abstract: New technologies often carry a patina of magic. It has been well established that historical relationships between media forms (telegraphy, photography, radio, film, and television) often co-emerge with occult beliefs and practices. In this article, I demonstrate how late twentieth-century Technopaganism and the internet developed in tandem, speaking to many of the same desires and methodologies. Technopaganism can be characterized as inherently do-it-yourself (DIY), building on a hacker ethos, and embodying a desire to exceed magical metaphors. Collectively, these characteristics suggest a medium that articulated a magically tinged user-centric desire to hack reality.
Shira Chess (Thu,) studied this question.