Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs
I. The Empire of Signs
II. Culture Jamming
III. Guerrilla Semiotics
IV. Postscript From the Edge
V. Acknowledgements, etc.
Back to Assignment #2

Parallel universes are no longer a figment of our imagination. They're so real that we can reach out and touch them, and even use them to change our world, says Marcus Chown

FLICKING through New Scientist, you stop at this page, think "that's interesting" and read these words. Another you thinks "what nonsense", and moves on. Yet another lets out a cry, keels over and dies.

Is this an insane vision? Not according to David Deutsch of the University of Oxford. Deutsch believes that our Universe is part of the multiverse, a domain of parallel universes that comprises ultimate reality.

Until now, the multiverse was a hazy, ill-defined concept-little more than a philosophical trick. But in a paper yet to be published, Deutsch has worked out the structure of the multiverse. With it, he claims, he has answered the last criticism of the sceptics. "For 70 years physicists have been hiding from it, but they can hide no longer." If he's right, the multiverse is no trick. It is real. So real that we can mould the fate of the universes and exploit them.

Why believe in something so extraordinary? Because it can explain one of the greatest mysteries of modern science: why the world of atoms behaves so very differently from the everyday world of trees and tables.

The theory that describes atoms and their constituents is quantum mechanics. It is hugely successful. It has led to computers, lasers and nuclear reactors, and it tells us why the Sun shines and why the ground beneath our feet is solid. But quantum theory also tells us something very disturbing about atoms and their like: they can be in many places at once. This isn't just a crazy theory-it has observable consequences (see "Interfering with the multiverse").

Scientists: Misfiring brain behind bizarre sensation

CNN) -- Over the years, many people have described having "out-of-body" experiences, but there's not much solid scientific data on what causes them. Now, a chance event may shed some light on what produces the feeling.

Neurology researchers in Switzerland report the case of a woman who described "floating above her own body and watching herself" while she was undergoing testing and treatment for epilepsy. The strange experience only occurred when one particular part of her brain, the angular gyrus in the right cortex, was stimulated with an electrode. And it happened every time the angular gyrus was stimulated.

"Of course it was a big surprise when she told us," said Dr. Olaf Blanke, a neurologist at Geneva University Hospital, and author of the findings in this week's edition of the British journal Nature.

"You hear strange reports sometimes, but in five or six years of doing this I've never gotten that sort of response before," said Blanke.

He says the patient wasn't really frightened, but she did say it was a very strange sensation.

Site of the week:


ONDA [translated from portuguese], WAVE /weiv/ n. 1=> a wave-like motion by which heat, light, sound, or electricity is spread; a single curve in this. 2=> a moving ridge of water; a curve shape compare to this. 3=> a burst of felling; a sequence of a type of event: a 'wave of strikes'. 4=> move one's hand or arm to and fro as a greeting or signal; [cause to] move loosely to and fro or up and down.

[Onda] => Wavelengths or Frequencies: The "world" we perceive with our physical senses is merely one tiny fraction of the frequencies that exist...

ONDA sf. [ in portuguese ] 1=> grande quantidade ou afluxo de líquido. 2=> agitação intensa; tumulto. 3=> fis./ perturbação periódica mediante a qual pode haver transporte de energia dum ponto a outro de um material ou do espaço vazio.

DIMENSION /dî-mèn´shen, dì/ n.: 1=> an aspect or feature. 2=> A measure of spatial extent, especially width, height, or length. 3=> A frequency range => the "world" where we live in... a tiny fraction of the multi-dimensional infinity => The UlTimaTe ReaLitY
[Fourth Dimension] /fôrth dî-mèn´shen/ n. => Time regarded as a coordinate dimension and required by relativity theory, along with three spatial dimensions, to specify completely the location of any event... => [ on the OndaDX site we're going to call it: DimensionX ] <=

...also for [D]=> [DISTANCE] n. 1=> the length of space or time between two points; being far away; a far point or part; the full lenght (of a race etc).
2=> v. separate, make remote.

[X]=> X-dimension, the "one" [frequency] just outside the present range of the physical senses. We can feel it as "vibes" around us, but we cannot see it, unless we tune in with our "psychic" sight...

An influx of immigrants from Somalia and other African and Middle Eastern countries has led to increased use in some U.S. cities of the illegal drug khat, a leaf that is chewed for its amphetamine-like high, authorities say.

Khat has been seen in cities such as Detroit and New York since the 1980s. But it was virtually unknown in Columbus and Minneapolis until the late 1990s, law enforcement authorities say.

Use of the drug appears to be confined largely to immigrant communities, police in Columbus and Minneapolis say.

Khat has been illegal since 1993 in the United States. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, chronic use can cause violence and suicidal depression similar to amphetamine addiction, though the agency said it was unaware of any examples.

Khat has increased in prevalence in the past several years with an influx of immigrants from countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and Yemen where khat is widely used, authorities say.

"What coffee is to Americans is what khat is for Somalis," said Omar Jamal, executive manager of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. "The whole thing about khat being addictive is very strange for Somalis. It's a completely different frame of thinking."

Community groups say their people are being targeted and are not aware they are breaking the law. Police say they are confident immigrants know khat is illegal.

Khat leaves contain cathinone, which is chemically similar to amphetamine. The shiny, bright green or reddish-green leaves are sold attached to thin, rhubarblike stems. A bundle of 15 to 35 sticks costs about $40 in Columbus. Users often brew the leaves or stuff them into their cheeks like chewing tobacco.

"Like what you would get from two or three beers -- that little feeling that lets people forget problems and troubles," said Ali Sharrif of Toronto, who is from Somalia and said he used to chew khat in his homeland. "It makes talking and communicating a lot more easier somehow. You feel like you are suddenly very, very alert."

