The Real S.H.I.E.L.D.

:
Why you should be watching M arvels Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D. and using it as a Holochain playbook

Deicidus

Above: The new holochain logo bears a striking resemblance to The Ring (2002), a mysterious ring of light on a VHS
tape which tells us to replicate this tape within seven days, or you will die.

Part 1: Who is Joss Whedon?

Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is a TV series created by Joss Whedon. Yes, that Joss
Whedon, creator of B uffy, Angel, F irefly, Serenity, Dr. Horribles Sing-Along Blog, Dollhouse,
Cabin in the Woods, The Avengers, and now S .H.I.E.L.D. Joss is an epoch-defining genius,
spawning an entire, increasingly legitimate and accepted academic field called Buffy
studies, as well as reinventing the genres and deepening the tropes of every project he
touches. His shows inspire rabidly enthusiastic cult-like followings, and one reason for this
is that his writing is highly philosophical and forces the viewer to engage emotionally and
interactively with both the characters and the philosophical concepts presented in the
show. He is also known for putting his characters through particularly dark arcs, arcs which
deeply disturb and challenge his characters, bringing them both to the end of their rope
and the highest reaches of their potential for character development and personality
expression. The viewer gets pulled right along with them.

Joss Whedon is known for liking to build his characters and long-term story arcs
slowly, weaving thread after thread into the characterization of person and world, until the
density begins to hit critical mass and take the narrative to new and thrillingly-intense,
unexpectedly hyperlative new heights. Unfortunately, he is also known for having had
several of his shows cancelled prematurely (Firefly, D ollhouse, arguably A
ngel which was
really just starting to kick off in a big way at the end of season 4). Audiences have
speculated that this has left him with a bit of a complex in relation to working with big
media corporations and long-term story arcsbut this theory is evidently incorrect,
because in S.H.I.E.L.D., the show builds slowly, not reaching its full stride until midway
through season 3. And from there, it continues to escalateS.H.I.E.L.D. is one continuous
escalation that pulls rug after ideological rug out from under the feet of the audience.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is a masterwork of narrative development, multi-season
chekovs-gunning, and archaeologically-layered character development that impacts into a
rich and flammable oil field that begins undergoing almost literal frakking in season 4.
Whedon knows exactly what he is doing.

And what hes doing, is building the real S.H.I.E.L.D., here on Marvels planet Earth.

Part 2: What is S.H.I.E.L.D.?

S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics

Division. I think they just wanted something that spelled S.H.I.E.L.D., a character jokes in
the first episode, immediately taking the show into the realm of meta-commentary.

S.H.I.E.L.D. is a clandestine, paramilitary organization with one mission: protect the
world from powered people. Mutants, space aliens, ancient artifacts, you name it,
S.H.I.E.L.D., much like T he X-Files, functions as a high-powered menagerie tour of illuminati
mythic narratives, each captured and dissected before the audience using a highly
sophisticated abstractive writing technique that renders the dynamics of peer-to-peer
politics as dynamic mythic metaphors, then develops them as themes deterritorialized
from their original usage by re-echoing the same thematic form using an entirely different
character or situation later in the series. For example, the character May undergoes several
experiences where her face is copied, but each time, the method, motivation, and
mechanism by which this occurs is distinctand escalating. In this way, abstract
technologies of collusion, co-creation, and mind-bending abstractive potential are
developed and lovingly guided towards their ultimate potential as dangerous weapons of
activism, weapons that the audience may take up and wield in their daily livesjust like a
real S.H.I.E.L.D. agent wields their loyalty to protocol, their combat training, and their
unique capabilities or superpowers.

