BOOK REVIEW: Chaos And Cyberculture

By Richard A. Cooper

Timothy Leary strives in his latest book, Chaos & Cyberculture, to put the recent emergence of the "cyberculture" in perspective. He delves into the past and future of this new frontier for human potential. He uncovers the link between the drug and sexual experimentation he has championed and the tremendous advances in realizing the goals in human freedom made possible by the personal computer.

Every stage of history has produced names and heroic legends for the strong, stubborn, creative individuals who explore some future frontier, collect and bring back new information, end offer to guide the human gene pool to the next stage. Typically, these time mavericks combine bravery, and high curiosity, with super serf-esteem. These three characteristics are considered necessary for those engaged in the production of genetic guide, aka counterculture philosopher.

Leary's recent discovery of the personal computer struck him forcefully with the scope for imagination it has unleashed, comparable to the psychedelic drugs with which he will forever be identified. He has explored the ancestry of both the past he detests and the future he cherishes. He observes the evolution of societies and states with their methods of social control changing, while at the same time there has been resistance to the collectivizing and hierarchical tendencies. Now, he believes that technological changes in the form of the computer and the new media give greater strength than ever before to the countercultural, individualist, and anti-authoritarian strains in civilization. As one would expect, he finds this a very welcome development.

As Leary sees it, we have seen repeated episodes of individualist, adventurous, and progressive ferment in culture, politics, and science. These have been sandwiched, suppressed, and countered by the hierarchical, authoritarian and collectivizing tendencies. He cites the ancient Greeks, the Renaissance, and the 20th century. The 20th century up to now was a preparatory stage for the "cybernetic revolution" in the technological gospel of Timothy:

With this historical perspective we can see that the 20th Century (1900-1994) produced an avalanche of artistic, literary, musical, and entertainment movements, all of which shared the same goal: to strip off the robes and uniforms; to dissolve our blind faith in static structure; to loosen up the rigidities of the industrial culture; to prepare us to deal with paradox, with altered states of perception, with multidimensional definitions of nature; to make quantum reality comfortable, manageable, livable; to get you to feel at home with bouncing electrons around your computer screen. Radio. Telegraph. Television. Computers.

As an archeologist of the struggle for the development of human consciousness, potential and freedom, Leary necessarily exposes the development of language and its subordination to mystification. Leary joins the illustrious company of George Orwell, Dr. Thomas Szasz, and Murray Rothbard in the cleanup of language pollution. Leary notes, as they did and others too, how language is subverted into an instrument of domination. His particular concern is removing the cultural debris which has encrusted some of the language of the personal computer revolution. He contends that this language is inappropriate, inaccurate and anti-historical.

"The term cybernetics comes from The Greek word kubernetes, 'pilot.' . . . The Greek word kubernetes, when translated to Latin, comes out as gubernetes. This basic verb gubernare means to control The actions or behavior, to direct, to exercise sovereign authority, to regulate, to keep under to restrain, to steer. This Roman concept is obviously very different from The Hellenic notion of 'pilot. "

Leary asserts that Norbert Wiener, who coined the term "cybernetics," simultaneously perverted its meaning to bend it into a submissive, control concept. Then Leary tries to recapture the "cyber" concept from its masters.

Now we are liberating the term, teasing it free from serfdom to represent the autopoetic, self- directed principle of organization that arises in the universe in many systems of widely varying sizes, in people, societies, and atoms.

Therefore, Leary seeks to take back the "cyber" root and its many branches from the authoritarians, totalitarians, statists, and collectivists. As he reminds us that "cyber" means "pilot," he enriches us with these new terms and definitions:

A "cyberperson" is one who pilots his/her own life. By definition, the cyberperson is fascinated by navigational information especially maps, charts, labels, guides, manuals that help pilot one through life. The cyberperson continually searches for theories, models, paradigms, metaphors, images, icons that help chart and define the realities that we inhabit.

"Cybertech" refers to the tools, appliances, and methodologies of knowing and communicating. Linguistics. Philosophy. Semantics. Semiotics. Practical epistemologies. The ontologies of daily life. Words, icons, pencils, printing presses, screens, keyboards, computers, disks.

"Cyberpolitics" introduces the Foucault notions of the use of language and linguistics by the ruling classes in feudal and industrial societies to control children, the uneducated, and the under classes. The words "governor" or "steersman" or "G-man" are used to describe those who manipulate words and communications devices in order to control, to bolster authority—feudal, management, government—and to discourage innovative thought and free exchange.

Leary not only uses the word "free exchange," which is to say trade, but integrates it into his thinking. This might surprise the narrow-minded who thought his championship of drug and sexual freedom made him a left-winger in the sixties. He perceives the spurt of entrepreneurial ventures in Silicon Valley and elsewhere not as a sellout of the Sixties or a rejection of the Sixties, but as an outgrowth and culmination of the spirit of the Sixties.

what do self-respecting, intelligent, ambitious young Americans do ? They perform. They master a craft. They learn to excel in a personal skill. They become entrepreneurs, i.e., people who organize, operate, and assume risks. They employ themselves, they train themselves, they promote themselves, they transfer themselves, they reward themselves.

Chaos & Cyberculture combines essays and interviews with William Gibson, William Burroughs, and Winona Ryder which span some years, giving it a sometimes disjointed feel. Nonetheless, Leary turns us on with the spark plug of his opinions. He has a tendency to make sweeping generalizations, but this does make for readable and memorable writing. He challenges us as he did in the Sixties. "The primary function of a free society in the postdemocratic age is the protection of individual freedom from politicians who attempt to limit personal freedom."

Chaos & Cyberculture pilots us through the past, present and future of individual freedom and cyberculture.

Chaos & Cyberculture by Timothy Leary. Ronin Publishing, Berkeley, CA. 202 pp. ISBN# 0914171771.