The Internet Was Never Just Technology...

Описание: What if the internet isn't just a technology—but a modern form of magic?

In this thought-provoking conversation, I sit down with Shira Chess, scholar of digital media, folklore, and contemporary culture, to explore the hidden relationship between the internet, occult thinking, conspiracy theories, technopaganism, AI, simulation theory, and the strange ways humans make sense of technology.

Drawing on ideas from her book, The Unseen Internet, Shira argues that digital culture has always been intertwined with magical thinking—from the spiritualist parallels of the telegraph to Silicon Valley's fascination with mysticism, and from algorithmic "divination" to modern fears surrounding artificial intelligence. The book examines how magical thinking and technological innovation helped shape digital culture and how occult themes continue to influence online discourse today.

Topics discussed include:

• The occult origins and hidden influences behind internet culture
• Technopaganism and the spiritual beliefs of early digital communities
• Simulation theory and digital gnosticism
• Silicon Valley, mysticism, and technological utopianism
• The Satanic Panic and online esoteric communities
• Algorithms as modern gods
• Reality shifting, manifestation culture, and digital folklore
• AI, consciousness, and the myth of the "demon in the box"
• Why humans keep treating new technologies as supernatural forces
• The future of humanity in an increasingly digital world

📖 Learn more about Shira's work:
MIT Press – The Unseen Internet (https://mitpress.mit.edu/978026255388...)

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#Occult #InternetCulture #AI #SimulationTheory #Technopaganism #ShiraChess #DigitalCulture #ConspiracyTheories #ArtificialIntelligence #Paranormal #Technology #Folklore #Mysticism #ThingsVisibleAndInvisible


0:00 Introduction – The Occult Logic of the Internet
0:35 Meet Shira Chess & The Unseen Internet
1:22 Is the Internet a Satanic Plot?
2:26 How Shira Began Researching Digital Occultism
3:23 Haunted Media, Spiritualism & Technology
4:24 Silicon Valley's Mystical Origins
5:59 Simulation Theory & Modern Belief Systems
7:05 Spiritualism, Telegraphs & the Victorian Internet
8:14 Occult Beliefs in Early Internet Culture
10:20 Satanic Panic, Neopaganism & Online Communities
11:49 Pagan BBS Networks & Digital Esotericism
13:14 Is the Internet Inherently Occult?
14:34 Technology as Modern Magic
16:00 Has the Internet Been Good for Humanity?
17:18 Corporations as Egregores
18:20 AI, Monsters & Warnings from the Internet's Origins
19:10 Lessons from the 1990s & Technopaganism
21:49 Futurism, Transhumanism & Human-Machine Merging
23:45 Is the Internet Becoming a Religion?
24:10 Algorithms, Faith & Digital Divination
25:41 The Most Surprising Discovery in Shira's Research
25:58 Reality Shifting, Manifestation & “Reality Tourists”
28:05 Has the Digital Age Made Us Less Human?
29:39 Shira's Greatest Fear About AI & the Future
31:30 Where to Find Shira's Work & Book
32:04 Outro & Channel Information