realicra.htm: REALITY CRACKING, the most difficult reversing art

Ivan Bilibin shows you what's like to understand reality

FRAVIA'S REALITY CRACKING LAB

(Last update: October 1999)

How to (try to) see some light through their smoke

[news] ~ [tricks]
[essays] ~ [tools]
[links] ~ [info]
[text-cracking]

Slowly this kind of approaches are gaining "momentum", and more and more people show a 'working interest' for this section, which is IMHO a very good thing. Ok, we are dilettantes, so what? I consider this 'reality cracking' section to be among the most important parts of my site... As usual your help is not only welcome and needed... it is the sine qua non for the development of all this into something that can really be helpful for anyone.
Let's push another snowball down the Webhill!

Reality cracking, an introduction
Reality cracking is a very important 'critical' activity, as Curious George wrote to me:

More than that, "Reality Cracking" can be accomplished 
by anyone with a critical mind.  You don't need hours 
of undisturbed time in front of the computer. You can 
practice your reality cracking skills all day long, 
everyday of your life! And you should, lest you be taken 
advantage of unknowingly.

Yessir! That's one of the main points, and the satisfaction you'll gain every time you arrive to see 'through' a concealed message (which is always soo obvious AFTERWARD) is a really great feeling.
You may ask why so many essays of the reality cracking section are directed against advertisement and our 'consumistic' habits. Simply stated, there's a lot of money being made and a lot of power being gathered by the people that promote useless consumerism, and this determines a GREAT part of the reality you live in. You pay for it in gradually limited economic mobility, pollution, threats to your health and a declining standard of living, as measured by the things that really matter. This is what this section is about, identifying these forces and giving you opportunities to lessen or eliminate their control over your life. We're not suggesting that you pick up guns and start blasting away. What we advocate does far more damage than bullets to these forces and the people behind them and makes life much more enjoyable for you while it returns to you -at least in part- the possibility of living the way that you -not somebody else- choose.
Dear contributors,
please don't be deceived if the essay you sent was not published, see: Reality cracking is a matter of observation and knowledge, balance and wit, it's very important to avoid taking ourselves too seriously... a common disease. Watch, work, send your findings... and avoid the ever lurking risks to fall into the 'weird-religious-nutty' or into the 'ideologically excessive-obsessed' patterns. Best essays are those that examine a CONCRETE aspect of the reality around you and show it's hidden meaning: see, it is obvious (if silly) that half-naked babes on -say- new cars help selling those same said cars to the zombies... but it is not so obvious, for instance, that yougurts or fruit juices made with only ONE sort of fruit are all over the world slowly being replaced by yogurts and fruit juices made with a 'cocktail' of fruit rests ("tropical mix", "apples AND bananas", "fruits of the wald") for the purpose of maximising gains... consumer "choices" are only a nuisance once you have lurked them already into buying your products... that's exactly what 'modes' and 'trends' have been made for, btw... or d'you think you can buy somewhere a new fridge (say) that has been built solid enough to last for thirty years?

The Essays

"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do,
 to keep in the same place."

	     Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking glass

Everything started with +ORC's "supermarket enslaving tricks", a classical very STRONG reality cracking essay that all should read first... Supermarkets and malls are treasure chests for reality crackers...

Supermarket enslaving tricks
The first "historical" article by +ORC (13 March 1997)
~
with an addition by Michel (15 Jan 1998)
with an addition by The dark one (12 Dec 1998)
see also the related discount supermarket by Curious George and European Motorroad malls, by fravia+ (23 Dec 1998)
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING ~ CONSUMERISM

enslavement techniques
(body language and hypnotic tricks, I collected this myself)
CONDITIONING ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS

The Bus Conductor & The Mineral Water
two "modern zen" writings from +ORC... Reality cracking at his best! (21 August 1997)
CONDITIONING ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ SOCIAL DECADENCE

Reality Cracking: Commercial TV
A small essay by MrWho (27 January 1998)
(cracking easy advertisement protection schemes)
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING

Reality Cracking: Maggots and fags
A small essay by +ORC (his last one: 27 January 1998 :-(
(cracking easy cigarettes protection schemes)
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING

An Essay Attempting to Justify the Relationship
Between Code Cracking and Reality Cracking
A new 'theoretical' essay by Curious George (11 February 1998)
(Why is Reality Cracking Important?)
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING

Statistical cracking: basics: cracking lotteries
An essay by +Atheist (17 February 1998)
"You have the same chance of winning a lottery whether you play or not"
STATISTICAL CRACKING ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONSUMERISM

Fond manager cracking
Two essays by Curious george & Maxine+ (20 February 1998)
"Lemming behaviour and the stockmarket"
STATISTICAL CRACKING ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS

Rhetoric of advertisement, a "Marlboro Classic" Advertisement analyzed
by Martine Joly (MARE) (14 March 1998)
"Reversing some truths behind two images"
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING

Reversing Reality, a first stab
by IcE (29 May 1998)
"even reality itself can be reversed"
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING
Well... enjoy this little 'first stab' at our emptiness... hope some good other biochemistry and sociological reversers will build on this...

