“I am 100% convinced there are interesting new ‘ways of relating’ waiting on these overlay networks, these pocket internets. They might require configurations beyond what’s currently supported, but these companies are sufficiently young and flexible that, presented with a compelling idea, I get the sense they’d just … implement it! Maybe you should set up a ZeroTier or Tailscale network with a few friends or collaborators and … see what happens?”
“Veil’s website hadn’t been saved, and Pictures for Sad Children was hard to track down in its entirety. The last, tangible vestige of the comic came from those who had ordered a copy of the book. … They resolved to share the collection, mailing copies to whoever hadn’t cracked its spine yet.”
“I’m not sure this networked and weaponized absurdity is the product of ‘vengeful nihilism’ because I’m not sure the message is that ‘lol nothing matters.’ To me, the message is similar to that of any protest: We matter. And you’re going to listen to us.”
Bonus quote: “What you are looking at is an NFT from the popular artist Beeple of a well-endowed Musk walking a version of the Doge meme (a Shiba Inu). It is selling for a very specific six-figure sum that is a combination of the numbers 69 (hehe sex!) and 420 (blaze it!).”
“The [New York] Times in particular is a well-resourced standard-bearer for digital journalism, with a robust institutional archiving structure. Their interest in facing the challenge of linkrot indicates that it has yet to be understood or comprehensively addressed across the field.”
“The end product is an internet-native sport that doesn’t need any of the troublesome real-life human players who are bound to disappoint us with their bad behavior. Instead, fans create narratives for players, inventing histories and team culture to surround and explain the random, simulation-based events of the game.”
“These random angry people are merely asking us to keep our promises. We told them 20-some years ago that we’d try to abolish government and bring a world of plenty. We told them we’d make them powerful, that we’d open gates of knowledge and opportunity.”