THE CRYSTALPUNK MANIFESTO
Inorganic Strategies / Crystalline Tactics

I do not like that presumptuous Philosophy which in its rage of explanation allows no xyz, no symbol representative of the vast Terra Incognita of Knowledge, for the Facts and Agencies of Mind and matter reserved for future Explorers.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Self-Assembly

Without prior warning, while reading or while watching television or while doing the dishes or while wandering about or while drinking beer or while doing nothing at all, it might happen that something breaks free and takes over ordinary vision like the O’clock cuckoo can take over the clock. Is it moving? Is it static? It is impossible to tell. The mind automatically tries to fill in the blanks when confronted with fragments part of a larger sequence of images and this crystalpunk manifesto is such Coleridgian extrapolation from incomplete data generated by my brain into the modus operandi of a future crystalpunk movement rocking the cradle of consensus reality.

Asteroids from Inner Space

At the beat of some neural matter reaching temporary boiling-point a black rectangle launches itself into a formless clutter of other black rectangles: a silent, miniscule and abstract explosion impossible to stop and impossible to accelerate. At the speed of one rectangle at a time, a hybrid conceptual structure is shaping inside of me, slowly gaining enough mass to become a tangible sensation. These images are not caused by invading Etruscan demons, nor am I hooked on some mind-expanding drugs; what I see, and seeing is for want of a better word, is a ricochet of the symbolic representations of crystal growth studied in fierce, exhausting, daylong sessions behind a computer screen.

The First Flash

Last summer while browsing for nothing in particular I bumped into a copy of the survivalist-hippie classic The Last Whole Earth Catalogue that somehow ended up in the bargain-bin of a second-hand bookstore, useless to the shop-owner who liked it but couldn’t sell it to his dull customers. Among many other goodies (a book called Cybernetic Serendipity and one eski diagram from Ted Nelson’s Xanadu come to mind) it contained the picture of a home-grown salt-crystal on a string. It struck me there and then that growing crystals is the new punk-rock, that crystals are to a future breed of crystalpunks what the electric guitar is to ordinary punks: a cleansing of the slate, a general rebooting of popular culture. Revolutions produce nothing but noise at first, but slowly, while control over the instruments continues to grow, music starts to emerge, music which isn’t caught up in empty exercises of style, punk allowed instinct to amplify natural rhythms lost in prevailing grand theories of yesterday and the cultural hegemony of artistic specialisation. The programmability of crystals; chaos evolving into complex physical structures hands-off, are properties to be explored in kitchen sinks and garages the world over. But the mineral world is not the only realm where crystals self-organise with aggressive carelessness, the mind too sings its tune as Thomas Carlyle discovered a long time ago:

“As in some chemical mixture, that had stood long evaporating, but would not crystallise, instantly when the wire or other fixed substance is introduced, crystallisation commences, and rapidly proceeds till the whole is finished, so was it with the editors mind… Form rose out of void solution and discontinuity; like united with like in definite arrangement: and soon either in actual vision and possession, or in fixed reasonable hope, the image of the whole enterprise had shaped itself, so to speak, into a solid mass. “

Romancing the Stone

In all of history the crystal is perhaps the most overloaded symbol; used by writers, prophets, medicine-man and orators of all times to express in one clear psychogeonamic object otherworldliness. Novalis, poet and student of mining, held the crystal to be a dark, soul-eating parasite transforming the human heart into the dead cold of a stone; some believe it to be an early apocalyptic warning against the cyborg. The sentiment is easily understood; is it, after all, not true that it is with more than just amazement we listen to the stories about that Indian sect that refuses to eat anything organic and, consequently, rather suck on amethyst for the rest of their life than touch organic matter, even when it is as profane as centipede-excrement. Mineral cults evoke in us absolute horror and disgust, suggesting crystal-phobia lurking at the deep of our instincts. Crystalpunks are challenging the basic conditions of their humanity. But at least one standard metaphorical use of the crystal, that of the crystal as object of utopian perfection, as pure geometrical-molecular-ethnicity, in most cases turns out to be a chemical fiction. One of the most interesting qualities of crystals is their ability to encapsulate alien particles. Crystals too produce noise, as one flaw entered during packing distorts tessellation for ever after.

