schway v3

schwiggity schwiggity schway
- Anonymous
===================
|THE WAY OF SCHWAY|
===================
by serene

--ATTRIBUTES--
	A vision of the future which brings to life the idea of a harmony between man and machine. No distinctions are made between the AFK
	world and the Net. A way of living, a way of seeing and learning to swim in these new and exciting times. I give you, the Way of Schway

--FORMATIVE FACTORS--
	So where does that leave us? In the existence of this scene, there are a few things that are postulated about the way things are:
	- The community, the society, the echo chamber, is inherently flawed. Use it only as much as it benefits you, otherwise you risk
	becoming subservient to it. By the same token, if you are heavily vested in the society, or in a position of leadership, you will
	find it difficult to break out.
	- You must continually liberate yourself from your circumstances. You must start the next big thing, then nurture it into automation,
	until it becomes self-sustaining. Then, you depart, and start the next big thing. You are not here to play the leader,
	your time here is too short, and there is much to do.
	- Has a sort of "tune in" attitude. Enjoy those other broadcasts, enjoy the scene, don't get salty. Do your own thing, that's
	what it's all about.
	- Everyone is connected. While this document has a focus on the empowerment of the self, let's not forget the underpinning
	that guides everything. Without your connection, you will lose all vision.

--THE LEGEND OF ANONYMOUS AND THE LAIN--
	The Net has a certain way, a certain unspoken legend, which tells of an Anon. Anon came to the Net a young, innocent child,
	and he had fun, doing nothing of particular import, until he discovered the community. The community argued amongst each other,
	and Anon would participate, and become the authority on such matters, until such a time when he felt the discusisons redundant,
	and he went on to another place, to again enter the community. Such wise men of the community would say, this leaving and
	never coming back was the final goal, that one has graduated from the message board. To leave the echo chamber, and to seek out a new
	one, thus achieving growth.

	Many boards exist, to ensnare, filter and catch the various drifting Anons, whose consciousnesses unfold into dazzling networks of
	connections, before eventually settling into their respective places. For you see, everyone seems to become stuck, at some point. But,
	there is a legend, of an Anon, who continued to search. And as Anon journeyed farther on, he began to feel as if he were carrying
	on the unspoken hopes of all those whom he had met, though he knew not what to do. And for some reason, at some
	such time between here and there, he came to Lainchan.

--EGO--

	Your ego is your direction, your color, it is the force which causes movement. Without it, you may as well be dead, a mere lurker,
	a net junkie. Seen, but not heard. The discerning Anonymous can take what he learns and apply it to all aspects of life.

	That said, on the subject of one's self, one's social presence.
	Because of the existence of societal pressure and regimes, there are certain aspects that need to be concealed about one's self.
	This can most easily be divided into layers.
	- Layer 1: Habits
		At the surface level, you are much like a faceless doll, and all your choices in characteristics are voluntary, but do have an effect.
		Depending on your views and identity, you can be pretty much anything. If you desire anonymity, then you can suppress your presence.
		If you seek to be noticed, it helps to exemplify the "occult" of your setting's belief system. Things like
		being knowledgable, eccentric, and distinctly individual are helpful traits to habitually embody to attract interest in what
		you might have to say. If you seek to fit in with a conservativ setting, consider embodying empathy and altruism.
		The gist is that, through habit, you can attract the desired social interactions, unconsciously.
	- Layer 2: Reflection
		Upon attracting an interest, the personality should act like a mirror. Through practice, this becomes unconscious.
		When a person approaches you, perform a cold read, find their locus, and become the thing they value most highly, and send it back.
		This sends off the signal that you are relatable and approachable. Some people, however, have mental shielding in place. Be mindful
		of your time and energy expenditures, but always be down-to-earth with people.
			Symbols at play here are relatability, down-to-earthness, and altruism. Network level: Instant Messenger, IRC
	- Layer 3: Scrutiny
		When encountering a shielded consciousness, care should be taken to maintain one's own projection while sifting deeper. It is often
		not too difficult to figure out one's insecurities, even if the other person's behaviour is often to the contrary. One needs
		only be patient. If the other person is worth their salt at all, the will be scrutinizing you, as well.
			Symbols that come into play here are physical attractiveness, time management, wealth of works. Net level: AFK
	- Layer 4: Alteration
		This is the level wherein you dictate actions and tendencies to lower levels, to affect change. The subtle manipulation of reality and
		"luck" itself through a tendency to be in the right place at the right time. Things on this level are shared on a need-to-know basis.
		The more you let on, the more someone may be able to discern your intentions, and the more likely it will be that any
		illusion of control you may have vested will be broken.
		These sorts of things need to be kept out of sight. They don't exist, to anyone. Net level: only trusted confidants AFK/Tox
	- Layer 5: True name
		Never tell anybody. Net level: Your own head

--THE HERE AND THE NOW--
	Daily life is much like a recursive process in a computing environment. You have different types of programs for different things. Your current task, your
	user input (invocation), is the most important thing that should hold your attention. Outside of that, when idle or between processes,
	daemons, aka background programs, (evocations) should be run and allowed time to process, but only as much as is needed to perform
	maintainance tasks. A focus lies on minimalism -the less you have, the fewer daemons you have to run, and thus the more lightweight
	your system. Your house, your surroundings, and your life, are much like an operating system on a computer. If you have too much
	stuff, your motions will be cumbersome, and heavily delayed. Shed the excess, use the most efficient, and focus on your main process.
	It is better to simply discard a package you do not need than to let it inhibit your process. Do not become too
	lost in organizing your system - start with something that works, and maintain your system as you have time to evaluate your
	surroundings and deepen your understanding.

