Basically, computers are ways of indexing and recalling information. I no longer have to remember all those little things that used to fill my head, instead I can
- email myself a link and leave it unread for later,
- add a bookmark to my google toolbar under the section ‘read later’,
- set up a reminder in outlook,
- use any of the other million ways we now have to collect and (re)organize information that we feel is important.

It lets us get these data sets out of our heads an into objective space. This gives us the ability to:
A) Handle larger patterns of information at the same time, since we no longer have to keep everything in our heads or readily at hand.
B) share our groupings of information (which collectively make up what you have called our datawakes) with others.

Doing so allows us to watch patterns form in the information, and since the patterns are reflective of our own “self” and our interests/thoughts (i.e., our ego), we can watch the information align around us like iron filings aligning around an invisible magnetic field.

Seeing my ego reflected in the datawake, I then begin to realize that I am not these thought data, I am simply the space in which they play and interact. And I can program the data, so therefore I can program my “self”, as I please.

I think the key thing here is the externalization (and therefore the visualization and potential programmablity) of these (usually) subconscious processes. Once they become external to our selves, we can monkey around with them a lot more.

And if we can finally come to the realization that all these things are external to our true “self”, then what are we left with as “self”?