Building on Ice's Essay, here we have

Perception of Time, Calendars and Animals
by NotAnne (12 November 1998)
("Maybe, just maybe "wetware" is the answer to all the questions we try so hard to solve with machines")
PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING
Well... time is relative, isn't it? And anyway I would love to set a meeting 'at mid autumn' or to fix an encounter 'short after the first snow'... and if you thought that your wristwatch is one of the most awful slave-chains humanity has decided to wear look now at all the happy slaves, thanks to GSMs :-)

An attempt at reversing body language
by +Azzeccagarbugli (05 June 1998)
Reversing our fellow humans...
CONDITIONING ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS
Well, this seems indeed quite useful... reversing your fellow humans behaviour may happen to have some utility, after all :-)

Subliminal Advertising
by Dr. Lechnar (10 June 1998)
What's hidden in the Microsoft's logo
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING
I knew it all the time, of course :-)

Food additives: a first stab
by Maxine+ (15 June 1998)
Dangerous food additives (reversing labels)
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ FOOD & DRUGS
Uugh, puah! (I knew it all the time of course :-)

Page Faults
by +Mammon_ (01 July 1998)
Page Faults (reversing Magazines)
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS
Ever wondered how comes you cannot find those page numbers? :-)

Consumer self-defense: an anti-advertisement tutorial
by +Insiderbetraying (10 July 1998)
Part n.1: Some amoebas slip from under the slide and take a quick look at the lab
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING ~ CONSUMERISM
Let's see if the amoebas will be able to organize themselves against the mad scientists :-)

Reversing Shampoo
by Makoli (06 September 1998)
Short and very concrete: don't use shampoo!
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONSUMERISM
The simple truth is that shampoo's bad for your hair :-)

Getting deeper into reality cracking
A new 'theoretical' essay by <predator> (16 September 1998)
(Comments about "An Essay Attempting to Justify the Relationship
Between Code Cracking and Reality Cracking")
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING ~ ADVANCED REALITY CRACKING

"Sect cracking", a first attempt
by Joa (16 September 1998)
Real spiritual knowledge is freely available... When you have to pay for something or have to visit some courses - you are definitively on the wrong track
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING

Altruism and charity, a reversing attempt
by Deep dt (16 September 1998)
We are stuck within the argument which ASSUMES that a trade always occurs and defines the reward in terms of that trade"
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING

Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and Softice
by Pantheon (04 October 1998)
("It is possible to take any event or "truth" and find where an unjustified assumption was made, merely because is fit the current paragigm")
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONDITIONING ~ CONSUMERISM

Invoice EveryCorp for EveryThing
by im/mu (04 October 1998)
("treat them exactly as they treat you: with contempt and arrogance, at outrageously inflated rates, and get really heavy when they don't pay")
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONDITIONING ~ CONSUMERISM

Know the shit you eat, or FAST FOODs!!
by ABe* (14 October 1998)
("why millions of people still use to eat there?")
CONDITIONING ~ CONSUMERISM ~ FOOD & DRUGS

Cracking The Information Curtain
by Tapu (30 October 1998)
("A two tier society, cracking and information deprivation strategies")
CONDITIONING ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING

SHOULD THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY BE OUR PRIMARY TARGET?
by H.Cioff (12 November 1998)
("the politicians as the primary enemy")
REALITY CRACKING REVERSING ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING

Fragrances smell badly!
COPIED by Felipe (12 November 1998)
("Virtually every aspect of our lives is impacted by the Fragrance Industry")
REALITY CRACKING ~ REVERSING TRENDS ~ ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT

A first stab against the advertisement lures!
by Hal Cioff (25 November 1998)
"The real point of advertising is a) to make you buy something you don't need, or b) a particular brand of what you need, or c) a more expensive variety than you need of a commodity you definitely do need"
REALITY CRACKING ~ REVERSING TRENDS ~ ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT

Windows' logo subliminals
by Felipe (25 November 1998)
"The wallpaper file, CLOUDS.BMP has an even more obvious female image with the light area just above the center of the screen showing a blonde woman with puckered lips pressed directly up against those of a..."
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING

Reverse engineering, information warfare and cots
by fravia+ (25 November 1998)
("And, pray, if they put a flight simulator inside an application you are using, don�t you think they could as well put some simple data-snooping (and channeling) routines?")
REALITY CRACKING: "The power of reversing" (1)

The multi-pharmaindustrial conspiracy
by ?Cioff (2 December 1998)
("The State or the Insurance companies pay for the pills, but not for the exercise programs. You may guess where the money comes from")
REALITY CRACKING ~ CONDITIONING ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ FOOD & DRUGS

