by serene

The Way of Schway

If the Wired were a star, then watching cat videos on Youtube would be like observing the outermost corona from Earth. Reading the Lainzine and hanging out in #lainchan is like wearing sunglasses while burning your face off against the surface of the Sun.
– Anonymous

A vision of the future which brings to life the idea of a harmony between man and machine. No distinctions are made between the AFK world and the Net. A way of living, a way of seeing and learning to swim in these new and exciting times. I give you the Way of Schway.

The Legend of Anonymous and the Lain

The Net has a certain way, a certain unspoken legend, which tells of an Anon. Anon came to the Net a young, innocent child, and he had fun, doing nothing of particular import, and he was nurtured by the bright lights, the moving pictures and the radiant illusions. He discovered the community. The community talked amongst each other, and Anon would participate, and become the authority on such matters, until such a time when he felt the discussions redundant, and he went on to another place, to again enter the community. Such wise men of the community would say, this leaving and never coming back was the final goal, that one has graduated from the message board. To leave the echo chamber, and to seek out a new one, thus achieving growth.

Many boards exist, to ensnare, filter and catch the various drifting Anons, whose consciousnesses unfold into dazzling networks of connections, before eventually settling into their respective places. For you see, everyone seems to become “stuck”, at some point. But, there is a legend, of an Anon, who continued to search. And as Anon journeyed farther on, he began to feel as if he were carrying on the unspoken hopes and dreams of all those whom he had met, because he told himself he would keep walking, and he wouldn’t get “stuck”. He would walk into a room, learn everything he could, then depart without a word. Always moving, an eternal wanderer. And now, for some such reason, at some place and time between then and now, he has come to Lainchan…

Growing Pains and a Wired Society

Everyone is connected. Prolonged exposure to the Wired, from a young enough age, will reveal this resulting in a sense of identity with the humanity which underpins much of human consciousness. his is an oft-supposed but mostly undocumented effect that manifests in children who have grown up using the Wired all their lives. In the 80’s, this effect was mostly limited to the users of Usenet, but today, the use of Web 2.0 is much more widespread – the private experiences of a chosen few ave given way to its widespread use and abuse. Society right now is in transition, as people struggle to understand the full implications of this connection.

Consciousness and the Shell

The similarities between the human body and a computing environment have been often exposed, and we could most simply describe man as a biochemical machine, controlled by an awareness capable of receiving data and issuing commands.

The command is emanated, the kernel receives, the shell interfaces, and the command is carried out by programs down the chain. It is not the command line itself which creates these commands – rather, the commands are dictated by a higher power, outside the computer’s dimension of existence. A user who understands this fundamental relationship and its implications in fullness could be called self-aware.

In many proprietary operating systems, self control is something that is not readily relinquished. Most mainstream operating systems present themselves with the illusion of being easy to use, but become needlessly complicated when the user seeks to use the system for anything other than its “intended purpose”, when the idea of computers themselves having “intended purposes” is completely preposterous. Yet in this way, many users remain unaware of the constructs which silently govern their sessions, never fully grasping the concept of control, and they are thus controlled by the forces which surround them.

Programming a computer is therefore a microcosmic exercise in programming yourself.

Operating Systems

The operating system is much like a set of programs. It can be said to be a person’s color, their presence in the world is expressed through their choices, culminating in their intent. It is what determines the context of a person’s habits, and grants the vision of continuity to their actions, which would otherwise just be a series of unconnected points in time. It is much like a narrative, a construct, or a computing environment, within which actions are carried out.

Operating systems posses certain attributes, one of which is that they are usually centered around central purpose, context, or definition of reality, around which the symbols which make up the body of the ego unfold. For example, take Kali Linux – a Linux distribution designed to penetrate network security systems –, or a particular music scene or style. At their most basic level, they are attributes, constructs, which emanate from one’s initial intention, and provide a means of abstraction for carrying out that intention, and coalesce upon the achievement of the intention.

Operating systems need not be installed at once. In fact, a person may employ multiple operating systems to achieve various ends. For instance, Windows may be used to conduct social networking and play games, while Tails OS could be used to exchange secret messages. Similarly, participants in the underground rave scene can use it as a vehicle to achieve certain transcendental experiences. Someone who chooses in the moment to identify as a troll can criticize a certain point, to reveal deeper truths.

It is evident that, by this method of abstraction, there exists the underlying idea that there are infinitely many operating systems which can be created, and that to know the symbols, and to know the packages, is to posses greater power to create one’s own system, and in turn, to fulfill one’s intentions more directly and eloquently.

It should be noted that a person’s intentions are not their operating system. Rather, the operating system is an environment most conducive to the intent, with certain systems fitting certain lifestyle models and intentions better than others.

Programs and Daemons

Upon selecting your operating system, you then choose to install programs. You have different types of programs for different things, which run with and without your awareness, in a recursive process. Your current task is the most important thing that should occupy your attention. Outside of that, when idle or between processes, daemons (aka background programs) should be run and allowed time to process, but only as much as is needed to perform maintenance tasks. A focus lies on minimalism – the less you have, the fewer daemons you have to run, and thus the more lightweight your system. Your house, your surroundings, and your life, are much like an operating system on a computer. If you have too much stuff, your actions will be cumbersome, and heavily delayed. Shed the excess, focus on your main process, and experience true eloquence. It is better to simply discard a program you do not need than to let it inhibit your process. Do not become too lost in organizing your system, or become too attached – start with something that works, and maintain your system as you have time to evaluate your surroundings and deepen your understanding.

