Shira Chess (she/her)
@shirachess.bsky.social
Associate Prof. of Media Studies @ UGA
Current projects:
1. The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse (MIT press, 2026)💫
2. Freaks in the Machine: Mondo 2000 in Late 20th century digital culture (Strange Attractor with RU Sirius)
Current projects:
1. The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse (MIT press, 2026)💫
2. Freaks in the Machine: Mondo 2000 in Late 20th century digital culture (Strange Attractor with RU Sirius)
Reposted by Shira Chess (she/her)
@shirachess.bsky.social "I’m becoming rapidly entangled.. co-authoring a history of Mondo 2000 w. R.U. Sirius. As that story continues to unfold, I can’t help but feel like a character in that narrative too: a foreign interloper
unseeninternet.substack.com/p/my-casual-...
a good time was had by all
unseeninternet.substack.com/p/my-casual-...
a good time was had by all
My Casual Transformation into a Fictional Character
On the Alchemy of Writing and Meat Spaces
unseeninternet.substack.com
February 1, 2026 at 7:07 PM
@shirachess.bsky.social "I’m becoming rapidly entangled.. co-authoring a history of Mondo 2000 w. R.U. Sirius. As that story continues to unfold, I can’t help but feel like a character in that narrative too: a foreign interloper
unseeninternet.substack.com/p/my-casual-...
a good time was had by all
unseeninternet.substack.com/p/my-casual-...
a good time was had by all
I wrote things about my “solipsistic awe.”
Cool @shirachess.bsky.social piece "At the same time, I’m becoming rapidly entangled on a side-trip, co-authoring a history of Mondo 2000 with R.U. Sirius. As that story continues to unfold, I can’t help but feel like a character in that narrative too unseeninternet.substack.com/p/my-casual-...
My Casual Transformation into a Fictional Character
On the Alchemy of Writing and Meat Spaces
unseeninternet.substack.com
January 29, 2026 at 11:21 PM
I wrote things about my “solipsistic awe.”
Is there a world-eating demon in our black boxes? In my forthcoming book The Unseen Internet I demonstrate the overlaps between the quest for AGI and spirit conjuring. Here's an adapted version of the chapter from @mitpress.bsky.social
When AI “hallucinates,” what’s really happening between the lines of code? Scholar @shirachess.bsky.social compares AI to a dybbuk — a trapped spirit waiting to escape. Silicon Valley’s own myths only fuel the unease:
A Demon in a Box? Unspooling the Dark Mythology of AI
Tech titans keep imbuing AI with spiritual significance. The question is whether they’re building a savior — or a world-eating leviathan.
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
January 29, 2026 at 6:18 PM
Is there a world-eating demon in our black boxes? In my forthcoming book The Unseen Internet I demonstrate the overlaps between the quest for AGI and spirit conjuring. Here's an adapted version of the chapter from @mitpress.bsky.social
If you can give me about 13 minutes, I will tell you a story about the most bonkers magazine issue that was ever made. I promise it is worth it.
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
January 15, 2026 at 2:06 PM
If you can give me about 13 minutes, I will tell you a story about the most bonkers magazine issue that was ever made. I promise it is worth it.
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
Have you been to my substack recently? I’m all in on weird shit internet!
Technopaganism, simulation hypothesis, reality shifting: the internet is full of “weird shit." @shirachess.bsky.social teases out these weird, historical, and uncanny aspects of our online existence on The Unseen Internet (and has a great book of the same name coming out Feb. 10th):
The Unseen Internet 💫 | Shira Chess | Substack
Looking at technological woo past, present, and future. Click to read The Unseen Internet 💫, by Shira Chess, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
unseeninternet.substack.com
January 12, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Have you been to my substack recently? I’m all in on weird shit internet!
R.U. effing Sirius?
On Writing Partnerships, Unreliable Narrators, and Strange Co-conspirators
open.substack.com
January 9, 2026 at 11:13 PM
For my forthcoming book, THE UNSEEN INTERNET, I interviewed a lot of people most of them strange, delightful, and deeply insightful.
Friday (1/9) at 7:30pm PST I will be at Berkeley Alembic, presenting & in conversation with four of them: Erik Davis, R.U. Sirius, Paco Nathan, Mark Pesce.
Friday (1/9) at 7:30pm PST I will be at Berkeley Alembic, presenting & in conversation with four of them: Erik Davis, R.U. Sirius, Paco Nathan, Mark Pesce.