The Crystal XYZ

Crystals can reproduce, but unlike organic reproduction it is an unintentional process, hardcoded in chemical properties, not by means of interpretation of code as in DNA. To help understand the powers crystalpunks will learn to harness, some software was written as an aid to map the bright prospects of DIY crystal growth basement laboratories. These models are by no means a scientific correct simulation of crystallisation as they know nothing about molecule-bonding and all that shit. So what do I see? Each simulation starts at n=0 with crystalline agents and their solvent in total confusion. For each step the bipolar compounds in the system move. When crystalline entities, symbolised by black rectangles, meet their kin they pack into a crystal; the solvent, symbolised by transparent circles, break the crystal when touching it. Or variations on this principle. While this universe ages (n=n+1) dispersed crystalline agents beget shape, packed in such way that the solvent can’t break it. The system is stable when all crystals are packed and only a change in rule can tear it apart. As writing code goes, it takes hours of close attention to fix minor bugs and while wrapping this up, the even more patient work of comparing different rules to their output can commence. The abnormal input of these computer images has distorted ordinary memory-packing and now this black rectangular matter is humming along with some grey matter going Harry Houdini on me.

The Origins of [the Game of] Life

Crystal-phobia is an ironic phenomena in relation to Graham Cairns-Smith’s theory (made popular in his book ’7 Clues to the Origin of Life’) that primeval life forms were replicated by crystals before evolution replaced it by DNA. The ‘Game of Life’, the famous Conway program with its sublime simplified representation of organic reproduction: black rectangles living, dying and being born in a graceful dance orchestrated by simple rules, remains to haunt those who once fell in love with it. One of the theorised implications of Life is that it should be possible to program this rectangle-matter into a fully functional computer. One ingredient to do this, is to isolate all rectangle-configurations that are stable and which therefore can be part of a deterministic, man-made, system: the micro-domain as a rectangle-clockwork. My crystalpunk software, (a party with a lot of noise, booze and sugar-coated Goethite to suck on, was held to commemorate its beta-release) borrows the aesthetics from Life, but the resemblance doesn’t end at the GUI. Even though a different abstraction of reality is on show, a reality founded on the interaction between hostile compounds, the same sort of order as in Life can be witnessed, the same gliders, pumps and shooters are possible. The major difference is the self-organisation of large, open, pyramid shaped crystals perfectly adapted to not obstruct the solvent but rather to, you could interpret, process it. These crystaltrons, a word picked up for its nice sci-fi pseudo-brain-science patina, are filters, easily engineered to have special capabilities, for instance to emit a pulse after a certain threshold of particles have passed it. The crystalline computer can program itself.

Algorithmic Dreaming

Could there be a connection to dreaming here, after all dreaming is the moment the mind generates quasi-perception hands-off, like a crystal growing. Rereading the literature about automatic writing, an interesting tradition amidst poetic theory at large, the parallel becomes obvious. Automatic writing is a conscious and paradoxical effort to tap into the screensaver-mode of the mind; interfacing it directly while self-assembling language, crystallizing on the paper, words like Rorschach test, traditional meaning evaporating like ink soaked-up in blotting paper. The dubious credibility of its practitioners notwithstanding, it is interesting that, during automatic writing sessions, the writer by no means writes in a language she speaks, indeed the language does not have to exist at all. It has been pointed out that all automatic writing tends to resemble each other and you might say that this is caused by all minds obeying to the same logic, just as salt-crystals all look roughly the same and for now we assert as conceptual kludge that growing crystals equals tectonic somnambulism.

CrystalPunk Cartographies of Juxtaposed Realities

On-screen and off-screen, in physical matter and in neural matter: crystals operate as synaptic agents of self-organised control, remixing pre-existing fragments of the world; if you can see them, they are successful. False memories can be replaced by genuine ones, separate realms of reality can be flattened and brought to uniform size and blended into one whole presupposed by its parts. The mind can emulate the screen can emulate the laws of nature and feed them back to you. Crystalpunks are those wildstyle geniuses learning how to program crystalline molecules, pixels and neurons simultaneously. Listen to this carefully! Mind and matter can be synthesised in one noisy stroke and the crystalpunk movement is here to prove it, we have crystal-pistols and we are not afraid to use them.

