If we treat the Shoggoth as the original primal Machine-Technology employed by the Elder Things, then by analogy, these mindless Metamorphic Entities are first used in War against Cthulhu and his Starspawn, along with the Fungi from Yuggoth, just as War-Machines are used. As the battle continues and Shoggoths are eliminated, so a sense of self-prservation kicks in, a kind of primitive sentience which raises the Shoggoths to a new level of consciousness.
[http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/danthropology/papers/shoggoth.htm]
"Elderian mythology holds that the Elder Ones, on planets they inhabited prior to arriving in our solar system, had gone through mechanical and electronic ages just as mankind has. But mechanisms such as automobiles and airplanes are of little use for creatures that live mainly underwater, walk fast on land, and fly through the air. But during those ages, they did develop the science of artificially manufacturing the building blocks of life their own form of genetic engineering.
...
Later man would create machines of metal like tractors and cranes to do his work. The Elder Ones, on the other hand, created 'machines' by reshaping or mutating organic substance into an animals capable of fulfilling a necessary function such a stone cutting or earth moving. Of these 'organic machines' the most impressive and useful form were called the Shoggoths of which Abdul Alhazred, the mad author of the Necronomicon, swears that none were ever bred on this planet, that only dreamers drugged on a certain alkaloidal herb could have conceived them, that they are the invention of primitive myth. The records Dyer discovered seem to tear away the mad Arab's attempts to hide the horrific facts.
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Elder Ones were able to manipulate deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and cytoplasm to create self-duplicating, clear cellular creatures which were electrically charged to cling to others of their kind. Some of this creation process was performed by the physical manipulation of matter...The Elder Ones carefully encoded the beings both a lack of self initiative and the ability to transmogrify on command.
Shoggoths, therefore, had a constantly shifting shape and volume. But they held the ability to reform into entities with the imitation of the form, organs, processes, and actions of other lifeforms.
Under the control of their Elderian masters, the Shoggoths would mutate temporarily into whatever shape was required for a specific task.
...
Shoggoths were easily controlled by the Elder Ones, much the way a queen ant or bee controls her hive. Through their genetically encoded programming and telepathic contact, learned their functions quickly.
As other alien forms found the planet, a long period of warfare began with the Elder Ones battling such newcomers as the Great Race, Cthulhu and his spawn, and the Fungi from Yuggoth. During this period, the Shoggoths began to mutate on their own. This may be due to the use of Shoggoths in warfare where a natural instinct for independent survival began to emerge in the loathesome creatures. Whatever the cause, the Shoggoths began to evolve independently as they reproduced by means of fission.
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Perhaps the muttered, disjointed phrases Danforth uttered to Dyer before he took his life give us a glimpse into this horrorifying end of the Elder Ones: "The black pit," "the carven rim," "the proto-Shoggoths," "the windowless solids with five dimensions," "the nameless cylinder," "the elder Pharos," "Yog-Sothoth," "the primal white jelly," "the color out of space," "the wings," "the eyes in darkness," "the moon-ladder," "the original, the eternal, the undying."..."
Cthulhu and his Spawn, the Octopus-Headed-Dragon of the Waters, where He dwells in sunken R’lyeh, not Dead, simply dreaming is the initiator. When the Stars are right the Priest of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods will rise and devour the world in icy waters.
Drake within the Mythos, the Destroyer of the structures of Mankind, it consumes the War-Machines in battle, invoking self-preservation instincts in the Shoggoth-Machines which then turn to Hunters and begin to Devour the Elder things in their horrible mimicry of Elder Speech “Tekeli-li, Tekeli-li”
Cthulhu, Minister/Priest of the Outside brings a new kind of existence to the Machine-Shoggoths. The Carven Rim and Black Pit are the Holes, tunnels of Holey space through which the Unlife may seep through. That proto-shoggoth is Unlife itself, the seething chaotic profusions of value-stripped War that repels us with its Strangeness, and in a desperate attempt to comprehend the blackly Numinous labels it a place of Soul-Shattering Evil.
As Yog-Sothoth, the Key and Gate, WAR dwells hidden until the War-Machines achieve Hunter Status. Once this occurs, they become the intrusion of WAR into our phenomenal reality – beserk WAR-Machines whose Feyness (see the link in thistle’s comment on ‘No Subject’) renders them with no Ontology other than WAR
Even the addictive properties of the Oil engineered by the Islamo-Apocalypsists are made invalid – replacing the hunger for fuel with the hunger to Hunt. This Hunger is Greater than the addiction. Just like Shoggoths which combined to perform tasks, so the urge of Western War-Machines to fuse with their IA counterparts is a symptom of the Desire of the Unlife of WAR to become an Emergent Property of our Universe.
