The Internet Is an Occult Machine (w/ Shira Chess)

About this episode

Shira Chess discusses the intersection of technology and magic in the digital age, exploring themes from her book on the occult aspects of the internet.

Has the internet always been a magical space? Shira Chess , a Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia and a leading scholar of digital folklore, dive into her new book, The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse , to explore the hidden spiritual architecture of our digital lives. From the open-source creation of digital cryptids like Slender Man on early forums to the summoning of AI entities in latent space, Chess argues that technology and magic have become indistinguishable. Rushkoff and Chess discuss how the countercultural, techno-shamanic roots of the 1990s internet (including the Mondo 2000 era) transformed into today’s algorithm-driven corporate landscape, and how we might reclaim our agency by finding subversive ways to use these technologies. They also unpack algorithmic conspirituality, exploring why we treat our social media feeds like modern-day oracles, and how meme magic has evolved from an online joke into a force that shapes political reality. Ultimately, is our digital occultism a path to liberation, or just a new way to decorate our corporate cages? Substack: Subscribe to The Unseen Internet at…

People in this episode

Host: Douglas Rushkoff

Guest: Shira Chess

Topics covered

• internet
• magic
• digital folklore
• technology
• social media
• algorithmic conspirituality

Keywords

• digital cryptids
• AI entities
• techno-shamanic roots
• algorithm-driven landscape
• meme magic

Mentioned in this episode

Products: Cobi Dryer, The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse

Books & works: The Internet Is an Occult Machine, The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse, Get The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse

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