<div><spanid="xnili">@ilinx</span>:<spanid="tilde">~</span>$ <b>Adin Fassrol</b><br>Professor Fassrol was widely known as a pioneer in the application of cybernetics methodologies to anthropology and mythology. His visionary approach made possible the maturation of what now we call cyber- or <ahref="ve.html"onclick="pppR(this, 've', '500', '310')"target="ve">virtual ethnology</a>. He was one of the main researchers to criticize the occultist wing of the new discipline led by Echidna Stillwell, however, due to the pressure of academic institution his work is now remembered as essential voice during the golden age of Virtual Anthropology, nowdays working in totally different ways. During the 70s professor Fassrol found the chair in experimental semiotics of the Harvard institute representing a nomad figure in a usually ortodox environment.</div>
<div><spanid="xnili">@ilinx</span>:<spanid="tilde">~</span>$ <b>Adin Fassrol</b><br>Professor Fassrol was widely known as a pioneer in the application of cybernetics methodologies to anthropology and mythology. His visionary approach made possible the maturation of what now we call cyber- or <aclass="home"href="ve.html">virtual ethnology</a>. He was one of the main researchers to criticize the occultist wing of the new discipline led by Echidna Stillwell, however, due to the pressure of academic institution his work is now remembered as essential voice during the golden age of Virtual Anthropology, nowdays working in totally different ways. During the 70s professor Fassrol found the chair in experimental semiotics of the Harvard institute representing a nomad figure in a usually ortodox environment.</div>
Cecil Curtis has been the first to give an account of Nma populations, in particular of the Tak N'ma tribe which was considered the most violent of the indigenous populations of the island and perhaps 'the most unspeakble selvages on earth'. However, his expedition happened in 1883 during the eruption of the Krakatoa, is remembered as an anthropological failure highlighting the lack of a proper cultural framework enabling the communication between modern and ancient culture. In the next century, the account of Curtis expedition ending with his madness and death apparently caused by malaria is become a modern myth shrouded in the deepest mystery.<br><br>
<sup>For a more detailed account of Curtis' expedition and experience with the Tak N'ma see the Stillwell-Curtis memories</sup>
Cecil Curtis, also rememberd as'Mad Dog' Curtis, has been the first to give an account of <aclass="home"href="nma.html">Nma</a> populations, in particular of the Tak N'ma tribe which was considered the most violent of the indigenous populations of the island and perhaps 'the most unspeakble selvages on earth'. However, his expedition happened in 1883 during the eruption of the Krakatoa, is remembered as an anthropological failure highlighting the lack of a proper cultural framework enabling the communication between modern and ancient culture. In the next century, the account of Curtis expedition ending with his madness and death apparently caused by malaria is become a modern myth shrouded in the deepest mystery.<br><br>
For a more detailed account of Curtis' expedition and experience with the Tak N'ma see the <aclass="home"href="scm.html">Stillwell-Curtis memories</a>.<br><br>
<div><spanid="xnili">@ilinx</span>:<spanid="tilde">~</span>$ <b>Death</b><br> The professor had been striken whilst returning from Java, in Indonesia; falling suddenly, as witnesses said, after his ship reached the territorial water of U.S. Doctors were unable to find any visible disorder, but concluded after perplexed debate that some obscure lesion of the heart, possibly induced by the overload of radio <a href="#"onclick="pppRP('comm', '1000', '800','1000','500')">communications</a> received by the ship in the moment of crossing the free waters, has been responsible for the end of a so elderly man. <br><br>