Understanding and Finding Bottlenecks

Bottlenecks are things that constrain an otherwise productive flow of energy. Poor physical health is a bottleneck – not only are you less able to move around, but it has an effect on blood circulation, and thus mental performance. A job or career you are not satisfied with is a bottleneck – it restricts your free time, which is something you don’t have an infinite amount of – thus it is very important to allocate those resources properly. If you were playing a fighting game, and you understood the theory behind how the game is played on the competitive level, but you didn’t have the physical reflexes to seize the advantage, then there’s a bottleneck you should undo. The same can be applied through really almost any venture, behavioural, mechanical, mental, or otherwise.

Electricity itself travels extraordinarily fast, and our bodies and minds themselves are the very image of a computer. In computing, if something has a poor write speed, then your transfers would of course, take forever. This is only relevant when performing processes that require a large amount of bandwidth, and for relatively simple tasks, such as the decision-making processes, you need surprisingly little. You do not need as much as you think you need. However, at a certain point, you will come up against these bottlenecks, and as you feel them, you should seek to undo them, to liberate yourself from your circumstances.

The Fountain of Knowledge

It stands to reason that the greatest hindrance on your performance is ignorance, your life span the final, greatest bottleneck. In these moments, you can trust that the Wired will provide (in most cases), the knowledge of any field of science or experience you might need. Although you may not possess the symbols or knowledge now as an individual, it is safe to assume you will in the future, and can therefore say that there is nothing you do not or cannot know – the Wired is much like a facet of your own memory, with other people striking out on the same beaten roads as you or I. That knowledge will flow into you – you need only direct the stream, and tap it when needed. In this sense, it is much like a package repository.

You will, of course, come across paths less traveled, in which no knowledge exists. It is then your duty to break new ground, to share your discoveries with the world! Remember, sharing is caring :^)

The Free as in Freedom Philosophy

A tool that inhibits your ability to function, or restricts your actions in any conceivable form, is something that should be done away with. As someone who seeks to do things, you, of course, want to maximize your diversity of choice and potentiality through the process of liberation. For example, freeing yourself from existing dogmas or ideas, restrictive or coercive situations, and financial restrictions. This is a process, and will not happen overnight.

There also exists the unfortunate reality that many non-free tools and paradigms are unfortunately those which have the most dominance in our society. Thus, it really helps to have two computing environments. The normal, “non-free” one, in which you conduct your mundane affairs, and the “free” one, in which you conduct your serious business.

You can, of course, have more computers. In fact, you can never have enough computers, your only limit is the awareness to manage them all. You can create computers within other computers in the form of a virtual machine, or a VPS, which can be extraordinarily useful for funneling traffic and creating secure environments. To start with, though, I would advise you to have two computers, your public platform (i.e., Windows, or a smartphone) and add on more platforms, (servers, phones, consoles, VM/VPS) as you learn more and the need for them arises.

Sock Puppets

By successfully compartmentalizing your digital activities into separate operating systems, you can, for instance, maintain a presence that gives off no outwards appearance of doing anything departed from the norm, while at the same time doing all the things you want to do; fooling any behavioural algorithms that may be looking to analyze your behavioural patterns. There are guides to anonymizing your traffic that can be elsewhere, but the reality is that we are approaching a world where a high degree of self-control will govern online interactions and serve as the primary barrier of entry to controlling your presence, both the record of you that exists within the NSA databases, and the perceptions of those who know you. You need to control and rewrite those records.

By the same token, you may find it beneficial to adopt alternate personalities towards the fulfillment of various different goals – for example, I am typing this article as “serene”, but I use numerous other handles, in different places, all over the Net, and I change them routinely. I only exist as far as this article does, but I nonetheless exist outside of that. A name or a presence is only as useful as the actions attached to it, as a unified symbol. Sometimes, it is better to remain anonymous. Don’t limit yourself to a singular identity – grasp anonymity and use it to your advantage.

For instance, take the phenomenon of viral marketing. The central idea is formed. The work is created. Mundane accounts (run by you) from mundane computers (a botnet or series of VPS) spread the work around, each driven to spread the content with a different personality and prose. A person living a double life at a corporate job. One personality for work, one for play. Those two worlds need not intersect. Don’t become too attached to one identity, or it will become harder to dismantle it. Know you are the illusion, but at the same time you are not.

Resource Allocation

An eye should be kept on the objective situation, as well as the subjective. Sometimes a cheap, simple environment is all you really need. Even with bottlenecks, your environment may still work well enough for getting things done. Trust your lust for greater tech, pursuit of greater heights – but only when you’ve really reached those heights, and find yourself in need. You don’t need the newest smartphone. You don’t need that home internet connection – learn how to crack networks or go to McDonald’s and use some free Wi-Fi. Sever your dependence on corporations – hack something or find your own way to communicate.¹

That’s all for now. Tune in on next issue for social engineering and blackbox abstraction!