and through the gate.)

This is true, but I think the online world has made it much easier and more rewarding to put on that new identity, and it is home to much more powerful and persuasive entities than the IRL world. Before the internet, your new persona might impress your skater or goth friend circle, and they and perhaps the cool kids at school would try to exert pressure on you. You might see an ad on a billboard or a TV commercial. It's much more insidious now.

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