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diff --git a/timeforms.otx b/timeforms.otx index 7d6fd70..7e5328e 100644 --- a/timeforms.otx +++ b/timeforms.otx @@ -638,685 +638,134 @@ For it is one thing to trip in a mixed media environment that blasts away outmod The urgency of attaining a post-cultural era is not lost on the young, who know, perhaps better than those well socialized in the forties, that \e{if} we are to survive the seventies, we must immediately begin to devise radically new methods and strategies. It is an instance of bitter irony that we call those engaged in that adventure "alienated youth." THE COMING SYNTHESIS: CHRONETICS AND CYBERNATION -(The Architecture of Social Time) +\chap {\caps\rm The Coming Synthesis: Chronetics and Cybernation} (The Architecture of Social Time) +\sec Prologue -PROLOGUE - -Rearviewing the decade of the sixties, we can now estimate that -technology has wrought more rapid social change in the last ten years -than in the past ten millenia. This makes it imperative, yet more -difficult, to forecast the seventies. Certain broad parameters seem -partially visible, which support the view that radicals (i.e., those who -go to the roots) will devote their considerable energies and talents in -certain directions, among which is the elevation of control over rates -of social change to first priority. Why this forecast seems likely, and -what the radicals' efforts will probably be, are the principal topics of -this chapter. - - -INTRODUCTION - -Waves of awareness seem to occur in societies in a way very -similar to waves made by a pebble in a pool, although, in our time, -the pace of social change calls for a much more turbulent 'metaphor, -perhaps a river rushing angrily through its rapids. Recourse to such a -metaphor would help. us to describe why there are still persistent -efforts to label those who enjoy the psychedelic experience as social -deviants who lack respect for law and order, notwithstanding the -spreading wave of awareness on the part of many investigators that -the psychedelic revolution and the cybernetic revolution are as -inextricably related as feedback is to information. ! +Rearviewing the decade of the sixties, we can now estimate that technology has wrought more rapid social change in the last ten years than in the past ten millenia. This makes it imperative, yet more difficult, to forecast the seventies. Certain broad parameters seem partially visible, which support the view that radicals (i.e., those who go to the roots) will devote their considerable energies and talents in certain directions, among which is the elevation of control over rates of social change to first priority. Why this forecast seems likely, and what the radicals' efforts will probably be, are the principal topics of this chapter. +\sec Introduction -Nevertheless, the very pace of the wavefronts which help us to -understand the relation between the age of computers and the age of -acid requires us to attempt some sort of predictive navigation, lest +Waves of awareness seem to occur in societies in a way very similar to waves made by a pebble in a pool, although, in our time, the pace of social change calls for a much more turbulent 'metaphor, perhaps a river rushing angrily through its rapids. Recourse to such a metaphor would help. us to describe why there are still persistent efforts to label those who enjoy the psychedelic experience as social deviants who lack respect for law and order, notwithstanding the spreading wave of awareness on the part of many investigators that the psychedelic revolution and the cybernetic revolution are as inextricably related as feedback is to information.\bknote{1} +Nevertheless, the very pace of the wavefronts which help us to understand the relation between the age of computers and the age of acid requires us to attempt some sort of predictive navigation, lest that feeling of racing blindfolded along the river of change quickly becomes a helpless panic. Those "scientific" forms of inquiry and scholarship which the young rightly denounce as rearview mirroring are no longer sufficient, (if they ever were). In order not to crash we must attempt prophecy, for it is rapidly becoming a truism that the hurtling pace of social change is accelerating. Even if hindsight permits us to conclude that the technology of information expansion gave rise inevitably to the politics of consciousness expansion, it is time now to inquire, "What does the future look like to radicals of the post-psychedelic generation?" +Two sources of "data" relevant to this inquiry are 1) scientific- technological forecasts and 2) social-cultural innovations. Locating these data in the context of a theory of social change? may enable us to see, in the most general terms, a little of what may be in store for us, assuming we shall survive until the 21\tss{st} century. +\sec The Politics of Negation -that feeling of racing blindfolded along the river of change quickly -becomes a helpless panic. Those "scientific" forms of inquiry and -scholarship which the young rightly denounce as rearview mirroring -are no longer sufficient, (if they ever were). In order not to crash we -must attempt prophecy, for it is rapidly becoming a truism that the -hurtling pace of social change is accelerating. Even if hindsight -permits us to conclude that the technology of information expansion -gave rise inevitably to the politics of consciousness expansion, it is -time now to inquire, "What does the future look like to radicals of -the post-psychedelic generation?" +Why does it seem like such a long time since the hippies first offered their flowers to our surprised faces, proclaiming the birth of a new culture embracing peace, love, and play, in opposition to our war, fear, and work ethos? The answer seems simple --- so much, so much has happened since 1960. Vietnam has grown from a nightmare into a chronic international psychosis. A few tribal communes have mushroomed into thousands, scattered all over the planet. Black power emerged, universities became policed enclaves. Yippies and Chicago. At "Woodstock", a half-million longhairs came together, turned on, and grooved on their music, with lower rates of "social pathology" than the society at large. Man has extended "his" ecosphere to include the moon, Nixon became president. +Once, Whitehead could write that there had been more change in the first 50 years of the 20th century than there had been in the 50 prior centuries.