**imagining the internet as a body** cells have electrical conversations over gap junctions. they communicate to one another the shapes that they'll create together and what roles they'll each play in the whole. the information they pass includes patterns that they remember and can recreate. together the cells form [collectives](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02688/full) that share a goal, a shape they want to be in the world. they organize into these shapes together -- into tissues and organs and bodies and groups of bodies, etc. conversations happen in each of these groups, each part receiving and sending messages from other parts, processing signals from "outside" or "inside" and sharing with their communities accordingly. different groups may use different languages to communicate, but each of their nodes pass patterns that can be remembered and recreated in each other node of its network. how messages move inside a group is limited by the media that fills the gaps between its parts. an individual cell or human might make zaps and movements and noises and marks to communicate their message, but not everything gets through. what does get through determines the [shapes](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006349519300657) that the network remembers and recreates together. the internet, at its best, allows its human nodes to talk freely at any scale, enabling the widest range of shapes that our collective bodies of minds can take. —— shared dreams, consensus — andy https://www.kernel.community/en/learn/module-5/listening-stories/#listen ability to listen listening circles ilyich - silence https://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/5962/Silence%252520is%252520a%252520Commons.html?sequence=1&isAllowed=y mcluhan dreaming together imagining together