Cyberculture:Introduction & Overview-
What is "Cyberculture" ?
The term "Cyberculture" is a relatively recent addition to the language but the locus of our interest and analysis is merely an extension of a key area of all of human history. Humans have always interacted with technology of some kind- indeed it could be argued that this interaction and the constant impetus to extend human abilities through technological development is a defining factor in what it is to be human.
So it follows then that what we will attempting to do is achieve a critical understanding of the social, political, psychological and cultural aspects of the interactions between human beings and some forms of new technology.
The first and blindingly obvious point is that, of course all technology is the product of human creation. Despite the use of the possibility as a commonplace theme in science fiction, machines do not make themselves-yet.
The most important technologies for us will be those that gather organise collate process and distribute data- in all its forms.
That being said we are also at a point in human history where technology can and does intrude into the body itself for example with pacemakers, joint replacement surgery, synthetic hormones, chemical inhibitors on the re-uptake of serotonin (aka emotional cosmetics- or happy pills) and the commonplace use of transplant surgery. This process is of course not slowing down -the medical potential of genetically modified or synthetic organisms is a matter of contentious debate. Whilst these developments have dramatically extended the span and enhanced the quality of life for those who have access to the resources required to obtain them, they also raise new questions surrounding the relationship between human society and the natural world. These developments also pose questions in relation to the self, identity and the body- indeed to some extent the cyborg, the clone, and the replicant have become the mascots of cyberculture.
Technology penetrates, to some extent, every aspect of our existence, but technology does not develop on it's own impetus even if it may sometimes seem to. Technological change arises as a result of human needs and desires and occurs within a complex set of global economic, political, historical and above all social structures and processes.
Cyberculture then is:
Global- a vast interlinked network of servers, laptops, desktop computers and mainframes send huge and constant streams of data at immense speed across the planet and this network never stops. Indeed since much of this data stream is bounced around the planet by the use of satellites, one could even argue that cyberculture transcends the limitations of the Earth itself.
A Western Creation- as vast as the web is much the World's population is excluded for largely economic reasons. Even within the Advanced Industrial Societies the majority of the population have little or no access to the resources needed to connect. Under 35% of the UK population have access even to multi-channel television. At the global level more than half of the World's population have never even made a telephone call, far less visited a Web site. There are more telephone lines on Manhattan Island than on the entire continent of Africa.
Complex and dialectical in its potentials. The structure of ownership and control of the net and other means to transmit data opens the potential for global dominion of the elite group of super rich as never before. Conversely the sheer size of the international network and the relative cheapness of access means that effective control of the content of the Web has so far defeated the best efforts of governments and corporations around the World. This has allowed the Web to become -amongst other things- a platform for the development and interlinkages subversive subcultures -cyberpunks, hackers, and techno-hippies use the net with the same ease as multi billion dollar transnational corporations- though for diametrically opposed reasons.
An Integrative Phenomena. The interlinkages provided by the InterNet and other global technologies (eg cable and satellite television) provide an opportunity for the development of international communities based not on nationality, ethnicity, race, gender or even class but on a commonality of interest.
An Isolatory Phenomena. The growth of essentially domestic entertainment and informations systems has accelerated the post war trend of social isolation into smaller and smaller units with less and less contact with the outside world. Demographic chahges in the UK over the last two decades has brought about rapid growth in single occupancy households.
Dynamic. The pace of technological change since the advent of solid state electronics in the 70s has been such that, as W. Gates said "If General Motors had kept pace with the technological innovations of the computer industry we would all be driving $25 cars that ran for 1,00 miles on one gallon of gas" Equally valid however is the CEO of GM's reply ..."yes but would you want a car that lost 75% of it's value before it left the showroom, was worth nothing in two years ... and crashed five times a day?".
Our analysis will draw on much of the analytical tools used by the disciplines of Psychology and especially Sociology. Indeed some of the debate will be familiar to you from the semester four Module "Reading the Media" The phenomena of cyberculture it could be argued, is little more than a other new area of Media technology, and like print, film and television before it is amenable to the same discussion, critique and analysis.
However Information technology has at least the potential for the individual to transcend race class and gender. We are all without race or gender in CYBERSPACE since we abandon our bodies at the keyboard. Since notions of indentity based on class, race and gender are usually central to the Sociological project, and due to the dynamism of the subject area we may develop new paradigms to explain the phenomena as we explore it.
Everything has a history (even history itself) and Information technology is no exception. This history is relevant to us since we cannot understand where we are without at least a limited understanding of how we got here. We will look briefly at the History of the computer, the electronic games console and the developement of the Internet. Of key importance however are the forces, economic, political, and social that shape the direction of that history.
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