Welcome to Netstorms Unlimited
In a world increasingly shaped by algorithms and all too powerful corporations, the power to connect, to create, and to speak freely is often held hostage by platforms that operate without transparency or accountability. The recent (1st June) removal of my Facebook account, without warning, without explanation, was more than a personal disruption. It was a sharp reminder that the digital commons we rely on can be withdrawn at any moment by forces indifferent to dialogue, community, or justice. And, deeper still, a reminder, though none were needed, of the reality articulated by the historian Thucydides that:
“The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.“
This website is, in part, a response to that reality. It proposes that:
“The fault … is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.“
It proposes that we do not need to accept ourselves as ‘underlings’ or accept the dominance of kings and corporations as hardwired into the structure of reality. It proposes that our reality is code and that we can rewrite it.
There is a story – from old Japan – that once, a warlord entered a village with his army. All had fled or were cowering, except for an old monk who remained in the temple, meditating. Angered by the monk’s indifference, the warlord confronted him, saying, “Don’t you recognise that I am one who could run you through without batting an eyelid?”
The monk replied, “And don’t you recognise that I am one who could be run through without batting an eyelid?”
In a song I wrote as part of my Stormhaven Chronicles fantasy stories, I commend three ‘enabling’ virtues – courage, detachment, and diligence – that complement the ‘existential’ virtues of humility, justice, truth, and compassion. These are virtues we must cultivate within in order to serve what we aspire to express without. Their relationship is not linear but mutually reinforcing – a subject I hope to explore more deeply elsewhere.
The song has become an aspirational personal creed of sorts and I offer it here without apology.
“I walk with heart humble, neither above nor below,
In thought and in action, may Humility show”“By sword or by word, I will right every wrong,
With Justice my guide, not the strong, nor the throng.”“I shall speak what is Truth, what is Honest and Right,
Without fear, without favour as day follows night.”“To those in deep sorrow, my hand shall extend,
The weak and the weary, I vow to defend.”“I shall meet every foe with courage and grace,
With fear left behind, every challenge I’ll face.”“I will own not the world, nor let it own me,
With spirit unbound, I will always be free.”“From toil and from duty, I shall never take rest,
For in constant endeavor, my soul shines its best.”
Now it’s Personal
This website is not political except insofar as the political coincides with the ethical, it is not religious, except insofar as the religious coincides with the quest for meaning. But in pursuit of truth, justice and meaning it will not fail to challenge the orthodoxies or eccentricities or downright cruelties of the political or the religious where such challenge is necessary.
You’ll find here links to my writing, artwork, community development work and more.
Netstorms Unlimited brings together the various strands of my work, community-based projects like Newham Mosaic and Negotiating AI as a Community, creative endeavours such as The Stormhaven Chronicles and Equations to Invocation, and educational platforms like STEAM/DREAMS. At their heart, all these initiatives are about reclaiming agency. They aim to support individuals and communities in building autonomy, imagination, and ethical awareness in an age increasingly dominated by institutional omnipotence and technological overreach.
This site started as an adjunct to my now mostly dormant company, Netstorms Limited. It still relates to that aspiration .. but now it is more than that. Now it’s personal.
Invitation
I invite you to explore, to reflect, and most of all, to participate. I’m introducing forums where you can introduce yourself, share your thoughts, and help shape this space into a living conversation.
Links to the forums (there will be more than one) will appear below. They will not have the convenience of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and all the rest. They will seem retro but they will be part of an endeavor to reclaim agency, independence, dignity from the platforms that steal that from us. That’s it. Join me here to explore, experiment and co-create:
Gavin Sealey