Reality cracking - cracks let the light in
Trump getting elected overshadowed the death of Leonard Cohen but the two are related. I first discovered Leonard Cohen back in 1995 when I stumbled across a website run by +Fravia. The site would change my perception of reality along with many others. The original site contained a series of cracking tutorials written by +ORC, with new tutorials being intermittently released. Cracking is the term used by software reverse engineers who remove copy protection from software. +ORC’s tutorials differed from others in that they contained two parts. The first part was technical information on removing software protection; the second part was about something called reality cracking which is similar to social engineering.
What is cracking?
The term cracking on +Fravia’s site referred to modifying software programs where the source code was missing. Usually, the purpose of cracking is to remove copy protection, to add functionality to the program or to modify the program to be used for something else besides its intended purpose.
For reality cracking, it meant examining things which we experience in life. For example studying how things are laid out in a supermarket to influence people’s buying decisions. When you enter a supermarket, you usually go past fresh fruits and vegetables; this encourages you to buy more. By checkouts, there are impulse items like gum or candy and magazines. People at the checkout are waiting, they will read a magazine, and then when they reach the cashier have a tendency to buy the magazine. The purpose of reality cracking is to make one more aware of outside influences.
How do you crack?
+Orc’s cracking tutorials differed in that they attempted to explain the mindset behind cracking. By contrast, other cracking tutorials were similar to recipes, they described the tools used and then gave a mechanical process of locating where to modify the software. Once you had discovered where to change the software, you used a hex editor to apply the crack. In those days it was common to release cracks as a text file which contained a description on where to patch the software with your hex editor.
+Orc, by contrast, tried to describe the mindset behind cracking. How to look at things differently. How to examine the flow of the program to determine where to apply the crack. The crack is something which modifies this flow. Ideally, the crack should be as small as possible to minimize undesired side effects.
Software cracking is related to reality cracking or social engineering, in that we are using something in a manner in which it was not originally designed for. Reality cracking means being able to see the world with a minimum of influences. The outside forces can not be seen until you start looking at things from different perspectives. A way to do this is to ask questions. To determine if supermarkets are laid out to increase consumer spending one could ask.
- Is there a common pattern to all supermarkets?
- Do you appear to be channeled past certain items?
- What happens if you break this pattern?
- Are there actual rules which state you have to follow these patterns?
With reality cracking, never assume, always test if possible. The ultimate purpose of reality cracking is to immunize yourself from outside influences and to discover unique ways to use things.
Why crackers are hated and feared?
People in dislike changes in the status quo, even if it has the potential to improve their lives. Chaos or uncertainty means risk; people are risk adverse. With elites, change in the status quo means they are in danger. New technology or ideas cause chaos which threatens the elites positions.
+Fravia’s site suffered heavily from denial of service attacks. Meanwhile, child pornography sites, which were relatively open on the internet at the time, went unscathed. +Fravia, being European had mainly a European following. Within a few years, some countries in Europe passed laws making software reverse engineering illegal and possibly the possession of tools used for software reverse engineering illegal also. The book Free:the future of a radical profit shows that piracy of music or software does not affect sales providing distributors are willing to adapt to new markets, in fact, it probably increases sales.
Eventually, because of legal pressure, +Fravia closed his software reverse engineering site and reopened one called searchlores. The new site still dealt with reality cracking but was oriented towards finding information on the Internet.
Cracks are what let the light in
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Anthem Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen‘s song Anthem was the unofficial anthem of Fravia’s sites because it talks about cracks. There is a crack, a crack in everything means that everything has a flaw. Cracks or flaws are usually seen as something negative, but it is a matter of perspective. As the song says That’s how the light gets in. A reality cracker or a social engineer seeks these cracks or flaws, to seek the light.
For me the song describes the prison we are in but the prison walls are cracked, these are what let the light in. Light symbolizes truth or knowledge which can be used to break out of this prison. When one crack is closed, another is opened. With software, a similar analogy exists, a patch which closes a vulnerability will often create new ones. +Fravia passed away in 2009, and recently Leonard Cohen passed away. With the passing of +Fravia, his site died, and at the time it appeared as if many of his ideas also passed away.
Constant death, constant rebirth
The goal of +Fravia as to provide people with tools to crack reality. His vision was Internet Communities where people could share knowledge without outside influences. The value of this experience would be evaluated solely by its worth. Fravia’s major problem is at the time few people used the Internet, and social media was in its infancy.
The recent elections of President Trump and President Duterte are fruits of his vision and others with similar ideas. In both cases, mainstream media supported mainstream politicians. And in both cases social and alternative media played a significant role in getting them elected. Mainstream media no longer has a monopoly on the truth. This does not mean one should sit back and relax for the next four or six years respectively. As I showed in a previous post The ancient magical kingdom is a dangerous myth. Things are actually getting better - the bluepill wants you to think otherwise most of the reforms in China are the result of social media. Increased knowledge means people can make better decisions. As the The Dictators Handbook - a modern Machiavelli’s version of “The Prince” all governments are totalitarian but within the framework if people are better informed they can make better decisions.
If you want to start cracking reality, Robert Anton Wilson‘s book Prometheus Rising provides different ways of looking at things. You are going say; Mr. Wilson was an occultism kook. I will agree, but if one strips away the occultism mumbo jumbo, they can get a different perspective on things. +Fravia,+Orc and Leonard Cohen where kooks also.
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