Corridors of Cyberspace

As familiar as we are today with the concept of a corridor, it is interesting to note that corridors did not exist before the late 17th century and only became widely used in the 19th century.

“Before their adoption, circulation flowed from one room to the next, forcing interactions and confrontations between the occupants of rooms, and those just passing through. Largely determined by socio-economic factors, political upheaval, and changing approaches to morality, corridors were invented to serve a very specific purpose. They were developed as a tool to separate different groups of people - the servants from the served, the jailed from the jailors ........” (Tad Jusczyk in Consider the corridor: lessons from architectural history)

Although people could now move more efficiently through buildings, rooms became a series of dead ends. The inventions of architects have social implications and the corridor has greatly influenced how we live, work and communicate.  

The study of the architecture of cyberspace is both relatively new and exciting. 

The minute we make use of a system which enables us to communicate despite our physical location, we enter the realm of cyberspace. In this plane, information is stored, processed and passed on. Inhabited by both machines and humans, time in this realm is otherworldly. Cyberspace cannot be seen with the human eye as it cannot be physically located.

Cyberspace is experiential, and its energies are mostly intuited. 

Words which make sense in the land we have come from, are often used to describe the architecture we find when we begin to explore cyberspace. However, because this new “territory” is experiential rather than actual, we often need new words to allude to that which cannot be seen or existing words take on new meanings.  

The term “corridor” has been used to describe the pathways filled with electricity that connect communication systems, but when it comes to the individual moving around in cyberspace the concept of a corridor becomes interesting.

The experience of cyberspace is very much more one of connectivity than separation. After spending some time there the individual gains the feeling of being a node on a hologram.  One feels part of a whole, but at the same time gets the feeling that the whole enters oneself. Individuals come right into one’s mind-space via word and image, and we enter theirs.  People, places and happenings arrive before one’s eyes in realtime and sharing is key.  

And whereas each web page is a separate room and can be just that if the one entering it  so wishes, it is simultaneously a corridor with many other rooms opening off it via the links it offers. The choice lies with the user who becomes the chief architect of that space and moment. 

The clicking of a link can be equated to stepping into a corridor, but the end destination of the corridor is not necessarily fixed or known upon entering it. Its length is not fixed either.   Reading something can be abandoned midway to answer an incoming mail or check on a social media site filled with an exponential number of connections and available links. Time seems to fly in this plane and one can get lost in the same sense one used to do when reading a good book.  

Corridors in everyday architecture have become associated with mystery and sometimes danger. Online “corridors’’ have their lurkers too and obviously vigilance is required when navigating cyberspace. 

“Corridor” has a root meaning of running, but cyberspace is associated with incredible speed. If its corridors exist they flash by. 

Online “corridors” are like the arcades and passageways of malls which offer merchandise, entertainment, and places to meet and spend time together. As cultures meet in these spaces, they stop to chat and share worldviews, and the world suddenly becomes much smaller. Expansion and contraction happen simultaneously. 

 

I am by nature rather curious and love investigating new areas (see Linda in Wonderland). Words fascinate me (see Langu age). Until a new term for it is coined, and even if it is not, I am happy to be a digital nomad, an online surfer, a cybernaut or whatever else I might be named, in the realm referred to in this blog as the “Corridors of Cyberspace”.  

Related articles:

