#californianideology

[everythingmedia]

Californian Ideology

Imagine the current world without the invention internet. 

The internet has developed into what was first used for the military as a product of the Cold War to now as a tool that can decentralize power and spread democracy globally. We can use the example of what is happening in Myanmar, with military Generals shutting down the internet for millions of its citizens. The internet has become a powerful tool to spread the truth and even educate others. For the corrupt, the internet is a threat.

The Californian Ideology was a pivotal moment that transformed the ways in which we use the internet today. An ideology is a set of beliefs and values. Ideology can impact the way we see certain issues and can also have negative connotations. 

In Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron’s The Californian Ideology in The Internet Revolution: From Dot-com Capitalism to Cybernetic Communism, there are two key players that promote this ideology; the hippies and the yippies. The hippies are what we know today as a free spirited, weed smoking, open-minded society, while the yippies are the men in black ties (white-collar). As different as these two groups were, they shared a common interest—freedom. Barbrook and Cameron use the term ‘Jefferson democracy’ meaning that it should be a right to express yourself freely on the cyberspace. Through casual dress, openness about sexuality, loud music and drugs—the hippies refused to conform to societal expectations that had been imposed. They believed that through the convergence of media, computing, and telecommunications- eventually an electronic agora would be created. This is a place where people are able to freely express themselves and their beliefs/ideas without the fear of censorship. 

The Californian Ideology is reflected in the methods of market economics and the freedoms of hippie artisanship through the possibility of technological determinism. This is the assumption that technology solely creates and shapes society-not the other way around. We see technology as a god-made independent object. 

The hippies and the yippies both believed and knew that the internet was going to change the world. Like mentioned before, the hippies wanted freedom of expression, whereas the yippies wanted freedom of the market. 

[modernismism]

179. The Numbers 1.2.1 #safety #math #mathletic #bukowski #speakingincode #server #voodooeconomics #speedwagon #fivefingerdeathpunch #cosmos #time #privacy #data #allwatchedover #dreams #projectmayhem #ideology #randomism #modernism #machinesoflovinggrace #ancientofdays #Californianideology #spectre #bigdata #today #wifi #change