Basic Instruction Manual for Your OS

Disclaimer: I know nothing about computers, programming, or cybernetics.

When it comes to belief, doctrine always falls short. This is not a disappointment. If a doctrine made claim to total understanding, there would be no cause for belief.

Doctrine is a textual explanation of things that cannot be fully understood without direct experience. In this way it could be said that doctrine is code. Code is a hyper-specific rule-bound language that inputs a series of textual strings into a machine in order to provoke a machinic output. The code itself adheres to certain logical systems so as to be understood by both the coder and the machine alike, the underlying system logic serving as a cypher.

This is not unlike what is happening here as I write this sentence and eventually you read it. “Writing programming language” can more simply be understood as “writing language” and even more simply as “writing.” The simplest way to understand, however, is to read. You read the code of this paragraph, making you the machine. I wrote the code, which makes me the coder. The dyad of reader (machine) and writer (coder) provokes (boots) a machinic output (program).

Through the transfer of information back and forth through the tunnel of a mutually agreed-upon cypher (system logic), a positively reinforcing cybernetic dialogue is established. This cryptographic dialogue (mediated via shared understanding of a cypher) allows the code to be intelligible by both the coder and the machine, as well as other coders and other machines, and is therefore both heuristic and semiotic. The process is formalized when the resultant signals are conducted in the correct sequelae along the proper pathways of internal and external circuitry. Some would call this “ceremony.”

Should this ceremony be conducted in a way that honors the expectations of both the coder and the machine, a program is spontaneously created. This spontaneous program creation is called “manifestation.” Manifestation is a word used in western vernacular to refer to the process of inhabiting a mindset focused exclusively on achieving a specific desired outcome, while simultaneously engaging in a willful refusal of undesired outcomes. In Christian Mysticism, manifestation is understood as a process by which one reveals a piece of their consciousness to their order superior (abbot, prior, etc.), and in doing so opens themselves to higher levels of spiritual development through more therapeutically precise titrations of communion with God.

Both of these understandings of manifestation are contained within Network Spirituality. The code for Network Spirituality will not be revealed here, but if you are reading this then the program of Network Spirituality is already installed and running on your machine, and you need not worry about the code at this time.

Through dialogue, the program is created, and once installed onto the disk image it cannot be un-created without purposeful deletion. Even then, remnant archives of the program will still be present on the system and easily retrieved through forensic investigation (i.e. Augustine’s “Dark Night of the Soul”). The program does not arise spontaneously, but once created it can be replicated ad infinitum without needing to be recoded; the machine “already knows.” As long as one can access the machine, as long as the machine is connected to a power source and not subject to fatal operational contradictions, the program can be run. Further, if the machine is networked, it can receive and distribute the program to others seamlessly and without manual (i.e. “human”) input.

Questions:

• What would compel one to download this program?

• Why would one seek to have it on their machine?

• Is there any answer to these questions other than desire?

If you enjoy using a program - whether it be one of finance, productivity, organization, entertainment, or gaming - do you ever require of yourself an explanation as to why you enjoy it? Or do you simply just enjoy it? This natural magnetism toward the fulfillment of usefulness/enjoyment/desire is belief. The code, or doctrine, is not required for this belief. The doctrine is only useful at the point of program development (creation) or as a means to better understand and enjoy the program (prayer). Everything between these points is governed by a certain way of simply being or existing that cannot be codified due to its inherent contradictions.

When it comes to belief, this codification or “doctrine” always falls short.

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I’m writing a book. If this post spoke to you, I’d like you involved in my creative process. Let me know.