Turn On, Boot Up, Jack In: Cyberdelia
Escape Velocity Excerpts | Published on October 12, 2004
Rooted in Northern California and rallied around the Berkeley-based quarterly Mondo 2000, the cyberdelic wing of fringe computer culture encompasses a cluster of subcultures, among them Deadhead computer hackers, "ravers" (habituées of all-night electronic dance parties known as "raves"), technopagans, and New Age technophiles. In cyberdelia, the values, attitudes, and street styles of the Haight-Ashbury/Berkeley counterculture intersect with the technological innovations and esoteric traditions of Silicon Valley.
Chapter One uncovers the roots of contemporary computer culture in '60s counterculture; dissects the libertarian-libertine politics of Mondo 2000, the New Age mutant hacker 'zine with one foot in the Aquarian Age and the other in a Brave New World; deconstructs the voodoo cosmology of William Gibson's cyberpunk novels; and infiltrates the technopagan subculture, whose members use computers in occult rituals.
To inaugurate "Cybermage," a topic on the technopagan BBS BaphoNet, Tony Lane posted an introduction worth quoting at length: "For too long magick has looked backward. So often I hear about 'traditional' Native American this and authentic Egyptian/Celtic/Hunan that. Sorry folks—there are very few 'authentic' magickal items/rituals/practices out there...Something might SEEM stronger if it is wrapped in the mystique of...bear clan tribal blood, blah blah blah. I have no doubt that this WAS a very powerful spell (and might still be one) for a member of the bear clan. If you are a CPA from Burbank I doubt that there is much there for you...I feel there is a better way...[T]he central idea of CYBERMAGE [is]: MAGICK that uses the current world is more powerful because it is more personal to the magician. In many of the magical ancient cultures magick and science were often the same thing. Imagine if they could see what our science today can do! They would worship us as GODS...If in our work we could meld science and magick we could [work] wonders. We could cure and create and build things man has never seen nor dreamed of. But first we have to turn away from the...traditional ways and branch out into new areas, [exploring]...the parallels between a magickal spell and a computer program and the possibility of having an electrical familiar." (A "familiar," according to The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft & Demonology, is "a low-ranking demon in the shape of a small domestic animal to advise and perform small malicious errands.")
Posted by Mark Dery at October 12, 2004 02:15 PM |