User:Menno Harder/CtoC

From Counterculture to Cyberculture // Taking the Whole Earth Digital *Fred Turner*
In 1995 Stewart Brand wrote an article in a special issue of Time magazine entitled "Welcome to Cyberspace"
According to this article, the PC revolution and Internet had grown directly out of the counterculture.
In the article it was argued that the real legacy of the sixties generation was this computer revolution. According to Brand, Bay area computer programmers shared ideals with the counterculture: decentralisation and personalisation. With these idea's a new kind of machine was built. Late 60's and early 70s computer had mostly been mainframes, locked away by instances, guarded by technicians. But, by early 80s computers had become tools for the individual. They were machines ready to use for improving your own life. The 1970's were the decade of the personal computers, and the Bay area programmers did play a big part in this. Especially the 1984 Apple Macintosh was specifically marketed as a machine for personal use.

The technical developments that improved the efficiency and power of a computer in the 50s, resulting in much smaller computer for example did not necessary made computing more personal. Before early 1970s small computers used for individuals would mini- micro- or desktop computers. The notion that computers could empower individuals and transform their social world had to be linked to the machines themselves. Thierry Bardini suggested that since the 40s computers and their users have progressively become more individualised.Paul Ceruzzi claims that the personal computer started when the public could get direct access to computers. Others argue that it came forth out of a countercultural group of hobbyists, completely outside the computer industry but having their own ideas and values about what computer should be or become.