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The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse
How the intersection of magical thinking and technological innovation helped to form digital culture, both past and present.
Our contemporary digital landscape often reflects a strange Elon Musk believes there’s a one-in-a-billion chance that we are not living in a computer simulation. People argue about culturally collective false memories popularly known as “Mandela Effects.” And various factions engaged in a magic meme war leading up to the 2016 election. In The Unseen Internet, Shira Chess explores the tensions between the occult and digital spaces in the twenty-first century. These practices have resulted in distinct kinds of otherworldly discourse that affects the broader popular perceptions of reality in the twenty-first century, within and beyond the internet.
Behind the glossy sheen of slick social media influencers and corporate oligopolies, the internet is built in part on a foundation of magical thinking. The word “magic” here is not entirely metaphorical, although the metaphor is not irrelevant. Historically the emergence of the internet was concurrent with technopaganism, which blended digital technologies with the occult in ways that are both seen and unseen by the casual user. While technopaganism is not the only lens with which to understand the emergence of the internet, it is an understudied one that reaches towards contemporary anxieties about the ineffability of our tech.
Our contemporary digital landscape often reflects a strange Elon Musk believes there’s a one-in-a-billion chance that we are not living in a computer simulation. People argue about culturally collective false memories popularly known as “Mandela Effects.” And various factions engaged in a magic meme war leading up to the 2016 election. In The Unseen Internet, Shira Chess explores the tensions between the occult and digital spaces in the twenty-first century. These practices have resulted in distinct kinds of otherworldly discourse that affects the broader popular perceptions of reality in the twenty-first century, within and beyond the internet.
Behind the glossy sheen of slick social media influencers and corporate oligopolies, the internet is built in part on a foundation of magical thinking. The word “magic” here is not entirely metaphorical, although the metaphor is not irrelevant. Historically the emergence of the internet was concurrent with technopaganism, which blended digital technologies with the occult in ways that are both seen and unseen by the casual user. While technopaganism is not the only lens with which to understand the emergence of the internet, it is an understudied one that reaches towards contemporary anxieties about the ineffability of our tech.
264 pages, Paperback
Published February 10, 2026
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February 16, 2026
In 2003, I had this idea that a book should be written chronicling the influence that psychedelic drugs and magick had on the development of the early Internet. Granted, my “evidence” was all anecdotal. However, since I was in the trenches during the “dotcom” revolution, I thought I could build a strong case. I pitched it to a couple of publishers. The publishers in question were not convinced that this was really a thing. I think we’d call them “normies.” They also could not envision a market for such a book. So, I dropped the idea and went about my tech career.
The truth is, I wasn’t the right person for the job. I can say that now. I was too engrossed in developing tech, working on infinite game theory, and championing ARG as a legitimate art form. It would not have received the treatment it deserved as a subject.
I also feel like the time is right for this story, with the advent of LLMs and the ongoing misunderstanding of what AI is, what consciousness is, and why corporations are trying so hard to convince us we need that as a feature in our everyday lives. This book would make a great companion piece to Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT.
When Shira called me a few years ago and said she was interested in writing such a book for MIT, I was overjoyed and quickly began rattling off names of people she should contact. I also told her stories about my own experiences developing “occult tech,” as well as the cultural milieu that literally built the Internet in the 90s through the mid 2000s. I am really glad that the right person for this job stepped up and kept this story from falling down a memory hole.
I won’t kick it to death by categorically reviewing this book’s contents, but rather, I will give it a full-throated endorsement and assure you that you will be in capable hands. The book finally found the right person and the right co-conspirators at the right time to tell this tale.
The truth is, I wasn’t the right person for the job. I can say that now. I was too engrossed in developing tech, working on infinite game theory, and championing ARG as a legitimate art form. It would not have received the treatment it deserved as a subject.
I also feel like the time is right for this story, with the advent of LLMs and the ongoing misunderstanding of what AI is, what consciousness is, and why corporations are trying so hard to convince us we need that as a feature in our everyday lives. This book would make a great companion piece to Ong’s Hat: COMPLEAT.
When Shira called me a few years ago and said she was interested in writing such a book for MIT, I was overjoyed and quickly began rattling off names of people she should contact. I also told her stories about my own experiences developing “occult tech,” as well as the cultural milieu that literally built the Internet in the 90s through the mid 2000s. I am really glad that the right person for this job stepped up and kept this story from falling down a memory hole.
I won’t kick it to death by categorically reviewing this book’s contents, but rather, I will give it a full-throated endorsement and assure you that you will be in capable hands. The book finally found the right person and the right co-conspirators at the right time to tell this tale.
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