<div><spanid="xnili">@ilinx</span>:<spanid="tilde">~</span>$ <b>Death</b><br> The professor had been striken whilst returning from Java, in Indonesia; falling suddenly, as witnesses said, after his ship reached the territorial water of U.S. Doctors were unable to find any visible disorder, but concluded after perplexed debate that some obscure lesion of the heart, possibly induced by the overload of radio <aclass="home"href="#"onclick="pppRP('comm', '1000', '800','1000','500')">communications</a> received by the ship in the moment of crossing the free waters, has been responsible for the end of a so elderly man. <br><br>
<sup><i>At the time I saw no reason to dissent from this dictum but latterly I am inclined to wonder <br><br>- and more than wonder.</i></sup></div>
Professorv Stillwell had done pioneering fieldwork in ethnology in the 1920s leading the most controverted wing of what will become Virtual Ethnology, but her reputation quickly fell into eclipse. University authorities began to fear that she had gone native, credulously and uncritically adopting the strange folk beliefs ofher beloved Mu N'Ma. Some, such as professor Adin Fassrol, went so far as to suggest that she had been ‘creative’ with her findings; that much of her data had been simulated. Fearing that they had a Blavatsky-type fake on their hands,the University moved to dissociate themselves from her work. A whispering campaign wasorchestrated, and Stillwell was first discredited and then ‘forgotten’ by an anthropological community increasingly keen to establish its scientific credentials. The result was that her voluminous works – on Mu folklore – went unpublished. Complete disreputability was assured when her workbegan to be championed by occultists, poets and cranks of every persuasion, such as Peter Vysparov. During the beginning of the 70s he will become the head of the semi-fictional Miskatonic Virtual University with the creation of the N.W. Peaslee Chair in Hydro-History. <br><br>
Professorv Stillwell had done pioneering fieldwork in ethnology in the 1920s leading the most controverted wing of what will become <aclass="home"href="ve.html">Virtual Ethnology</a>, but her reputation quickly fell into eclipse. University authorities began to fear that she had gone native, credulously and uncritically adopting the strange folk beliefs ofher beloved Mu N'Ma. Some, such as professor <aclass="home"href="af.html">Adin Fassrol</a>, went so far as to suggest that she had been ‘creative’ with her findings; that much of her data had been simulated. Fearing that they had a Blavatsky-type fake on their hands,the University moved to dissociate themselves from her work. A whispering campaign wasorchestrated, and Stillwell was first discredited and then ‘forgotten’ by an anthropological community increasingly keen to establish its scientific credentials. The result was that her voluminous works – on Mu folklore (one of the three tribes of <aclass="home"href="nma.html">Nma</a> island) – went unpublished. Complete disreputability was assured when her workbegan to be championed by occultists, poets and cranks of every persuasion, such as <aclass="home"href="pv.html">Peter Vysparov</a>. During the beginning of the 70s he will become the head of the <aclass="home"href="mvu.html">Miskatonic Virtual University</a> with the creation of the N.W. Peaslee Chair in Hydro-History. <br><br>
<div><spanid="xnili">@ilinx</span>:<spanid="tilde">~</span>$ <b>Miskatonic Virtual University (MVU)</b><br>
MVU dates back to the early 1970s, when the N.W. Peaslee Chair in Hydro-History was created for Professor Echidna Stillwell. The‘University’ had no campus as such (it still doesn’t) – hence the ‘Virtual’ of its title – but was a loose agglomeration of scholars, most affiliated to other institutions, especially MIT. (Miskatonic had beendescribed as the ‘Shadow MIT’.) What bound them together was a shared interest in the‘hyperfictional’ aspects of the work of H. P. Lovecraft. MVU thus brings together experts in fictionalsystems, mathematics, physics, geology, semiotics: all engaging in strange, crossdisciplinary pollinations that, if they are not actively forbidden, are unsupported in any other academic institution. The University represent the convergence of the Miskatonic University, the Cthulu Club, which account can be found in the Vysparov-Stillwell corrispondency and the studies of the occultist wing of Virtual Ethnology directed by Stillwell himself.
