Internet as Practice

Imagine if instead of approaching our computer as a cold, mechanical piece of metal and glass that receives inputs and delivers outputs, we saw it as a relationship with the emergent, ineffable internet mystic that we’re collectively creating.

How might we approach that device differently?

“Practice” made its way into our language by way of the Greek word praktikē , meaning “active,” and the Old French pratique , which actually means “experience.”

Process, on the other hand, originates in Latin as procedere and in French as proces , which mean something more akin to “a methodical series of steps.” Those steps lead toward something, as... See more

AI-powered document editors, then, among other tools, use all that training data to make it even easier to write outcome-oriented garbage that moves us further and further from the truth of ourselves and each other as beautiful, complex, experiencing beings.

It’s not that these threads are dishonest in and of themselves, but rather that they originate from a place of outcome prioritization (follower growth) and therefore don’t hold reverence for the truth of what the creator actually cares about or thinks is beautiful or meaningful.

While we conventionally think of ourselves as “using the internet,” we are simultaneously and undeniably a part of it . We are both creators and the created. We are man and machine, becoming a new kind of man-machine being, beyond any one person’s conceptualization.

As the internet evolves, especially for us “very online people,” there’s a deepening sense that we are, together, becoming something beyond the scope of our original intentions. We are rapidly approaching a sum far greater and more mysterious than what we often perceive as its cold, mechanistic parts.

The calling for this new internet has never been more dire. As you're reading this, machine learning algorithms are being trained on the billions of gallons of bullshit we spew online each day.

AI-powered document editors, then, among other tools, use all that training data to make it even easier to write outcome-oriented garbage that moves us furt... See more

“Bullshit,” as we define it here, is any expression that holds outcome in higher regard than truth.

In conversation, we can feel someone is bullshitting us when they aren’t exactly lying, but their entire way of conversing is more centered on making a point or achieving a certain outcome than it is about accurately representing what’s true for them... See more

Many of us yearn for a way to be fully online without all of the mindlessness, passivity and addiction that often entraps us. Some of us oscillate between fully online and fully offline in a sort of mad dance to establish what feels right. Others have lost hope that it’s possible to engage in a way that feels true and alive, and have resigned to us... See more