necrospectiva de un pais sin memoria

diplomacias fundadas en infundos sin fondo

palacios de maldades siniestras

de milicias fantasmas

de cavilaciones politicas de gordos ignorantes

de huasos resentidos con granades cargos publicos

de imigrantes que se vanaglorian de su apellido

de rubios que no son morenos

y de morenos que desean ser rubios

de verificaciones mediocres

miramientos sin honor

acumulacion sin zoom back camera

holgura sin fragua ni alquimia

el fuego se apaga y las alahajas se vuelven pantallas

sin trabajo sin oro derramado

decir de una vez por todas zoom back camera

realidad sin ficcionar

digale a su camarografo

a sus guionistas

si les gusta vivir sin dignidad,

de promover esta verguenza sin autoestima

esta teleserie sin valores, esta diplomacia melodramatica

estos congresos intercelulares en la constanica recursiva

de los recuerdos

recordar, progresar cordialmente

foros del futuro, lo importante es recordar

para imaginar

nutrida en sentimiento

a contemplar la bonanza

pura fauce que todo lo ve

helios

mar

tierra redonda

sobre las rocas como reptiles , nausicos pensamientos

incrustaciones romanticas

diapositivas del pecho

despreciar la debilidad, los magnanimos

del animo

y saludar nuestros monstruos cordialmente

las cuerdas en los cuerpos humanos

streams are my dreams in the strings

our visions are the music in the air

pasandose la piedra caliente

esta que arde

la piedra ignia del conocimiento

filosofal en sofas so far so fast

away, shivering , overwehlming, boggling

gatos y nueces, perros ogros

aviones bucolicos del atardecer

motores de emociones sencillas, frecuencia volumen,

simple emocion la de la maquina,

pero el cuerpo es tiene multiplicidad de motores,

contenido el continente por sus frontersas

el mar dicee shhhhh shhhhhh silencio

quickly stepping in the frontera

romper la frontera del solipsimo

la primera palabfra la primera piedra

el teje maneje femenino

las serpientes eroticas

i wish this snakes were your arms

but im so cold, so lonely

reflexionely

like saylors in the prosa

caprichos y manjares

oh cochina y deliciosa, gracia con ambrosia

lujuria y demasia, te lleno de libaciones

de aceites y vibraciones

tripulantes de venus

embriagado de tu perfume

fragancia a sexo y ambrosia

cementos polpaico, pal paico, esa hierba WMC

distinta al obrero transex, del despilfarro civico del transantiago

sin lacto y sin matro, edwards devuelvenos el mercurio,

devuelvenos al general schneider

y devuelveme los libros de mi padre

extravio sin rutina

sin ruta estoy fuera de los margenes

de la demencia

por hablar por demasia,

por no saber hablar y querer decir muchas cosas

y andar diciendo unas cosas asi, tartamudeando

minisros de la cultura, funesto destino le entregan

pura desventura actores,

dejen de gritar cuando no es necesario

el ciclo litico de la piedra estudiantil

de la policia, de la poesia, el tatro a mil cuesta 15 mil

chamullartistas, libros caros, que desventura

que verguenza la historia de este pais sin autoestima

señores pijes, averguenzese de querer comprarse posgrados,

comprarse fama , de ser verdugos del arte

autogestionando la congestion

lo profesores mediocres , la masturbacion rara del ego

de los disiuplos al maestro,

que jamas quema un fardo, pero pereceran en la amargura,

en la muerte

quien se encargara de oscurecer la vida?

