A COLLABORATIVE BLOG ==================== Our primary home is here on Tor: http://kse5vsklszkdm6tnqzbrd6ry2ohrqlljnpz65qkno63goqzzsjahazad.onion/ If you'd like to contribute, holler at us on Mastodon: RhizomatixBlog@freeradical.zone MISSION STATEMENT ================= Technology was supposed to connect and liberate us. So how did we end up in our present dystopia? Most users rely on a handful of programs and platforms that surveil them, ultimately transforming people into a series of data points. Inefficient networking systems are unevenly distributed and controlled by monopolistic telecom corporations. Perfectly fine technologies are victimized by a culture of obsolescence that wants users to only focus on new commodities. In order to combat these disturbing tendencies, our blog focuses on the seeds for radical transformation and the freedom that still exists within technologies. We can unleash their latent power by focusing on a number of strategies. First, we decentralize technologies outside of state or corporate control. Second, we adopt a DIY approach, nuturing our curiosity by learning how the tech that matters to us works. Third, we explore the still-relevant, potent possibilities in older technologies that the capitalist marketplace wants us to consider outdated. Fourth, we freely share knowledge so that more and more people learn how to take control over the technologies in their lives. Our project is named "Rhizomatix" in homage to Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari's rhizomatic theory. The two use the biological concept of the rhizome as inspiration: plants that send out roots & shoots from various, self-generating nodes [i.e., ginger, poison oak, Venus fly-traps]. Deleuze & Guattari think of culture in this way: "rhizome has no beginning or end; it is always in the middle, between things, interbeing, intermezzo." Human interaction is always shifting, adaptive and freeing. We believe that becoming more rhizomatic in our attitudes towards technology can seriously aid in our collective liberation. ABOUT US ======== SYRINX: I am the sysadmin, co-developer and a writer for blog. When our main site goes down, blame me. When it works well, blame somebody else. I am passionate about many a topic, including FOSS, cybersecurity, and anticensorship (Is that a word? Should it be hyphenated? IDK.) I am a linux user with a serious distro hopping problem (Srsly, halp!) Currently, I am running a heavily modified Xubuntu 19.04 install. I am the kind of person who doesn't pay more than a few dollars for a computer and then installs $100 worth of hardware in it, a great example of this is the server that I host this site on. Bought it for $5, upgraded the RAM, installed several hard drives and spent hours fine tuning everything. I then lost all of the case screws. RUSTY: A meat-encased brain with too many ideas stuffed inside it. I teach writing at a community college & research avant-garde art, computer history, & the decentralized internet. I love cooking & getting lost in the woods. I maintain this Gopher satellite site.