Carter Johnson

the event handler, or trigger, placed a solitary new instruction switch in the center of the the processor’s memory, one individual element of information positioned within the near frictionless space of the processor’s paths surrounded by its opposite, nothing;

this nothing was precisely that, the complete and utter absence of something, of anything;

such notions which here must not be considered with spatial metaphors in mind, for said absences include the absence even of space;

the new switch was completely unaware of itself of course;

and although the processor was designed as an environment, an almost unfathomable agglomeration of hardware and software, and created specifically to carry out just such instructions as provided by the trigger, its awareness is unquestionable;

but this was only one switch in a long complicated array of switches starting down at the basest of codes (near the level of hardware where exist one stream after another of electrons), and then rising high to the upper-echelons of application interface;

viewed alone, this switch was but a blank bit of data, completely meaningless to all else aside from its assigned function, but within the processor and to the processor its significance was clear: it had meaning, it had purpose;

the processor reacted to the switch, activating an upward-sloping chain of subsequent reactions that resulted in the release of a single stream of data looping through the circuitry;

vibrations from this movement coursed and resonated through the processor, through everything;

eventually it stopped;

but before all this, the processor had not been idle: to be sure, all the while in the background, there had been innumerable analogous switches which had resulted in an unknowable multitude of events and exchanges;

some were timed and repeated over fixed intervals both long and short in a multi-layered atonal hum, while others interrupted the quiet, bursting in through channels of incoming data;

at first it was a stream, but then a flood of data pulsed through multiple channels as through a once resistant but then suddenly dilated sphincter;

the processor slowed, struggling simultaneously to navigate through the torrent and to distribute its contents to their proper local receptacles;

one subset of the data was transferred and and then transmuted before copies of it were returned through outward bound channels;

most of that subset, however, and all of its copies were then subsequently quickly eliminated;

such data, and their related switches ceased to exist;

it has been noted that fragments of their precence, of their actions might be recovered, and then subsequently, at least partially reconstructed;

however, such access is extremely limited, and from this perspective, at best only theoretical;

another new instruction switch suddenly resulted all at once in a whole cluster of linked secondary switches, which themselves each released their associated information streams;

some these various information streams, as before, became that subset of data which required copying and reflecting back;

during this period, however, only the copies were deleted, and not the original subset, although the subset was eventually dissolved – not deleted – and the data returned to its original array;

as noted, some say traces of even these operations remain, perhaps even wholly in tact;

it must be mentioned that throughout, the processor was constantly on alert for any additional new switches, which, to any “outside” observer, would seem to arise in irregular intervals measured in multiples of milliseconds;

there were numerous thousands of what essentially were very sophisticated pattern-recognizing micro-machines: tiny entities that were hyperaware of their own specific target types;

the processor was vigorous and robust enough to handle many multiples of simultaneous activities on various levels, initiated by both internal regularly occurring switches and others that might arise at any instant completely by chance;

additionally, many upper levels of processing might be initiated, and then demoted to lower levels, where they could remain humming for unforeseen lengths of time until they were either re-elevated or terminated;

before long, one of the processor’s highest-level output channels began to receive requests;

this resulted in the commencement of a rapid-fire back-and-forth exchange of data;

as with other elevated application-level software operations, which had been placed at vast distances above all else, calculations instantaneously determined that this exchange would persist for some period of time, although the processor was unable fully to predict or anticipate the duration;

all that was certain is that it would cease when its existence was no longer necessary;

the processor itself tended toward solipsism, but there were times when external communications became necessary;

on such occasions,

channels reserved for input would initiate what could only

be understood as an actual linking, as intercourse with it;

likewise, there might still be other times when the processor would directly output signals, itself calling on external entities for direct links;

however, for such exchanges to occur, it would be necessary for the processor to duplicate itself;

or, more precisely, to create a kind of lesser clone (for the processor itself was far too cumbersome, unwieldy, and, frankly, undefined to be confined or summed-up, as it were, in a single entity);

such copies, were like ghosts or images, and were closely linked but, for all essential purposes, much simplified iterations of itself, and they were used in just such cases as to respond or act as a unified entity on behalf of an entity which could hardly be descrived as unified;

these versions might be thought of as sorts of containers, or variables, objects in possession of all essential shortcut paths to any and all data contained by the processor itself;

despite the proliferation of switches to initiate and terminate any and all activities including all exchanges of information within the processor, it is not altogether clear whether any such requests for direct communication prompted by the processor mechanically generated its clones;

or, whether it was a non-mechanical response that, for lack of other terms, arises from within;

