
The Unseen Internet
Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse
Shira Chess(Author)
MIT Press
Published on 10. February 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
232 pages
978-0-262-55388-9 (ISBN)
Description
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 logic: 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 toward contemporary anxieties about the ineffability of our tech.
Our contemporary digital landscape often reflects a strange logic: 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 toward contemporary anxieties about the ineffability of our tech.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge (Massachusetts)
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Illustrations
12 BLACK AND WHITE ILLUS.
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
369 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-55388-9 (9780262553889)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2026
MIT Press
€33.99
Available for download
Person
Shira Chess
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Magic in the Air
1 Technopaganism and the Summoning of Cyberculture
2 From Sigils to Meme Magic
3 From Rituals to Games
4 From Gnosticism to Simulations
5 From Manifestation to Reality Tourism
6 From Demons to AI
Conclusion: Nothing Is True; Everything Is Permitted
Notes
Index
Introduction: Magic in the Air
1 Technopaganism and the Summoning of Cyberculture
2 From Sigils to Meme Magic
3 From Rituals to Games
4 From Gnosticism to Simulations
5 From Manifestation to Reality Tourism
6 From Demons to AI
Conclusion: Nothing Is True; Everything Is Permitted
Notes
Index