Digital Archways

Social Media - Bridging Cyberspace

Light Through - Electronic Stainglass

Whirling Dervishes - Lessons for Cyberspace

PRT, Paternoster Lifts, Cyberspace And Mindfulness

Filtering

Linda in Wonderland

Cybeflanerie: Deep Listening in Cyberspace

Tokyo2Dubai Collab

Closer

Closer

Let's commune iCate
uWho
^_^ my way
Catch the sound
Hid den in the let hers
Hold onto the stories
Captured in the pictures
Swirl~ ~ ~ ~ing
Twirl~ ~ ~ ~ing
Across these waves
Bringingusallcloser
2 ea other
~~~~~~~ like the colors
On a spinning top

Til there is only One

Filtering

Walking home today I was very much conscious of the fact that I was going to need to take out my sunglasses. The glare at the moment in Dubai is such that without aid to filter out certain rays, the eyes automatically squint as a protection mechanism.

The body has a number of filtering systems in place.

The mouth will immediately spit something out that is unbearably hot, the nose has little hairs to filter out unwanted particles, the skin experiences pain as a warning signal when exposed to that which is harmful and our ears filter out sounds in certain ranges. Without any conscious effort on our part, the body is constantly attempting to filter out that which is harmful or toxic.

Mind chatter is a mental filter which can often block out an experience. The brain, too, often filters out trauma, only allowing it to resurface at a time when the individual is able to deal with it.

At the same time, on a subconscious level, our egos filter our experience, cultures have membership filters, and all these filters give rise to perspectives and worldviews which assist the shadow in remaining hidden. We see things as we want them to be or as we are socially conditioned to see them.  Life is viewed through these filters and accepted in this form as the only reality.

Technology is full of filters. For example, when you go onto a website to purchase a book, there are filters in place which note where you are from, what books you have purchased before and what subjects you have shown an interest in.  These filters enable the site to recommend similar books and thus have the power to influence your buying.

Until we become aware of them - an analogy these days would be taking off our 3D glasses as we exit the movie theatre - these filters remain in the subconscious, affecting how we feel about things and giving rise to various emotions.

Imagined boundaries separate us from others and from ourselves.

“Boundary” has up until now perhaps been the most appropriate word to discuss the imagined separations that need to be overcome as growth takes place, barriers are broken down and more and more of the Kosmos is included in one’s embrace.

I have a suspicion though that, with the current emphasis being placed on relationships and processes as the collective “we” comes to the fore, the focus will change from “boundaries” to “filters”.  

While technology has its own filters, at this point in our evolution, it is having an incredible effect on breaking down what we thought were boundaries. 

Time and distance are no longer barriers to communication. Space is becoming more spacious as it were. Information is easily accessible. Open sharing is on the increase. Information has been set free as it were, except in certain countries where social media is being threatened by the blocks or filters on certain websites.

Technology is in a sense is making us reconcile what before we might have considered  total opposites. Cultures are meeting and different perspectives on the same topic are becoming readily available.

This has ushered in a time where more than ever before the individual is conscious of the need to filter out certain information if balance is to be maintained.  So much is coming at one that one cannot possible click on every link, listen to every video or read every article.  There is so much one can “tune into” that discernment is necessary if one is to listen properly and not be all over the place.  Without this discernment, information overload is difficult to avoid.

“If you actually look at the amount of data coming in through all your senses, there’s something like 100 million bits of information coming in every second through your visual system and another 10 million bits coming through your auditory system and another one million bits coming through your tactile system.” (Will Wright, The Sims creator)

There is a cry going out for a filtering tool, a means to cope with the stresses of sensory overload, information overload and even emotional overload – the downside of being able to be connected more than ever before.  

At the same time we need to open ourselves to be more without filters. The wonderful paradox is that both these processes need to be happening at the same time!

The time has come for filters to be consciously chosen.

Whereas technology has removed many of the filters put there without our doing, we now have to put our own filters in place to protect ourselves and expose ourselves. That is the marvellous two way function of a filter. It allows some things entry while preventing others from passing through.

There is a great interest being shown of late in mindfulness as a tool to enable one to be present without filters so that necessary filters can be put in place.

In a sense we have “come full circle”, or let us rather say, we have spiralled above where we started.  In a sense we are in another Eden where once again the wisdom of the serpent is required to offer us knowledge of ourselves and of the reality of good and evil.  We need too, to attempt this with the gentleness of the dove.  

Language can be so limiting. In its present form it is very suited to linear, three dimensionality.  Nouns dominate our current sentence structure with the duality of subject and object.

As many perspectives are simultaneously held and moved beyond, as barriers of time and space begin to fall away and subject and object begin to be sensed as being one, verbs are often more appropriate ways of expressing the reality being experienced. 

In which case instead of “filters”, “filtering” will become perhaps the apt term.

(Adapted from a blog I first posted on the Integral Life Website)

Trend Blue

Blue perches on the edge of her cybermobile, races down the information highway, turns the corner, and then barely screeches to a halt before shooting off again.

Accustomed in her youth to sitting still , then later travelling on horseback, ships or aeroplanes,  this kind of travel is exciting to her and she has taken to it like a duck takes to water. 

At last she has come of age and is no longer limited by the confines of distance and time. A thrill of excitement ripples through her at the very thought of the avenues of opportunity that have opened to her.

Now at last she can shout out from the rooftops and be heard by others instantaneously. 

Blue, by another name, is Communication, and in the current age has a voice unheard-of before.  Aided by technology and most importantly social media, Blue is the newly acquired voice of the collective.

Never before has the collective been so able to participate in bringing about change despite the many unhealthy structures still existing in some parts of society. The collective has in a sense, truly found its voice.