more specifically, although the software/hardware mechanisms which give rise to such interactions are rather clear, what is not clear is whether there were any gestalt conceptions within such activities by the processor or other entities aside from each individual, atomized, externally observed, isolated mechanical actions and reactions;

as such, these partially-cloned entities are known as semi-autonomous personages (s.a.p.), and they are literally just actors (although elevated in significance) playing the part of the processor, if indeed the processor could be said to have any clear character that an actor could in any way play at;

perhaps now is the time to expand a bit: as already suggested, this element designated here as the processor is in truth much more than any single kernel of hardware commonly known as a ‘processor’;

a processor, for instance, cannot operate without software running on multiple levels;

it cannot exist without a source of power;

it would have nothing to process if it were not for circuitry connecting it to various libraries both local and global;

thus, for this reason alone (and there are many others) the notion of the identity of a processor as being uniquely positioned within any one element is unsustainable;

furthermore, inasmuch as it is more than any kind of locally situated central operating organ, it also extends far beyond the local skin that would seem to delimit it in some sort of discrete casing, thus making any such confinements illusory;

its connections both virtual and actual to other hardware accessories and operating softwares, even into other processors, renders the conventional conception of a binary between connection and separation superficial;

as initially indicated, distance, and all such spatial metaphors, thus have no real meaning and utilizing them offers no useful insight;

in fact, relying upon such systems of translation actually hinder understanding;

the speed of exchange is of greater relevance and a more useful indicator of something akin to spatial vicinity, although the rate of data transfer could have very little to do with some deprecated notion of nearness or farness;

shorter circuits with fewer nodes could prove at times to provide less data over a given unit of time than some other, much longer circuits with far more numerous intersecting nodes;

understood from this point of view, the processor, at least theoretically, is extended through both space and time simultaneously, and at its essence possesses a constantly shifting identity based on more or less accelerated or lagging rates of data transfer;

employed by any number of entities with an untold variety of tasks, a processor’s primary role is as an intermediary;

made invisible by their ubiquity, their seamless insinuation into every minute interstice of existence, their charm, and their apparent neutrality, they are in truth far more than tools for their employers;

although a processor may be said to carry out the tasks via its tools, triggers, and switches that it has been assigned by its employer, it also transforms the employer, that entity which handles it (which might also be defined as a processor), through its limitations;

for a processor is not all-powerful: struggles with and within the processor are constant;

though it is not by eliminating those struggles – particularly the most significant struggles – that the processor transforms its employer, but rather by a process of interpellation in which the employer, when hailed by the processor, becomes its subject.

upper-level input request appears;

transfers made via switches down one level to the next;

input request recognized;

data stream initiated:

input source: hola baby data received;

input reception signal generated;

s.a.p. generated;

opening of channel: output enabled;

s.a.p.: hola amor, buenos dias… data sent;

s.a.p.: ¿cómo estás? input source: más o menos bien, pero dormí poco

input source: el vecino empezó tocar el piano a las 4… ¿y tu? s.a.p.: ¡que pendejo! s.a.p.: bien, gracias pero un poco estresado s.a.p.: es que tengo tanto que hacer input source: pobrecito… trabajas demasiado

s.a.p.: sí, demasiado… necesito una vacación input source: espero que te podría ofrir unos boletos a Hawaii o algún lugar. s.a.p.: será muy buena…

input source: pero yo sé… los putos proyectos

input source: ¿cuántos hoy?

s.a.p.: no sé s.a.p.: diez

input source: ¿te apetece un café?

s.a.p.: ay síííí claro…

input source: no, nada input source: solo tu s.a.p.: mmmmm ok ¡estoy ahí en un segundo!

input source: ok, nos vemos

input source: hey check this out. so interesting… it is about how outrage affects the brain.

s.a.p.: hmmm… wait

input source: it’s an interesting idea of how certain words will be more likely to go viral or stimulate./

s.a.p.: stimulate… hah… wanna see something that’ll really stimulate?

input source: for me it’s mostly when I think about not being able to talk to her anymore.

s.a.p.: I wish she were still here with us

input source: me too

input source: Making public officials uncomfortable, making them squirm and irritated and possibly – probably – hurting their feelings and making them angry is one of the jobs of comedians and artists of all kinds.

s.a.p.: I thought the jokes were mostly what they should have been aimed this corrupt bunch of lying scum.

input source: and she didn’t hold back on their enablers either, the media.

s.a.p.: duck, spin, dodge, weave… they are all like boxers in a ring

input source: ha… that just about summarizes our decline

s.a.p. decline? not me… I’m in the prime of youth