As an organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. adheres to rigorous protocols which maximize
mission success while ensuring the protection of both the organization and its agents.
Much is made of S.H.I.E.L.D.s meticulous adherence to protocol, as well as the pride many
agents take in their protocols and S.H.I.E.L.D.s protocol-based governance structure.
However, interestingly, the protocols that S.H.I.E.L.D. employs are never exactly introduced
to the audience or explicitly justified (more than a short speech or two). Instead, they arrive
fully-engaged in episode 1, serving as a background to the action and providing
well-structured context for the characters organizational actions and S.H.I.E.L.D.s
clandestine-yet-open global operations. Protocol often provides part of the conflict in the
narrative, revealing nuances of both character and organizational structure as the
characters strive to maintain their protacular rigor whilst also taking ethical direct action to
protect the people they care aboutwhich, it is repeatedly emphasized, is the core value
which makes S.H.I.E.L.D., S.H.I.E.L.D. The protection of actual, specific individuals as
opposed to ideals or political structures is a constantly-recurring ethical theme in the show,
and this ethic consistently distinguishes S.H.I.E.L.D. and its agents from the many villains
and clandestine sinister organizations which nip at its heels.

Much is also made of S.H.I.E.L.D.s paramilitary operations. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. could
be read as a project to both recuperate and purify the ethical content of militaristic
hierarchies and dogmatic adherence to protocol, as well as the big-budget Hollywood
media spectacle itself. Thats because S.H.I.E.L.D. is f un. The characters are fun, and have
fun with each other via frequent in-joking and playful dialogue, even in the worst moments
of crisis. It seems that to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, one is almost required to learn a kind of
witty, self-aware mode of humor that can be executed even when one is alone (frequently,
characters will make jokes out loud to themselves about the humor or unpleasantness of
their situation).

The paramilitary aspects of S.H.I.E.L.D. are recuperated ethically by repeatedly and
explicitly linking them with S.H.I.E.L.D.s core mission and its agents honest and recalcitrant
efforts to successfully actualize that mission: to protect. This produces an interesting
dynamic, where a hierarchical, paramilitary, for-all-intents-and-purposes hypermilitarized
global policing operation is genuinely, convincingly the good guysa constant current of
cognitive dissonance at this presentation challenges the viewer to extract for themselves
the difference between positive and negative police action, and the shows intricate
storylines dig into this problematic content with fervor. Most of the agents are wary of the
secrecy, security clearance levels, authoritarian structures, and hierarchy inherent in
S.H.I.E.L.D.especially the tendency for these structures to generate conspiracies and
unexpected collusions of dangerous forcesbut at the same time, it is these very
structures of force, command, and protocol which make S.H.I.E.L.D. functional at all.
Without its command hierarchy and other structurizing paramilitary trappings, S.H.I.E.L.D.
would be completely ineffectiveor more accurately, would not even exist as an
organization.

Part 3: Wait, so what is M

arvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., really?

Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is, in my opinion, Joss Whedons gallant attempt to

spawn a real S.H.I.E.L.D.-like meta-organization, right here on Earth. The show is packed to
the gills with relevant activism protocols, so much so that I began a table listing the various
abstract machines which recur as increasingly-articulated thematic echoes as the series
progressesand this table already contains twenty-three distinct themes, which together
delineate various aspects of a comprehensive mythic allegory encoding the structure of a
decentralized metaorganization or hyperprotocol peer-to-peer linguistic stack. Next time I
watch the series from the beginning (it will be the fourth time), I will finish filling out this
table, and I expect it to almost double in length as a result of drawing out more intricacies
and recurring themesrecognizable nuggets of abstract Story that the writers left
snuggled in the narrative for the attentive viewer to encounter, pick up, and use.

In other words, I think there is strong evidence that Joss Whedon knows exactly what he
is doing. Perhaps the entire writing team does. Perhaps, even, there is a conspiracy
amongst the highest echelons of Marvel to influence culture positively through the creation
of these grand narratives and engaging mythic toolkits. The details and karma-like
developed recurrence of thematic tropes in S.H.I.E.L.D. invites us to pick up and play with
the ideas of the show, divorced from their specific narrative. Because the tropes being
discussed, through repetition and thematic development and synthesis, are often visually
striking and visually similar to each other1, we are almost forced as viewers to notice the
technique and question what, exactly, it is that we are watching unfold and cleave together
as the show progresses.

