names

I love the (locus? nexus? I'll settle for 'cognitive connection') between pagan true-name magic and modern computer systems.

The idea behind name magic is that if you know a thing's true name, it confers a measure of power over that thing. It's an idea similar how a voodoo doll is supposed to work, the name is a proxy for the thing, and by using the name you can control the thing*.

Computer architecture falls very easily into this metaphor. Every piece of information in a computer has an address, whether it's in memory or on a hard drive. This address can be thought of as a name. And if you have the true name of a piece of data, you can literally do whatever you want to it.

If we are all living in the matrix**, it's an easy leap to think that the developers put in a developer's console, that's intended to let players access the inner workings under certain circumstances. So if you have access to the console (magic), and if you have someone's True Name, you may be able to affect their life in any number of ways.

Actually, if you look at identity theft, it's pretty much the same story; and identity theft only gets more powerful, the more of our identity is represented remotely, by numbers and systems instead of face-to-face.

*I honestly don't know the first thing about name magic so maybe I'm grossly misrepresenting its origins or metaphysics. But anyway I enjoy the idea so much that I'm going to run with it. There are lots of examples of the importance of naming, going back hundreds or thousands of years in the cultures that I'm aware of, so I figure I can always fall back on those if I have to.
**HA!