Is there anybody out there?

archive: something from around the back of the internet...

Jul 24, 2024

Hello comrades,

We are transmitting from around the back of the internet today. Here’s something from the other side. Revisiting a world in the future…

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the back of the internet

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I just went around the back of the internet. I must have pressed a wrong button, but suddenly this other page came up. It was like being on the other side of a mirror and being on the other side looking in.

I was on the inside of the other side and you were all there staring into your screens. You had goldfish bowl faces, glowing white and ghostly, illuminated by interwebs and the information mines which shone like gold in your glittering eyes. I grinned and waved but you’d never see me here, not even, if you used your binoculars.

I just went around the back of the internet. I quite liked it and I might go back.

It was dimly lit by a pale dusty old sun. The air smelled of wires, old tooth fillings and burnt plastic. There were no windows or doors. It was a ghost land, a dried out sea bed, a gritty desert and wasteland.

I was outside, on the other side. I found two dead bees. Not one, but two. And I wondered if the bees were friends when they were on the other side. Then I pushed an abandoned shopping trolley about for a bit, it had a wonky wheel.

I just went around the back of the internet. It was derelict and as out-dated as a page of a real newspaper.

I took a selfie of me - me on the other side - around the back of the internet

I walked for a bit and kicked a rock down a hole. There were no buttons to push and there was nothing to like or favourite. It was boring #hashtag boring #hashtag other side. Please retweet.

I went around the back of the internet. It was just my feet doing the walking thing to nowhere and into nothing and for nobody. I was on my own with my own head doing thinking which was a bit like tweeting but all in my own head box and on a timeline only I could see and I couldn’t share it or change my profile pic to the selfie of me - me on the other side and around the back by the bins.

It started to water from the ceiling. Fat drops fell from a film of sky above. Well, needless to say, I didn’t like that, water falling from up there onto my actual face. Hashtag #rain

I just went around the back of the internet. I might go there again, but it's alright I'm back online now.