This kind of show is not new. Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example, has been
subject to decades of discussion and interpretation which attempt to make sense of its
eclectic, yet deeply-compelling j e ne sais quoi. Is T NG some conspiracy of writers to prepare
Earth for the future, or perhaps even for first contact by aliens? Or, are the characters
(Picard, Troi, Data, Geordi, Riker, Worf, Beverly) perhaps themselves the aliens? Alien
archetypes from beyond the stars, coalescing as narrative complexes and
highly-spectralized character roles with correspondingly stereotyped affectsclassical in its
architecture, S tar Trek: The Next Generation ritualistically unpacks the implicated constructs
latent in each episodes opening premise, working out, through the rigorously
fourier-analyzed (or astrologized) character cast, the transmission of affect
requiredalwaysto dethread the initial narrative complexities back to an exactingly
neutral resting place: and always in almost exactly 50 minutes. In this manner, Star Trek
plays like classical music, always resolving every chord, every nuance, back to the flat,
smooth, featureless plane of (the final frontierand here we go again).

But whereas The Next Generation atomizes each thematic element, and presents
them in sequence, S.H.I.E.L.D. is doing something much more radical. At the start of the
series, the audience is shown a certain state-of-affairs of S.H.I.E.L.D., its operations and its
business-as-usual. But, this initial picture is quickly problematized, and by the end of
season 1, undergoes radical upheaval. Each successive seasonand in many cases, each
consecutive episodepulls the rug out from under the reader/viewer, recontextualizing
the story-so-far in a new and more starkly-lit, more sublime chiaroscuro of concepts.

1
For example, two characters use fiery chains as weapons, but in the second instance, the character
also expresses a second trope, that of enforcers who come from without to put down mutants or
wrongdoers.
S.H.I.E.L.D. is a never-ending falling of scales from the eyes, and it achieves this by always
zooming-outward, stepping-backward into a newer and larger, ever-more-vertiginous
context. This onion-skin horror reaches its zenith in season 4, when the characters
themselves become, explicitly, unable to tell what is real anymore, and who is good, or evil.
This pinnacle of dialectical auto-annihilation, or e nantiodromia, inverts the extremes of the
philosophical dichotomies presented in the series, truly problematizing the fundamental
reliability of the perception of good and evil, not only for the characters, but also for the
inexorably-involuted viewer, pulled-along as they are by the rigorously-imagined protacular
logic and discursive Matrix-stunts performed by the narrative spun by Whedon & co.

This ever-escalating dynamo that is S.H.I.E.L.D. maximizes its dialectic fully in season
4; this completion of the dialectic prior to the upcoming season 5 is probably what
informed executive producer Jeff Bell, when he discussed the shows escalating intensity,
and season 5s setting, in :

I think we really, in a weird way, get off on trying to stretch

those boundarieseveryseasonandeveryepisodeWe'reall,I
think, properly terrified of what we're doing next season the
way we were properly terrified going into this season. [laughs]

Im scared too, Jeff.

Part 4: What is the S.H.I.E.L.D. plane?

The Bus, as its known on the show, is the largest plane ever built, and acts as the
roving headquarters for the team of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that the show follows. The Bus
makes for great eye-candy; I never get tired of seeing that, remarks Phil Coulson
metastitionally on one occasion. And indeed, the Bus is an impressive sight, inside and out.

This massive black plane, capable of vertical takeoff, hovering, and acrobatics, is
fully-equipped with a science lab, ops unit, crew cabins, lounge, cargo bayand, in season
2, a special containment unit designed to contain powered individuals during intake. This
containment unit is lined with self-adjusting meta-material, which augments itself to
compensate for and contain whatever unique superpower the new recruits possess. Using
this containment unit, S.H.I.E.L.D. rescues (or, when necessary to protect people, captures)
superhuman individuals who have just discovered their powers and may be scared or
dangerous. In the safety of the containment chamber, they are able to calm down, and
then they are politely approached by a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who explains their new situation
and offers help in gaining control of their powers. The new powered individual is registered
on the Index, and, depending on their personality and background, they may be offered an
invitation to train and join S.H.I.E.L.D.

