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Title: The Attack on Our Senses
Author: Anonymous
Date: Autumn 2020
Language: en
Topics: technology, In der Tat, The Local Kids, The Local Kids #6
Source: Translated for The Local Kids, Issue 6
Notes: Previously appeared as Der Angriff auf unsere Sinne in In Der Tat (Anarchistische Zeitschrift), Issue 8, Summer 2020

Anonymous

The Attack on Our Senses

One of the effects of the technology project is the reduction of

experience and along with it, experiencing the world together is

becoming an increasingly rare phenomenon. Fear increases in isolation,

perceptions shift and trust in one’s own ability to shape one’s own

environment dwindles - unless we relearn the art of experiencing ...

Our perception of the environment is becoming increasingly deprived

through the use of technological tools. This means that we are placed in

a state of isolation that replaces our natural perception with that

which domination provides us. Interpersonal communication, information

and emotional affection are regulated by various devices and

continuously integrated within capitalist systems. Deprivation is a

means of torture in which the tormentor completely shields the victim

from external stimuli and thus deprives him of the necessary sensory

impressions; seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. Sensory

deprivation is one of the methods of white torture, meaning it is often

difficult to detect and verify, yet it has harmful to destructive

effects on the psyche and body of the victim. But since a person’s brain

is dependent on constant stimulation even in a deprived environment and

cannot do without it, it creates hallucinations and the consciousness

changes. At the same time the nerve cells that are not used begin to

wither. Altering, aligning or trying to deteriorate our senses is a

fundamental intervention in the being of a person since they are

responsible for how we perceive reality.

The interaction of the senses forms our experience in this world, which

exists as a practical (and implicit) understanding and is attached to

our actions and movements. For example, when playing the piano, hearing

is linked to the keys. Our body learns to play a certain key combination

which seems to come automatically from our fingers and with which we are

able to fade out the individual details. Another example would be when a

blind person uses a cane to fill in their vision. He absorbs the cane,

attention to the use of the equipment fades into the background and the

person is able to concentrate on other things. This process connects the

sensual, the physical and the habit to enable an action. A negative

increase in this is referred to in psychology as “Entsinnung”

[detachment from meaning]. It is the process in which experience of the

world gets lost. For example, a hiker does not climb the mountain but

takes the cable car. In this example, the resistance that the hiker has

to overcome in order to bring his body to the limits of his perception

is lost. He gets to the top of the mountain without having experienced

the ascent. And this is exactly where the crux of our current behaviour

in the technologically advanced world lies: one uses the microwave

instead of the fire without knowing how the equipment works. You simply

press the button or not even that, but leave it to voice commands or, in

the future, to commands through eye movements, for example. Instead of

wandering, people take the carriage, the steam locomotive, the electric

locomotive, the plane, the magnetic levitation train to get around - and

bodily activity is always lost, as is the knowledge about the

functionality of the products that we use all the time. Confidence in

acting according to one’s own personal observations and judging

information for oneself is also lost and is replaced by confidence in a

scientific and technological authority. Your own sensory impressions are

no longer the instruments to find your way in this world. The

resistances in such a way of life disappear, the experience of reality

is lacking and at the same time the activity is reduced. The friction

becomes almost imperceptible with a push of a button, a mouse click or a

swipe on the screen. They appear so simple and convenient and do not

expose us to any significant resistances that we have to overcome, but

rather diminish our sense of touch by only using it for a swipe on a

smooth surface. And I certainly do not exclude ourselves as anarchists

from this degradation of knowledge based on experience. For example, if

we feed a translation AI to make our translation projects more efficient

and thus want to achieve faster results. Or even if we watch riot video

after riot video, collect tons of information in front of the screen and

evaluate it and compare it with other countless Twitter sources in order

to create a picture of an event that we did not attend or in which we

did not actually take part.

