Episode 153 - Shira Chess - The Unseen Internet

For this episode my guest for is academic and author Shira Chess. Shira is Associate Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia. For a long time she was a Game Studies scholar but her recent focus has moved to the ‘Digital Uncanny', resulting in her new book The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse. The book explores the magical thinking and occult influences that have shaped the history of digital spaces since the early days of the internet – and by extension, reality itself (or at least our perception of it). It examines subjects such as technopaganism, Gnosticism and simulation theory, reality hacking, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence and much more. In the interview I begin by talking with Shira about her background and how the idea for the book came about. We also discuss the curious connection throughout human history between new or emerging technologies and paranormal phenomena (such as telegraphy and spiritualism). Our conversation is more of an exploration of the themes and subjects in the book, rather than an analysis of the book itself but I think that we managed to cover a lot of interesting topics. You can find out more about Shira and her research at https://unseeninternet.substack.com/. If you enjoy what I do with Some Other Sphere and would like to support its upkeep, you can make a donation via Ko-fi. To buy the podcast a coffee go to https://ko-fi.com/someotherspherepodcast. Thank you!   The podcast theme music is by The Night Monitor, from his album, ‘Close Encounters of the Pennine Kind’. You can find out more about The Night Monitor's music at https://thenightmonitor.bandcamp.com/.