so, this isn't a dream, then...
Mar. 15th, 2001 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iamomOr else, you guys might just be part of my dream. I guess we're all just dreaming together.
This thing about community, then... It's something that waxes and wanes for me, in that sometimes I feel like I need the community, and sometimes I don't. That's probably pretty common; sometime you need the company of others and their support, and sometimes you just need to be alone for awhile. I've seen a lot of people here go through those times. Some of us get all worried when we see it, and try to make them feel better right away. I know I've done that a few times. You want to be the tearstained shoulder for that person whom you've come to know and care about.
It's a challenge to achieve that delicate balance of listening enough and talking enough, isn't it? Despite the fact that we're all in here talking so much, my guess is that most of us do the most good when we're just listening to someone. Think about it - when someone is talking, they need to be listened to. It's so beneficial for someone who needs to talk to have someone listening who cares about them. Yet another fine point of this little group we have, here.
Has anyone ever tried to figure out how many of us are here? A couple of months ago, I tried interest searches on the most common things I could think of, like sex, food and cats. I think the most hits I got was about 5,000. There must be lots more on here now since that time.
It's almost like a setting for a sci-fi novel, isn't it? You could pretend that we were the last survivors in an alien world, and the only people who understood our language and our culture were the people connected to this network and community. Imagine our earth, lay waste to our overconsumption from generations past, and there are 15,000 of us (or maybe more?), scattered throughout North America and other parts of the world. We communicate to each other through these text messages, using ancient networking technology housed in a glued-together underground infrastructure that's maintained in secret. The network is cryptically referred to as "iweb," a word whose origins are remembered now by only a select few trivia hounds in certain of the older sectors.
Our main character, Haven, is about to come of age, and she aspires to become one of the esteemed network administrators for iweb when she leaves her own sector for one of the connection hub outposts on her next birthday.
During her final training and simulation tests, Haven meets a cool, dark student who appears to know all of the answers to the questions before they're even asked. When she starts to probe him about where he learned all this stuff, he gets a glazed look in his eye, and starts talking about some crazy shit.
"What do you think this is, Haven, some kind of neat little system that's just set up perfectly for you? Look at you - you're working your ass off, memorizing protocols and code, just to become another one of those lines of code in iweb. Haven't you ever considered what iweb actually IS?"
She looks at him blankly, and then a look of indignation crosses her face. "What are you talking about, 'I'm just going to become another line of code?' What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm an individual, you asshole. I know who I am. I know where I'm going, and how I'm going to get there!"
His eyes softened along with his voice. "Look Haven, a lot of people around here have been asking themselves some big questions about what exactly is going on here. You know, underneath iweb - BEYOND the structure of the damned network, okay? I mean, haven't you ever thought about it? Haven't you ever considered who built iweb, and why? Or who else might be on it, but using a different protocol that we just don't recognize?"
Haven thought about this for a moment. She could remember thinking about some of these things when she was younger, before she began training to become an administrator. She remembered wondering how it was that she became part of this strange, widely-dispersed community, and what had really happened here so long ago that had burned out the sky and made everyone go underground. But she hadn't thought about those things for years now, and they barely even felt like her own memories anymore.
This thing about community, then... It's something that waxes and wanes for me, in that sometimes I feel like I need the community, and sometimes I don't. That's probably pretty common; sometime you need the company of others and their support, and sometimes you just need to be alone for awhile. I've seen a lot of people here go through those times. Some of us get all worried when we see it, and try to make them feel better right away. I know I've done that a few times. You want to be the tearstained shoulder for that person whom you've come to know and care about.
It's a challenge to achieve that delicate balance of listening enough and talking enough, isn't it? Despite the fact that we're all in here talking so much, my guess is that most of us do the most good when we're just listening to someone. Think about it - when someone is talking, they need to be listened to. It's so beneficial for someone who needs to talk to have someone listening who cares about them. Yet another fine point of this little group we have, here.
Has anyone ever tried to figure out how many of us are here? A couple of months ago, I tried interest searches on the most common things I could think of, like sex, food and cats. I think the most hits I got was about 5,000. There must be lots more on here now since that time.
It's almost like a setting for a sci-fi novel, isn't it? You could pretend that we were the last survivors in an alien world, and the only people who understood our language and our culture were the people connected to this network and community. Imagine our earth, lay waste to our overconsumption from generations past, and there are 15,000 of us (or maybe more?), scattered throughout North America and other parts of the world. We communicate to each other through these text messages, using ancient networking technology housed in a glued-together underground infrastructure that's maintained in secret. The network is cryptically referred to as "iweb," a word whose origins are remembered now by only a select few trivia hounds in certain of the older sectors.
Our main character, Haven, is about to come of age, and she aspires to become one of the esteemed network administrators for iweb when she leaves her own sector for one of the connection hub outposts on her next birthday.
During her final training and simulation tests, Haven meets a cool, dark student who appears to know all of the answers to the questions before they're even asked. When she starts to probe him about where he learned all this stuff, he gets a glazed look in his eye, and starts talking about some crazy shit.
"What do you think this is, Haven, some kind of neat little system that's just set up perfectly for you? Look at you - you're working your ass off, memorizing protocols and code, just to become another one of those lines of code in iweb. Haven't you ever considered what iweb actually IS?"
She looks at him blankly, and then a look of indignation crosses her face. "What are you talking about, 'I'm just going to become another line of code?' What the hell is that supposed to mean? I'm an individual, you asshole. I know who I am. I know where I'm going, and how I'm going to get there!"
His eyes softened along with his voice. "Look Haven, a lot of people around here have been asking themselves some big questions about what exactly is going on here. You know, underneath iweb - BEYOND the structure of the damned network, okay? I mean, haven't you ever thought about it? Haven't you ever considered who built iweb, and why? Or who else might be on it, but using a different protocol that we just don't recognize?"
Haven thought about this for a moment. She could remember thinking about some of these things when she was younger, before she began training to become an administrator. She remembered wondering how it was that she became part of this strange, widely-dispersed community, and what had really happened here so long ago that had burned out the sky and made everyone go underground. But she hadn't thought about those things for years now, and they barely even felt like her own memories anymore.
