The CyberDeck
Update: I'm pausing the work on The CyberDeck for now. I feel deep inside that the entities need to halt(8)
for a while.
I have always perceived the world as an intricate and interconnected web of events, where everything seemed somewhat random, yet each outcome influenced another in unexpected ways. This fascination with the connections led me to explore chaos theory as a curious child, delving into the mathematical principles that explain how complex systems can arise from seemingly simple rules. As I grew into my teenage years, this interest naturally evolved into a fascination with chaos magick, a practice that emphasizes the power of belief and intention. It was a time filled with the whirlwind of hormones and the quest for identity, making exploring such esoteric ideas even more thrilling and relevant to my life.
Of course, making sense of all the randomness and trying to understand at least a bit of it to be well-prepared for the future led me to spend an entire life dabbling with divination, from the Tarot to The Lenormand, until I decided to stay with the Forty Servants of my good friend Tommie Kelly.
But one thing always bugged me in all the systems I tried to use. They were fatalist and deterministic, something that's impossible based on the chaos where we live. It's not like they didn't work — The forty servants are still my go-to guides for most things, but I wanted to try something different. Until now, I had no idea what it would be. This is changing as we speak.
After the advent of large language models and AI, where you are basically talking to a mass of compressed knowledge (costing the future of our planet through global warming), I have been thinking deeply about a system that would be more conversational, that I could confront and ask for clarifications, something that would enable me to have deeper conversations with.
After a lot of thinking, I come up with the following requirements for my system:
- It should be able to guide me using classic but complex archetypes
- These archetypes should be broad enough to convene several answers by themselves
- I should be able to ask for more information as I need and hopefully never be stuck with something that doesn't make sense
- It should be cryptic enough to make me reflect and decipher what it's trying to say
- It should always be right, even if I don't understand. It's my task to make sense of it
This took me to the creation of The CyberDeck.
Returning to the technology/AI theme, I painted my system with Prahou's unix surrealism motif. It made much sense, and I'm eternally grateful to him for allowing me to use it. He even helped me pick the suitable archetypes, so this is his as much as mine. It's our kid.
The CybeDeck is split into two decks—one with twenty archetypes and one with only three cards. The first is the constant deck, which is the system's core. The other is the Oracle deck, which is supposed to be used when you want answers about specific Constant draws.
The Constants
- 0x1 Self (The Magus/The Hacker)
- 0x2 Overload (Carrying too much)
- 0x3 Release (Let it go)
- 0x4 Override (Taking action)
- 0x5 COMM (Communication)
- 0x6 Sect (Family)
- 0x7 I/O (Love)
- 0x8 PSYOP (Enemy)
- 0x9 Anger
- 0xA Paranoia
- 0xB Nymph (Temptation)
- 0xC Halt (Stop)
- 0xD Network (The Path)
- 0xE Machine (Constancy)
- 0xF SIGKILL (Death)
- 0x10 Endure
- 0x11 Success
- 0x12 Power
- 0x13 Hack
- 0x14 Ex Machina (Intervention)
Oracle
- 0
- 1
- undefined
The CyberDeck is not supposed to be used as a typical divination system. It's all about having an honest conversation with it. Ask a question. Tell it that's not what you want and what should you do. Is this the right path for you? Use the oracle deck. Tell The CyberDeck that what it's saying isn't want you to want to hear. Make it work hard. There's no cost to run this AI system besides your brain trying to make sense of it.
And remember, the deck is never wrong.
Log
- 09/24/2024: I'm pausing the work on The CyberDeck for now. I feel deep inside that the entities need to
halt(8)
for a while. - 07/28/2024: The first "stable" version of The CyberDeck is live and running on caffeine.comptuer. It requires javascript, sorry. A
cgi/bin
version will follow, and also aCLI
version made in POSIX shell. - 07/28/2024: Written the first version of this page.