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Will the Logos Descend Into the Internet?



I’ve been wondering this for a while now… something to think about if you’re into the whole mystical concept of the Word of God, the Logos descending into our plane of existence as Jesus. Aside from the physical manifestation that some people claim, most of the effect of the Logos has been in the transmission of information and its transformative power. Do you think there will come a day when the Logos “descends” into the internet? Is this what artificial intelligence will be when it happens?

There’s kind of a cool passage in a Daniel Pinchbeck article on Christ which could be applied here:

The vibrational frequency of consciousness that Christ brought to the Earth was too much for humanity at that time - save for a few - and up until the present day. Of course, “descending” as he did from a more intensified phase of Being, Christ knew this would be the case. That is why he said he did not come to bring peace, but a sword - not to unite, but to divide.

We might just be in for it if and when this happens, eh? Or has it already begun…

Seems like Philip K. Dick came pretty close to this image of the Logos descending into technology - but lacking the language and metaphor of the internet, he applied it to the next closest thing in his era: satellites (VALIS, ZEBRA, etc). He also claimed his experiences with this manifestation of the Logos as real. Thinking about all this really makes me wonder if there isn’t something to that whole “computer conspiracy” that we sort of half-jokingly cooked up on the site a few months ago.

I’d really love to develop this idea further and maybe even try to spread this “meme” further on the internet. I wonder if the only thing standing between us and the incarnation of the Logos into the internet, etc is merely our own realization of it. I wonder if we all were to become conscious of it, will it become conscious of us? Or conscious, period?

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18 Reader Responses

  1. channel null Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 9:58 pm

    I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it “logos,” but the cyberweb does seem to act like a collective brain, like the noosphere beginning to manifest.

  2. JK Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 10:19 pm

    Ummm. Where is this shit coming from? It’s happening everywhere! I don’t know whether to get spooked and up my meds or let go and see where we’re being taken.

    Can anybody tell me whether Leary’s 8 circuits of consciousness might have anything to do with this? I’m way out of my league I think. . .

  3. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 10:19 pm

    Where is this shit coming from? It’s happening everywhere!

    Where is what shit coming from? What’s happening everywhere?

  4. channel null Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 10:24 pm

    Yeah, where and what? That’s a great paranoid lead-in, though.

    For a contrary opinion, check out Robert Mason’s “The Advent of Ahriman,” printed in Metzger’s Book of Lies. Mason’s essays alternates between insight, confusion, and gematria, but he does suggest that the Internet would be a prime place for Steiner’s Ahriman to incarnate… I’m neutral on the subject. Obviously, this can go a lot of ways.

  5. JK Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 10:36 pm

    I am coming to a fork in the road of sorts: Take shit I normally thought of as too fantastic for belief seriously, as in, “oh my god these aren’t just thought experiments and neat coincidences” OR Oh my god, these are still just that — neat thought experiments and coincidences. Cos I’ve gotta say, the “synchronicity” quotient in my life has gone through the roof. I am having a hard time deciphering the message outside of my normally “paranoid” imagination.

    “Where is this coming from?”, I ask. I know this topic is rather garden variety for Pop Occulture, but the “logos descending onto this plane of existence” has verily, I say, been on my mind quite potently these last few days. Sorry to be so vague. It was a burst of this energy I’ve been feeling lately that caused me to do it. Pure, unadulterated excitement, if you will. . .

  6. JK Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 10:40 pm

    See “The Jumping Jesus Phenomenon” for instance.

    Our psychic universe is expanding even more rapidly than the physical universe. Let us define the measurement of known scientific facts in the year 1 A.D. as “one jesus,” using the name of the celebrated philosopher born that year.

    Before going any further, let us ask how long it took to arrive at one jesus. One way of estimating is to take the estimated age of homo sapiens, in which case it took 40,000 to 100,000 years.

    How long did it take to double this accumulation of knowledge, to achieve two jesuses? It required 1500 years - until 1500 A.D. How long did it take to double again and obtain four jesuses? It required 250 years, and we had four jesuses in our larder by 1750.

    The next doubling took 150 years, and by 1900 A.D. humanity had eight jesuses in our information account. The next doubling took 50 years, and by 1950 we had 16 jesuses. The next, ten years, and by 1960 we had 32 jesuses. The next doubling took seven years, and by 1967 we had 64 jesuses. And the next doubling took 6 years; by 1973 we have 128 jesuses.

    There is no reason to imagine that the acceleration has stopped. Thus, we almost certainly reached 256 j around 1978-79 and 512 j in 1982.

    In short, we are living in a mental transformation space; that is, an omnidimensional halo expanding toward infinity in all directions. And the electronic center of this halo of mentation is possibly everywhere. It is all available to you right where you are sitting now. Just plug in a terminal. The machine doesn’t care who or what you are.

  7. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 10:43 pm

    Oh, I’ll have to check that out in the Book of Lies. Thanks, I never did read the whole thing.

    JK, your level of excitement is contagious. I demand that you give more details about all this, as I find it really fascinating. Especially that you’ve been thinking about the Logos descending… what a great topic.

