Wire-Drunk

by Will Ross

I am not separate from the data.
The data are energy.
I am energy.
I am data.
My hard drive is a collection of neurons more powerful than any supercomputer.
My operating system coded into my DNA.
Minds press together through the monitor, and join.
Two become one.
Ten become one.
Ten thousand become one.
Consensus.
Contentious consensus.
No consensus.
When the mind pulls away, it is again a singular unit.
But it remembers.
And it understands.
Alone I am me.
Inside I am you, and them.
I am my enemies,
and my allies.
I am all of these things, and still me.
And now I understand them,
because they are here too.
Context.
Perspective.
Sense of scale.
Maybe not a hive-mind as much as a distributed brain.
Pop in by cell phone,
on a tablet or a PC.
In the first world,
In the third world.
Everyone’s not equal in here, but we are as good as we are.
No one can see your shabby clothes.
We don’t care that you once pissed yourself on the bus.
That you’re an introvert, that you stutter,
that you live with your mom.
We care about the content of ideas,
and the flair with which they are put forth.
We care about those who make us laugh,
Who make us think,
And those who care about other people.
Not everyone will like you; most won’t.
But unlike Bumfuck, Ohio, Population 451, there will be enough.
Whoever you are,
you’ll find a safe corner of the hive to crawl into.
To defend.
To make your home in.
A family if you have none,
a second or third if you do.
“It’s dangerous in there.”
I know, but any adventure has dangers,
(and most are digital,
being stabbed in the ego hurts much less than being stabbed in the face,
{I’ve heard.})
I am a collection of energy signals moving a body.
The Internet is a collection of energy signals moving the world.

So you can mock me for my chair...
But I have seen such wonders there... (Sorry for not publishing for a year, things were not going well re: my mental illness. More soon.)