Lexicon
... where I try to explain what certain esoteric terms I use on this site mean to me.
Techno - a prefix, derived from the Greek Tekhne meaning Art, this is rapidly becoming the new cyber- ... and is becoming just as passé, too.
Kewl - Sorry, my fingers slipped when I tried to say "cool."
Technomancy - a form of magick derived from Animism, which is founded on the perception that all things in Nature are, in some way "alive." Technomancy extends this perception to the tools of Mankind. The more sophisticated the tool, the more awake the spirit within ... and the more perverse it can be, unless somehow appeased. The art of appeasing machinery, or even figuring out how they work, is Technomancy.
Technomancer - a practitioner of Technomancy, and often also of Technomagick. We also do barnyard impressions: a lot of us quack real loud.
Technomagic, Technomagick - derived from Arthur C Clarke's famous Third Law, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Technomagick postulates the corollary of the Third Law, which is that Any sufficiently simple magic is indistinguishable from technology. It is, in fact, the controlled application of technology to solve a problem.
Unlike the normal usage of technology, Technomagick requires an act of Will, just as much as for any other act of Magick; it is the Technomancer's Will, and not the technology, which brings about the desired effect.
Exempli Gratia: A Technomancer sits in a room, connected to another room via a tannoy, with a subject seated in the connecting room facing the window between them. Both parties are visible. The Technomancer activates the tannoy and commands the subject to stand. The subject does so.
Much later, the subject watches a video replay on TV. In the replay, the Technomancer gives the same command to the subject on screen; the subject watching the replay in the present, content just to watch, doesn't budge. But if the Technomancer walks in at that moment and asks the subject to stand, the subject does so.
Technopagan - A Pagan, who maintains the ancient traditions of reverence for the Earth, celebration of the seasons of the year, etc., but who nowadays applies a very Twenty - First Century slant to her magic, such as conducting online rituals with colleagues in specially consecrated virtual chatrooms, keeping ZIP Disks of Shadows, and setting up virtual Web temples in the form of private Websites they can enter to perform solitary workings, etc. Also known as Technowitch, Cyberwitch and Cyberwiccan although these terms are not in as much general usage as Technopagan, above.
Technoshaman - Another breed of mystic who is catching on. See Technopagan, above, but incorporate the shaman's ability to use screen savers, Web - based Flash animations, subliminal GIFs and specially looped sampled drum tracks to allow the shaman to enter a state of ecstatic shamanic trance. The tools may be modern, but the state of mind is just as authentic as doing it the old fashioned way in a sweat lodge.
Cybermancer - Someone who awakens the spirit within the technological apparatus, or infuses it with a possessing spirit, such as a benign virus / Trojan / worm / spider to do something on his behalf.
Psibermancer, Psybermancer - Someone who uses arcane means to enhance the faculties which parapsychologists call "Psi" or "Psionic:" faculties such as telepathy, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, remote sensing and so on. No connection to the technologically - enhanced sorcery discussed above: it's just that the prefix sounds so close to "cyber -" that it may confuse the illiterate.
Talisman - A device, or sometimes a reel of videotape impressed with a spell, which performs the act of Technomagick on its own without recourse to the original programmer's presence.
Talismans requires specialised Technomagick to create, but can be used and reused countless times, performing the same effect, and subsequently reinforcing it repeatedly, without need for further intervention by the original programmer.
Exempli Gratia: The subject from the experiment above watches a TV program, together with everyone else in Britain. During the break, the Talisman is activated. The Technomancer appears on screen to tell the subject to spend vast quantities of money buying cyberdogs for their children at Christmas. The Talisman is reactivated eighteen times that evening.
The following day, the subject finds himself fighting crowds of people to get to the last cyberdog on Earth, and the vendors (and manufacturers and distributors) of the cyberdog subsequently spend the entire Christmas holiday in the Bahamas singing the praises of their friend, the Technomancer.
technocracy (small "t") - 1. the rule of society by a small elite of technical experts; 2. the rule of society by rising technology.
Technocracy (capital "T") - 1. the term given to the "bad guys" in the White Wolf game Mage: the Ascension, aka The Technocratic Union; 2. a real North American organisation, Technocracy, Inc.; 3. the next state of Western civilisation, once Democracy has fallen to the corrupting effect of Globalisation and Corporate Commerce.
Technocrat - Any technical expert belonging to a technocracy; a person who believes that the solution to any and all problems, whether physical, emotional, spiritual or hypothetical, is more technology. Catchphrase: Vorsprung durch Technik.
