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All posts for the month June, 2015

20150627

I’ve been trying to take a little time, these past few days, to talk about money. To talk about the framework and architecture of where A Future Worth Thinking About is going and what we will be doing as we integrate with Technoccult.net. There was even going to be this whole thing about how I literally don’t know how to juggle. But after losing the post (twice), I’ve decided that the tone of that post just wasn’t the way to go.

I know we’re usually encouraged to not discuss anything as gauche as cash, in Western Society, but since we’re somehow still using a system of psychologically transferred and collectively-agreed-upon value to determine who gets to eat food, I say fuck it. Let’s talk it out. So let’s just get to it:

When I started A Future Worth Thinking About, last year, I wanted it to be the main face of my major writing projects. I wanted it to be the place where I could host podcasts and vlogs. I wanted it to be the project name that people thought of when they were looking for my large nonacademic essays. In short, I wanted it to be the umbrella under which I could do everything that mattered to me. Thing is, I only ever saw it being this in addition to everything else I had on my plate.

For those of you just meeting me, this isn’t my only gig. I write, I teach, I guest blog, I appear on podcasts, I organize conventions and book signings, I consult on projects, I edit, I research, and a part of me has always seen these as separate actions, all being done in the service of keeping me moving, interested, fed, clothed, sheltered, alive. I somehow couldn’t see them as a single (intricate, complex, balanced) process, each component acting as input into, modulation condition upon, and output of the collective workings of the others with itself. Which is weird, right? Because that’s basically a really broad description of a cybernetic system.

It’s taken me this long, but I’m seeing that all of these things can all be one thing. This thing, right here. And so, as this has come together I’ve noticed, as I noted elsewhere this week, that I keep catching myself running the calculation in my head of how much money these projects—this project—needs to net me on a monthly basis, before it can be my primary source of income. And it’s a number I can actually wrap my head around.

Now, it’s usually considered impolite, gauche, boorish, whatever, to talk about money, but if you’re even here, reading this particular sentence, then chances are pretty good that you know that this venture is A) my life’s work, and B) supported in largest part by Patreon subscriptions. Which is nice because Patreon’s architecture has built-in milestones, to make everyone involved feel like they’re doing really great work, and can have some sort of immediate gratification, because we all like that. But the thing of it is, I also work retail. I do so because have a gap in my income, between AFWTA and teaching. But I think this has also reflected a gap in my thinking, because my Patreon milestone goals previously topped out at $400 per month.

USD$400 per month is the level at which felt I could cut down on retail work enough—enough—to focus on teaching and the kinds of audio visual work I want to do on this site. But I’ve realised that that’s intermediate thinking and that, ultimately, I want to be able to do only this.

In order to work only on AFWTA (and probably teach one or two classes a semester, because I love teaching)—that is, in order to have time to research, make, edit, and transcribe (or record) essays, podcasts, video chats, and interviews—I need to be making at least USD$2,000 per month, or roughly ten times what I’m making, right now. So do I expect that this will happen, tomorrow? No. It’d be super nice, but it’s just not going to be that soon. But I think it is attainable in the near future, if we work together: You engaging the material and telling people about how much you love what we do on this site, and me doing the work of writing and talking with you and everything else I listed.

Building a multimedia empire is no small task, so, lest you think I’m flying totally chartless, here’s my foregrounding for what I want this to become:

  • AFWTA will be the overarching linchpin, with radial arms of Writing, Podcasting, Video Chats, Interviews, etc.
  • Video and audio conversations about the intersection of philosophy, technology, religion, the occult, and pop culture will appear on Technoccult.net
  • Longer essays will appear here.
  • There will be an email newsletter that goes out on a regular basis from Technoccult.
  • Patreon Subscribers will receive first sends of the newsletter, with extras, in addition to other subscriber benefits.
  • If the newsletter contains more than just a series of ruminations, anything like a longer essay will be refined and posted here.
  • Links to external appearances (essays, podcasts, etc.) will appear in the same order as newsletters, with a shorter interval in between.
  • There may or may not be short-form ruminations on links and small bits of news, here, or we might save that for Tumblr. We’ll play that by ear.

There are some specifics I’m leaving out, like exactly what the various podcasts and guest interviews will look like, and where else I’ll be writing but trust me: It all interlocks. But, again, I need your help to get to the point where I can do this as well as I possibly can. You’ve all entrusted me with your attention and some of you have done so with your funds, and I appreciate that more than you may yet understand. It’s because of all of you—Widgett and Grumpyhawk and Debbie and Ingrid and Klint and Warren and House DeFraction and so many othersthat I can even think about this project in this way.

