Ask HN: Computers and counterculture | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Computers and counterculture

10 pointsbambataa6 comments

I'm interested in learning more about the links between computing and the 'counterculture', both in terms of the social history and in terms of radical thinking about computing's role in society/culture. By 'counterculture' I'm primarily thinking of the late 60s/early 70s hippy movement and maybe the 90s free party scene (seems quite linked to technology, especially in Germany?), but I'm keen to learn about other links.

Some books/thinkers I've come across already are: - Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth Catalog - Computer Lib/Dream Machines by Ted Nelson - Erik Davis' 'Technopagans' essay in Wired - Jaron Lanier's 'Who Owns the Future'

As well as books I'd be super interested in any links to good mailing list archives, or even first hand accounts, that anyone can share.

Steven Levy's book Hackers goes a bit into free/tech culture in both the SF Bay Area and in Academia.

textfiles.com might give you some of the later era source messages

Mondo 2000 Magazine also did a lot of 90s cyber-hedonism stuff

+1 for Levy's "Hackers", especially if you're interested in the counter-culture aspects of computer folklore.

YC did a recent podcast with former Artforum editor Michelle Kuo on Experiments in Art and Technology

https://blog.ycombinator.com/experiments-in-art-and-technolo...

And then there's Mondo 2000. Defining periodical of "cyberculture". Remains deeply influential even today

https://archive.org/details/mondohistory

I'd also recommend the documentary "We Live In Public" as a cautionary tale regarding networked utopias ;)

To me, the most radical thinking about the relationship between computing and society is copy-left. It uses copyright law to subvert the presumed uses of copyright law. I think it is the most influential new idea from the second half of the twentieth century. The world runs on Linux.

Books: What the Doorknob Said, by John Markoff. From Counterculture to Cyberculture, by Fred Turner.

In Germany, history of the Chaos Computer Club.

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