{"product_id":"the-unseen-internet-isbn-9780262553889","title":"The Unseen Internet","description":"\u003cb\u003eHow the intersection of magical thinking and technological innovation helped to form digital culture, both past and present.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur contemporary digital landscape often reflects a strange logic: Elon Musk believes there’s a one-in-a-billion chance that we are not living in a computer simulation. People argue about culturally collective false memories popularly known as “Mandela Effects.” And various factions engaged in a magic meme war leading up to the 2016 election. In \u003ci\u003eThe Unseen Internet\u003c\/i\u003e, Shira Chess explores the tensions between the occult and digital spaces in the twenty-first century. These practices have resulted in distinct kinds of otherworldly discourse that affects the broader popular perceptions of reality in the twenty-first century, within and beyond the internet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBehind the glossy sheen of slick social media influencers and corporate oligopolies, the internet is built in part on a foundation of magical thinking. The word “magic” here is not entirely metaphorical, although the metaphor is not irrelevant. Historically the emergence of the internet was concurrent with technopaganism, which blended digital technologies with the occult in ways that are both seen and unseen by the casual user. While technopaganism is not the only lens with which to understand the emergence of the internet, it is an understudied one that reaches toward contemporary anxieties about the ineffability of our tech.Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction: Magic in the Air\u003cbr\u003e1 Technopaganism and the Summoning of Cyberculture\u003cbr\u003e2 From Sigils to Meme Magic\u003cbr\u003e3 From Rituals to Games\u003cbr\u003e4 From Gnosticism to Simulations\u003cbr\u003e5 From Manifestation to Reality Tourism\u003cbr\u003e6 From Demons to AI\u003cbr\u003eConclusion: Nothing Is True; Everything Is Permitted\u003cbr\u003eNotes\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003cb\u003eENDORSEMENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“In her authoritative account of the occult development of digital spaces, Shira Chess sympathetically chronicles the emergence of these newfound, unseen, interstitial realities, as well as their co-option by some of the darker forces promoting technology today.\"\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Douglas Rushkoff, author of \u003ci\u003eSurvival of the Richest\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTeam Human\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Blending scholarship and deep research, Chess illuminates the occult dimensions of the internet then and now. The upshot: whether you believe in it or not, magical thinking lit the fire behind today’s digital meltdown of consensus reality.”\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Erik Davis, author of \u003ci\u003eHigh Weirdness\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBlotter\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“By exploring the occultic encoding and decoding of the digital, Shira Chess provides an innovative (and spooky!) account of internet culture—and the esoteric beliefs that helped conjure it.”\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Whitney Phillips, coauthor of \u003ci\u003eThe Shadow Gospel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“With a mischievous sense of humor, a willful suspension of judgement, and a palpable respect for those she studies, Chess is a present-day psychopomp, leading curious readers into the digital underworld of online occultism, then and now.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Joshua Gunn, author of \u003ci\u003ePolitical Perversion\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eSpeech Craft\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eShira Chess is Associate Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia. She is the author of \u003ci\u003ePlay Like a Feminist\u003c\/i\u003e (MIT Press) and \u003ci\u003eReady Player Two\u003c\/i\u003e, and the coauthor of \u003ci\u003eFolklore, Horror Stories, and the Slender Man\u003c\/i\u003e.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233760489701,"sku":"NP9780262553889","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262553889.jpg?v=1767742014","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-unseen-internet-isbn-9780262553889","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}