THE INTERNET IS MAGIC.

This is a free-flowing train of thought, multi directional brain blast. Also known as a "FIRST DRAFT." A "WORK IN PROGRESS."

Top to bottom, the internet is magic. The physical items that create the internet and the experience itself are magic.

WHAT IS MAGIC

Magic is a predictable system of actions and intended outcomes.

WHAT IS THE INTERNET

The internet is a tool of information storage and distribution.

WHAT IS THE FUCKING POINT

I'm here to make a point about my understanding of magic and the internet as being intrinsically linked with one another. Magic is a comprehendable system of intricate forces and the internet is a beautiful wonderous world-changing reality.

LOOK AT ME.

I have a glowing tablet of light. I have a tablet attached with glyphs and i move my hands in controlled minute spasms and patterns carefully studied and completely intentional.

Magic has historically been a means of accessing information. The transformation, collective access, communication, of information is a sacred thing that has been in the domain of magic for long before the information age. Consider, specifically, divination. Divination and oracular readings were means of accessing information.

Many other actions are under the domain of magic. Considering, though, that the internet affects so many more actions, webbing its way into the fabric of life around most of the world, I posit that the internet is a physical phenomenon of the system of magic, and that the two concepts are definitively linked in the modern world.

IF YOU THINK ELECTRICITY AND WIRES AND THE POWER GRID ISN'T MAGIC LIKE WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE MAN

The object of magic was, and is, to adjust and interact with and affect the physical world through channels not quite physical yet deeply interconnected and woven into the structure of the physical. So perhaps physical in a broader definition than is currently understood. I could use the term metaphysical yet I don't believe the coining of that term strikes true to what I'm attempting to delineate. I don't believe the definition is precisely what I'm thinking of.

The physical, the sympathetic of the magic, that IS crucial to affect the magic. Sitting around thinking real hard is just wishing. Magic involved materials, symbolic meanings and patterns and pathways. Traditions and languages.

LISTEN. THE LIGHT IS INHERENTLY ILLUSORY.

The light is fueled by electricity temporarily, has no permanence, has a range of definable colors possible to glow with precisely, and is either adjustable to our wills or displays information for us that may be useful to us.
(OR SHITTY FUCKING CORPORATE ADVERTISEMENTS WHO FUCKING KNOWS RIGHT GET UBLOCK)

this is the process of our magic.

We interact with charged objects, inputting gestures corresponding with precise meanings and at times glyphs, these gestures are interpreted according to certain languages, compiling down to machine-level code, executed eventually in binary. In terms of the internet, this information is physically sent through boxes and stations of copper and silicon, over physical means that are imperceptible yet similar to direct invisible rays to this amplification device, like a wi-fi router. Then the information passes along in a specific channel to a bank of information stored in the spaces between pulses of the force that is also found in neurons and enables our brains to function.

the internet is FATHOMABLE yet not COMPREHENDABLE.

We will never have a true sense of every pulse of binary affecting every process in the charged devices we use daily. That's not what we pay attention to when we use the internet, that's literally not our concern in the least. We interact with it based on our specific intentions and it returns to us results answering precisely our specific intentions based on the parameters currently in use.

We can realistically today fathom the fact that the internet exists because, largely, it simply Does. And we see it and we use it and especially anyone Millenial or younger, grew up with it enough to accept it as a fact. We can fathom it yet we aren't built to comprehend everything going on at once behind it. We can understand the theory of computer science because it is a factual base of knowledge that exists, but most computer users don't specialize in that, and it's not a core requirement to intentionally make use of the internet.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT BACK IN THE DAY.

Do y'all remember scrying mirrors? No? Just me? Well that was the ORIGINAL tablet to see information through. Using a black material like obsidian and scrying with it would produce sensory comprehension easier. No, the scrying mirror wasn't necessarily glowing, unless certain trance states were induced for certain visual flexibility. But scrying is more of an internal process aided by the mirror, not contained within it completely.

NOW THINK ABOUT IT!

WE happen to make the images appear IN GLOWING LIGHT on the black tablets by CHARGING THEM!!!!!!! And building them in specific ways!!!! and running certain code... as in, specific instructions!!!! We are simply currently more advanced at magic than we used to be.

VISIT PLANETARY MAGIC

May I describe to you the spell that adjusts the positions of the glyphs on your screen? /writings/im.css is the file. Technology is not the only application or branch of magic, but it is its own distinct branch of magic.

There are practical benefits to integrating the understanding of technology as magic.

As far as the last point goes, my planetary magic canvas is one example of such software. Arranging the planetary glyphs in -- well, my technique is my own, and you may develop your own, but in any case having a mutable screen of light to adjust and arrange and duplicate the glyphs has been an effective and delightful tool so far.

My positionality in this conversation is not neutral. I'm 21 years old in 2023, I grew up interacting with the internet. Although I have some degree of experience with magic and systems of magic, I have only been practicing for 5 years. My theoretical vocabulary could stand to be strengthened, and I have yet to truly delineate in my own mind where the line is between magical practice and finding wonder in the physical world. Right now it feels like that line stands in the intersection of coincidence and intention.