The Unseen Internet with Shira Chess
momence.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:10 PM
For my forthcoming book, THE UNSEEN INTERNET, I interviewed a lot of people most of them strange, delightful, and deeply insightful.
Friday (1/9) at 7:30pm PST I will be at Berkeley Alembic, presenting & in conversation with four of them: Erik Davis, R.U. Sirius, Paco Nathan, Mark Pesce.
Friday (1/9) at 7:30pm PST I will be at Berkeley Alembic, presenting & in conversation with four of them: Erik Davis, R.U. Sirius, Paco Nathan, Mark Pesce.
If I'm going to tell stories about the magazine Mondo 2000 I need to start with some stories about a house...
New post is live...
unseeninternet.substack.com/p/once-upon-...
New post is live...
unseeninternet.substack.com/p/once-upon-...
January 2, 2026 at 2:04 PM
If I'm going to tell stories about the magazine Mondo 2000 I need to start with some stories about a house...
New post is live...
unseeninternet.substack.com/p/once-upon-...
New post is live...
unseeninternet.substack.com/p/once-upon-...
New post, in which I attempt to explain my current obsession with Mondo 2000 and why I suck at parties:
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
Mondo 2000: A Brief Introduction
(Or, why I am no longer respectable company at normal people gatherings)
open.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 7:58 PM
New post, in which I attempt to explain my current obsession with Mondo 2000 and why I suck at parties:
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
I got interviewed by R.U. Sirius about my new book..
Is he responsible for destroying consensus reality?
Is reality gamified?
Is reading my book like tripping on cough syrup?
Read the interview to find out!
Is he responsible for destroying consensus reality?
Is reality gamified?
Is reading my book like tripping on cough syrup?
Read the interview to find out!
== THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF THINGS ONLINE ==
“The Internet helped to shift the rhetoric of the satanic panic, because it created a space where texts could be infinitely preserved.”
R.U. talks w/ Associate Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies Shira Chess:
“The Internet helped to shift the rhetoric of the satanic panic, because it created a space where texts could be infinitely preserved.”
R.U. talks w/ Associate Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies Shira Chess:
The Unseen Internet: Shira Chess Explores How Magic(k) Made the Internet Weird
From technopaganism to simulation theory, Shira Chess reveals how occult ideas quietly shaped digital culture and why the internet has always been stranger, darker, and more intentional than it appear...
magazine.mindplex.ai
December 16, 2025 at 8:04 PM
I got interviewed by R.U. Sirius about my new book..
Is he responsible for destroying consensus reality?
Is reality gamified?
Is reading my book like tripping on cough syrup?
Read the interview to find out!
Is he responsible for destroying consensus reality?
Is reality gamified?
Is reading my book like tripping on cough syrup?
Read the interview to find out!
The Unseen Internet comes out in 2 months and I’m thrilled to share endorsements from some people I truly admire. Big thanks to Erik Davis, Whitney Phillips, Josh Gunn, and Doug Rushkoff for their kind words.
December 11, 2025 at 5:17 PM
The Unseen Internet comes out in 2 months and I’m thrilled to share endorsements from some people I truly admire. Big thanks to Erik Davis, Whitney Phillips, Josh Gunn, and Doug Rushkoff for their kind words.
Apparently I have opinions about Etsy witches…. (Who knew?). Read more on my new Substack post…
The Cozy Witches of Etsy
Apparently I have opinions about Etsy Witches.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Apparently I have opinions about Etsy witches…. (Who knew?). Read more on my new Substack post…
16 years after his creation and 11 years after the incident in Wisconsin, I have revisited my old friend The Slender Man.
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
Subscribe to my new substack for regularly flowing weirdness!
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
Subscribe to my new substack for regularly flowing weirdness!
The Slender Man: An Academic Retrospective
Hello darkness, my old friend.
open.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 2:27 PM
16 years after his creation and 11 years after the incident in Wisconsin, I have revisited my old friend The Slender Man.
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
Subscribe to my new substack for regularly flowing weirdness!
open.substack.com/pub/unseenin...
Subscribe to my new substack for regularly flowing weirdness!
My new book, THE UNSEEN INTERNET (about the intersections between magical thinking and tech innovation) is officially available for pre-order via @mitpress.bsky.social!
mitpress.mit.edu/978026255388...
mitpress.mit.edu/978026255388...
