Barker Speaks

Nick Land
The CCRU interview with Professor D.C. Barker
Daniel Charles Barker has been Professor of Anorganic Semiotics at Kingsport
College (MV! Mass"# since $%%&" 'is e(traordinar) intellect*al achie+ements resist
eas) s*mmari,ation! in+ol+ing profo*nd and pol)mathic engagement across the
entire range of life and earth sciences! in addition to archaeoc*lt*ral research!
mathematical semiotics! anatomical ling*istics! and informatic engineering" -rained
as a cr)ptographer in the earl) $%./s! he has spent his life decoding ancient scripts!
0*asibiotic resid*es! and anomalo*s mineral patterns (amongst other things#" 1n late
A*t*mn $%%2 Ccr* met 3ith Professor Barker in his office at MV" -he follo3ing is
an edited transcript of that meeting"
Tic-Systems. Cryptography has been my guiding thread, right through. What is geotraumatis
about, even now! " # rigorous pratie of deoding. $o % haven&t rea''y shifted at a'' in this respet.
There is a voyage, but a strange'y immobi'e one.
% started out at (%T working in the information sienes " my thesis proposa' was )uite
onservative, invo'ving most'y tehnia' issues to do with noise redution and signa' modu'ation "
but (*U was +ust getting started, and my researh was transferred aross to them. That 'ed to
various ontats, and from there to emp'oyment with a ,#$#-re'ated organi.ation that has
partiu'ar interests onneted to $/T% ativity. (y task was to he'p toughen-up the theoretia' basis
of their signa's ana'ysis. They wanted to know how to disriminate " in prinip'e " between
inte''igent ommuniation and omp'e0 pattern derived from noninte''igent soures. To ut a 'ong
story short, it beame inreasing'y obvious to me that a'though they said they were hunting for
inte''igene, what they were rea''y seeking was organi.ation. The who'e program was
fundamenta''y misguided. *arious peop'e had big prob'ems with the diretion of my researh,
whih had basia''y veered-off the organi.ationa' mode'. The soia' frition beame into'erab'e and
% had to 'eave, whih was messy beause of my high-'eve' seurity 'earane ...
$uborgani.ationa' pattern is where things rea''y happen. When you strip-out a'' the sedimented
redundany from the side of the investigation itse'f " the assumption of intentiona'ity, sub+etivity,
interpretabi'ity, struture, et " what remains are assemb'ies of funtiona''y interonneted
mirostimu'us, or ti-systems1 oinidenta' information deposits, seismoryptions, suborgani
)uasirep'iators 2bateria' iruitries, po'ypoid diagona'i.ations, interphase R-*irus, /ho-D,#,
ioni.ing nanopopu'ations3, p'us the maromahineries of their suppression, or depotentiation.
Prevai'ing signa'etis and information-siene are both insuffiient'y abstrat and over-theoretia'
in this regard. They annot see the mahine for the apparatus, or the singu'arity for the mode'. $o
ti-systems re)uire an approah that is osmi-abstrat " hypermateria'ist " and a'so
partiipative, methods that do not interpret assemb'ies as onreti.ations of prior theories, and
immanent mode's that transmute themse'ves at the 'eve' of the signa's they proess. Ti-systems are
entire'y intratab'e to sub+et4ob+et segregation, or to rigid disip'inary typo'ogies. There is no
order of nature, no epistemo'ogy or sientifi metaposition, and no uni)ue 'eve' of inte''igene. To
advane in this area, whih is the osmos, re)uires new u'tures or " what amounts to the same "
new mahines.
The prob'em was1 how to )uantify disorgani.ed mu'tip'iities! Diagona', irregu'ar, mo'eu'ar, and
nonmetri )uantities re)uire a sa'e that is itse'f nonmetri, that esapes overoding. $tandard
proedures of measurement and 'assifiation prove entire'y inade)uate, sine they presuppose rigid
oneptua' segmentation by )uantity and )ua'ity 2De'eu.e-5uattari&s twin-piners of mo'arity, type
and degree3. 6ne things are being worked out at the 'eve' of ti-assemb'ies " or f'at tiking
arrays " there are on'y intensive popu'ations, and measurement has to give way to engineering
fusiona' mu'tip'iities1 systems that ount themse'ves on'y in the way they propagate, immanent'y
numbering mu'titudes, 'ike nanop'asti )uantum swir's. /ventua''y a mahini so'ution was
provided by the Tik-Distributor, but that ame 'ater ... #t first there was +ust the e)uation,
preipitated in what % sti'' thought to be my own body, virtua' ti-density 7 geotraumati tension.
