"Beside their shared modern origins, of the many similarities between the internet and ufology, both concern communication: between humans, between humans and aliens, between humans and machines, between machines themselves. Communication concerns the known and the unknown, the impulsive and the intentional, and the sayable and the obscure, which cannot be put into words. On the surface, digital communication concerns signals, with humans, in the language of cybernetics, that function like nodes caught up in feedback loops across biotic and machinic networks."
"Yet, in a more profound sense, digital communication also concerns our place in the vast cosmos. Could the internet's existence be evidence that the universe is immoral or evil? Or is it a mere tool, reducible to historical and social conditions, which can produce both evil and goodness in the world? And what about us, the users? Are we moved by free will or mindlessly following the oscillation of the stars or the whispers of machines?"
Digital communication and ufology share modern origins and focus on communication among humans, humans and aliens, humans and machines, and machines with machines. Communication spans the known and the unknown, the impulsive and intentional, and the sayable and obscure. Digital communication operates as signals and as human nodes within cybernetic feedback loops across biotic and machinic networks. Communication functions across vast distances and inside minds, where people and artificial agents act as stimuli. Digital communication raises cosmological questions about the internet’s moral status, its social reducibility, human agency versus mechanical or cosmic determinism, human uniqueness, and the possibility of inhuman observers.
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