MVU dates back to the early 1970s, when the N.W. Peaslee Chair in Hydro-History was created for Professor <aclass="home"href="./es.html">Echidna Stillwell</a>. The‘University’ had no campus as such (it still doesn’t) – hence the ‘Virtual’ of its title – but was a loose agglomeration of scholars, most affiliated to other institutions, especially MIT. (Miskatonic had beendescribed as the ‘Shadow MIT’.) What bound them together was a shared interest in the‘hyperfictional’ aspects of the work of H. P. Lovecraft. MVU thus brings together experts in fictionalsystems, mathematics, physics, geology, semiotics: all engaging in strange, crossdisciplinary pollinations that, if they are not actively forbidden, are unsupported in any other academic institution. The University represent the convergence of the Miskatonic University, the Cthulu Club, which account can be found in the <aclass="home"href="./lvs.html">Vysparov-Stillwell corrispondency</a> and the studies of the occultist wing of <aclass="home"href="./ve.html">Virtual Ethnology</a> directed by Stillwell himself. <br><br>
<sup><i>Some say that Miskatonic University is nothing more than a rumour, or a joke. Yet rumours have anunsettling ability to make things happen, and jokes, it is often said, have a serious side. My journey tothe semi-fictional Miskatonic Virtual University hasn’t yielded much that’s definite. But perhaps that’sthe point ...</i></sup>
South-East Asian cultural matrix, reputedly originating in the civilization of Mu,and maintaining the practices of Lemurian demonism and time sorcery, until devastated by the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa. The Nma were composed of true tribes (tripartite sub-groups): Mu, Dib, and Tak, linked by a triangular cyclic kinship system. The ancient cultures of the southern Chinese and ofthe Dravidians share many features with that of the Nma, suggesting a common source (or alternative principle of convergence).<br><br>
Peter Vysparov was a Russian émigré, whose family had fled to the USA during the Revolution. The Vysparovs were a reclusive family, shrouded in rumour. Serf legend had it that they had acquired theirwealth through ‘abominable magical pacts’. And, sure enough, rumours of occultism followed PeterVysparov into World War II. Coincidentally, Vysparov had been posted to the same theatre whereStillwell had done much of her fieldwork. He worked with the Dibboma, the degraded rump of the Dib N'Ma, who were one of the three original N’Ma tribes. It was said that Vysparov had employed‘unorthodox’ means in his war against the Japanese, using Dibboma sorcerers in a ‘magical war’. Since Vysparov's methods highly successful, military High Command were not overly concerned to investigate them. Vysparov is also known as the initiator of the Cthulhu Club and it is only with the recent release of correspondence between Vysparov and Stillwell that the events of the war – which throw a great deal of light on the subsequent development of Virtual Ethnology and the Miskatonic Virtual University– have become clearer.
<sup><i>Some say that Miskatonic University is nothing more than a rumour, or a joke. Yet rumours have anunsettling ability to make things happen, and jokes, it is often said, have a serious side. My journey tothe semi-fictional Miskatonic Virtual University hasn’t yielded much that’s definite. But perhaps that’sthe point ...</i></sup>
Peter Vysparov was a Russian émigré, whose family had fled to the USA during the Revolution. The Vysparovs were a reclusive family, shrouded in rumour. Serf legend had it that they had acquired their wealth through ‘abominable magical pacts’. And, sure enough, rumours of occultism followed PeterVysparov into World War II. Coincidentally, Vysparov had been posted to the same theatre where <aclass="home"href="./es.html">Stillwell</a> had done much of her fieldwork. He worked with the Dibboma, the degraded rump of the Dib N'Ma, who were one of the three original <aclass="home"href="./nma.html">N’Ma</a> tribes. It was said that Vysparov had employed ‘unorthodox’ means in his war against the Japanese, using Dibboma sorcerers in a <aclass="home"href="./tw.html">‘magical war’</a>. Since Vysparov's methods highly successful, military High Command were not overly concerned to investigate them. Vysparov is also known as the initiator of the Cthulhu Club and it is only with the recent release of correspondence between Vysparov and Stillwell that the events of the war – which throw a great deal of light on the subsequent development of <aclass="home"href="./ve.html">Virtual Ethnology</a> and the <aclass="home"href="./mvu.html">MVU</a>– have become clearer.
<div><spanid="xnili">@ilinx</span>:<spanid="tilde">~</span>$ <b>Randolph Edmund Templeton</b><br>The name of Profesor Randolph Edmund Templeton is inextricably tangled with the secret perplexities of <aclass="home"href="./tw.html">time</a>. It was he who, by way of a yet barely comprehended time-anomaly, provided themodel for H. P. Lovecraft's Randolph Carter ... And yet it was this ‘same’ R. E. Templeton who – on March 21st 1999, whilst delivering a lecture at <aclass="home"href="./mvu.html">Miskatonic</a> devoted to a rigorous critique of H. G.Wells – awoke suddenly as the Thing that lurks behind the mask of Immanuel Kant, coincidentallydiscoverering the transcendental <aclass="home"href="./tt.html">time-machine.
