<eyebeam><blast> a relational plane

[Nathan Doughty <nathan@xnihilo.com>]

       _a physical representation is people standing in
       crowds/mobs all over the world and every person is
       touching other people and being touched on all sides and
       the entire mob is moving in towards some center all the
       time and shifting like a gelatin being squeezed between
       fingers and parting and coming back together. every
       person(node) is a center with others pressing in towards
       them. the constant motion of this collective can be seen to
       make predictable patterns as an observer steps farther
       and farther away and the complexity fades and as one
       steps back farther still one begins to see that this totality of
       networked people is really only a moving pattern that is a
       small complexity of a larger pattern as bodies of matter
       and living things move and pull each other along through
       space.

       _but this network moves and works on more than just this
       physicality, this touchy-feely push & pull plane of space.
       imagine that this crowd of people pushing together across
       the land of the earth are literally dynamic space markers
       and that they all move and each node changes space as it
       pushes through and is pulled but that the primary function
       of the whole web is to occupy this all of this space all of
       this time and that the chaos of movement within the web is
       acceptable so long as there are no holes and the
       perimeters continue to encompass the edges of the land.
       imagine that these people, these nodes, can do more than
       just reach and touch the ten or so people who immediately
       surround them. say that every one of them can move in
       another way without neglecting the necessity of physical
       presence which their function as space markers demand.
       every node can float above the crowd and find freedom of
       movement. It becomes possible to jump instantly from any
       point in this plane to any other point and this means
       freedom to relate. say that this plane is still a mental
       construct and perhaps it is. 

       each node from its new vantage point in floating space 

       _can now consider the crowd and catalogue it in their
       consciousness and see that it moves. watch the centricity
       of the body pull other nodes close and surround itself as
       densely as it can, this inevitably strong shielding of the self.
       imagine this new plane as hazy perhaps and certainly
       diffuse and spread all around the physical like many
       blankets that cannot quite stop the seep and bite of cold.

       _see that there are huge centers of energy like suns where
       people gather and throb. movement is a thought. an idea
       actualized in the mind and experienced there too. there are
       many holes in this node's sight and large barren spaces
       with small clusters of dim light everywhere in between.
       sometimes there are single specks of thought that stay
       stationary and call out to no one. sometimes burning traps
       that actualize for you and show you sacred code.

       _see that there are communities here too and protuberant
       clusters of nodes that glow fiercely towards some middle
       and grab out towards everything else and suck it all inside.
       bustling intranets and then castles too that think their maps
       into law. incestual centers that work energy forever into
       the middle and strive towards a cycle of endless
       diminishing returns. and recede and fade until these
       centers are tiny pinholes of light in an encompassing
       blankness with glaring behemoths that suck up energy on
       every side.

       _and imagine that there are others alongside you receding
       backwards and taking it in and popping back and forth to
       sell what they know. imagine that the pinpoints and great
       suns and solitary specks sometimes flicker and swell and
       that sometimes they split in half. imagine that it is hard to
       notice and that it doesn't take up any space. look down
       and notice that you cannot see your feet but some node is
       stepping on your shoe.

       bye ++




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