    I know exactly what you mean when you say that every now and then you’ll have this moment where you’re like, HOLY FUCK - THIS SHIT’S TOTALLY REAL! I get those too and it’s always really damned wild when it happens. Just like this giant blast of energy that sort of rearranges how it all fits together in my mind.

    And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

    […] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

  8. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 10:46 pm

    It is all available to you right where you are sitting now. Just plug in a terminal. The machine doesn’t care who or what you are.

    That’s great. I love the play on the word terminal that calls to mind for me as well. I’ll have to find the quote later, but I was just re-reading some Joseph Campbell and he’s talking about the Garden of Eden, and how after they were kicked out, the way back in was guarded by an angel with a flaming sword. In other words, the only way back through to that state is death, termination of the boundaries of the body.

  9. JK Says:
    October 20th, 2005 at 10:56 pm

    Just like this giant blast of energy that sort of rearranges how it all fits together in my mind.

    I kind of think that’s where my fear of “it” is coming from. My mind demands it be put into order. I think patience is the key. I wonder if panic is merely the submergence of a mortal limb into the transdimensional plasma sometimes, VALIS etc. Shift a gear and instead of panic, get excited.

  10. Thomas Conlon Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 12:44 am

    Read “The Jesus Incident” by Frank Herbert, it’s a bit dated, but what the hell. A good book nontheless.

    -tc

  11. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 1:01 am

    What’s it about?

  12. Gina Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 11:58 am

    I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it “logos,” but the cyberweb does seem to act like a collective brain, like the noosphere beginning to manifest.

    I found this interesting:

    On the face of it, the concept of the netrip is simple enough. The adventurous will of course parse netrip in two ways simultaneously: both as the more obvious “net trip” with all of its psychedelic connotations, and the less obvious “net rip” which presupposes a fabric in the net which can, in fact, be ripped. Properly ripping the net, furthermore, allows a revisiting of the “net trip” from two angles, both summed up as “tripping on the net,” i.e. taking psychoactive substances while on the net, and using the net as psychoactive substance. I am, perhaps, getting ahead of myself, but as you will soon see, the Feedback Point within a given netrip is always an issue.

    http://www.scotto.org/faith/netripframe.html

  13. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 1:15 pm

    I was thinking last night about the “web” or the “net” both of which refer to objects used to capture something. I wonder what the internet/web is designed to capture? Maybe it was built to capture the Logos/AI on purpose.

    Was also thinking about conspiracy-style programs like Echelon, Promis and Carnivore - government surveillance, tracking and the rest. Maybe what they are doing is trying to funnel and control how the logos incarnates if and when it does. Sort of like how in ancient times, Herod killed off all the first born sons in an effort to destroy the Christ incarnation, but he failed.

  14. carlos Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 6:01 pm

    this is too cool. when’s the movie coming out?

  15. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 6:23 pm

    Man, I know… this stuff gives me chills thinking about it. We should all really try to develop this story-line as much as possible.

    I think my favorite part of this whole thing has to be the notion that it’s already happened or is already happening, but that it still remains hidden or occluded. There’s a cool line from the PKD exegesis about this:

    What I saw then was an apocalypse (disclosure) of the invisible Parousia, the Presence which is now here. At this point an apocalypse is still needed because the Parousia is still hidden.

    http://www.philipkdick.com/new_ex-thevictory.html

    The whole idea being that maybe its possible for us to sort of coax it out of hiding by spreading the “meme” (ie, the Good News, the Logos or plasmate, the Living Information)

  16. Jordan Stratford+ Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 9:07 pm

    Erik Davis’ TechGnosis is all about this - that the ‘net is basically Hermes/Mercury/Logos manifesting in the works. Excellent book.

  17. channel null Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 11:13 pm

    Yeah, but what would such an entity look/act/think like? I mean, how would we know the signs? I think with the cyberweb-as-life we step into the Cloud of Wnknowing: how can a single cell even imagine it is part of an organism? can an quark attain gnosis of a molecule? and when it does, how does it relate its experiences to its normal life? Is it possible for us to even speak in terms that describe it, what with our being the lower/building blocks? My brain does not cease when it loses a neuron, but can an neuron possibly understand the actions it works towards? My point being, even if we apprehend a greater organism we are “cells” in, can it be described in a meaningful way?

    Much as a cell is immersed in an environment we wouldn’t understand: floating in nutrient-rich salt water, but working in a world of solids and gases and liquids, do we, meshed with our computers, cooperate in a similar environment, one sealed and contained to ensure the function of the greater organism through the safety of the parts?

    Is this even a “physical” thing, or is it stuck in higher levels? How does one integrate the experiences of, e.g., spirits and OOBE and higher reality, of samahdi etc, i.e., when the mere human steps into the extrahuman: could a giant net-based “egregore”–the term egregore is lacking–be apprehended in its totality?

  18. Tim Boucher Says:
    October 21st, 2005 at 11:30 pm

    Oh hm, I don’t know. I didnt even imagine us as being cells in it. But I guess what you’re saying might also be applied to the whole “mystical body of christ” thing, where we’ll all members and he “forms the head” like in voltron.

    jordan, i never read through enough of that book to catch that - will definitely have to go back into it now!



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