The collective has widened its embrace and individuals willing to open themselves to new perspectives and different world views, find themselves part of a much bigger We than that to be found in their family, their tribe, their town, their country, their religion, or even their species. And this We has a voice.

I have called this voice Blue for many reasons.

All colors have frequencies and when exposed to them we resonate with them in ways we are often unaware of. At the same time our evolving energy levels probably cause us to be drawn to colors existing at the same frequency. 

In the study of colors, blue is related to self expression. It symbolizes speech, and the ability to communicate our needs and requirements.  

Blue, the color of conversation, is said to absorb and release sound. In his book, “Born on a Blue Day”, Daniel Tammet, one of the very few people alive with synesthesia and autism, describes how he sees “the sound of loud voices arguing” in blue. 

When one studies the chakra system, the fifth chakra associated with the throat, is the chakra of communication, expression and creativity. The color associated with it is blue. Not only are there the seven chakras for the individual, but there are also said to be seven planetary chakras. According to some schools of thought, the fifth planetary throat chakra is said to be at the Great Pyramid of Giza located just outside of Cairo - interesting, when one considers recent events in Egypt and the action that was able to be initiated through the use of social media.

In an interconnected world, trends in one area keep popping up in others. Blue at the moment is in.

Twitter’s official logo is in blue. Blue, light blue and sky blue variations of the twitter bird, although not their official business logo, are used as style elements on their website.

The ribbon promoting freedom of online speech is blue, and it is said that blue is becoming the new green.

At the end of the Milan Fashion Week, Giorgio Armani presented his Spring/Summer Collection for 2011. Inspired by the nomadic Touaregs, known for their wearing of blue, the show, entitled La Femme Bleue, had models wandering out of a desert backdrop in shades of blue from cobalt, through navy to royal and midnight blue.

I have referred before to the rise of what I call global nomads in the current world culture we are part of. This collection was a reminder to me once again of the need for finding new and diverse ways of communicating in this century of mobility and in a world where the centre is constantly changing.

If you have the time to watch the fashion show that follows, be sure to look out for Blue. She is definitely on the catwalk!

Langu age

About twenty years ago, it was still believed that after the brain’s initial formation period, brain networks were static. Neuroscience now recognizes that the brain is shaped by experience on an ongoing basis.  Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to rewire itself and form new networks at any age. 

The internet, and especially social media, is without a doubt affecting our reading and our writing, but what I find particularly fascinating, are the examples of brain plasticity in these areas, now slowly coming to the fore.

Without us being consciously aware of it, our brains are adapting and adjusting to the time we spend online.

The splitting of words as we type in haste, the joining of words for convenience or for use with hashtags, (a word only recently added to the Oxford dictionary), omitting letters for the sake of character limitations, and the use of numerals 4 certain words, are now everyday phenomena in cyberspace.

The very concept of cyberspace is effecting not only the way we use words but also the meaning we give to them and the way we see them. 

What if nowhere is seen as now here

Tweeps refer to everyhere not everywhere as they meet online with users from various countries simultaneously. 

The concept of an iCloud is not at all strange.

The blog u r reading right now is called here2here.

Only recently I came across this tweet:

@GammaInfinity One whole day has passed, and I remain amazed that until yesterday I had never noticed that “race car’” backwards is “race car”.

These are exciting times, for these very abilities will overflow into everyday life.  Whereas before we could look at something for years without noticing certain aspects of it, we will now begin to take new perspectives on worldviews we had never questioned before.  Outlooks conditioned by upbringing and culture will be looked at with new eyes. Reversals, splittings & combinations will see insights evolving.

As an exercise, I decided to take the word “language” and play around with it. 

Langu age, was perhaps a natural split, as we hear much about entering a new age.

Research revealed that besides being an iphone app to make the learning of Spanish and Mandarin Chinese a lot of fun, “langu” also means “my” in Swahili. 

A promoter of collaboration, I immediately looked up a translation for “our” in Swahili, only to discover that it is  “wetu” which I of course read as “we too”, appropriate I felt in an age of interconnectivity and connectedness!

Lan guage was another possiblity.

My eyes muddled up the letters in guage on first reading and I saw it as gauge.

LAN is an acronym (hard to believe that two years ago I did not know the meaning of lol!) for local area network, but as more and more of us access online space, the question of what to gauge as local becomes an interesting one. 

Let’s look at one more possibility for “language”: La ngu age.

Age keeps reoccurring, la added a French ring to the, and ngu is an acronym for never give up. The never give up age!  

My eyes, probably because I come from Africa and have many times visited the Kruger National Park, immediately saw “gnu” the first time I read la ngu age. The age of the gnu?

The gnu is a wildebeest and spends much of its life as a loner on the move. This is possibly not inappropriate when we consider how we as individuals are continuously on the move in cyberspace.  In a sense we are alone as we do this, but in another sense, this aloneness is only physical.  On an energetic level, we connect to so many others in virtual space.  The gnus are famous for their annual migrations in the Serengeti, and together we in here2here space, are making mass migrations to new ways of being.

People from the West write and read horizontally from left to right. In the East many languages are written and read vertically from bottom to top. The mass migrations we are making together in cyberspace, however, are rewiring our brains and altering the way we write and see things.  Now, for example, in the West, emoticons are written vertically :) while the Eastern smilies interestingly enough run horizontally ^_^ with most of us beginning to use them interchangeably.

In @GammaInfinity’s Flickr photostream you will find what he has entitled Luminal Butterfly. He states that in this magic fantasy, butterfly has another stage after adult, where it becomes pure light, creating beautiful displays in late summer.

Not only is language undergoing a metamorphosis, but we, both as individuals and as the collective, are undergoing one too.

As we do so the heart is opening:

heartheartheartheartheartheart is becoming 

hear the art hear the art hear the art 

_/|\_