Sheldon Renan

The Net and the Future of Being Fictive

(The Evolution of Narrativity-The Way We Tell Stories-Has Suddenly Begun To Pick Up Speed)

Interpretive notes by Dani Day...

The Internet is accelerating change in content and meaning and redefining the narrative. “Moore’s Law”, established by Gordon Moore, the founder of Intel states that technology and digital speed doubles every 18 months. This rate of increase is based on the number of transistors on a chip. The Internet has taken that transistor and turned it into fuel to run today’s increasing need for speed.

Technology and Internet access are creating new realms of existence from social interaction that enables total anonymity to virtual identities and evolving consciousness. Narrative structure is evolving into a collaborative community linked together via cyberspace. The shared authorship and collection of potential imagination converging in this electronic space is creating “mega-forms” of art and literature with multi-layered meaning and a conceptual complexity.

Reality is constantly in a state of flux as its definition is challenged by the intertwined existence of information and ideas. This evolution may be based on established forms stemming back to the beginning of written history of what reality is or is supposed to be, but the future is still unidentified and unpracticed. The narrative of the current state of progress is an unfinished story written by many and in rough form at best. The state of one’s being is in question as this process unfolds and the characters within the Net become magnified by the sheer velocity of the engine as it defines the new fictive forms.