Turner details how current `cyber culture', manifested in large tech companies, grew out of the counterculture of the 60s. He explains that they shunned much of the military-industrial complex, while embracing the information and systems theory, along with the multidisciplinary and collaborative approach. Turner believes information technologies were embraced for their potential to achieve personal and collective salvation - to finally deliver upon the dreams that led to the 60s back-to-the-land movement - by building new communities.

An excellent academic book. Well researched, structured, and densely packed with useful information. It was a slow read without knowing much of the background, but the content is still accessible for the casually curious.

read for class; this was....intense to say the least

A Little to academically dry for my tastes, but an interesting book nonetheless. It basically argues that the counterculture ethos of the the 1960's had a profound affect on the libertarian formation of what has come to be called cyberspace. Told in a historical manner with a careful agenda, it is often makes for a fascinating read. But unfortunately, it also gets so caught up in its own brilliance that one gets so frustrated they want to throw the book across the room. Recommended mostly for modern history buffs.....

totally didn't finish this book way after i was supposed to ❤️

Crazy how much I learned about how intertwined the histories of counterculture and the American political right are

Did you know that Brand was the camera guy for Englebart’s mother of all demos? Or that he was the Rolling Stone reporter who loitered around Xerox PARC documenting the slacker / hacker vibe? Or that he was a central figure in Hacker conference, the WELL social network, the back-to-the-land movement, the Merry Pranksters, the Whole Earth Catalog, the Long Now Foundation, and the MIT Media Lab… Or that his former hippie friends pivoted to start Wired Magazine and embrace neoliberalism, falling in with Newt Gingrich et al. It’s all connected, man.

Almost five years ago, I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars. Today, I can't remember anything in particular that made the book stand out. Read once and recycle.

Extremely interesting to read a book--very good in its own terms--that was written by an informed historian at a time when it made sense to contemplate the possibility that the new digital technologies would lead us to a Utopian world of human connection that subverted capitalist modes of domination. Not quite.

For me, though, the center of the book is the first half or so that explores the counterculture's combination of pastoral utopianism (think communes--especially those like New Buffalo outside Taos and Drop City near Trinidad, Colorado) and an embrace of technologies with their roots in the Cold War military-industrial complex. Turner has researched the field thoroughly and he makes effective use of Peter Gallison's notion of "contact zones" as sites of multidisciplinary interchange to describe the way Stewart Brand adapted Norbert Weiner, Buckminister Fuller and Marshall McLuhan as he was assembling the Whole Earth Catalog.

I've just recently read through the related literature and its one of the strongest subfields of Sixties studies. It doesn't matter whether you read this or Counterculture Green first, but together they make an absolutely convincing case for the Whole Earth Catalog as one of the most important, if slightly misunderstood, aspects of the Sixties.

On peine à arriver au bout, et c'est dense mais c'est LE livre de référence pour plonger dans les méandres de la contre culture et comprendre comment la cyberculture de la Silicon Valley est née. Pour lecteur qui cherche une bible riche en anecdotes !

Very well researched with a strong thesis (esp about the Comprehensive Designer and theories of technocracy) and some amazing factoids (Newt Gingrich??). The first few chapters are great but it will inevitably get boring unless you are obsessed with rhetorical structures, trading zones, boundary objects, and networks. So not really for a popular audience. Also reminded me of how awkward academic writing can be.