The Stillwell-Curtis memories are extremely relevant for a detailed account of Echidna Stillwell expedition in Nma and the study in virtual ethnology on the tribe of Mu. As he write in this text, the expedition was ment to follow the footstep of Cecil Curtis and his experience with the Tak N'ma. Stillwell complete work on Mu folklore, however, has been discredited by academic institutions leading to the expulsion of the occultist wing of Virtual Ethnology and the subsequent formation of the Miskatonic Virtual University.
The Stillwell-Curtis memories are extremely relevant for a detailed account of <aclass="home"href="./es.html">Echidna Stillwell</a> expedition in <aclass="home"href="./nma.html">Nma</a> and the study in virtual ethnology on the tribe of Mu. As he write in this text, the expedition was ment to follow the footstep of <aclass="home"href="./cc.html">Cecil Curtis</a> and his experience with the Tak N'ma. Stillwell complete work on Mu folklore, however, has been discredited by academic institutions leading to the expulsion of the occultist wing of <aclass="home"href="./ve.html">Virtual Ethnology</a> and the subsequent formation of the <aclass="home"href="./mvu.html">Miskatonic Virtual University</a>.
Stillwell-Curtis memories can be found in Ccru's texts as <i>The Vault of Murmurs</i>
<div><spanid="xnili">@ilinx</span>:<spanid="tilde">~</span>$ <b>Tchattuk</b><br>Stories concerning Tchattuk, <aclass="home"href="./es.html"> Stillwell </a> tells us, invariably refer to Tchattuk stealing something from Katak. Devotees of Tchattuk insist that it is this act of theft which triggers Katak’s journey around the time-cycle. Tchattuk is both she-who-steals and what-is-lost, simultaneously wounding Katak and making her what she is. <br><br>
It is easy to see why Tchattuk was held in special reverence by the Tak N’Ma, and why that reverence had a peculiarly ambivalent quality. The Tak language had a special word for this admixture of dread and love: Tukka.<br>
According to the Mu N’Ma and the Dibboma, the Taks would stage bloody ceremonies in honour of Tchattuk. Tak rituals would show Tchattuk swooping from the sky, sometimes to take Katak up into thestars with her, sometimes to take what she had stolen from Katak into the dark regions of the cosmos. Tchattuk is sometimes called ‘the strange-lights’, and there are persistent hints of an extraterrestrial origin.<br><br>
Mu sorcerers who follow Tchattuk talk of riding her to the whirlpool beyond. This ‘ride’, however, is anything but an easy journey. Impairment and even destruction of memory is always a feature of the voyage. The word Tchattu, common to all three N’Ma tribes, is used to refer to amnesia and senile dementia; its literal meaning is “taken by Tchattuk”. Some of those who specialize in the Tchattuk-ride pride themselves on their inability to remember anything.<br><br>
<aclass="home"href="./t.html">Professor Templeton</a> has long asserted the impossibility of empirical time-travel. Since the ego is bound by itsown nature to linear-sequentiality (he continues to insist) neither it nor the organism is evertransported through time. Nevertheless, he describes the Critique of Pure Reason as a time-travellingmanual, although of ‘another kind’. He uses Kant's system as a guide for engineering time-synthesis.The key is the secret of the Schematism, which – although “an art concealed in the depths of thehuman soul” – concerns only the unutterable Abomenon of the Outside (Nihil Ulterius). In exteriority,where time works, that part of you which is most yourself has nothing in common with what you are.When Templeton fell into himself that day he found, instead of what he thought himself to be, theThing (in itself (at zero-intensity ( ))). It was, perhaps, or necessarily, that continuous hyperbody – theLurker at the Threshold – which H. P. Lovecraft names ‘Yog Sothoth’ ...<br><br>
The interest of Cannon for voodoo death can be in part led back to his semi-secret association, the wicht club. Following and extract from Linda Trent's commentary to Ccru's text <i>Flatlines</i>.
