Connectionist Manifesto

Get lateral. Sideswipe the hierarchy of phallic hegemony. Do it in tandem, imagine tons of femmes tangoing down the street friendly and sharp as fucking steel blades hidden in knuckles, in your hot bouffant, in purses. The excitement of knowledge. The joy of knowing there’s someone you will tell.

These are the few things I want to talk about tonight. These are the gluey bits. This is my vision of community. I’m obsessed with manifestos. I read them all the time. I write them all the time. This is my Manifesto on Connectionism:

1. What It Is

Connectionism: kind of like hyper-dimensional, hypersocial connect 4. Think kurt Vonnegut jr. Worlds where you can talk with anybody; where it’s not necessary to uphold nonconsentual social status through rudeness.. Think of it: the flatlining of fame; deprivlgeing

Connectionism is network theory, it comes form the world of AI; connectionist systems are fundamentally different from computers as we know them. in that, although they organize relations among information, they have no Centralized processing supervision or explicit instruction to orchestrate this relating. the result is that the logic they use is not that of hierarchy; it is superior because it allows a range of possible non-linear computations.

Connectionism is about the relationship of information, access, and privlege. It means that I don’t have to be at a higher point on the social scale to talk to you. It means that I do have to have a body to understand the world around me.

What the fuck this means is that you don’t have to ask your boss, you don’t have to fear looking stupid talking to someone supposedly better than you, you don’t have to write in to the ministry head, you don’t have to ask your priest, you don’t need to check in—you just go ahead and find out what you wanna know. You just go ahead and talk to that girl; you just go ahead and tell someone they made you think. You just go ahead and make yourself happy. Don’t fear the crowd. Those who do not respond, or those who fear you are the hierarchy, and they are miserable.

2. Who Connextionists Are:

We are hypertextualists, we create meaning that circles back and forth, like a great fuck of information. I did not consult the manual. I asked my friend. We are tech-dorks, queers, genderfuckers and polysensualists. We ache and celebrate; we work and play; we just think a little differently because we let ourselves.

We are not computers: computers are programmed to respond to commands. If a command is unrecognized, the computer can’t respond. You’re probably thinking, Well that makes total fucking sense, but here’s the problem: it’s not possible to foresee every situation; you can’t program for everything. Something that make sense to those of us going around in bodies can just flub up a computer. It may be programmed with understanding riding a bike on a road, but put it on the sidewalk and, if it doesn’t have the information, it stops dead. It can’t access any more information, not like us.

We are cyborgs. We are part machine, part bodies. We put technology in and on our bodies. I was on the internet today; then I rode a bike and I wear glasses for that, later I took off my glasses to use my vibrator, cuz I found some porn on the internet. My body responds to machines, uses them and works with them. I am part of the machine, like it is part of me. We use each other. Yet, I am firmly located in my body. Stuck here. Fantastic, great, even. Without having to rewrite my program for every possible scenario, I am a superior machine.

Someone came into my work the other day, being documentairzed. I asked not to be on the camera because I think TV will kill me if it sucks me up. It will smell my cunt and pull my ponytail and ask for a joke on the way to fame . How many punks does it take to change a light bulb? None, punk can’t change anything. TV, it’ll take me too seriously, not like you. It’s one directional, it spews cheap and watery digital semen. You can’t talk back to it; but you can try. TV is guilty of the genocide of community, falsely lulling us out of our bodies and replacing our time with someone else’s flaccid life.

Connectionists make art, make fun, make lust, make friends. We get out of the house.

3. What Connectionism Does:

Circuitry is underrated. All the bits that go somewhere are useful. Exploit them; utilize your brain. Snap to it like the snap on tool man. Strap to it like your girlfriend did last night. Get into the beauty of your brain, your most squishy gift. Then Share it.

This community I envision comes out of my own communities: immigrant, slut, been heartbroken, queer, assault survivor, artist, femme top, & one of fluctuating mental health. Some of these are more interesting to talk about than others; some are cooler. Connectionism doesn’t care. It takes all the information in my brain and spreads it out.

Do you have a question? . I have a question. can we get rid of infighting? Can we deprogram female competitiveness? Is there really a ‘man’ shortage in queer culture? Or is it an artificial construction of unavailability to maintain female competition. If that’s not from Hierarchy, what is? More than anything I love femmes; I do not want to fight you, girls.

Hierarchy says that if I have a boyfriend and you want him, you have to get all sneaky and get him drunk to fuck him, then I have to call you on his cell phone screaming “I’ll cut you, bitch.”

Hierarchy says there’s not enough money, jobs, fun, or love to go around; so we have to hoard our funds, undercut each other for jobs, buy our fun at media superstores, and keep our sweethearts hearts in boxes; wish we were someone else.

Flatten the hierarchy. Just step outside of it. Network to your left, to your right.

Connectionism says let me help you make more money if you need it; it is the underground information network that spills out it’s many lines. it is the phone call from an aquaintance about a party; it is the impromptu music video you all made there; it is saying if you’re straightforward and ask for what you want my lover may in fact fuck you and both she and I will be excited about it.

Connectionism says bring on the fun, bring on the heartbreak, bring on the data. It is an outlet and a source. It is the command, the program, and the response.

4. What It Can Let You Do

Delete the command that says “I could never do that”

Erase the program that makes you fear society.

Close the window that opens up flashing red, blinding and searing you

Lets be more fearless in our lateral networking. This keeps us from feeling like pieces of shit, which , in hierarchy, we all are, we’re all less famous and less beautiful and less rich than somebody. If you’re feeling like a scribble. I wanna tell you, Honey those people are not better than you, you can write your self out now. We’re taking all comers.

I have a friend who puts robots on everything. As an act of love she named me axon panter and blessed me with her de-digitized universe. To thank her I created this. Look around you. This room is full of genius. I know It’s totally not cool to say this, but. Join the network.

5.

I can fluctuate. I can reciprocate. I can smile at everyone. I can stand up for myself. I can alternate universes. I can live in the fifth dimension. I can tell you I like you. I can connect without having to work my way up first.

I did not write this piece because I am better than you; I wrote it because I wanted you to know that we’re not so far apart after all. Parallel universes tango in tandem. Roll with the force fields. Branch out fractally, go in every direction at once. While you’re at it, send a signal my way sometime.