Geotraumatics. % ame to 8reud re'ative'y 'ate, assoiating it with oedipa' redutionism, and more
genera''y with a psyho'ogisti stane that was simp'y irre'evant to ryptographi work. %t&s
important to remark here " no doubt we&'' get bak to this " that everything produtive in signa's
ana'ysis stems from stripping out superf'uous pre+udies about the soure and meaning of omp'e0
funtiona' patterns. % took " and sti'' take " the vigorous repudiation of hermeneutis to be the
key to theoretia' advane in proessing sign-systems. %t was /hidna $ti''we'' who he'ped me to
see 8reud from the other side. %t was a diffiu't period for me. There had been a 'ot of painfu' fa''-
out from the ,asa work. Psyhotherapists were invo'ved, in part attempting to patho'ogi.e and
disredit my researh, and in part responding to rea' stress-re'ated symptoms. Between the two was
a grey .one of traumati dysfuntion and paranoia invo'ving diffiu't feedbak effets. $ti''we''
persuaded me that the on'y way to get through this was to try and make sense of it, and that this was
not the same as submitting to the interpretative mode. 6n the ontrary. %n Beyond the P'easure
Prinip'e, 8reud takes a number of ruia' initia' steps towards mapping the 5eoosmi
Unonsious as a traumati megasystem, with 'ife and thought dynamia''y )uanti.ed in terms of
anorgani tension, e'astiity, or mahini p'e0ion. This re)uires the anorgani.ationa'-materia'ist
retuning of an entire voabu'ary1 trauma, unonsious, drive, assoiation, 2sreen-3 memory,
ondensation, regression, disp'aement, omp'e0, repression, disavowa' 2e.g. the un- prefi03,
identity, and person.
De'eu.e and 5uattari ask1 Who does the /arth think it is! %t&s a matter of onsisteny. $tart with the
sientifi story, whih goes 'ike this1 between four point five and four bi''ion years ago " during
the 9adean epoh " the earth was kept in a state of superheated mo'ten s'ag, through the
onversion of p'anetesima' and meteoriti impats into temperature inrease 2kineti to thermi
energy3. #s the so'ar-system ondensed the rate and magnitude of o''isions steadi'y de'ined, and
the terrestria' surfae oo'ed, due to the radiation of heat into spae, reinfored by the beginnings of
the hydroy'e. During the ensuing " #rhaen " epoh the mo'ten ore was buried within a
rusta' she'', produing an insu'ated reservoir of prima' e0ogeneous trauma, the geoosmi motor of
terrestria' transmutation. #nd that&s it. That&s p'utonis, or neop'utonism. %t&s a'' there1 anorgani
memory, p'utoni 'ooping of e0terna' o''isions into interior ontent, impersona' trauma as drive-
mehanism. The desent into the body of the earth orresponds to a regression through geoosmi
time.
Trauma is a body. U'timate'y " at its po'e of ma0imum dise)ui'ibrium " it&s an iron thing. #t
(*U they a'' it Cthe'''1 the interior third of terrestria' mass, semif'uid meta''i oean,
megamo'eu'e, and pressure-ooker beyond imagination. %t&s hotter than the surfae off the sun
down there, three thousand 'iks be'ow the rust, and a'' that thermi energy is sheer impersona'
nonsub+etive memory of the outside, running the p'ate-tetoni mahinery of the p'anet via the
ondutive and onvetive dynamis of si'iate magma f'u0, bathing the who'e system in
e'etomagneti fie'ds as it tida''y pu'ses to the orbit of the moon. Cthe''' is the terrestria' inner
nightmare, noturna' oean, :anadu1 the anorgani meta'-body trauma-how' of the earth, ross-
hathed by intensities, traversed by thermi waves and urrents, deranged parti'es, ioni strippings
and g'uttings, gravitationa' deep-sensitivities transdued into non'oa' e'etromesh, and feeding
vu'anism ... that&s why p'utoni siene s'ides ontinuous'y into shi.ophreni de'irium.
