It’s the late '90s/early 00s, and the internet is a wild wild west of possibilities. At that time. it was still catching on the masses, and here I am, in my sunny south of France, logging on with a sluggish connection that would give me a really bad headache right now. Fast forward to today, and I haven’t logged out that much since. Call me an O.G. netizen, but I've been caught up in a web of wires, from the dial-up era to the dawn of blockchain, and beyond.
Thinking back on those days of cyber slow-mo and wonky websites to the present, from Myspace and ICQ to today’s Web3 social protocols, I’m amazed by how far we've come. Because I fell for the network from day one, I've naturally grasped the core web concepts like post-identity and post-authorship, along with URL social realities. I've also been into connectivity beliefs and neo-spirituality—things that were hardly conceivable in the pre-net era but have been helping me to scroll in a holistic way.
Over the years, the internet has become such a thing (as a communication tool, but also as a concept). My browsing habits have brought me the craziest, weirdest content, and in recent years, the idea of decentralized networks and Web3 communities. Some of these online fellowships are more likely transitioning thoughtlessly from Web2 to Web3, while others crave a new internet experience, such as the Remilia Collective ecosystem and Milady Twitter.
Despite multiple attempts at cancellation, legal disputes, and various controversies, these projects led by Charlotte Fang continually rebound stronger. They are basically the new wave of net(work) artists and the new net subculture evangelists—drawing a distinction from past net artists who utilize the network itself as a medium.
They aren't simply using the internet to share content; they are living and creating through it, actively shaping it to reflect their vision of the network in a provocative way. The guerrilla style they proudly adopt is not about mindlessly fun/shit posting, sharing fumo, Happy meal pics, or retweeting post-philosophic quotes akin to these copypasta and email chains just to flood NFTwitter feeds. Instead, it's all about establishing new rules, a new order, and new narratives that intertwine elements of identity, creativity, and rebellion against net boredom. There is no room for middle ground here; you either like it or you hate it.
After many of my friends asked me what’s interesting about Remilia, post-authorship, cyber angelism, and the network spirituality thing, I decided to gather a few fundamentals with Charlotte's help for them—mainly because people are too lazy to read lengthy 5000-word blog posts in 2024.
I hope the following lines can highlight your exploration through the holy network.
ଘ꒰੭˶• ༝ •˶꒱੭ .⋆｡⋆༶⋆˙⊹❀
Imagine the internet as a vast ocean of connectivity, where each wave and current represents the flow of data and human connection. In this sea, there are a bunch of islands of communities that come together, not just for socializing, chill, and entertainment, but for something more transcendental and profound: a shared spiritual quest.
✞ Virtual Communities ✞
These are like sanctuaries spread out on the internet. People from all walks of life, from different cultures and backgrounds, find each other in these special corners of the web. They’re looking for others who speak the language of the soul, who understand the yearning for something beyond the IRL world. In these places, they share their spiritual wins and failures, support each other’s growth, and sometimes, they just hang out and chill together in silence, feeling the bond that connects them across the internet.
“It’s inevitable we’ll see more soft cults self-organize online as urban-atomized individuals seek spaces of shared meaning which the network easily facilitates.”
✞ Digital Rituals ✞
The rituals we all perform have always been a way to touch the divine, to mark the moments of our lives with sacred significance. Now, we’re translating these ancestral practices into the digital language. It’s not just about replicating offline rituals online; it’s about creating something entirely new that resonates with our URL life. It’s about finding the sacred in the wires, in the shared screens, the memes, and the cute kaomojis that have become our new symbols of connection.
“The process of repetition and transmutation inherent to memetic transfer has clear parallels to spiritual process—to post is to make oneself a lucid vessel to a higher process through communal ritual.”
✞ Personalized Spirituality ✞
The internet is a treasure chest of spiritual wisdom. You can go deep into ancient texts, listen to the thoughts of neo-futuristic mystics, or check out the edges of avant-garde spirituality. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure of the mind, where you can draw a path that’s as unique as your fingerprint. It’s about building a mosaic of beliefs that reflects the complexity of your inner world.
“Any spirituality of the internet would be grounded in a free marketplace of ideas, innately embracing free association and pseudonymity—we're exactly where we're supposed to be.”
✞ The Egregore Concept ✞
This is where things get really cool. An egregore is like a collective psychic entity and dream, a creation of the combined focus and intention of a group. Online, these egregores can become A1 powerful forces, shaped by the collective creativity of their initiators. They’re not bound by physical space; they exist in the shared digital consciousness, growing and evolving with each new thought and interaction.
"Virtuality features highly accelerated cultural evolution, giving it extreme susceptibility to manipulation and high hyperstitional potential. Technodieties will proliferate in the form of egregores, directly bending reality to their will. Humanity will be twisted.”
✞ Techno-Spiritual Practices ✞
Technology isn’t just a tool; it can be a portal. Some find that the right app or the perfect algorithm can help them reach a state of flow, where time falls away and they’re left in a space of pure being. Others use virtuality to walk through worlds crafted from their deepest meditations, turning inward exploration into an outward hangout.
“Network spirituality is the futurist embrace of experiential hyperreality found in the web's accelerated networks, a lens in which to efficiently (& safely) engage lucid virtuality, and the internalization of its new cultural modes and mores.”
✞ Ethical Considerations ✞
As we get into this new spiritual landscape, we must do so with care and respect. It’s about ensuring that our digital spaces are built on foundations of privacy and consent, that they’re spaces where all are welcome and where the sacredness of each pal’s path is honored.
“Long virtue. Short sin. Remilia world order.”
ଘ꒰੭˶• ༝ •˶꒱੭ .⋆｡⋆༶⋆˙⊹❀
In this system, our trajectory is just the next step of our collective consciousness. The internet, once a fledgling network, has turned into a tentacular interconnected space. You + I, we are way more than passive actors; we are everything. Our rituals, the content we share, and the communities we build are the symbols of a new internet. Together, we create proofs of identity, expressions of our souls.
So, when you get into this narrative, see the web not just as nodes but as a living entity. It’s a space we nurture, and in turn, it nurtures us. Every thought we share becomes a testament to the network's power.
Here’s to the network—our network—that continues to move forward with us, challenging us to watch at the core of what truly connects humans.
b.