The floods of images to which we are exposed are not attached to any

physical equivalent, but still leave impressions that are inscribed in

our bodies. We become screen addicts who yearn for the next spectacular

expropriation videos which are far from letting our adrenaline levels

get as high as what we experience with even the most unspectacular

pasting of posters in the streets. What happens nevertheless is that

these images expel our actual memories and replace them with enactments

or a spectacle. It turn us into fillable vessels who are open to the

supply of commercial software and who adapt more and more to the passive

life of a screen puppet. It also happens that simply sitting in front of

the screen, for example, a person’s visual spectrum is reduced. The eyes

adjust to staring from the same distance at moving lights, they move

only minimally and look at the restricted area of the screen. The head

remains rigid, which would otherwise not be the case, because outside of

this reduced scope we are used to constantly orient ourselves towards

proximity, distance, movement and natural light sources. Nevertheless,

it must be said that our perspective is narrowed even beyond the screen,

because - to name just one example - the light that surrounds us in

cities is becoming more and more artificial, meaning technologically

regulated. Lanterns illuminate the streets for us, regulate our sleep

rhythm, control what we will see, where we will walk on the streets and

in parks, and our body adapts to this restricted visual behaviour. We

mostly bypass with flash-lights our abilities to see without lights and

to trust our steps. Without a light source it takes a while before you

can see in the dark. It is really difficult to find places that are not

somehow illuminated. Even when we are standing on a mountain we are

often in a glow of city lights that obscures the stars or in a system of

so-called Smart City Lighting which offers the technological lighting

solutions for the energy efficiency of a city.

Virtual Reality creates a further level of enactment through media by

merging the physical with the electronically produced appearance. Here

also the viewer receives the illusion of an action without acting. And

completely by accident, we take the predefined paths of domination

without encountering eventualities or inducing the unexpected. We find

ourselves in a monotonous walk in an artificially created reality with

various options like in a video game. Or we will even find ourselves

faced with an upgrade, in which algorithms will create our own singular

reality, that will be created for our little bubble - the Augmented

Reality. One could argue here that it is also possible in VR or AR to

take on the role of a hacker by changing the source code, meaning

creating creative solutions or changes that break down limits. Or that

it is possible that a prescribed technical product can also be used in

other ways, such as the Bonnot gang’s use of cars to expropriate banks.

That’s true. Nonetheless, progressive environmental destruction, shitty

working conditions, etc. must always be expected in order to produce

these products. So it is a thing between means and ends. And to come

back to the subject of torture: the sensory impressions that reach us in

a world of VR are hallucinations that domination provides us. While all

undesirable sensory impressions are eliminated, those permissible have

been analysed and rearranged for us for years by the (advertising)

industry and the field of neuromarketing; their sound and food

designers, their psychologists and doctors. For example, sound designers

are working on building razors in such a way that they sound

particularly powerful and robust, while epilators for a female clientele

are gentler. Or chips and cornflakes that are mixed with substances that

create a crispy crack in the mouth or car door noises that companies can

patent. The list can be infinitely expanded with everyday objects, right

down to scent marketing. Visual, acoustic or tactile signals are first

processed in the cerebral cortex of the brain, while scents have a

direct effect on the limbic system, where emotions are processed and

urges are guided. Events that are linked to strong emotions are much

more likely to linger in our memory, and we find it difficult to evade

this orchestrated influence.

Therefore, our concepts of life in this world are not a matter of taste,

meaning that we can simply choose an alternative from a range of

choices. Because the interpersonal dimension is lost without the action

that creates the meaning of social interaction. The other becomes a

projection surface and a product of a presentation which leads to a loss

of empathy and also prevents us from recognizing our comrades and

building affinity. The loss of shared experiences, of causing trouble

and destruction together makes people insecure. Those who do not make

their own experiences also lose confidence in their own intuitive

abilities, necessary persistence and tolerance towards frustration.

While these are necessary to carry out an action. They lose themselves

in the increasing dependence on guides, statistics and devices that try

to create a knowledge that you don’t have to acquire yourself through

experiences. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to relearn the art of

experiencing in order to live and fight creatively, while breaking norms

and going beyond borders.