Alexander Shulgin made millions for Dow Chemical. Then he synthesized MDMA, realized his best test subject was himself, and became the godfather of Generation Ecstasy.

Now he’s back inside his private lab, running a new batch of psychedelic compounds through his chromatograph.

By Ethan Brown from WIRED Magazine

JUST AFTER sunset on a cool California evening last fall, Alexander Shulgin prepared to test the effects of the cactus Pachycereus pringlei on himself, his wife, and 10 other subjects. The group, which included two chemists and an anthropologist, gathered in the living room of a redwood house deep in the woods to help Shulgin with his research into psychedelic cacti. A few months earlier, the anthropologist had told Shulgin that this particular variety was worth looking into — a cave painting in Mexico suggested it might have psychoactive properties. Through chromatography, Shulgin determined that P. pringlei probably was a mild psychedelic, but "the establishment of its human pharmacology requires that it be consumed by man."

So Shulgin dissolved the extract of the cactus into fruit juice, then poured a 4-ounce cup for each person. But his experiment went awry. "At about the two-hour point, my visual experiences became totally swamped by an overwhelming fear of moving," recalls Shulgin, the 77-year-old chemist who introduced ecstasy to the world. His wife, Ann, had an even more severe reaction. Out on the deck, she remembers, "I could see the full moon shining down on me with what felt like chilling contempt, and I thought, What an awful, stupid way to die." With her pulse racing, she went inside to check on her husband, who was upstairs in one of the bedrooms, lying still in the dark. "He said he was OK as long as he didn't move."

Early the next morning, Shulgin assembled his test group, still in pajamas, to assess the effects of the cactus extract. All 12 of them had taken the same compound, but half had become violently ill, while the other six had the kind of pleasant but unremarkable experience Shulgin expected. The results, he decided, were inconclusive. Such unorthodox experiments are common for Shulgin, who might be described as practicing hard science with a blurry edge. With his gray beard, shock of white hair, and wrinkled tribal-patterned shirts, he certainly looks the part of a counterculture icon. But unlike Timothy Leary or Terence McKenna, Shulgin doesn't proselytize for psychedelic drugs. Instead, he invents new compounds, runs experiments to determine their pharmacological effects, and publishes his recipes.

His 1976 synthesis of MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), aka ecstasy, is the best-known result of his work. But he's also created dozens of other psychoactive compounds, including DOM (2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine), more commonly known as the potent '60s psychedelic STP, and 2C-T-7 (2,5-dimethoxy-4-(n)-propylthiophenethylamine), now sold on the street as "tripstasy"and suspected in the overdose death of a Tennessee teenager last year. Together with Ann, Shulgin has written two books that have become cult classics: PIHKAL: A Chemical Love Story (short for "Phenethylamines I Have Known And Loved") and TIHKAL: The Continuation (about tryptamines). They have long tested his compounds on themselves, in the tradition of scientists a century ago, then written about them in a style that mixes dispassionate technical detail ("A suspension of 9.5 g LAH in 750 ml well stirred and hydrous Et20 was held at reflux under an inert atmosphere") with wide-eyed psychedelic utopianism ("I saw the cloud toward the west. THE CLOUDS!!! No visual experience has ever been like this.").

His approach inspired the so-called psychonauts, a small group of scientifically sophisticated young explorers who post chemical syntheses, experimental results, and "Train Wrecks and Trip Disasters" at Erowid.org. "Shulgin has given the scientific approach a role model," says one psychonaut who, under the pseudonym Murple, self-publishes studies on next-generation psychedelics like 2C-T-7. ** MORE **

"computer games don't affect kids; i mean if pac-man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music." - kristian wilson, nintendo, inc. 1989

:: "this is what boundary dissolution means; it means nothing less than the anticipation of the end-state of human history. a return to the archaic mode, a rediscovery of the orgiastic freedom of the African grasslands of 20,000 years ago. A techno-escape into a future that looks more like the past than the future, because materialism, consumerism, product fetishism, all of these things will be eliminated and technology will become nanotechnology and disappear from our physical presence. if-- if-- we have the dream. if we allow the wave of novelty to propel us toward the creativity that is inimicable to the human condition." - terence mckenna (1946-2000)

the hedonistic imperative outlines how genetic engineering and nanotechnology will abolish suffering in all sentient life.

the abolitionist project is hugely ambitious but technically feasible. it is also instrumentally rational and ethically mandatory. the metabolic pathways of pain and malaise evolved because they served the fitness of our genes in the ancestral environment. they will be replaced by a different sort of neural architecture. states of sublime well-being are destined to become the genetically pre-programmed norm of mental health. the world's last unpleasant experience will be a precisely dateable event.

two hundred years ago, powerful synthetic pain-killers and surgical anesthetics were unknown. the notion that physical pain could be banished from most people's lives would have seemed absurd. today most of us in the technically advanced nations take its routine absence for granted. the prospect that what we describe as psychological pain, too, could be banished is equally counter-intuitive. the feasibility of its abolition turns its deliberate retention into an issue of social policy and ethical choice.

:: Reality Is What You Can Get Away With: A Screenplay ::
by robert anton wilson

Presented as a screenplay (though the prospect of this becoming a film anytime before the year 3000 is not one I'd bet on), it's an attempt to distill a large number of Wilson's theories, ideas and thoughts into a single project. As anyone who has read any of Wilson's other work (he's best known as co-author of the Illuminatus! trilogy) will know, he's a man of many ideas, and when he's given free rein to incorporate them all, it's one hell of a ride.