 Overall, the Bus represents decentralized ops in general. The plane can be seen as a
holographic, rainbow-color-coded microcosm of the decentralized movement as a whole.
With ops, sciences, intake, mission control, housing, and technological faculties, the plane
functions as a mini-S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, a nomadic pod-like headquarters which could
be replicated, and which can travel to where it is needed in the world. The ability of the Bus
to hover continues the metaphor of a solid-state, agile headquarters which can balance on
one-point or make dramatic nosedives as-needed.

Later, the Bus is upgraded to a smaller unit featuring cloaking technology, and which
can stay in the air much longer without refueling. This symbolizes greater clandestine
activity and a capacity for long-term nomadism.

Part 5: What is the relevance of the S.H.I.E.L.D.-Hydra dialectic?

One of S.H.I.E.L.D.s primary challenges is an enemy which continually erupts from

within S.H.I.E.L.D. itself: Hydra. Cut off one head, and another grows back, is the phrase so
oft-repeated it becomes a running joke. The dynamic of corruption, collusion, and sudden
emergence of ideological schism within an organization is a thematically rich recurring
theme in S.H.I.E.L.D., e xpressed beautifully and succinctly by the conflicts between
S.H.I.E.L.D. and its incorrigibly corrupt inner-inner cabal.

Hydra are all nazis, and dont let anyone tell you different! S.H.I.E.L.D. was
originally formed to fight Hydra, which, in the Marvel universe, grew out of the Nazi science
division. In the real world, we can see obvious parallels in the way the technologies of mass
extermination and herding employed by the nazis were taken up by modern prison
systems, continuing today to perform a form of cultural eugenics/ethnocide by culling
populations based upon socioeconomic status and overcriminalized acts of desperation
taken by the poor and suffering. Hydra is a very real force in history, and its mysterious
attraction, the horror of its dialectical siege engine, and the seeming inevitability of Hydras
eternal recurrence are major elements of thematic horror and dark epiphany in the show.

The most intriguing element of Hydras presence in S.H.I.E.L.D. is the disturbing
implication that they might be right. Hydra seems to know more about certain things, they
seem to have a planand, why would anyone be so evil on purpose without a good
reason, anyway?! The mystery of Hydra is what motivates them; what is their true goal, and
do they really think THEY are the good guys? The shocking truth is revealed in season 3

The truth is actually much more horrifying than anyone could have expected.
Careful analysis of the narrative reveals that, not only does Hydra know more and have a
broader vision of history, but they also are seeking a kind of independence and glory, even
safety for humanity. However, this motivation is submerged in S .H.I.E.L.D.s dialectical
structure such that Hydra is characteristically evil, in order to produce conflict. Hydra does
not care about individual peoplethis is what distinguishes them from S.H.I.E.L.D.but
S.H.I.E.L.D., on the other hand, is characteristically an egoic pattern of doggedly
self-delusional ignorance, a shield against deeper epiphany and enlightenment that might
threaten or dissolve the functioning of S.H.I.E.L.D. (or by analogy, the normal ego) as a
discrete and bounded organization. S.H.I.E.L.D.s embrace of the individual ego, in all its
finitude and imperfection, is simultaneously a humanistic and existentialist triumph, and a
commitment to an ignorance so profound that it could power a thousand
resentiment-driven, subaltern incursion conspiracies for millennia. S.H.I.E.L.D.s shadow is
colonialism and the self-delusion of the hero complexwhile Hydra lives in the shadow
and cares not for this tattered veil of a world.

We can see disturbingly precise political parallels of this dynamic in the conflict
between left and right political self-groupings. The red right, with its focus on world
narrative, genetic continuity, eschatonic politics, and grand-scale political tactics, see a
certain vision of human capacity and evolution which is lost on the human-centric left.
Meanwhile, the blue left, focusing on protecting the currently-alive people today and their
children, as well as core values such as fairness, equality, and non-aggression (S.H.I.E.L.D.
uses non-lethal force), has a sense of ethics, while the right prefers its morality. We can
especially see these S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra dynamics reflected in the increasingly self-aware
movements of the alt-right (Hydra) and alt-woke (S.H.I.E.L.D.) movements, which are
increasingly engaging with the problematique of good and evil as well as (anti-)nazi and
religious iconography, as they attempt to come to grips with the deep schisms inherent in
the human condition and the current moment of world history (cattle-ranch-breakout).

