"When people are asked to apprehend some notion, they often complain that they do not know what they have to think.

But the fact is that in a notion there is nothing further to be thought than the notion itself."

- Hegel, The Shorter Logic

CONTENTS

PREFACE

Let’s give cyberspace the same ontological status as real space. Let’s assume that although it is allready part of our real space, that it could hypothetically be inhabited by cyber-creatures because it would be a physical space. In order to make this assumption, we must question the nature of the laws governing this space. The essence of these cyber-laws are the laws of logic itself, since a web page is nothing but computer code. However, it is possible for these cyber-laws to mimic our physical laws in a limited two-dimensional sense, by setting up complex instructions through the use of cyber-laws as axioms.
The objects which exist in cyberspace have form and function much like objects in the real world, but they are hypothetical to us. This is because they exist in ones and zeros in a programming language and so their existence is conceptually divorced from our space, even if we grant the same ontological status to their space. We cannot inhabit cyberspace, even though it exists within our real space.
So we come to the question: since these objects exist in a space conceptually divorced from ours, can we derive the same epistemology from them as we do in our world, or is there an alien epistemology involved? What I mean is: what is the truth-correspondence between the thought-objects and the concepts that we can derive from them if we are merely peeking into their world as an outsider?
This website seeks to explore the relationship between the logical laws of cyberspace and the non-propositional meta-logic derived from the objects contained in cyberspace.

The Model For The Human Lifetime

This thought-object is like a plant process that depicts the human condition. It attempts to come to grips with the totality of what it means to be human, from birth to death. In a sense it is a model for the ontology of the human life as it deals with the almost impossible coincidences arising from the intersection of seemingly possible events with real events in one's life. This object is also a fractal of sorts because the event of death is interpreted to be a macrocosm of childhood, suggesting a sense of repetition or reincarnation. It serves as a basis for the following thought-objects as its is the container for the human psyche, and so it contains our models of cognition and models of idea creation.

• the we are the observers of the inhabitants of this world
• the various thought-objects relate to each other in a sequential manner, each concept on the surface setting the stage for the next
• like objects in the real world, thought-objects give us our ideas

Hypothetical Cognition

This thought-object is a representation for a simple theory of mind. It serves as a basis for later thought-objects, which further explore the capabilities of the human mind; but it is also an elaboration on the prior thought-object, which explores what the human psyche is. This image isn't really a process so much as a static structure which exists within the mind.

• a "white swan" is its own self-identity ("there is a white swan" is true if and only if there is a white swan)
• similarly an imaginery object existing in cyberspace is its own self-identity expressed by computer language
• how we use the thought-objects gives them meaning
• the meaning is objective because the thoughts originate from without

The Thought-Process

Here we see an embodiment of what the hypothetical thought process might be like. When interpreting this thought-object we visualize this specific thought process, making it subjectively real within our mental space(s). It depicts the use of symbolic language to produce a chain of associated ideas, which then gets augmented by reason and intuition to form thought embryos. In order to "hatch" the thought embryos eventually undergo a process whereby they get transported from abstract space into real space through an act of belief expression.

• the world of thought-objects has its own logic where surfaces correspond to concepts in our world
• to the inhabitants in cyber-space the surface of their world is shrouded in double meanings, where each surface corresponds to a concept in ours but also to the determinate shape of the whole object in their world
• the various thought-objects relate to each other in a sequential manner, each concept on the surface setting the stage for the next

Existential Import

Here we have a thought-object, which depicts a process involved in making an abstract entity real. As meaning is generated an abstract entity "moves" from non-reality to reality. This is not neccesarily a process within the mind, but rather a process existing in the hypothetical space itself. In this sense it is a self-reflexive process which must also move from non-reality to reality. This "move" occurs with an act of rational imagination that results in the release of excess creativity (metaphor) into the surrounding abstract space.

• the sequence of thought-objects are a metaphor for the creative process
• to the inhabitants of cyberspace the thought-objects suggest a logic of events, which in our world is the action and consequence of creativity
• the inhabitants of this world philosophize about a third world, which is hypothetical even to them, but is completely out of reach of our intellect
• to the inhabitants each thought-object is actually an imperfect occurence of the ideal thought-object of its type

The Generation of Incomprehensible Ideas

This thought-object is essentially a metaphorical machine used for the process involved in creating the inconcievable. Moreover, it also involves elements of the process used to make inconcievable ideas concievable, by applying concievable postulates from the real world to the imagined world via analogy. This process is essential to philosophical studies and even applies to problems of science. For example, Einstein's claim that space is curved was inconcievable, but by using Euclidian postulates applied to the real world rules of light such a claim can be imagined.

Technological Manifestations of the Unhappy Consciousness

By: Gavin Lottering
Sat. Feb. 12, 2005

In this paper I will look at how the world of the 21st century provides a prime habitat for the unhappy consciousness. Specifically, I will look for modern instances for each of the three relations of the idividual to the unchangeable and in doing so elucidate its habitat. I will only briefly look at how the unhappy consciousness might pass from one form into another as this isn’t the primary focus of my paper. Lastly I will suggest what it might mean for the third form to withdraw into itself and pass into Reason.
Hegel describes the unhappy consciousness as one which strives to find expression but is unable to do so and passes through a movement in which it changes from one form to another, where the crucial process of recognition alters the relations of individual and unchangeable. As he puts it:
“This form of consciousness is, therefore, the aimless fickleness and instability of going to and fro, hither and thither, from one extreme of self-same self-consciousness, to the other contingent, confused and confusing consciousness.” (Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, pg. 118).
Instead of trying to find examples of contemporary self-consciousness trying to express itself but being unable to do so, I decided to proceed from analogy by using the examples allready given by Hegel: God, Christ, and the Spirit. What I developed is a triad of modern consciousness, trying to find its expression based on technology and communication.
The first relation of the Unhappy Consciousness takes God as its example – it is pure consciousness, where the individual is totally opposed to the unchangeable. My modern example of this relation is the internet because it contains a movement of binary recognition between the unity of all computers, opposed to the hardware of the unchangeable whole. Like God we cannot get access to the internet as a whole; rather we can only pray to God or surf the world wide web. In either case we bring our attention and intentions to bear, but can’t penetrate beyond the surface into the transcendent within.
The second relation of the Unhappy Consciousness takes Christ as its example. Here the unchangeable has its own individuality within it. My analogy for this relation is the internet search engine (i.e. Google as a particular), which uses Universal Resource Locators to bring the particular out of the unchangeable to us. In this relation the Unhappy Consciousness brings the particular from within the whole to be embodied within itself, much like a variable is simply a placeholder. Similarly, Christ was just a placeholder for the information given to us by God. It accomplishes this embodiment of the particular through the desire of the user and the work of its internal algorithms.
The third relation of the Unhappy Consciousness takes the Spirit as its example, where it finds its own particular self within the unchangeable – the immanent gets embodied in the transcendent. My analogy to this is the binary computer code or the radiowaves/electricity which transmits it. Here the immanence of the language between individual users manifests itself as transcendent universal force (i.e. electrical signals or radiowaves). What would seem like random and meaningless patterns of force to an outsider is given meaning by individual users, which is the recognition of relation between nothiness and universal being.
This final shape of the Unhappy Consciousness has not yet passed beyond itself into Reason, but perthaps its allready beginning to do so. One day the final shape will withdraw back into itself and attain the final stage of Reason, when the seemingly meaningless transcendent force recognizes itself as an immanent pattern and in doing so actualizes its own self-consciousness like life being born in a primordial soup of 1s and 0s.

Hegel ,G.W.H. Phenomenology of Spirit, *fix me*

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