Fw: [rohrpost] Down to Earth

[lerone@iname.com]

Ist wohl beim ersten Mal irgendwo hängen 
geblieben...

-----Original Message-----
From: lerone@iname.com
Sent: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 22:18:49 +0800
To: rohrpost@mikrolisten.de
Subject: [rohrpost] Down to Earth

Hallo, 

anbei etwas zu den Ereignissen und dem 
"Downing" der zweiten, "virtuellen" 
Welt... 

für Informationen empfehle ich übrigens neben 
den schon auf der Liste 
genannten besonders: 
http://newsinsider.cjb.net/ 

|| oliver lerone schultz | marienburger str. 5a | 
10405 berlin| t: 
+49(0)30-440 46 46 7|| 

>>>

"A Simple Flow of Online Conciousness" by 
Spides:

For me, this morning the 'cyberspace' community 
had an absence of its usual jovial and emotional 
falsifications. It's no secret that once online, 
people let a different side of their psyches prevail, 
forming their own personal idealised faceless 
self on computer screens worldwide. After the first 
plane hit, people were still cracking gags about 
what would happen on Letterman this weekend, 
people were talking about upcoming Tribes 2 
games they had that evening. Senseless false 
people making senseless false jokes to save 
face in front of the peers, while they privately 
wondered what would have caused such a thing 
to occur.

When the second plane hit, the facade began to 
fall away, people started trying to call loved ones, 
the stoic late teens, self professed adults, woke 
their parents to recount this tragedy for all to hear. 
It was at this time the Internet began to get busy; 
chatrooms were being flooded by non-frequenting 
outsiders searching for information. It was at this 
time BBNPlanet, the source for the majority of 
large international news sites took a complete 
belting and fell offline altogether for a couple of 
hours.

This was the first time I ever saw emotion carried 
in text over the Internet and it frightened me. 
These people who you thought you knew, the 
fellow geeks who offered you advice in your trivial 
times of need were falling apart before your very 
eyes. The panic had set in and the kids dragged 
their televisions and radios towards their 
computers - details flooding in.

The Internet was initially designed with the key 
purpose in mind of being a decentralised method 
for information distribution, a communications 
network that would survive through nuclear 
holocaust. With traffic belting CNN, ABC, BBC, 
NBC, Reuters and AP, we all resorted to 
conventional methods of communication, 
everything being quickly relayed into chatrooms.

Concern about the New Yorkers we have come to 
know over our times on the Internet quickly rose to 
a boiling point, calls were made and the entire 
New York phone circuitry was overloaded. Then 
the third plane hit.

It was at this time the idea of the strange and 
horrible coincidence of two planes flying near 
simultaneously into the WTC towers was 
dispelled. The United States was under a terrorist 
attack and those who were posting faux EBay 
auctions regarding a "WTC Tower, Some 
Assembly required" retreated to their private bomb 
shelters or door frames, ostracised from their 
chatrooms with no where to turn, weeping tears 
of 
their upcoming oblivion.

But people needed information; the place for 
panic was in your own private haunts. The IRC 
(Internet Relay Chat) networks of SlashNET and 
IdleNET channels of coverage were alive with 
constant newsfeeds even before the rumours 
began regarding the third plane crash.

First it was total disbelief, hammered home by the 
rumours: a bomb planted within the militaristic 
hallowed halls, a helicopter safely crashing on the 
private pad at the Pentagon, simply 
nuked-out-of-the-sky possibilities or nothing 
happening at all. Another plane crash was 
confirmed and those who were safe in 
Washington found exactly the opposite was true, 
the Whitehouse was evacuated and another 
plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

Rumours regarding a fifth crash, two flights en 
route to Washington, one of which being shot 
down by an F-16, car bombs at Capitol Hill 
circulated. This further sent people who were 
previously in panic into either acceptance of their 
nation's upcoming demise or further disarray. But 
this disarray quickly decayed into what was found 
to be concern for their fellow online friends, 
e-mails and instant messages being exchanged 
to ensure their well-being. Apparent in this 
concern was also a certain amount of 
detachment, especially for those of us abroad, we 
were distraught but not in tears, all we saw were 
numbers. 737, Flight 75, 911, 10,000 dead. The 
information continued to flow through the 
feedsites and BBNPlanet was restored, the 
Internet was once again serving its purpose.

The disgust of those watching these events 
unfold turned to quiet accepting smiles, human 
nature prevalent throughout as morbidly curious 
photographs and videos began to make the 
rounds through various rooms. Those with digital 
cameras were hitting the streets for the first time 
in days, snapping visual information up because 
people needed to know, giving blood to their way 
home.

The new world was unfolding before the very eyes 
of 'cyberspace' citizens and they took it in stride, 
discussing and speculating who the perpetrators 
of this heinous act were, as well as the means of 
their demise. Simon Weil's take on Plato's Cave 
stated that we were held down by the thoughts 
pushed upon us by the upper class elites, 
causing great confusion. Communications 
technologies such as the Internet are paradoxical 
ways of both holding up this confusion and 
making sense of it. It was on this historical day 
the new world saw this confused naivety 
disintegrate, paving a way to an unknown yet 
foreseeable future.

"The father of a friend of mine was describing the 
papers raining down after the crashes, how that 
was the single defining feature of the incident until 
the smoke obscured his view"

Our condolences and best wishes to all those 
involved.

Sincerely,
Frank Gibson (Spides)
On Behalf of Anticow Studios, NZ

anticow.gamer.net.nz


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