he feeds on you and then shit you, and dont share any shaize

yapo share a little bonanza when i put my soul on the landschaft

you got the money i got the soul

harto del mani y de estos elefantes prusianos insaciables

ogros señoriales,

hundanse en su arca de noe, en su arca de no fue, de no es

y no sera jamas

ustedes lo saben bien, me conocen bien

yo soy esa cosa , el otro

en la frontera, esa fisura en el arca

por favor que sea un mensaje de amor

tan asi en tenesee yo naci nazi asi

ooh si

no se si nazi naci… gnose jose

pero yo solo se que liz taylor me dijo

aah yaaaa, y no se me dijo a yaaa

en tenesee texaco como el papa negro de obama

con olor a sobaco negro de tenesee

a petroleo de texaco, de rednecks

cosas vaqueras cosas sin fronteras

por alla asi tan nasty naci ohh si

se me corto el mastil asi che viste asi

se desviste asa concursemos concordemos las cuerdas

cordialmente asi, unas cosas, las hebritas de las dendritas asi

las cuerditas del adn asi, de los zapatos moleculares

unas cahcazitaasasi, en una tarde de erotal vaganbundaje

con una garotiñas asi, garota erota asi

porque asi naci, en tenesee,no se sabe compañero

si mir o una lengua,

no se sabe compañero, no se sabe y la berenjena de 24 bits,

yo la vi nacer asi, por ser asi, onda que 24 bits 28 horas al dia

want to be a cascade, so lazy, so easy

workahalics asi, bis vita and lacto bacilo mamita

la vita, silecniosa y esencial, una venadita preimordial

niño peruano primordial con su llamita, le canta unas cositas,

asi despacito

y los inuits cantan asi, trabajan asi, metiendo el bicho ahi, asi

gambling mami yeah, cantando dont shivering my mam

cause i don want to be your dad

i m inside, with out you i m nazi, not nothing

es chagal, el cochayuyo, yerba maritima, pamplinoptica puro demadre p

puro pelambre, puro cahuin, chamullix

ahora la fama se consigue a puro chisme

vamos chile, es usted un fome

es un mundo que no lee, todos buscan minas ricas

lo fome se consigue a puro chisme

los politicos me los como todos como un chicle

nanana tararara ataranatara

esta cancion es pa todas las putitas

cobren mas barato wachas

bajame el precio mijita

alla hay es el otro ahi allanai

ay ay ay, i and i is another i

not a mercy, nou

jah guide, jah fly, jah no estay.

unas cosas que siginifican otras cosas

en el temple de la fobia, gritando como ratas

el imperio contrataca, y decimos otras cosas

asi por ser, asi por ser, asi onda que,como que

asi tan asi, esa onda, asi, igual, como que igual

igaul asi igual, cmom que, onda que la wea…

obvio que si, si es super obvio po

si yo tambien, y asi todo el rato

no te cacho ni wea sabis

sabi que voy hacer una vaca

pa comprar copete y quedar raja e curao

asi pa pa pa, y la wea y pa pa pa sale palla

a yaaa p po po po

cmo stai asi vai

pura fobia, pura incertidumbre, cachai? me cachai asi?

el renacimiento arcaico nunca jue

pura ignorancia, ignia, previero jugar con lego que

revolotear en la revolucion de las maquinas

en el boicot delas toprtugas ninja

en derridas piendo que la realidad se debe derridar

como un lego, como un alego, chagal el legado

el patrimonio, el padre demonio de la madre patria

que no es un pipo, que no juega el pin pon, que tampoco

es pasarsae la ìedra caliente

es quemarse las manos, la piedra varma

jugai al final fantasy? asi por ser

es uper largho

siuèr lacteo, super nada

super loco superada

beben y beben y vuelven a beber,

suuuuper nada y vuelven a beber

escudo y el futbol, beben y beben y vuelven a beber,

super nada, super loco, bakan la wea

el futbol y cristal y vuelven a beber, super nada

el futbol y su pisco y vuelven a beber!!! hay mas hielo¿?

super nada!! es bacan super nada es como asi,

super nada, onda que super loco y super nada, una cuestion bakan

de la b a la n, osea bakan

como en blanco y negro , cachai, pero bakan

no es superada ni super hada, es super nada

o sea super pollo, o super yopo,

ese jale del amazonas que te hacer ver weas

como bien y nal, pero mas bakan

weas que no uno no quere ver ais por ser

m

mani fiesta

el manieristán es un feudo del medio riente

de rienda suelta, de pacos cultos y cool

de flytes manieristas y siuticos

de futbolistas romanticos y cursis

de consumismo como un ismo como uno mismo asi enesa

romper los supestos

del vampiro prusiano limeño hermano, no me quites mi gloria

se ofrecen conversaciones interesantes, 10 mil la hora

posibles tartamudeos y torbellinos en el rio

aunque la pretension de sueldo es sobre 50 mil la hora

ya queel sueldo minimo no me alcanza pa niuna wea

y las cansatas familiares valen callampa,

los ministros de curtura me tienen chato

con sus muñecas culias gigantes caza bobos

y basta de corrupcion en las universidads,

los tenemos a todos cachaitos

estan rodeados, los vamos a comer con papitas

nos creen weones , que no nos damos cuenta

siembra vientos y cosecha torbellinos

entran en la iglesia y ascuchan al tatita

y vuelven a creer, creen y creen y beben y lamen

y vuelven al amen

y el culo del tatita se aleja del eden

rotterdado mental, anticristianizado como el divino

lepto pulento y picnico bakan

zan cudo

darkside of the moonchild

moon shadow manchado

la paz por la pasta la palla por el rap

atrtAtaratra atarantado atahualpado taran

ser cordial

tirar cuerdas

tirarse la wevas

thai wanders

jackie chundeer

ratie chan

jakiti

entre el oxido y el cromado

bronkiti manjarate

al borde del reverso esta traverso travieso y

los palacios erectiles, se inflaman de sangre mapuche

derramada por pelambre, desdea antuco antofagasta

cachagua es pa darle onda a guachaca

cachagua oguachaca, cohcayullos ltda

sin un peso por las algas que viajan japon

el hombre se lavo el pelo con champu importado de taiwanders

juanito dame tu ayahuasca!!!