The interest of Cannon for voodoo death can be in part led back to his semi-secret association, the <aclass="home"href="./wcl.html">Wicht Club</a>.<br> Following and extract from <aclass="home"href="./lt.html">Linda Trent</a>'s commentary to Ccru's text <i>Flatlines</i>.
<i>Walter Cannon has established that self-fulfilling prophecy is a positive-feedback circuit. In his important essay, ‘Voodoo’ Death, Cannon shows that much sorcerous cursing operates by inducing vicious circles of fear (producing more fear(producing more fear) (etc.))) to the point of destroying the organism. To be told you're going to die is therefore, in certain circumstances, quite literally a sentence of death.</i><br><br>
Born between the 30s and the 40s, Cyber- or Virtual Ethnology, focus on the use of software to build digital copies of archological findings as primary methodology to the study of cultural diversity.
In the early days, this discipline was following an opposite direction based on the application of cybernetic methodologies, in particular, through the use of feedback loops and other mechanisms of self-recurrence to understand certain aspect of specific cultures. <br>The technological value of the early Virtual Ethnology, instead of being a mere support and storage medium of manufactures and evidences, it was ment to light up the darkness in certain kind of rituals of proto-historical tribes that were understood as linguistic enginees employing complex self-referential mechanisms to assure the production of meaning over generations. Influenced by the advent of anthropology and sociology and the works of James George Frazer (1980), Sigmunfd Freud (1913), and Marcel Mauss (1925), focusing on rituals and mythological structures, researchers in different disciplines started to observ how these accounts were liable of using subtle systems of control and communication that will be effectively defined only later during the 40s with the birth of Cybernetics. However, fostered by the introduction of pseudo-scientific and occultists reasearches, such as Echidna stillwell's work on Mu's folklore, and the opposition of classical institutions interested in preserving their credibility, will lead to a rupture in the discipline during and the formation of the normalized contemporary approach during the end of the 70s.<br><br>
In the early days, this discipline was following an opposite direction based on the application of cybernetic methodologies, in particular, through the use of feedback loops and other mechanisms of self-recurrence to understand certain aspect of specific cultures. The technological value of the early Virtual Ethnology, instead of being a mere support and storage medium of manufactures and evidences, it was ment to light up the darkness in certain kind of rituals of proto-historical tribes that were understood as linguistic enginees employing complex self-referential mechanisms to assure the production of meaning over generations.<br><br> Influenced by the advent of anthropology and sociology and the works of James George Frazer (1980), Sigmunfd Freud (1913), and Marcel Mauss (1925), focusing on rituals and mythological structures, researchers in different disciplines started to observ how these accounts were liable of using subtle systems of control and communication that will be effectively defined only later during the 40s with the birth of Cybernetics. However, fostered by the introduction of pseudo-scientific and occultists reasearches, such as Echidna stillwell's work on Mu's folklore, and the opposition of classical institutions interested in preserving their credibility, will lead to a rupture in the discipline and the formation of the normalized contemporary approach during the end of the 70s.<br><br>
<aclass="home"href="./wc.html"> Walter Cannon</a>
Walter Bradford Cannon was an American physiologist, professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School. His work on understanding the auto-regulatory system in living beings, coining the term homeostasis, will become one of the fundaments of Cybernetics giving the possibility to a deeper study of autoregulation and its simulations in technical systems as adaptive autonomous machines. His work is considered the first to explicitly connect cybernetics to virtual anthropology through the study of the phenomena of Voodoo Death. Cannon is also the founder of the Wicht Club, a secret associations operating in Harvard. <br><br>
Walter Bradford Cannon was an American physiologist, professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School. His work on understanding the auto-regulatory system in living beings, coining the term <aclass="home"href="#"onclick="ppp('./h.html', '1000', '800','1000','500')"><b>homeostasis</b></a>, will become one of the fundaments of Cybernetics giving the possibility to a deeper study of autoregulation and its simulations in technical systems as adaptive autonomous machines. His work is considered the first to explicitly connect cybernetics to virtual anthropology through the study of the phenomena of <aclass="home"href="#"onclick="ppp('./vd.html', '1000', '800','1000','500')">Voodoo Death</a>. Cannon is also the founder of the <aclass="home"href="wcl.html">Wicht Club</a>, a secret associations operating in Harvard. <br><br>
