[MD] God as Internet Activity

[Arlo J. Bensinger]

(For those who came in late, this began when i suggested that an emergent layer
arising out of collective activity on the intellectual level may be along the
lines of what Dogbert suggests in a Dilbert strip, namely that simple things
combine to create complex things, so a supreme being must be our future, not
our origin, then Dogbert speculates, "What if 'God' is the conciousness that
results when enough of us are connected by the Internet?" it's just fun stuff,
but i thought it deserved its own subject heading...)

[DM]
maybe, do you think the internet god is fed on inexhaustible porn and blogging?

[Arlo]
i forget the comedian who said, "someday we'll be sitting in front of our
holographic, 3D, pure-res virtual computing machine, and we'll look over at our
dusty, old desktop in the corner and we'll think... i used to masturbate the
THAT?!"

another dilbert reference... scott adams wrote about why life will never imitate
star trek. among the many devices he mentions, it is the holodeck which gets
the main nod. we'll never have a holodeck, he speculates, because "man" invents
one, the species will immediately die off. Why go through the trouble of
arranging and handling a "date", when you can simply power up the Apple
iFantasy Holographic Suite, and spend your nights with four Cindy Crawford
clones?

(Arlo is aware the above paragraph constitutes an example of heteronormalizing,
misogynistic dialogue)

One wonders, as you suggest, that if the true use of the Internet revolves
around lust and egocentric authorship, if the "God" we create will be some sort
of Dionysius-Narcissus hybrid. This could make for interesting Sunday School
stories...

Arlo

PS: Speaking of this holodeck stuff, I have to say, one of the FUNNIEST moments
in cinema (for me) was in The Sleeper. Woody Allen (from the past), while
trying to evade the police, unknowingly hides inside what turns out to be  a
common device in the future, the Orgasmatron. The police linger, while the box
bounces and blinks. When they finally leave, the door opens and seeing Woody
walk out is cinema classic.

Now, do I have to mention the Barbarella scene where she is inside an orgasm
inducing piano? (another apparently common device in future worlds)