The intertextual presence of cyberpunk in cultural and subcultural accounts of science and technology
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Terranova, Tiziana. 1996. The intertextual presence of cyberpunk in cultural and subcultural accounts of science and technology. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
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Text (The intertextual presence of cyberpunk in cultural and subcultural accounts of science and technology)
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Abstract or Description
This thesis looks at the relationship between cyberpunk science fiction and those sections of cyberculture most interested in the computer networks. This relationship is investigated in order to understand the nature of a recent cultural formation developed around the use of computer-mediated communications (CMC).
By means of a textual analysis of pamphlets, books, articles, and electronic discussion groups, the thesis establishes the existence of an articulate cultural consensus among groups/theorists/practitioners involved in the politics of CMC. This consensus reveals a consistent opposition between the technology of industrialisation, which is characterised by uniformity and hierarchy, and a new technology defined in terms of diversity, and autonomy.
The thesis argues that the political discourse of cyberculture is structured by an opposition between 'good' and 'bad' uses of technology. CMC can be used to establish a regime of decentralised surveillance or to promote a more democratic political participation. In the narratives elaborated by cyberculture, the technology of CMC is represented as being intrinsically democratic. Cyberculture also suggests that advanced technological skills can be used to counteract the most repressive uses of technology and to foster its more intrinsic progressive possibilities.
These narratives are explored through the statements expressed by a series of groups, who are particularly active in relation to technology. The thesis investigates the ways in which Internet communities responded to the first laws which aimed to regulate the Internet. These were proposed by the Clinton administration in the US. The 'posthuman philosophy', a current of thought which believes in evolving humans into posthumans by using advanced technology, is also analysed in the accounts, offered by the Extropy group and the magazine Mondo 2000. The notion that the technology of CMC is inherently self-regulating and democratic is criticised in relation to 'cyberevolutionism', a popular discourse which sees the Internet as a self-regulating organism. Finally, the thesis argues that gender is the subject of much controversy in Internet culture.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Identification Number (DOI): |
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| Keywords: |
cyberpunk, science fiction, computer-mediated communications, industrialization, posthuman philosophy |
| Departments, Centres and Research Units: |
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| Date: |
1996 |
| Item ID: |
33857 |
| Date Deposited: |
26 Jul 2023 14:20 |
| Last Modified: |
08 Aug 2023 15:21 |
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URI: |
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