--UNDERSTANDING AND FINDING BOTTLENECKS--
	Bottlenecks are things that constrain an otherwise productive flow of energy. Poor physical health is a bottleneck - not only are you
	less able to move around, but it has an effect on blood circulation, and thus mental performance. A job or career you are not satisfied
	with is a bottleneck - it restricts your free time, which is something you don't have an infinite amount of - thus it is very important
	to allocate those resources properly. If you were playing a fighting game, and you understood the theory behind how the game is played
	on the compeititive level, but you didn't have the physical reflexes to seize the advantage, then there's a bottleneck you should
	undo. The same can be applied through really almost any venture, behavioural, mechanical, mental, or otherwise.
	Electricity itself travels extraordinarily fast, and our bodies and minds themselves are the very image of a computer. In computing,
	if something has a poor write speed, then your transfers would of course, take forever. This is only relevant when performing
	processes that require a large amount of bandwidth, and for relatively simple tasks, such as the decision-making processes, you need
	surprisingly little. You do not need as much as you think you need.
	At a certain point, however, you will come up against these bottlenecks, and as you feel them, you should seek to undo them,
	to liberate yourself from your circumstances.

--THE FREE AS IN FREEDOM PHILOSOPHY--
	A tool that inhibits your ability to function, or restricts your actions in any conceivable form, is something that should be done
	away with. As someone who seeks to do things, you of course want to maximize your diversity of choice and potentiality, through the
	process of liberation. For example, freeing yourself from existing dogmas or ideas, restrictive or coercive situations, and financial
	restrictions. This is a process, and will not happen overnight.

	There also exists the unfortunate reality that many non-free tools and
	paradigms are unfortunately those which have the most dominance in our society. Thus, two foundations, two computing platforms are
	neccessary. The normal, "plebian" one, in which you conduct your mundane affairs, and the "free" one, in which you conduct your serious
	business. This can be further compartmentalized depending upon your situation, but in general they should be kept seperate in at least
	two foundations.

--BLACKBOX ABSTRACTION--

	By successfully compartmentalizing your digital activities into "mundane" and "free", and further into other categories and identities,
	you can maintain a presence that gives off no outwards appearance of doing anything departed from the norm, while at the same time
	doing all the things you want to do, fooling any behavioural algorithms that may be looking to analyze your behavioural patterns.
	There are guides to anonymizing your traffic that can be elsewhere, but the reality is that we are approaching a world where a high
	degree of self-control will govern online interactions, and serve as the primary barrier of entry to controlling your presence, both
	the record of you that exists within the NSA databases, and the perceptions of those who know you. You need to rewrite that record.

	By the same token, it is beneficial to adopt alternate personalities towards the fulfillment of various different goals - for example,
	I am typing this article as "serene", but I use numerous other handles, in different places, all over the Net, and I change them
	routinely. I only exist as far as this article does, but I nonetheless exist outside of that. A name or a presence is only as useful as the
	actions attached to it, as a unified symbol. Sometimes, it is better to remain anonymous. Don't limit yourself to a singular
	identity - grasp anonymity and use it to your advantage.

	For instance, take the phenomenon of viral marketing. The central idea is formed. The work is created. Mundane accounts (run by you)
	from mundane computers (a botnet or series of VPS) spread the work around, each driven to spread the content with a different
	personality and prose.

	A person living a double life at a corporate job. One personality for work, one for play. Those two worlds need not intersect. Don't
	become too attached to one identity, or it will become harder to dismantle it. Know you are the illusion, but at the same time, you are
	not.

--THE TAO OF MULTIPLE COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS--
	The importance of having at least two computing platforms cannot be understated. One represents the face you show to the world, one represents
	your privage, internal workings. Those two worlds cannot be allowed to correlated to one another. This could be likened to the Japanese
	concept of honnei and tatemae. A salaryman will say whatever is most conducive to the flow of energy in his company, even if he himself has
	his own opinions. He is, however, not constrained by his peers - it is understood that he has his own private life.
	Your public computer should use a commonplace OS, such as Windows or OSX. The free one should follow the philosophies of freedom, and
	at the time of writing, a Thinkpad laptop with open source BIOS such as Libreboot and a *nix distro using free software packages
	is the best platform for this.

	You can, of course, have more computers. In fact, you can never have enough computers, your only limit is the awareness to manage them
	all. You can create computers within other computers in the form of a virtual machine, or VPS, which can be extraordinarily
	useful for funneling traffic and creating secure environments.
	To start with, though, I would advise you to have two computers, your public platform (ie Windows, or a smartphone) and add on more platforms,
	(servers, phones, consoles, VM/VPS) as you learn more and the need for them arises.

--TECHNOLUST VS TECHNOFETISHISM--
	It is very important to be able to distinguish between needs and wants, in the pursuit of better tech and higher options. As always,
	the rule of thumb is to make the best with what you have, explore possibilities until the bottlenecks become apparent. Sometimes a
	cheap, simple environment is all you really need. Sometimes, something that appears "better" is simply overhyped and bloated.
	If you need a new piece of tech, weigh it against other things that are important, and decide if you really need it. There is a very
	fine line between marketing and functionality, between what is possible, and what is marketable to an audience. Trust your lust for
	greater tech, pursuit of greater heights - but only when you've really reached those heights. Don't be maintaining something expensive
	for no real return - tech often depreciates in value. You don't need a $2000 4chan machine. You don't need the newest smartphone.
	You don't need that home internet connection - learn how to crack networks or go to McDonalds and use some free Wi-Fi. Sever your
	dependence on corporations - hack something or find your own way to communicate.