As the consequence of a full century’s research into dynamic models, the significance of prime numbers, Lemurian ethnography, and hyperbolic horror, the recent publication of compiled writings from the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit was certainly unexpected. Those acquainted with the materials assembled here might notice that the peculiarly Gregorian sequence ‘1997-2003’ does not exactly align with more nonlinear accounts of the unit’s activity delivered elsewhere. Furthermore, since the Ccru conceived time as something that (unlike an arrow) always feeds back into itself, the chronological positioning of this work by Time Spiral Press shouldn’t necessarily indicate any ordinary interval, but might be better rendered as the opening of a channel – inviting readers to engage these writings as the time-traveling devices that they are.
Despite repeated attempts to quarantine the escapades of this group – whether through clusters of proper names that may or may not exist, or analogous systems that only ever offer occasional traction – the texts enclosed within this volume continue to modify the thoughts of many. Soundtracked by the rhythmic intensity of ‘90s jungle and Detroit techno, while transfixed by the autocatalytic return of the Old Ones, the runaway processes of positive feedback (not to mention the seminars of one Professor Challenger), by all accounts the Ccru became irrevocably entangled in an as yet unresolved mesh of fact and fiction. Cognizant that every frame of reference is being eroded by a solipsism, the gestures within Ccru: Writings 1997-2003 slip towards anonymity, not simply blurring the boundaries between philosophy and literature, but injecting forceful spirals of both into existence.
It seems likely that at a certain point the unit was itself abducted by the very self-assembling eddies of truth and falsity that it had once merely investigated. The un-piloted documents resulting from this apprehension, that comprise this collection, are as tormented by ancient hoaxes as they are indicative of current information phase changes. It is a book detailing a conflict as old as sapience, in which actuality is always undergoing reconstruction by either number or knowledge – where any synthesis of the two inevitably ends up taking a side.
The darker power in this cosmos arises from a primeval sigil that has come to be known as the Numogram, whose arithmetic exactness and chthonic resonances are apparently only appreciated by those who draw its contours themselves. It is suggested that many neolumerian initiates regard this object as the only map of time worthy of consideration, yet still others insist that its best use is as a platform for practicing an ethics of unbelief. Under the understandable assumption that belief and disbelief are but two sides of the same futile coin toss, whilst seeking only unbelief’s ceaseless purchase on contingency (for it does not indulge in [or restrain from] inference of any kind), these numogrammatic architects magnetize nodes from the future, so as to collude with the cascading instantiations of the present, which are always bootstrapping themselves from the past.
The other predominant history unfolding throughout these pages is encoded and maintained by a top secret society so enveloping, the majority of its members are oblivious to their very involvement. According to the Ccru, the role that this clock-and-dagger affiliation (denoted here as the Architectonic Order of the Eschaton) has held in curating the history of western thought should not go unnoticed, despite their ostensibly magical intentions. Evidently this primordial faction (AOE) is also at fault for developing a self-simulating reality control machine (called Axiomatic Systems (incorporated)) – which is basically a regenerative cataloguing program that happens to look a lot like the universe for some, and still like God for others. Although AxSys clearly holds particular contiguities with both Capitalism and the Internet, it is worth noting that this thing operates specifically under the camouflage of read only memory (ROM).
Perhaps needless to say, all of this is thoroughly complicated by the notion of hyperstition, which is not only said to have used the Ccru as much as they used it, but is increasingly considered to be the engine of all terrestrial activity by many traversed in the disciplines. The findings of one cryptographer in the group’s canon depicts the history of all of life on Earth – organic and inorganic – as one of geophilosophical trauma, whose core is as repressed as any human tragedy on its surface. Concerning the relevance of this claim for hyperstitional propagation, an anonymous Crypt dweller allowed me to share the following warning: “Taking hyperstition literally entails recognizing it as ultimately uncontrollable by metaphor, which is incidentally also self-replicating. For this reason it can be very disturbing to talk about the contamination of reality with infectious technologies,” she wrote. “Especially without the numbers and their markets in front of you!” Whether any of this is worthy of philosophical consideration is hard to say, as the majority of the concepts engineered and trafficked throughout the Ccru archive have been written and rewritten by decoys, if not by double agents.
Bewildering through and through, this book deprograms preconceptions in unfathomable ways, and is thus indispensible for anyone curious about the parameters of conceptualization, as well as what remains outside of those borders. It should not be taken lightly, however. These meticulously conjured zones, in which the thresholds of cognition are recursively crossed over; where insights are overdosed and demons are summoned, are also supposedly responsible for jettisoning multiple individuals into complete psychological collapse. At the end of the day (referred to here as the beginning), please be aware that by reading this book you are doing so at your own risk.