The Unseen Internet
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 com...
mitpress.mit.edu
October 8, 2025 at 12:36 PM
My new book, THE UNSEEN INTERNET (about the intersections between magical thinking and tech innovation) is officially available for pre-order via @mitpress.bsky.social!
mitpress.mit.edu/978026255388...
mitpress.mit.edu/978026255388...
From here on out, all of my author photos will be cosplaying as Todd Rundgren. Photo by Bart Nagel.
May 16, 2025 at 3:46 PM
From here on out, all of my author photos will be cosplaying as Todd Rundgren. Photo by Bart Nagel.
A Tale of two editors.
Me interviewing two iconic 80s/90s magazine editors from opposite ends of the publishing spectrum: Kevin Kelly (Whole Earth, Wired) and V Vale (RE/Search).
Me interviewing two iconic 80s/90s magazine editors from opposite ends of the publishing spectrum: Kevin Kelly (Whole Earth, Wired) and V Vale (RE/Search).
May 13, 2025 at 9:31 PM
A Tale of two editors.
Me interviewing two iconic 80s/90s magazine editors from opposite ends of the publishing spectrum: Kevin Kelly (Whole Earth, Wired) and V Vale (RE/Search).
Me interviewing two iconic 80s/90s magazine editors from opposite ends of the publishing spectrum: Kevin Kelly (Whole Earth, Wired) and V Vale (RE/Search).
ARE YOU TURNED OFF BY YOUR COMPUTER? (Yup!) Ad from High Frontiers Issue 1 (1984).
February 15, 2025 at 7:59 PM
ARE YOU TURNED OFF BY YOUR COMPUTER? (Yup!) Ad from High Frontiers Issue 1 (1984).
Oh hey, this Marvin Minsky cover pull quote from Electric Word (Jane & Louis’ pre-WIRED magazine) did not age very well….
December 11, 2024 at 3:25 PM
Oh hey, this Marvin Minsky cover pull quote from Electric Word (Jane & Louis’ pre-WIRED magazine) did not age very well….
Reposted by Shira Chess (she/her)
@shirachess.bsky.social has announced the completion of her new book and it's fantastic! It's "The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse" (MIT Press, 2026) and it's extremely fantastic. Here's the TOC
December 5, 2024 at 9:13 PM
@shirachess.bsky.social has announced the completion of her new book and it's fantastic! It's "The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse" (MIT Press, 2026) and it's extremely fantastic. Here's the TOC
Reposted by Shira Chess (she/her)
Dr. Chess is both an insightful researcher and an engaging writer. I think a lot of y’all will find this up your alley when it happens!
My new book is called The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse (MIT Press, 2026). [2/7]
December 5, 2024 at 2:37 PM
Dr. Chess is both an insightful researcher and an engaging writer. I think a lot of y’all will find this up your alley when it happens!
Reposted by Shira Chess (she/her)
So excited for this one! And so is pretty much everyone I discuss it with
My new book is called The Unseen Internet: Conjuring the Occult in Digital Discourse (MIT Press, 2026). [2/7]
December 5, 2024 at 2:04 PM
So excited for this one! And so is pretty much everyone I discuss it with
Many of you know that I have moved away from game studies in recent years, for reasons too personal (and too boring) to disclose. For 3 years I’ve been working on a book; the most fun I’ve ever had doing research. I’ve completed my final draft and I’m finally ready to tell people about it… [1/7]
December 4, 2024 at 11:43 AM
Many of you know that I have moved away from game studies in recent years, for reasons too personal (and too boring) to disclose. For 3 years I’ve been working on a book; the most fun I’ve ever had doing research. I’ve completed my final draft and I’m finally ready to tell people about it… [1/7]
Historians: what software/app do you like for building complex timelines?
December 3, 2024 at 12:37 AM
Historians: what software/app do you like for building complex timelines?
Internet research friends: I have a grad student who wants to do qual analysis involving internet forums, specifically looking at comments on Reddit and streaming platforms.
Do any of you have recs for software that can scrape comments for this kind of work that I can pass along?
Do any of you have recs for software that can scrape comments for this kind of work that I can pass along?
November 17, 2024 at 4:10 PM
Internet research friends: I have a grad student who wants to do qual analysis involving internet forums, specifically looking at comments on Reddit and streaming platforms.
Do any of you have recs for software that can scrape comments for this kind of work that I can pass along?
Do any of you have recs for software that can scrape comments for this kind of work that I can pass along?