timothy-leary-chaos-cyber-culture

Digital communication the(i.e., kicks from fucking over everyone, especiallyof "if-if-if-if . . . THEN!" algorithms.the glamourous talent When and if theentertamers became superstars, they, naturally,got off their knees, wiped off theirmouths, and proceeded to take exquisiterevenge on the sleazy producers, the grubbyheads, the rodent-Uke agencyexecutives, the greedy managers, and theoperation of the universe) involves massivearrays of these info-units, trillions of informationpixels flashing to create themomentary hardware reahty of one singlemolecule.The Newtonian energy-matterequations of the industrial age (the 19thassorted lawyer thieves with briefcases and Century) defined a local-mechanical reahtyfax machines who had formerly abused us. m which much bigger and more was very"There's no business like showbusiness!" As they were fond of saying.much better. You remember the catchphrasesheavy-metalDinosaur Marching Song? Force.INDIVIDUALS LEARN HOW TOCHANCE THE SCREENSThese ancient rituals, whichendured through the tribal, feudal, industrialages, amazingly enough, began tochange dramatically in the last few years!Just before yesterday, around 1984, a combinationof American creativity andJapanese precision suddenly mass-producedinexpensive, do-it-yourselfhomeappliances for individuals to electronily,digitize, and transmit personal realities.Momentum. Mass. Energy. Work. Power.Thermodynamics.In the information age we are comingpackaging digital data,much smaller is very much better.The basic principlein light-speedcommunication is that so much more informationispacked mto so much smallerhardware units. For example, the 2-poundhuman brain is a digital organic computerprocesses a hundred miUion timesmore information (r.p.m.) than the 200-Digital communication translates pound body.the recording of any sound or photographThe almost invisible DNA codeof any image into clusters of quanta orfuzzy clouds of ofl/on information. Anyimage digitized by an individual humancan then be flashed on telephone linesaround the world inexpensivelyat lightspeed.keeps programming and constructingimproved organic computing appUances,i.e., generation after generation of betterand more portable brains. A billion-yearoldDNA megaprogram of invisible molecularsize is much smarter than the shudderinglyBIGGER IS APPARENTLYfragile, here-and-now brain!And infinitely smaller. People areNO LONGER BETTERThe basic elements of the youniverse,according to quantum-digitalphysics, can be understood as consisting ofquanta of information, bits of compresseddigital programs. These elements of pure(0/1) information contain incrediblyalgorithms to program potentiallearning to deal with enormous stacks ofdigital-electronic information presented atlight speeds. Telephone. Radio. Television.Computers. Compactdiscs. At home. Intheir "head" quarters.Electronic infopulled down from the sky and poured out ofthe portable stereophonic ghetto-blasterperched on shoulder, jacked into ear-ballssequences for fifteen biUion years and still as the body dances along the avenue. Thisrunning. These information-jammed unitshave only one hardware-external function.they do is flash ofl/on when the immediateenvironment triggers a complex array"addiction" to electronic information hasdrastically expanded the reception scopeand lessened the tar-pit attention span ofthe 19th Century.THE CYBERNETIC BRAIN EXPECTSMORE DATA IN MUCH LESS TIMEPI Folks in the mechanical age may betea and read-H ing the London T^mes for twoLlJ content to sit drinkinghours. But energetic smart people navigatinga postindustrial brain move through anocean of information, surfing data wavesbreaking at light speed and stereophonicCD (the current brand name here isHypermediaor CD-Icompact disc-interactive).This appetitefor digital data, moreand faster, can now be recognized as aspecies need. The bram needs electronsand psychoactive chemicals Uke the bodyneeds oxygen. Just as body nutritionists listour daily requirements for vitamins, so willour brain-psybemeticians soon be Ustingour daily reqiurements for various classesof digital information.By the year 2000, pure informationwill be cheaper than water and electricity.The average American home will beequipped to access triUions of bits of informationper minute. The credit-card-sizeinterpersonal computer will be able toscoop up any page ftx)m the Library ofCongress, sift through the entire filmlibrary of MOM, sort throughall theepisodes of "1 Love Lucy," and slice out (if itpleases you) paragraphs from the origmalAramaic Bible.On a typical Saturday way back in1990, Los Angeles residents with a competitiveitch could exercise the option to flickon seven major-league baseball games,nine college football contests, the Olympicgames, two horse-racing fracks, etc.By the year 2000, the poorest kid mthe inner city will have a thumbnail-sizechip (costing a dollar) with the storage andprocessing power of a billion transistors.He/she will also have an optic-fiberwallsocket that will input a million times moresignals than the current television setInexpensive virtual-reality suits and goggleswill allow this youngster to interactvrith people all over the world in any envi-14 TIMOTHY lEAlY CHAOS I CYBEI CUtTUIE