The Wicht Club (1903 to 1911) has been founded by Walter Cannon and his collegue G. W. Pierce, pioneer in the developement of electronic telecommunication, as a semi-secret and self-assembled associations revolving around Harvard University and whose members and aims are, in part, still secret. To shed light on this private club it is necessary to understand the origin of its name, in fact, 'wicht' refers to the german word 'wichtel', in english 'wight' which <i>''is a creature or living sentient being also called 'restless soul'. In its original usage, the word wight described a living human being, but has also come to be used within fantasy and gothic literature to describe certain undead or zombies"</i>. Following this direction the Wicht Club seems to be involved in the scientific study of a new kind of human understood as zombie, a position that will later become epurated from its fantastical myst and transferred in the idea of the cybernetic machinery and the parallel birth of the post-human perspective.<br><br>
The Wicht Club (1903 to 1911) has been founded by <aid="home"href="./wc.html">Walter Cannon</a> and his collegue G. W. Pierce, pioneer in the developement of electronic telecommunication, as a semi-secret and self-assembled associations revolving around Harvard University and whose members and aims are, in part, still secret. To shed light on this private club it is necessary to understand the origin of its name, in fact, 'wicht' refers to the german word 'wichtel', in english 'wight' which <i>''is a creature or living sentient being also called 'restless soul'. In its original usage, the word wight described a living human being, but has also come to be used within fantasy and gothic literature to describe certain undead or zombies"</i>. Following this direction the Wicht Club seems to be involved in the scientific study of a new kind of human understood as zombie, a position that will later become epurated from its fantastical myst and transferred in the idea of the cybernetic machinery and the parallel birth of the post-human perspective.<br><br>
During the 40's Professor Fassrol, which had access to Harvard's archives found some hidden records of the Wicht Club and published one of the firsts account of the people and guests involved in the associations, wuch as William James.<br><br>
During the 40's <aid="home"href="./af.html">Professor Fassrol</a>, which had access to Harvard's archives found some hidden records of the Wicht Club and published one of the firsts account of the people and guests involved in the associations, wuch as <aid="home"href="./wj.html">William James</a>.<br><br>
<divid="t10"class="txt">After a more detailed observation of the encraved stone, Linda's face contracted in an even more gloomy and thoughtful expression mumbling apparently disconnected words. Later she explained to me that in Stillwell account on Mu's folklore there is a story concerning a certain 'Tchattuk' stealing something from Katak and that probably Fassrol belived the stone was what Nma tribes called what-is-lost. Linda continued explaining how in N'ma animism the function of their cerimonies based on dream sorcery are ment to re-enact Tchattuk's stealing, with the belief that the splitting of the cosmical order of time produced a multi-temporal matrix , or templex, permitting the Old Ones to flow in different directions and not collapse in a single POINT called by them, Teotwawki. </div>
<divid="t13"class="txt">My meeting with professor Trent opened my eyes, indeed the object I came across in my uncles belonging was supposed to be the key of some sort of ancient belief whose secret he never managed to reveal. I'm still wondering on which extent all this story is true, however I can't forget how all the knowledge Trent passed me started to infect my consciousness leading all my being to think that for no reason I should have let this story evaporate and that in some sort of wired way I was already ment to follow my uncle's paths to the Katak temple.</div>
<divid="t13"class="txt">My meeting with professor Trent opened my eyes, indeed the object I came across in my uncles belonging was supposed to be the key of some sort of ancient belief whose secret he never managed to reveal. I'm still wondering on which extent all this story is true, however I can't forget how all the knowledge Trent passed me started to infect my consciousness leading all my being to think that for no reason I should have let this story evaporate and that in some sort of wired way I was already meant to follow my uncle's paths to the Katak temple and unravel what is hidden beyond the mystery of Ilinx.</div>
