The “Cyber Meta-effect” on the Presidential Election
One of my friends (Drew) has a fantastic blog that presents the critical issues of politics. The “Pseudo Body Politic” has the right balance of analysis, insight, and humor. Mainly, I’m jealous of his ability to write every day. So, I’ve been inspired by his work. Since the election is coming soon, I figured it would be a good time to discuss the intersection between political issues and cyberculture. This essay will deal with that intersection.
The Role of the “Neuromancer”
It seems vaguely right to discuss the role of the Internet in the modern Presidential campaign through a comparison to a couple of the classic works of cyberculture; “Neuromancer” and “Snow Crash.” I’ll begin with “Neuromancer.” Some could compare one of the characters from the book (Armitage/Willis Corto) to our current president, as both of these figures were being pulled by forces beyond their comprehension (Wintermute for Armitage and Dick Cheney/Karl Rove/GOP for Bush). However, to connect back to issues relating to cyberculture, I would like to focus on the role of profiles as avatars in the realm of political computer-mediated communication. If one were to look at microblogging outlets, especially Twitter, one could see the cracks forming in the Republican rhetoric. The Republican’s talking points have lost a sense of unity as the GOP is seeking new ways of attacking the creditability and the values of Democratic candidates. These talking points are very similar to the cracks of sanity that show in one of the key ruling families from the book, the Tessier-Ashpools. As more and more “points of reality” invade the null space created by a vacuum of information, the family slowly becomes overwhelmed by fits of homicidal insanity, which destroys the family in the process. Twitter is slowing becoming a “public sphere” for the free flow of information, for better or worse. The Neuromancer in Gibson’s work referred to a stable personality that was present in the virtual environment. It could be argued that the virtual representation of political parties (i.e. the official Twitter postings from the candidate and their surrogates, the connection between the message from the party and the candidate, the openness of the candidate to speak into the public sphere) should be as close as a stable personality in order to reinforce the platform of the candidate/party. There must be a fusion of the message between those systems, or it risks destroying the identity and cohesion of the political party.
“Snowcrashing” the Political System
Once again, it’s fair to bring up the concept of the avatar, which represents the online virtual body of the user or the corporation. Avatars go beyond the simple game interfaces that are found in environments such as “Second Life” and “The Sims.” Avatars are extended profiles that allow the user (or a collaboration of a group of users) to interact with the metaverse environment. Avatars allow for more than the simple rehashing of talking points or bullet points through a two-dimensional analysis of textual information. These virtual representations of the self allow for the construction of a candidate’s narrative through the leaving of “cultural artifacts.”
In the novel “Snow Crash,” one of the main characters (Hiro Protagonist, the last of the freelance hacker and the greatest swordfighter in the world) express his narrative through the cultural artifacts present on his avatar (the swords showing from his belt, the fact that his avatar looks pretty much like Hiro, his use of a motorcycle in the metaverse), the methods he uses to interact with the rest of the avatars and, at the end of the novel, his performance/presentation/spectacle in front of a large virtual audience. It is through the addition of all of the perceived pieces of information that Hiro gives to his “invisible audience” that a narrative is created. This narrative is similar to the narratives created by the political candidates in the public sphere. However, their cultural artifacts are left in the “mediated metaverse” and are analyzed and reanalyzed from public consumption. Once the narrative is created, it becomes adopted into the public sphere and will be given a dominant (hegemonic or preferred) reading, a negotiated reading or an oppositional reading depending on the individual ideology. It is tough for a candidate to distance themselves from the mediated narrative unless they chose to fight it through the creation of new cultural artifacts designed to disprove the accepted narrative and rewrite the story. As soon as the election occurs, the victorious candidate will have a chance to write the American narrative. However, their creation may come into conflict with the other impressions present in the public sphere, and the candidate will have to deal with the results of the conflict.
It is essential to look at two platforms that have added to the blur between the world presented in “Snow Crash” and the modern political arena to move away from the cyber meta-issues that are present in the election. The first tool at the disposal of modern information junkie is Google Maps/Google Earth. Google Earth is a 3-dimensionally rendered map of the Earth that individual can manipulate to add information that would otherwise be impossible to add. Google Maps has an entire section dealing with maps that reflect information from the political campaign. The Earth version of the program allows users to see state-by-state the projected electoral map, color-coded for convenience. This program was inspired by the “Earth” program from the novel and represents a key method of organizing geographic information for political purposes. The second platform that is present would be YouTube and the tangents that have come from the creation of YouTube. YouTube would be considered by some to be fulfilling the role of “citizen journalist” as people can now post videos from campaign events, create news stories from the road or even create debate and dialogue around key issues the campaign. These users of YouTube would essentially be the collectors of the events of the world and contributors to the common knowledge that were described as “stringers” in the novel.