Corpsey:
"Pantheism - the insight that there is nothing immaterial at any one moment whatever is is material. Forgotten in a time when text messages fly invisibly through space. Alienation from the material world effected through technology. That was what I was getting at with the Wordsworth stuff. Not that there is no phenomena of dematerialisation, but that dematerialisation might come through recognition of the increasingly hidden materiality of the world."
I also get a block with the dematerialisation concept for the same reason. Maybe its just the word, because we can’t get past the connotation of transcendence to some new immaterial realm in the internet age. Rather than the rearrangement of matter, digitsation, accelerating information exchange, despatialisation (deterritorialization?) of culture and distribution channels, long tail off of demand for certain mediums etc etc
"I suppose a small cabal of nerds really understands what's happening, but most of us couldn't explain it, which is okay since we don't give it a second thought."
Is it OK? My lack of understanding of new technology, actually most technology, is often a source of dread. It makes me think about how the widening gap in knowledge between technology creators/owners and the vast majority of technology users is a space that gets filled with fantasy, nostalgia, toys, and where conspiratorial and spiritual ideas proliferate. Sometimes the bottom-up way, explaining the unknown through whats available, basic or naive info myth, storytelling, magic etc. But there’s the top down element, where marketing (names, branding) and the aesthetics of new technology are designed to be familiar, curved edges, infantilisation (touched on here before)
Through necessity maybe (i dont care just make it easy for me to do the thing i want) but it can be seen in a more sinister sense, a means of control and dumbing down, and addiction. In that way the transcendence 'to a new immaterial realm’ or outside time, or back in time to your childhood, can be seen to play to your deepest desires to get you hooked and dependent.