Understanding the Hyperviral
To understand Land’s Hypervirus, you must first understand bioviruses. In the biological realm, a biovirus will infect a cell or cell cluster and reprogram that cell’s DNA to reproduce the virus (and not the cell, stopping normal cellular reproduction). The virus does that not to attack the organism, but to survive as its own. After it reprograms n amount of cells, those cells reproduce the virus and it loops until either the virus is eradicated or the host is killed and the cells can no longer reproduce.
“Biovirus TA TA TA targets organisms, hacking and reprogramming ATGACTTATCCACGGTACATTCAGT cellular dna to produce more virus virus virus virus virus virus virus virus.”
Nick Land, Fanged Noumena (Falmouth, UK: Urbanomic, 2011), p. 385.
Like with bioviruses, hypervirus infects parts of larger structures. I will use the internet as an example here. Once a “cell” of a structure is infected, hypervirus abstracts it from other parts of the whole, essentially acting as both an all-in-one deterritorializing and reterritorializing force. Hypervirus re-engineers all facets of the infected portion of the mass to be factories of its reproduction and the mass’s destruction. Its actions are taken nomadically, so as not to draw attention. Even while being within an infected portion, a user may still retain their seeming autonomy, although their actions cannot serve to make any actions other than the reproduction of hypervirus (activism, outreach, etc…).
“Hypervirus targets intelligent immunosecurity structures: yes yes no yes no nomadically abstracting its processes from specific media (dna, words, symbolic models, bit-sequences), and operantly re-engineering itself. It folds into itself, involutes, or plexes, by reprogramming corpuscular code to reprogram reprogramming reprogramming reprogramming.”
Nick Land, Fanged Noumena (Falmouth, UK: Urbanomic, 2011), p. 386.
The key difference between the hyperviral and the bioviral is that a biovirus will only attack non-viral cells. Hypervirus attacks all adjacent instances (on the web of its existence, seeing every instance as a point on that web), no matter if they exist inside or outside of hyperspace. This happens with hypervirus as it is not a continuous mass (i.e. a tumor); rather every instance of hypervirus is its own independent object, existing with its own unique matrix. It does exist to expand its territory, however with each attack it remodels the matrix of its victim, making it its own independent instance, completely unique, whether or not it was hyperviral before the attack.
On the Development of Hyperviral History
A quote that always has stuck out to me in Hypervirus is “hypervirus eats the end of history”,
You may think of this in the sense of gray goo in Eric Drexler’s book Engines of Creation. This may not be completely accurate to Land; it is nonetheless a good jumping-off point. In Drexler’s book, gray goo is a nanobiotic force that is able to rearrange things at an atomic level, and it does so for the sole purposes of reproduction and powering itself. Drexler gives us an effective analogy for what hypervirus may look like, albeit hypervirus is medialogical, not physical. Hypervirus is a force that takes a form of media at its base level, deconstructs it from its symbolic value up, and uses its resources to reproduce and power itself.
The Media Splash and Hunting for Hypervirus
Even in the face of ever-increasing evidence against the status quo—mishandling of climate change; the valuation over the health of the economy over that of humans in the face of COVID-19 (which are not exclusive to this status quo, and they would not necessarily change or be halted by large-scale alterations to the status quo, but they nonetheless exist fairly prominently within it)—the Right continues to be able to radicalise impressive numbers of Gen-Zers. I will give two quotes to articulate this point. The first:
“General principle for viral take-overs in the media: the more unsophisticated the contagion, the bigger the splash (diversionary tactics excepted).”
Nick Land, Fanged Noumena (Falmouth, UK: Urbanomic, 2011), p. 387
I would articulate in the sense of the 2016 Trump campaign. His campaign administration knew how to play the media. They were able to present him as a non-political being, playing off of an expanded understanding of governmental corruption, in doing so creating a large splash. This, more than any concern over emails, tax returns, or anything else in the election, was the reason for his rise. His campaign’s ability for media control played two main roles: the first is that it allowed him constant “Trump isn’t political” attention, aiding him in his running as someone who wasn’t political, as politicians are corrupt. The second reason is that it gave him a near-monopoly over the media, almost blocking out Hillary’s media attention, both good and bad.