8ast forward seismo'ogy and you hear the earth sream. 5eotrauma is an ongoing proess, whose
tension is ontinua''y e0pressed " partia''y fro.en " in bio'ogia' organi.ation. 8or instane, the
peu'iar'y 'oked-up 'ifeforms we tend to see as typia' " those more-or-'ess obedient to darwinian
se'etion mehanis " are 'ess than si0 hundred mi''ion years o'd. They began with the p'anetary
o0ygeni.ation risis, triggered by the saturation of rusta' iron, fo''owed by mass o0ygen-poisoning
of the prokaryoti biosystem and the emergene of a eukaryoti regime. /ukaryoti e''s are high'y
suppressive. They imp'ement a nu'ear ommand-ontro' mode' based on genomi R6(, affined to
meiosis-mitosis dip'oapture, hierarhia' organi.ation, and mu'tie''u'ar speia'i.ation. /ven the
distintion between ontogeny and phy'ogeny " distint time-orders of the individua' and the
speies " makes 'itt'e sense without eukaryoti nu'ear read-on'y programming and
immuno'ogia' identity. /vo'utionism presupposes speifi geotraumati outomes.
To take a more reent e0amp'e, the eff'oresene of mamma'ian 'ife ours in the wake of the ;4T-
(issi'e, whih ombined with massive magma-p'ume ativity in the %ndian 6ean to shut-down the
(eso.oi /ra, si0ty-five mi''ion years ago. %rruptive vu'anism p'us e0traterrestria' impat, 'inked
by oinidene, or p'utoni 'ooping. $o there is a atastrophi transition to a post-saurian
megafauna regime, part of a muh 'arger overa'' reorgani.ation of terrestria' symptomatiity,
providing an inde0 of neohadean resurgene. #nd what is mamma'ian 'ife re'ative to the great
saurians! #bove a'', an innovation in mothering< $uk'ing as biosurviva'ism. Te'' me about your
mother and you&re trave''ing bak to ;4T, not into the persona' unonsious.
Spinal-Catastrophism. 8or humans there is the partiu'ar risis of bipeda' eret posture to be
proessed. % was inreasing'y aware that a'' my rea' prob'ems were moda'ities of bak-pain, or
phy'ogeneti spina' in+ury, whih took me bak to the a'amitous onse)uenes of the preambrian
e0p'osion, rough'y five hundred mi''ion years ago. The ensuing period is inrementa''y body-
mapped by meta.oan organi.ation. 6bvious'y there are disrete )uasi-oherent neuromotor ti-f'u0
patterns, whose inrementa''y rigidified stages are swimming, raw'ing, and 2bipeda'3 wa'king.
/'aine (organ persuasive'y traes the origin of protohuman bipeda'ism to ertain de'eterious p'ate-
tetoni shifts. The mode' is bioseismi. Crusta' onvu'sions and anima' body-p'an are rigorous'y
interonneted, and the entire #)uati #pe Theory onstitutes an e0emp'ary geotraumati ana'ysis.
/ret posture and perpendiu'ari.ation of the sku'' is a fro.en a'amity, assoiated with a 'ong 'ist
of patho'ogia' onse)uenes, amongst whih shou'd be in'uded most of the human
psyhoneuroses. ,umerous trends in ontemporary u'ture attest to an attempted reovery of the
ithyophidian- or f'e0omoti'e-spine1 hori.onta' and impu'sive rather than vertia' and stress-
bearing.
The issue here " as a'ways " is rea' and effetive regression. %t is not a matter of representationa'
psyho'ogy. Consider 9aeke'&s wide'y disredited Reapitu'ation Thesis, the 'aim that ontogeny
reapitu'ates phy'ogeny. %t is a theory ompromised by its organiism, but its who'esa'e re+etion
was an overreation. Ba''ard&s response is more produtive and ba'aned, treating D,# as a
transorgani memory-bank and the spine as a fossi' reord, without rigid onto-phy'ogeni
orrespondene. The mapping of spina'-'eve's onto neuroni time is supp'e, episodi, and
diagona'i.ing. %t onerns p'e0ion between b'oks of mahini transition, not strit isomorphi "
or strati redundany " between sa'es of hrono'ogia' order. (amma' D,# ontains 'atent fish-
ode 2amongst many other things3.