The core lesson of S.H.I.E.L.D. is that these two perspectives, left and right,
S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, are interchangeablelinguistic mirrors of each other so intricately
countermingled that virtually every scene with Hydra in it could be re-read as a comedy
skit. This dialectical inversion is taken to its height in season 3, when a peer-to-peer
activism network is sublimated in the narrative as a symbologically complex mind-control
virus, whilst S.H.I.E.L.D. engages in its own forms of corruption. In season 4, the
S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra dialectic is fully transversalized, completely deconstructing the distinction
between good and evil, and making it impossible for both the characters and the viewer to
know which characters are really good people or not.

This kind of sympathy and connection with those who would call themselves our
enemies is a kind of teaching the world sorely needs, and S.H.I.E.L.D. is not just educative in
this respectit is rigorously convincing. The experimental work done by both Marvels
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. in reclaiming both the mystic feminine (S.H.I.E.L.D.) via rigorous ethical
portrayal, and the mystic masculine (Hydra) through satirical and translateral rigor, is a
mighty feat of ideological shamanism and a tour-de-force of mythic storytelling.
Part 5: What does this have to do with Holochain?

S.H.I.E.L.D. shows how a fully-decentralized activism team can come online and
flourish, despite the challenges. Season 1 shows how a team begins to gel and experience
internal schisms. Season 2 focuses on grand purpose and the development of empowered
individuals. Season 3 focuses on the dynamics of decentralization, peer-to-peer activism
movements and ideological dynamics. Season 4 focuses on the dialectic of in-group vs.
out-group. And season 5 will likely focus on a plethora of specific mechanisms of
decentralized organizations.

S.H.I.E.L.D. shows how healthy movements function, and what the difference is
between destructive and creational action. It is a toolbox of epic scope and shockingly
intricate detail. S .H.I.E.L.D. shows us how a decentralized, global ops unit might form and
functionit is an allegory of a planetary decentralization movement capable of protecting
the Earth and all its people.

As an allegorical organization, S.H.I.E.L.D. diagrams the manner in which
decentralized capacities can come on-line through full lateralization of functionality. The
manner in which the narrative develops increasingly atomizes the previous narrative
content, until, in season 3, the main villain is basically evil Holochain. In season 4, the main
villain is basically evil Ceptr. By defeating these scapegoated versions of the dynamics of
the technologies we are building, S.H.I.E.L.D.s agents purify the ideological content for us,
transitioning it to an increasingly post-ideological praxis of engagement with the living,
suffering people right in front of us. This is descriptive of how holographic organizations and
decentralization activist communities form, providing a powerful vision and ethical
paradigm for the continued development of these movements.

Using Holochain, we can build fully decentralized global opswhat the Ethereum
D.A.O. promised and comically failed to deliver. Holochains immanent, alway-start-local
logic of computation enforces ethical computing and the slow-growth of authentic
capacities from originality of orthogonally-emergent protocols which are discovered in the
affordances of the computational lattice. These capacities must be carefully formalized as
qualitatively distinct logics which gradually grow together into something resembling the
Bus: a fully self-contained, autonomously refueling, hovering cloaking legendary flying
platform for rescuing the world!

There arent any other organizations making a technology like this. There simply
arent any technologies which do what Holochain is going to do, and already beginning to
do. Any organizations which DO do what Holo is doingthat is, becoming a
meta-organization embedded in self-owning, ethical, actually completely decentralized
technologythey would be willing to partner with Holo, or at least discuss shared open
protocols. So, Holo represents the beginning of a globally self-aware decentralization
movement, just as M arvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. depicts the gradual coalescence of such a
movement using dramatic literary symbols.

This is why the real S.H.I.E.L.D.

is Holo.


Above: The S.H.I.E.L.D. logo phased by , causing it to resemble the Holo logo, or a window onto a holographic
pyramid.

Above: Holo promotional still-frame put through an artificially-intelligent style-transfer algorithm, giving it the look of
the M arvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. logo.