DeityPunk
An addon to finding the spiritual in cyberpunk literature.
Media : Temple OS, Lord of Light, Neverending Story, Narnia, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis
I was 6 years old when I saw an Alien spaceship fall from the sky. I was 8 when God told me that I am the reincarnation of Jesus. I was 12 when the angel Gabriel told me to make a game. deiOS is the game that I made as a reflection of that event later on in my life. My whole life I had been wondering what that was about. Why did my mind conjure such a combination of religious grandiose imagery as well as capturing it as a technological medium? It wasn’t until I saw Terry Davis that I realized that my sanity can capture what he may have been trying to express in this essay of what it is like to have religious delusions while also being programmatically minded.
I am sane now, however the experiences of having childhood religious paranoid hallucinations left me with a burning desire to understand the intersection between anthropology, technology and spirituality.
Cyberpunk can be defined as mankind’s lack of meaning in an unequal future of neoliberalism, Deckard’s lack of meaning and trying to find his purpose. With no spotlight on his purpose. But I want to make the argument that despite our future in building an alienating cyber city, there will always be meaning to be found in each new structure that is erected. There will always be those who build an Operating system to God. Neoliberalism can never ever squash the religious / spiritual out of society, and I think successful corporations embrace the societies major meanings in order to survive. The future of cyberpunk isn’t nihilistic but spiritual and full of meaning. I will make a point that corporations has embraced meaning over nihilism and has become the dominant social religion.
The Machine that reflects the face of society will become the dominant spiritual driver. But let me explain. It is too slow to have humans make / deliver the content we need in order to be happy. As a result we have given that task to algorithms that dictate what we need to do. As a result what product has shown to be most proficient at capturing people? The machine has no ego. Just an expression of a formula, which always changes, taking in data points such as what we click on, what content we watch, how long we watch it. It enters those data points and alters itself in order to be the most personalized ideal deliverer for you. As a result it sometimes acts like a place of worship once it understands a person deeply enough because its ability to connect content with others is so deeply fulfilling that it resonates with that individual deeply. Creating a personal temple, in which those who spend the majority of their time. The same algorithms in technology are present in culture, colloquially called common sense, or folk wisdom. The ten commandments are a formula for Judaism and Christians. Which in turn creates a society.
Some people spend more time watching technology than participating in their own local community. I am one of those people, and my life is impacted deeply as a result. I have no material goods, my walls are bare, my life is spartan. But my digital goods / life is rich, luxurious, bountiful, and fulfilling. But it is also true that these algorithms or modes of operation are present at all times for all of civilization. You can never escape the algorithms of your upbringing.
Throughout each age of civilization. There have been algorithms in which societies run their entire structure around. The ten commandments; an algorithm for a society of the Israelites to be judged. The magna carta, an algorithm for lords to drive their king. There is a God in every machine. That divinity in each algorithm creates a structure for the universe and shapes the thoughts and feelings of those who use it.
The abacus creates a different man; some can even conjure a mental image of the device in their head and solve huge algorithms. The calculator as well can provide any person with the ability to solve complex problems its hard to render a calculator compared to a abacus and changes the whole spirit of math as a result. The loom creates complex patterns, and creates new complex solutions and problems. Writing and numbers invented to track huge loans in Assyria, and now we have debt, interest, than credit cards. The spiritual pitfalls that await those who take too big a loan. Each new technology allows each human to discover a new spiritual reality, a new civilisation to emerge and a potential that isn’t apparent to them. There is a spirit to each of those that deserves attention and awareness. In that sense each new material unlocks a new spiritual. For even Jesus was executed on the technology of the crucifix. Isn’t his suffering more meaningful for it? That the spirit of the person who invented it went into his story and defined the symbol of our Lord. The bible never died, it just went into a kindle. The Sunday hymns of gospel, now is in Best Gospel Music Compilation (Bless The LORD!) 2012.mp4. Amens in the comment section.
In this sense, the paranoid hallucinations retell the religious story in the new technology and new mediums that emerge. Terry Davis knew how to write an operating system and that’s what he built the temple for God. Because that is where the new spiritual meaning is. The modern operating system. The new crucifix in which a new spiritual religious group of people operate, torture each other, find salvation and meaning. That is what I hope I have expressed with this term DeityPunk. I could have easily put my call of the divines in a book, or a song. When the archangel Gabriel told me to do so. But because my dominant technology I consumed media was games, it was the vessel in which I put my divine call into.
Deitypunk in my definition is a term for exploring the intersection of spirituality and technology, and how people intersect with it. In the present time and struggle either rebelling or embracing the new meaning that emerges out of it. I am not a clever man so I can express it in terms of aesthetics, and maybe it will help you think of ways that algorithms affect your work.
I hope that this inspires you to think about how your technology shapes your beliefs about your world, and gain a deeper appreciation of the meaning it gives you. I’m uncertain if what I am writing is useful. This is the first draft on trying to express this idea that means alot to me and how useful it can be for noticing meaning when it is invented.
