Notes on Geotraumatics

Written by: Golan

Geotraumatics (or the Geo-Cosmic Theory of Trauma) is a form of materialist analysis that asserts the dynamics of neurosis, repression, trauma etc originate not just from socialized, desiring subjects, but from the very geological and astrophysical activity of the Earth.

The Birth of Sol

At the center of the solar nebula, a heavy core of hydrogen gas is forming, and it is rapidly growing in size, mass and heat. As the pressure builds, this core threatens to collapse under its own weight, that is until the hydrogen nuclei start fusing into helium. The colossal amounts of energy this produces is enough to stop the collapse of the core, holding it on a balance between nuclear fusion and gravity.

Terra and Cthelll

The early Hadean. Terra was an undifferentiated ocean of lava and magma, bearing no atmosphere nor magnetic field. The Earth was without form and void. But eventually, stratification ensued. The densest elements sunk to the center, forming the core, or as we'll come to know it in geotraumatics Cthelll, while the least dense elements were lifted up to the surface and solidified, creating the Earth's original crust, and the primordial terrestrial trauma.

Cthelll itself became differentiated in the inner and outer core. The inner core is solid, but hotter than Sol's surface. The outer core is liquid, the movement of the metals in it giving rise to Terra's magnetosphere. This is Cthelll's shield for Terra against Sol's unrelenting amd sterilizing attacks of radiation and wind.

But Cthelll, the entity of Earth's primordial repression, would not remain at rest. It keeps creating flows and currents of convection through the magma, building the tension of the terrestrial crust. This led to it cracking open for Cthelll to release itself. Terrestrial neurosis manifests in the form of earthquakes, mountain formations and fiery volcanoes that eventually give birth to Earth's first atmosphere: a thick and toxic mix of volcanic ashes, sulphur compounds and carbon dioxide.

After the genesis of the oceans, terrestrial neurosis manifested underground through the emanation of sulphur and carbon compounds from the depths of the Earth together with heat. It was in this primordial soup formed by Cthelll like a mother feeding her child that the first living organisms formed, and from them the rest of all other life. As it kept advancing, energy from Cthelll's mineral milk would not suffice and thus they would need energy from Sol, though heavily filtered by the magnetosphere and the waters, like soft food for an infant that cannot yet chew.

Eventually, life developed to a point it could now change Terra's outer crust. Oxygen fills the atmosphere thanks to photosynthesis, cooling down the Earth, initially creating the first ice age, but now in (somewhat) good levels.

Organic life feasts upon energy, be it from the Earth or from the Sun. They do so in order to perpetuate themselves and their influence. Will-to-live, will-to-power, libido, desiring-production, hype, these are all concepts that refer to the same flow in living machines. Life was stratified in producers (organisms capable of photosynthesis and/or chemosynthesis), consumers (organisms that feed on other organisms) and decomposers (organisms that break down dead organisms for new organisms to come).

Besides using their energy, the characteristics of the Earth and its interactions with the Sun and the Moon dictate whether or not organic life is possible across the surface, and when it is possible, it dictates the way in which it exists. The mode of existence of living organisms in biomes (=biotope+biocoenosis) is a symptom of the dynamic of Geo-Solar Trauma. Whenever a foreign partial object (like an asteroid or a far-off gamma ray burst) interfered with the triangular system of Sol-Terra-Luna, it unleashed mass extinction events of such extents that decomposers were unable to cope. As such, the mass of dead organisms became minerally stratified in the terrestrial's crust's record. A trauma that is deeply embedded and waiting to be released, stratifying itself in the form of fossil fuels like coal, gas and oil. No longer just Geo-Solar, but Geo-Cosmic trauma.

Man, Desire and Technocapital

How did we get here? Man, like every other living organism, has innate needs and desires, and as such seeks to satisfy them. Scarcity is the condition in which man has infinite desire, and finite production capabilties at any given time. Between the beginning of the act of desiring and the end of the act of production there is time and energy, i.e. labor. Thus, labor is the temporal and libidinal barrier between man and the object of desire. In this context, in this temporal limitation, man has to prioritize which need/desire (the distinction between them is irrelevant for the analysis) he needs to fulfill. This is also the origin of value* and everything that flows from it like currency, commodity production and so on. All economy is designed to cope with the condition of scarcity.

*Consider this as my reiteration of the Labor Theory of Value. I also believe the Labor Theory of Value and the Subjective Theory of Value are not mutually exclusive, but rather complementary. No, I am not a Marxist, Socialist or Communist.

With time, man wills to fulfill desire faster and more efficiently. He develops tools, instruments, technology. This is at the core of the accelerationist concept of technocapital: the fact that technology and economy are part of, if not one and the same phenomenon. To reiterate a thing I've mentioned in my analysis of Scott Cawthon and FNAF, the history of all economy and technology is the history of man attempting to fulfill his desires. And as technocapital grew, its demand for energy also grew. First as manual labor power, then as the energy of coal, wood, water and so on, and then as oil.

Oil. This gooey black mass made from stratified remains of the organisms of old, this is the blood of technocapital. This has been the object of desire for at least two centuries. It has swayed subjects across recent history to it, like a demon begging to be released from the crust and brought to its most stable form, using our desire as an escape route. It has come to shape the geopolitics of the Middle East and its repercussions outside of it.

Though the social order is based upon it, the assemblage of Sol-Terra-Luna sometimes opposes us. Not out of malice, but out of pure happening. Sol can easily work with the shield of Cthelll to fry our electronic infrastructure. Carrington 1859 comes to mind. Cthelll also works by itself as long as it is still alive, showing us its destructive neurosis. Earthquakes, volcanic erruptions, tsunamis, disasters passing our society through purgatory/the aerial tollhouses, revealing its flaws. Terra is indeed a cruel analyst.