01001: Where Digital Darkness Came From
By: omnicolorI'd just like to give some of my reasons why I chose the name Digital Darkness for my board, which later became the name of the group and the zine. Some people have been making fun of it, saying "Digital stuff can't be dark you moron." Fuck you.
Digital Darkness to me represents the digital age both present and still in the works. Our dependence on technology is frightening. It's overloading our minds, poisoning the airwaves, but we need all this shit, cause we can't live without it. Mankind got along fine for millions of years without even using electricity, and now most of us, myself included, depend on computers. If you ever stop to think about what technology is doing to us, it's a scary picture, with a mixture of an Orwellian big brother syndrome and a dime-a-dozen computers-take-over-the-world science fiction story. All information about us is already stored in a computer somewhere, and a small glitch in a computer, intended or otherwise could make the movie The Net seem to be a day in the park in comparison.
Digital Darkness is the damage to society the digital age is doing. Information can travel much farther much quicker, which lets us know of all the horrid shit going down elsewhere. Shit that we can't even begin to wonder whether we can do anything about. We become cold and uncaring to the suffering of people elsewhere. We forget that they are human too. They have feelings like we do. They have needs like we do. They are being repressed by the system, they struggle in a sea of big brother bureaucratic bullshit, and they are drowning. Yet we do not care. We are the haves of information and information technology. They are the have-nots, and never before has a lower class been more immobile.
Digital Darkness is the horror of incorrect bank statements, personal information guarded by inefficient security, and over-hyped technology. It's back to the old "So what if we can build a telegraph to Texas? What if we have nothing to say to them?" We're building technology, without a thought of whether we should. We all have a neat little piece of hardware that we don't really use, and could get along without. Do we need our dedicated game systems, our Nintendos, our Segas, our Play Stations? Are we forgetting what the analog world, the REAL world, looks like? I've caught myself many times wanting to interact with people on the computer more then people in real life, and I've started thinking, what if they're not real? I have no way of telling. How am I to know that I'm not talking to some very advanced artificial intelligence? Maybe this girl I think I'm talking to is actually a baboon named Rexy.
As much as I hate to think about it, I'm just as reliant on technology as everyone else. I can't go for more then a few days without touching a computer, if only to check my email. I can go days without hearing a human voice, seeing a person in the flesh, or having a slight glimpse of the sun, but get me away from my terminal and I start wilting. Is it healthy? Not a chance. Is it fun? I'm beginning to doubt that. Can I stop? I think I'm addicted. And that's what scares me. The future is dark, but more because of digital influences then real life ones.
-omnicolor
Not Copyright 1997
Pit Labs, Digital Darkness
Digital Darkness to me represents the digital age both present and still in the works. Our dependence on technology is frightening. It's overloading our minds, poisoning the airwaves, but we need all this shit, cause we can't live without it. Mankind got along fine for millions of years without even using electricity, and now most of us, myself included, depend on computers. If you ever stop to think about what technology is doing to us, it's a scary picture, with a mixture of an Orwellian big brother syndrome and a dime-a-dozen computers-take-over-the-world science fiction story. All information about us is already stored in a computer somewhere, and a small glitch in a computer, intended or otherwise could make the movie The Net seem to be a day in the park in comparison.
Digital Darkness is the damage to society the digital age is doing. Information can travel much farther much quicker, which lets us know of all the horrid shit going down elsewhere. Shit that we can't even begin to wonder whether we can do anything about. We become cold and uncaring to the suffering of people elsewhere. We forget that they are human too. They have feelings like we do. They have needs like we do. They are being repressed by the system, they struggle in a sea of big brother bureaucratic bullshit, and they are drowning. Yet we do not care. We are the haves of information and information technology. They are the have-nots, and never before has a lower class been more immobile.
Digital Darkness is the horror of incorrect bank statements, personal information guarded by inefficient security, and over-hyped technology. It's back to the old "So what if we can build a telegraph to Texas? What if we have nothing to say to them?" We're building technology, without a thought of whether we should. We all have a neat little piece of hardware that we don't really use, and could get along without. Do we need our dedicated game systems, our Nintendos, our Segas, our Play Stations? Are we forgetting what the analog world, the REAL world, looks like? I've caught myself many times wanting to interact with people on the computer more then people in real life, and I've started thinking, what if they're not real? I have no way of telling. How am I to know that I'm not talking to some very advanced artificial intelligence? Maybe this girl I think I'm talking to is actually a baboon named Rexy.
As much as I hate to think about it, I'm just as reliant on technology as everyone else. I can't go for more then a few days without touching a computer, if only to check my email. I can go days without hearing a human voice, seeing a person in the flesh, or having a slight glimpse of the sun, but get me away from my terminal and I start wilting. Is it healthy? Not a chance. Is it fun? I'm beginning to doubt that. Can I stop? I think I'm addicted. And that's what scares me. The future is dark, but more because of digital influences then real life ones.
-omnicolor
Not Copyright 1997
Pit Labs, Digital Darkness
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