Food additives: a deeper stab
by Kuririn (02 December 1998)
Dangerous food additives (reversing labels)
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ FOOD & DRUGS
Another reversing of the food we are compelled to eat... (puah), and I fear that it won't be the last one :-(

A "quick and dirty" look at rhetoric and persuasion
by Kuririn (12 December 1998)
Persuasion and Power (with an addition by Kuririn: 9 January 1999)
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ RHETORICAL CRACKING
The next time you got to a public meeting on a controversial issue try to heckle the speaker :-)

Psycho slimming
by Cioff (12 December 1998)
Money, drugs and Obesity
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ FOOD & DRUGS
Cracking industrial webpages' meanings

'the discount supermarket'
by Curious George
(and "European Motorroad malls", by fravia+)
23 December 1998
Compelling slaves to buy ~ Cracking awful supermarkets' tricks

CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONSUMERISM ~ SUPERMARKETS

Can open standards suffocate us? Some unsystematic notes on standardization
by Steve Talbott
9 January 1999
software and standards *by themselves* always become something of an oppressive element, something we must learn how to transcend. Their very nature -- especially when they are thought to be intrinsically valuable -- is to constrain us.

CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING ~ REVERSING TRENDS ~ NEW RENAISSANCE

Bashing the paranormal crap
by Furtim
20 January 1999
paranormal experiences (like religious experiences) are total crap (with few exceptions that CONFIRM this rule)

CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING

Bashing the paranormal crap
by The Priest
20 January 1999
Jobs and tailoring (An unveiling)

CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING ~ NEW RENAISSANCE

Market Research and Its Role In Enslavement
by Tony ByGarthnos
Spring 1999
A Brief Description of Techniques Used By Marketers To Enslave

CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONSUMERISM ~ SUPERMARKETS

The Puppeteers
by Tom Pedersen
July 1999
A Brief Description of the "Puppeteers"

CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ NEW RENAISSANCE

Economic Wargames and credit card stupidity
by Dal Timgar
September 1999
...There is no limit to how dumb consumers are expected to be, some company named Providian keeps sending me an application for a Visa "Classic"...

CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONSUMERISM ~ REVERSING TRENDS

The +Puppeteers: The way things are different: an example of paranoia
by vanrigter
October 1999
Some people dont use their brains, but just rely on the flow of the tide to take them places

CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ AUTO-REVERSING ~ RHETORICAL CRACKING

The Tricks

Consumer trends cracking: some tricks
An essay by Maxine+ (12 March 1998)
"Reversing our lemming behaviour, a strategical approach"
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ CONDITIONING ~ ANTI-CONSUMERISM

Pranks: an approach to reality cracking
An essay by Rhiddler (20 March 1998)
"A prank should have a resonance and a ring to it. It should speak of the higher aspirations of human activity"
PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING

Anti-consumistic frugality tricks
An essay by Hedwig Blastock (15 July 1998)
"When you start off with excess, less is not deprivation: it is freedom"
CONCEALED TRUTHS ~ ANTI-CONSUMERISM

REVERSING STRESS ("modern Zen" reality cracking methods)
An essay by Paul Wilson (25 July 1998)
"Learn the 'carpe diem' techniques from little kids"
PHILOSOPHICAL CRACKING ~ ANTI-CONSUMERISM

Reality cracking tools

Adding the Blemish of Truth : How to Alter a Billboard
The first reality cracking tool (15 July 1998): liberate the billboards! :-)
ANTI-ADVERTISEMENT ~ ANTI-CONSUMERISM

Reality cracking links

http://www.adbusters.org/Toolbox
and
http://www.adbusters.org/Pop/buynothingday.html
(a fantastic reality cracking related site!)

Info: Snippets of real information

Le Monde diplomatique *very* good, one of the best sources of information of this planet, a little 'pauperistic' and 'thirdworldish-whiny', but they see through reality better than many others. This is one of the BEST KNOWLEDGE SITES of the whole web, without any doubt... hope you can read some french... anyway there is a version in english as well
Warning: Reading this monthly magazine will change your weltanschauung :-)

Neue Zürcher Zeitung among the best information sources in the whole world... of course, since such a labour-expensive country needs a 'clear' world image in order to sell the swiss ubiquitous chocolates and watches... and could not care less about "ready-made" truths! Hope you can read some german... anyway there are some extracts in english as well
World famous: as the poor soviets left Afghanistan all other zombies wrote about the new great aera of freedom and peace that country would have enjoyed... the NZZ envoy was the only one that foresaw -pretty clearly- what was going to happen there...

The Economist for those of you who can read only English (Karl Marx was an avid reader of the Economist :-)
There is a lot of disinformation as well, but it is -at least- VERY cleverly presented

El Pais good to average "european style" solid information, especially for people interested in south American affairs
Too much irrelevant info about spanish politics, yet some very good, if infrequent, reality "cuts"

Well, I have my own (seldom updated) 'reversing Information' section, see if you like it!