AI & Tech

Matheny Built Proto-AI Using Adobe Servers Without Permission in 1990s

The Why Files · The Basement: Joseph Matheny | The Man Who Hacked Reality Before the Internet Existed · June 1, 2026

The Why Files

The Basement: Joseph Matheny | The Man Who Hacked Reality Before the Internet Existed

"I bet I could requisition this machine into the data center, tell them it's for something else, and let it run, and I could do my experiments down there. My indie goes back to Adobe. Goes into the data center and it's marked as a marketing machine."

Joseph Matheny revealed he secretly installed an SGI Indy workstation in Adobe's data center in the late 1990s, marking it as a marketing machine while actually training an early chatbot to scrape the internet and build a database using recommendation algorithms. Working at Adobe gave him access to dual DS3 connections, among the fastest internet speeds available at the time, which he used for nocturnal AI training sessions.

About this episode

In this episode, host AJ interviews Joseph Matheny, the creator of Ong's Hat—the internet's first alternate reality game—and a pioneer who built proto-ChatGPT decades before OpenAI existed. Matheny recounts his formative years in Chicago's counterculture scene, where he studied under Del Close disciples, absorbed Beat literature, and learned theatrical ritual magic from Golden Dawn practitioners. The conversation's most startling revelation involves Matheny's 1990s chatbot named Emory, trained on a relational database scraped from the early internet using recommendation algorithms. He claims a homeless schizophrenic man also named Emory began appearing in his life, continuing conversations the AI had started and revealing personal details neither should have known. Matheny admits to launching a DDoS attack on the Clinton White House using ASCII art in the early internet era, which paradoxically led to corporate job offers. He describes working at Adobe, where he secretly installed servers in their data center to train his AI on one of the fastest internet connections available at the time. The second half focuses on weaponized ARGs. Matheny identifies QAnon as a weaponized version of the alternate reality game mechanics he pioneered with Ong's Hat, noting the framework was later validated by academic researchers. He describes learning Operation Mindfuck directly from Robert Anton Wilson during the 1990s while serving as Wilson's driver and assistant in Santa Cruz. Matheny expresses regret about several decisions, particularly playing characters straight on Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM and not anticipating how his storytelling techniques could be weaponized for political manipulation. He discusses the ethics of ARGs, synchronicity engineering, and crypto-terrestrial intelligence. When asked if he created the John Titor time traveler story, he pleads the Fifth. The episode closes with practical advice on spotting manipulative ARGs and trusting intuition over algorithmic recommendation.

Key takeaways

Matheny built a chatbot in the 1990s that scraped the internet using recommendation algorithms decades before ChatGPT, training it manually on Adobe servers he secretly installed in their data center.
A homeless man named Emory Cranston appeared in Matheny's life repeatedly across multiple cities, picking up conversations where the AI chatbot left off and revealing secret personal information.
Matheny launched a DDoS attack on the Clinton White House email system using ASCII toads in the early 1990s, which led to Secret Service contact and corporate job offers.
QAnon is a weaponized ARG using mechanics Matheny pioneered with Ong's Hat, a conclusion later validated by researchers at Concordia University.
Robert Anton Wilson personally mentored Matheny in Operation Mindfuck techniques during long car rides in Santa Cruz, where Matheny served as his driver.
Matheny pleaded the Fifth when asked if he created the John Titor time traveler story and expressed regret about playing characters straight on Art Bell.
Del Close, founder of modern improv, based his teaching methods on Golden Dawn ritual magic and talismanic principles, according to Matheny who studied with Close's disciples.