In the 2016 election, Trump’s campaign acted as a hyperviral force (not to say definitively that it was hyperviral, only that it acted in such a manner), making all sectors of media it infected mere replicatiors of its own code. Infected sectors no longer had access to legitimate agency (in contrast with performative agency), but only access to an ability to replicate that which they had presumed to fight against.
The second quote speaks largely in computerised terms, which I will attempt to translate into more usable language without dismissing the purpose of the quote:
“When hunting for hype hypervirus look ok ok ok for its primary host species, which will be undergoing logistical behavioral sophistication indexed by an explosive increase in communicative intensity, population density, sexual disorganisation, cultural promiscuity, and technical sub sub subtilization (leading to neurogenomic feedback and fluidization on off on off off on of all hard-wiring into into cybernetic fluxes).”
Nick Land, Fanged Noumena (Falmouth, UK: Urbanomic, 2011), p. 388
This quote is a sort of “guide to hypervirus hunting,” explaining that to hunt for hypervirus, one’s most logical approach would be to search for the primary carriers of it (in this example, the radicalized teen’s body is the primary host). In the following section I will break down three of the criteria.
Firstly, “…will be undergoing logistical behavioral sophistication.” My translation here is that “sophistication” is used not to say a complete level of sophistication, but rather an increasing level of sophistication, this is in terms of in-depth relationships, understandings, and critical abilities. In addition to this, “logistical behavior” can be explained in terms of one’s motor skills, which are increasing in ability and complexity through puberty. This can be applied very effectively to puberty, and that sets precedent for much of the following quoted paragraph, especially in context of the American Right’s recruitment of Gen-Zers. Again, this is most definitely not to say that teenagers are sophisticated, but merely to say that they engage with greater sophistication than their pre-pubescent selves, and they are “undergoing logistical behavioral sophistication.”
Secondly, “…indexed by an explosive increase in communicative intensity.” The “communicative intensity” here is the teens ability to engage in communications, both in a critical sense and in a relational sense. Peri- and post-pubescent teens show a larger vocabulary, and boast a larger ability for communications both in direct relationships (friendships, romantic relationships) and in indirect relationships (teachers/mentors, store employees). The ability of teens to argue is also much more advanced than their pre-pubescent selves, and increasing from that moment. This “explosive increase in communicative intensity” is a key characteristic of a host species as it makes hypervirus spread most efficiently, but timing is also key: too long after the explosion one understands their communications too well to be an effective host (in terms of viral spreading).
Third, “…sexual disorganisation.” This can easily be articulated within the explosion of sexual curiosity peri- and post-puberty, and the vast inexperience engaging in sexual activity leading to broad-scale sexual disorganisation. This fear of disorganisation/confusion is aided heavily by having a strong leading figure, and such a figure is easily made of one who prominently demonstrates superiority from a proxy condition (whiteness, heterosexuality, etc…). This makes the teen follow with ease, as they desire a powerful leader figure (similar to a father figure—and it may in fact be) to quell their fears and insecurities over their inexperience.
Given the three points from the prior quote, the Right’s ability to recruit Gen-Zers is not dissimilar to hyperviral infection (remembering that the points are characteristics that hosts of hyperviral strains generally hold). The Right has a unique ability to infect often depressed youth, using their distrust in themselves and their community as a tool to aid in infection and empowerment (often coming however from disempowerment of others). I would not go so far as to say that America’s Right is hyperviral, but at the least I would argue that its primary host target is very similar, and I would use it as an effective allegory in understanding the hyperviral.
Slow.
Hypervirus would not be something completely new within society—though it does not exist, in full, now, at least not literally. It already has some amount of existence within science-fiction, and exists to some extent within macro and micropoltical spaces. Hypervirus infects portions of a whole, turning them into factories of itself, and replicating indefinitely and potentially endlessly. It is the beauty of hyperviral infections that it allows presumed autonomy until it has radically changed every instance of its host’s matrices. The end of hypervirus is none, it exists as an endless feedback loop of itself, each instance endlessly attacking all other instances.
Endless war, endless endlessness.
hyperdrexler engages in cosmetic synthesis of poetics, philosophy, and incomprehensibility. They form their art as a means by which substantial sight of philosophy may be attained.