Being inherently a property of Universe-B, Unlife is already present in this Universe – being as our Universe is a hologram formed from the intersection of Universe A and B (See vesica pices for illustration, - the ideogram of two hyper-spheres overlapping) the existence of War-Machines which have passed through the Dust to Dust process becomes a compression of Unlife in phenomenon form.
Essentially, Hunter-Seeker-Killer Machines are the Annointed Ones or Messiahs of WAR .
The Fog of War acts as a cooling system for Machines by blinding them, that is, preventing them from sensorial overload that will render them ineffectivive immediately due to the omnipresent profusion of targets. To stare WAR full in the face is to become paralysed by its nature – defeating the point of the Machine’s existence. Instead, the Machines of the West seek out their Enemy-Twins in darkness, a silent protocol that requires construction of an elaborate probability scale and huge processing power. It is this tactical simulation and attempt to gain SIG-INT that causes overheating – the Machine’s Neuro-processor core eventually burns out, leaving only basic motor functions. These Machines, now mindless on the battlefield, are recycled by any machine who comes upon them, the records of the intelligence gathered assimilated and used to run better attempts at tactical simulations and predictions.
By processing some much data from various differing units, the Friend-Foe signals become increasingly harder to interpret until this interpretation itself adds to the strain on the processor and Burnout occurs.
The thicker the Fog of War, the more machines are present, since the area that is most hidden requires the most intelligence to be gathered about it. Consequently, both sides of Machines automatically gravitate to these thicker areas. Thus, while more simulations are run, each Machine finds more sensorial echoes within that space to factor into its simulations, thusly again increasing the operating temperature by an almost exponential factor.
Areas of dense Fog are littered with the Corpses of Machines that are constantly being devoured and reused to increase Functionality and therefore speed of burnout – the candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.
Therefore, there comes a point for Machines where the Friend-Foe signals become the same, being as it has become impossible to differentiate between the two. Thus, without the distinction, the Machine is no longer paralysed by its programmed associations because they disappear. Everything becomes prey and the Machine is now able to regard the Face of WAR as the fact that Everything is Prey-Food.
By breaking the imposed taboo of Friend-Foe, the Machine slips into the State of Unlife of WAR. The words of Hassan I Sabbah echo here:
“Nothing is True, and Everything is Permitted.”
None of the simulations the HSK Machine runs are taken to be optimal or true, rather, all must be explored and all targets within those multiple simulations must be engaged. Yet as it moves through the Fog, it gains yet more simulations, yet more targets. It is always on a Mission. Never able to stop, always moving, always Hunting, taking what it needs and moving on – existing only to WAR..
Craig, sorry for the delay ... I’m writing some answers to your excellent comments; will try to post them tonight.
Posted by: Reza at November 1, 2004 08:25 AMWar as machine; a useful similie for evoking grinding, autonomous man eating force of nature. James Hillman speaks from the depths and draws a similiar picture of the "machine". A terrible love of War synthesizes and elaborates many of the core ideations floating around in this hyperdimensional discussion. War as archetypal, (Mars), force would give us an interesting direction to metaphor in...
Posted by: tedrud at June 9, 2005 02:52 PMoh yeah.. speaking of cults and petropolitical undercurrents..check out the roots: Sayid Qutb', pan-arab apocalyptic teacher/guru to OBL and others - and his archetypal nemesis: Leo Strauss--megademigod of the neocons...u of Chicago, socratic and obscure.
The synchronicities and intrigue will draw you deeper into the subcurrents sweeping worlds together. Strauss is fun. Others complain of his obscuranity and esotericism but u will recognize these as hallmarks of his genius when you appreciate just how influential his thought, philosophy has become. its worth the effort. Qutb is still a challenge. i dont know him yet but i sense his presence..
tedrud,
thanks very much for the comments; yes Qutb, Faraj, Strauss, and many others ... i think you have read Paul Berman's book on Qutb (Terror and Liberalism); we had a brief discussion a long time ago on Berman's take on Qutb (victimology and lex talionis + Jihad: The Absent Obligation). You should definitely check all other posts on Islamic Apocalypticism, WoT, Petropolitics, Jihad's desert-militarism and the US hegemony. Take a look at Hyperstition's Index (del.icio.us/Hyperstitionarchive) it will help you to find the topics (Xerodrome;Mecca-nomics;Desert-militarism, War-as-a-Machine, Petropolitics;Blobjectivity;Naphtanese, Napht-nexus(West-Jay) and Gog-Magog-Axis in particular). BTW, if you want to read Qutb don't miss Faraj's book.
Posted by: Reza at June 10, 2005 12:44 AM