por que no puede haber un futbolista culto,

o un flyte elegante que lea las noticias

que son de un tercio o la mitad pero no de todos

dame mis sextercios, seis tercios y nos vamos a tridias

no a medias

no chupando medias para leer las noticias

y donde esta tectonia, y la ignia y aquaman

el frustracabras de la verdad, lisa simpson

la piriguina de pathos TV

de homero redneck chihuailaf

pedro de vardibia con innovacion nacional

renueva el comumismo como uno mismo

o mi general, oh mi funeral

ohhhh sii

si tu no estas, no puedo leer ni escribirrr

me hace falta tu mirada

pais desmemorial

his head is not his memory

decapitados capitanes de la memoria

me moria de hambre por un banquete

por un diseño de celebraciones

incroporado en la danza macabra

ohhh hghghh

sensoria su señoria, mandandirumdirum da, buenos dias

y seria

juguemos a la ronda de san miguel el que se rie

se va al cuartel

un dos tres momio es

como en hansel y gretel, donde la mama

abandona a los niños

pero ellos se hacen fuertes e independientes

y prefieren quemarse con el pescado

arroZ con leche me quero cagar en una basenica de protulgal

cerca de santa isabel con trafixxx

si esos weones son oscuros como obama

tremendo palacio de gengibre me espera

con brujas complacientes y castradoras

conspiracion de los magios prusianos secretos

del estado de bienestar gremlin

del arcangel gazu

alabame la obahama que hoy hay ganas de jarana

o queras ser tu la mona que se coma mi banana?

te rasco con mi lengua nena

dime donde te pica

sobceno snobceno adolcentes obsolecentes

buble gummers next dimension is ala vuelta de la esquina

not in ketamina

the efx is on you member and remembers

not easy shine

envaces vacios son mis bacilos,

dulce flora bacteriana que la leche nos da

fermenta por nosotros ahora y en la hora de nuestra egesta

take ir easy

don guarri, take it easy,

dont need to boggling, no no no nonononoo

dont need to gooogling, any moooreeee

destruction of all internet

no more forward to all

no more funny video!!, no no on oonono

las incrutaciojnes romanticas de la z s ciencia

del palacio del jengibre galactico

de las escaramuzas enrre dioses y titanes

los abstractos de america , la africanizacion de españa

dont need to selknam sell naa nanan ana nana

dont cry for ooonnaaassss

onas no cry turururur nooooo onaa no cry

esto s lo qiue tienen que copiar

no lo que sale en la tele, guevones

la moda pasa de moda, y ademas es una mona vestida de cerda

seda dental, sera total la limpieza? la hipocondria emocinioal

melodramatica tiene que acabar sobre las tetas de la mona de tenesee

no mas teleseriess no ona no cry tururur

nda onda que onda onda que

bitacora vita escoria

regado con agua de noria, cultivos lacteos

rajputs deciomnomico y no decimos nada

a la corte le falta estilo

palacios en gra bretaña en la gran brecha

el canal de la mancha de united condom

starcraft, you knoe no bodyy knows he know everyrhing

look sty loco, arousal please

solo a las plantas les gustan que les planten, cachai cahcagua?

o preferi zapallar, o el tallarin filantropo de valparaiso

de la plaza echaurren

donde a todos les cuelga los mocos, como a cotlraine

santiago lima quieto bogota, buenos aires

sin frasco limon quito bigotes boggling town

connecting DC minis to invisible boggling clowns

burger clowns using drug as software

try dried frogs

oo my sexy drugs secsi ganss preference sexelence

inteliganze lorea danz gloria danz no mas trance

tune up tune up

k is for kompressor cause kompressor do e s not dance

asalamba force ford de nation

plurocratic demonstration of kraut folk

in de dirty old town divertido speranto tanto

al alva tonto habla tonto

mare monstrum nostrum rostrum

dub on hills

my house is on the hills

i m a mountain boy from the boggling town

so mountain people are my love..

this shit was synthesized here and in la playa de mirasol, with roots here and  in the  boggling town from” tomy d” speedy gonzales, my  plaza italia friend, it represents the weirdest part of our little but fully interconnected chilean  minds!!!!

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dulu y el VHSynth