And now I’m asking that we trust each other a little further, so that we can make this the best possible creation we can imagine. If you’re already a subscriber, then thank you for doing everything you can. If you’re a reader but not a subscriber, then i would like to ask you to please consider a monthly subscription at Any of these levels:

$1.00+ Reward: Access to all written, audio, or video updates, and my thanks.

$5.00+ Reward: All $1 rewards, but my thanks to you is done in a special audio message for folks to hear.

$10.00+ Reward: All $1 and $5 rewards, plus: Suggest a topic of research and investigation. Your name and suggestion go in the hat and we pull them out, at random.

$20.00+ Reward: Every other reward level, access to behind the scenes process work (including excerpts from drafts of the book(s) that may eventually come of this) and who knows what else?! Maybe a special thank you, maybe a Twitter shoutout from someone or other. Who. Even. Knows. It’s a mystery!

The Technoccult Tumblr is here.

Twitter handles are @Wolven and @Techn0ccult

The Perfunctory Facebook Page is here.

You can sign up for the newsletter here.

And as always, the Patreon is here.

That’s enough, for now. I need to go get back to work on some more substantive posts. See you next time. And thanks.

Hello, there, old readers and new.

It’s been a pretty harrowing week, everywhere in this world, with many strange and terrible things happening all throughout. We are definitely going to spend some time orienting ourselves within those things, and integrating them into the world, but right now, I figure we can all use a little bit of a breather—a little headcleaner.

So with that being the case, here’s a little pop culture conversation between me and some of our fine friends over at Need Coffee Dot Com:

The 12 Monkeys Group Therapy Session

It’s a pretty freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness ramble about the first season of Syfy’s serialized televisual take on the time travel epic 12 Monkeys. This is the first of at least two conversations I’ll be having with various groups of people about this show, and I think acts as a nice mental palette cleanser, before we get into some heavier stuff, this coming week.

Hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please tell your friends.

There is huge news, so I’ll cut right to it: I have been given the reigns of Technoccult.net, and I will be integrating it with A Future Worth Thinking About. AFWTA will act as the overarching header for all things we do here, and Technoccult will service those specific ventures which blend science and technology with the perspectives of magick and the occult.

Klint Finley, founder of Technoccult, has written some extremely kind words, here, so I’ll let him take it:

…when I interviewed Damien a few months ago, something clicked. He writes about the intersection magic and technology, transhumanism, and the evolution of human consciousness. All the things that Technoccult readers keep telling me they want to read more about. I thought “why isn’t HE writing the site?” Then I realized: I should just let him take it over. It would give him a broader reach for his writing, give Technoccult readers more of what they’re looking for, and let me resign knowing the site is in good hands. Win-win-win.

Plus, his interest pop culture analysis brings things full-circle back to the original idea behind Technoccult. Oh, and the first time I met Damien, he was wearing a Luxt shirt. I had Luxt on heavy rotation while I was cobbling together the original Technoccult site all those years ago.

I’m aware that although I’ve brought in other writers in the past, my voice has been the one consistent thing on the site, and that some of you might be happy to have me keep writing here, regardless of what I write about. Some of you might even prefer it. But overall I think Damien’s voice will be more of a continuation of the spirit of the site than mine at this point. And while he’ll surely bring a different perspective on a wide range of topics, I think we have compatible world views.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Technoccult, I recommend going over to read both the full announcement, and to tool through the archives and get a sense for the place. We’ll be working on the transitional fiddly bits, for the next little while, but there will be content and discussion there, sooner, rather than later.

Thank you all so much for making this possible and for coming with me, on this. Now let’s see where we go.

These past few weeks, I’ve been  applying to PhD programs and writing research proposals, and abstracts. The one I just completed, this weekend, was for the University College of Dublin, and it was pretty straightforward, though it seemed a little short. They only wanted two pages of actual proposal, plus a tentative bibliography and table of contents, where other proposals I’ve seen have wanted anywhere from ten to 20 pages worth of methodological description and outline.

In a sense, this project proposal is a narrowed attempt to move  along one of the multiple trajectories traveled by A Future Worth Thinking About. In another sense, it’s an opportunity to recombine a few components and transmute it into a somewhat new beast.

Ultimately, AFWTA is pretty multifaceted—for good or ill—attempting to deal with way more foundational concepts than a research PhD has room for…or feels is advisable. So I figure I’ll do the one, then write a book, then solidify a multimedia empire, then take over the world, the abolish all debt, then become immortal, all while implementing everything we’ve talked about in the service of completely restructuring humanity’s systems of value, then disappear into legend. You know: The Plan.

…Anyway, here’s the proposal, below the cut.  If you want to read more about this, or have some foundation, take a look back at “Fairytales of Slavery…” We’ll be expounding from there.


 

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