Palate-Tectonics. Due to eret posture the head has been twisted around, shattering vertebro-
pereptua' 'inearity and setting-up the phy'ogeneti preonditions for the fae. This right-ang'ed
pneumati-ora' arrangement produes the voa'-apparatus as a rash-site, in whih thorai
impu'ses o''ide with the roof of the mouth. The bipeda' head beomes a virtua' speeh-
impediment, a sub-rania' pneumati pi'e-up, disharged as 'inguo-gestura' deve'opment and
epha'i.ation take-off. Burroughs suggests that the protohuman ape was dragged through its body to
e0pire upon its tongue. %ts a twin-a0ia' system, how's and 'iks, reiproa''y artiu'ated as a
vowe'-onsonant phoneti pa'ette, rigid'y intersegmented to repress staato-hiss ontinuous
variation and its attendant beomings-anima'. That&s why stammerings, stutterings, voa' tis,
e0tra'ingua' phonetis, and e'etrodigita' voie synthesis are so 'aden with biopo'itia' intensity "
they threaten to bypass the anthropostrutura' head-smash that estab'ishes our identity with 'ogos,
esaping in the diretion of numbers.
Barker Numbering. 6ne numbers are no 'onger overoded, and thus re'eased from their metri
funtion, they are freed for other things, and tend to beome diagrammati. 8rom the beginning of
my ti-systems work the most onsistent prob'ems have onerned intensive se)uenes. $e)uene is
not order. 6rder a'ready supposes a doub'ing, a 'eve' of redundany1 the se)uened se)uene. #
deoded se)uene is something e'se, a sheer numeray prior to any insertion into hrono'ogi
struture. That&s why deoding number imp'ies an esape from assumptions of progressive time.
Tik mu'titudes arrive in onvergent waves, without subordination to hrono'ogy, history, or 'inear
ausation. They proeed by info'ding, invo'ution, or imp'e0. %t&s a matter of onvergene, and
numbers do that, one they&re free to. $o the first stage re)uired p'e0ive introgression of the ti-
density sa'e, whih was numeria''y rigori.ed as digita' twinning. Treat the deima' numera's as a
set of =-sum twins " .ygonovi.e " and they map an abstrat intensive wave, indifferent to
magnitude. /verything effiient about digita' redution is onerned with this, sine it disovers the
key to deima' sy.ygeti omp'ementarity1 = 7 >. # f'attening down to disordered se)uentia'ity, or
abstrat numeria' imp'e0. ,ine is the u'timate deima' numera', operating as positive 2or fu''-
body3 .ero. %t is the abstrat numeri produt of the deima'-magnitude minus one
2infinitesima'i.ed as ? 7 >.===... reiterating3, whih re'ates to a partiu'ar mode of pro'iferation
within apita'ist semiotis 2of the type @==.==3.
Barker-Spiral. The pattern rea''y ame together with the Dip'o.ygoti $pira', whih arrived
sudden'y, by hane. % was p'aying a game of Deadene, whih % had first enountered many years
before. This game a'ready interested me beause of its numeria' e'egane, its omp'e0
assoiations, and its dependene upon a prinip'e of deima' twinning. %t had a'ways seemed to hint
at a 'ost sy.ygeti arithmetism, re'ated to the bi'atera' symmetry of the human body. Digits are
fingers, and they ome in deima' pakages of two times five. %n Deadene five makes ten by
doub'ing, or pairing with itse'f, soring .ero. This tanta'i.ed me, but % ou'dn&t fit it together
theoretia''y. The )uandary was un'oked on this oasion, when one of the partiipants asua''y
mentioned the e0istene of an ou'ted variation of the game, a''ed $ubdeadene, based on a
system of nine-sum twinning. $ubdeadene introdues .eroes, and nine-.ero twins. %t works by
.ygonovi numerism. That was stunning enough in itse'f, but seeing the two together " or seeing
between them " was an inredib'e moment of diagrammati assemb'age. %t a'' spontaneous'y
ondensed, and the $pira' 'iked into oherene, 'ike a seret door into the 'ong-hidden rypt of the
deima' system.
Publications
Auasi Chemia' Ti Cu'ture Cata'ysis of #norgani Pain Wave (atries " 2P'utonis1 *o'ume
:, ,umber B, 8a'' ?==>3.
#norgani $emiotis " 2P'utonis1 *o'ume :, ,umber =, 8a'' ?==?3.
$pina' Catastrophism " 2P'utonis1 *o'ume :, ,umber ?>, $pring ?==C3.
Pa'ate Tetonis " 2P'utonis1 *o'ume ?>, ,umber ?C, 8a'' ?==C3.
*owe's1 # Biopo'itia' $trategy " 2P'utonis1 *o'ume :, ,umber ?D, 8a'' ?==E3.
What Counts as 9uman 2;ingsport1 ;ingsport Co''ege Press, ?==F3.