Geek, Nerd - pejorative noun applied by proles to people like me who have better lives than they; an insult whose only real function is to expose the ignorance and envy of the proles.
Prole - from "Proletariat". Also see Mundane, pleb, mudhead, nomark, fish-head.
Mundane - from Mundanus, meaning Man of the world; a term once used to refer to people of great common sense, respected for their practicality and pragmatism; intelligent, thoughtful people with "a head on their shoulders" ... but now only used for blockheads who "don't get it," and never will.
Pleb - A person who not only honestly believes in the moral superiority of celebrities such as Tony Blair, Pish Spice or Andi Peters, but who believes that his or her life is somehow lacking in comparison: someone who can only live vicariously through soap characters, and who can readily be identified by the contents of their kitchen cupboards - stocked entirely with brand names they've seen on TV. Plebs can evolve, like Pokémon. A Pleb with enough experience of battle evolves into a Stalker.
Mudhead - Someone whose thinking, vocabulary and even regional accent have been destroyed by prolonged exposure to television; the final evolution of the Fish-head Pokémon.
Long before the rest of their faculties fade, their hearing deteriorates to uselessness. This produces a variety of Mudhead called the Screaming Mudhead; a Mudhead which can only communicate in a loud bellow sufficient to overwhelm the volume of the booming TV set.
The most strident Screaming Mudheads, if they are lucky, are quickly recruited as presenters of Children's TV shows or as voice-overs in advertisements for toys.
Nomark - Someone who, when offered the Gift of Life, rejects it in favour of obscurity and stultifying mediocrity. Most soap characters fit this bill: their interest in a given extraordinary subject, whether motorcycle maintenance, psychic ability, the Internet or whatever, only lasts as long as the current plotline does ... then they return to normal. Nomarks are faced with life-changing events all the time: each time, they go back to the default setting, like computer programs without a Save function.
Fish-head - a person addicted to TV, who has completely lost all sense of discretion: who merely plops down in front of the box and lets it all wash over him regardless. Example fictional Fish-heads: The Royle Family, Homer Simpson. Evolve into Mudheads and Screaming Mudheads.
"Sticks and Stones ..." - from the nursery rhyme, "Sticks and Stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." The lesson here is ... don't waste your breath; if you want to hurt people, just wade in with a big stick and give them no warning. Technomancy in action!
Reality Deviance - a condition where reality has somehow been warped, such that people perceive it as being something completely the opposite of what it is. The Technocrats in the White Wolf game use it to refer to entities such as mages, vampires etc.; however, the term comes from the real world, where it applies to the huge gap of reality between advert and product.
Exempli Gratia:-
Deviant Reality: A TV advertisement shows an actress running around the Scottish countryside, surrounding herself with traditional scenery, wholesome vegetables and clean - looking meat, which she proceeds to miraculously convert into a can of soup. Actual Reality: The soup - manufacturing process involves lots of rubber-gloved technicians in white coats and hairnets, carrying clipboards, inspecting big steel vats and pipes in a soulless factory lit by cold industrial striplighting.
Deviant Reality: A TV advertisement shows a white - suited man with a clipboard explaining that consuming a certain soft drink gives your children the recommended daily allowance of Vitamins C and B6, and is therefore Good For Kids. Actual Reality: The RDA of these vitamins can only be achieved by consuming five litres of the vile stuff per day, in sufficient concentration to turn the skin of your children bright yellow.
Deviant Reality: Democracy works. Actual Reality: The 2000 US Presidential Election. I rest my case. If I had been a US citizen, I would have voted for Lex Luthor.
When faced with Deviant Reality, repeat this mantra a couple of dozen times in your head: "Please mind the gap between your heightened expectations and the cold, hard reality ..." Don't say it out loud: you'll only be considered a smartarse by your peers. See Geek, Nerd above.
An aside: Reality will hit someone wearing glasses. Especially the rose - coloured variety.
The Space Programme - please don't knock these guys. They're trying their very, very best to get Out There, so they can eventually colonise Mars. Because once they do, I'm joining them, as far away from this bloody Planet of The Apes as I can.
Out There - The Universe, specifically every part of the Universe which doesn't include Earth. People call it "Out There", rather than "Up There", because once you're Out There, there is no up: there is only "further out." The appeal of space travel for me is that while there is no up, there is no downside, either.
This page, its contents and this whole site, are Copyright © Alexander T Greene, 2001. All rights reserved.
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