\bknote{3} Now, reviewing the decade of the sixties, we can say that there has been more social change in the last decade than there was in the previous five, notwithstanding the rapid invention and diffusion of automobiles, airplanes, radios, television sets, telephones, and jet planes, each forever altering the communication basis of social structure. All this \e{before} computers. -Two sources of "data" relevant to this inquiry are 1) scientific- -technological forecasts and 2) social-cultural innovations. Locating -these data in the context of a theory of social change? may enable us -to see, in the most general terms, a little of what may be in store for -us, assuming we shall survive until the 21st century. - +I have elsewhere described how the computer should be seen as a phoenix rising from the ashes of the industrial revolution, whose death knell it sounded. -THE POLITICS OF NEGATION - -Why does it seem like such a long time since the hippies first -offered their flowers to our surprised faces, proclaiming the birth of -a new culture embracing peace, love, and play, in opposition to our -war, fear, and work ethos? The answer seems simple --- so much, so -much has happened since 1960. Vietnam has grown from a -nightmare into a chronic international psychosis. A few tribal -communes have mushroomed into thousands, scattered all over the -planet. Black power emerged, universities became policed enclaves. -Yippies and Chicago. At "Woodstock", a half-million longhairs came -together, turned on, and grooved on their music, with lower rates of -"social pathology" than the society at large. Man has extended "his" -ecosphere to include the moon, Nixon became president. +\Q{Just as the second (automated) industrial revolution generalized the first by dealing with the informational exponents of energy-processing rather than simply with energy constellations (mechanical objects) one at a time, so the second (psychedelic) chemical revolution generalized the first (narcotic) one by dealing with the temporal exponents of getting high rather than simply getting drunk time after time.\bknote{4}} +My attempt there was to show that an age whose technology processes billions of bits of information per second creates the need for corresponding expansion of human consciousness in order to experience that age, and that LSD was seized upon by the young as the facilitating agent of that necessary expansion. In short, "acid" did for consciousness what computers did for technology.\bknote{5} It spread like a wave through the children of the middle class made affluent by that technology. The turned-on generation promptly focused its expanded awareness on the values of its predecessor generation, and, finding them dangerously anachronistic, proclaimed the dawn of a new political age with new political values. -Once, Whitehead could write that there had been more change -in the first 50 years of the 20th century than there had been in the -50 prior centuries.* Now, reviewing the decade of the sixties, we can -say that there has been more social change in the last decade than +Thus was born the politics of negation, which, like every negation, came directly from the loins of its parent culture. Just as the industrial worker found his prior serfdom suffocating, so the children of cybernation found the industrial liberalism of their parents untenable. +Parents were at a loss to understand the phenomenon behavioral scientists called "the generation gap". Why did the young want so much sex so quickly and so extrafamilially? Was the family all that bad? Why were so many dropping out of school, notwithstanding counter-pressures from the draft? Did not the young want an education? Was leisurely life on the campus so intolerable? Was it preferable to living in filth-strewn poverty? Did the young actually believe that-rural communes could replace urbanism as a way of life? Did they believe that film and videotape could become alternatives to mass media? Sure, parents said, there are flaws in the institutions of our culture, but wasn't working to change them better than trying to build a counterculture?\bknote{6} And what was all this talk about Mao, and Che --- were the kids communists, fer Chrisake? Weren't they afraid of chromosome damage from LSD, and doesn't pot lead to heroin addiction? (Chorus: "What is the younger generation coming to?") +The children of cybernation treated these inquiries as double binds, commanding on one hand, conformity to (parents' views of) current society, and demanding, on the other, a rigid adherence to social norms long outmoded. They knew their culture was far beyond such quaint institutions as thermonuclear war, a dollar fifty minimum wage, and briefcase bureaucracy. They were not interested in patching up brutal institutions --- they wanted to replace them, and not just them, but the whole tissue of their interconnection, which we call culture. Hence their fondness for visionaries who imagine another \e{kind} of life, not just repairs to the old one. +It was therefore not a sufficient diagnosis to say that the young were "alienated", i.e., that they could not share in the benefits of our society because their work was inequitably rewarded.\bknote{7} Their work could not be rewarded in the old culture, for their work, during the sixties, was the negation of that culture, not one institution at a time, but the whole of it, from its economy to its sciences, from its drugs to its nightclubs. Negation was the watchword,\bknote{8} by which they meant living in \e{deliberate} alienation from the principal institutions of society, quietly, painfully, being "cool", exploring their "heads," "doing their own things" while avoiding parents, police, and the draft. Like explorers on a new continent, the trick was to avoid the hostile natives while building a community of their own. Better still, find out why the natives are so hostile, and turn 'em on to peace, love, and play. -there was in the previous five, notwithstanding the rapid invention -and diffusion of automobiles, airplanes, radios, television sets, -telephones, and jet planes, each forever altering the communication -basis of social structure. All this before computers. +To appreciate the magnitude of this undertaking, imagine yourself to be a 19 year old, fully aware of the power of the military, of industry, of government, of the media, and of their attitudes to your long hair and freaky clothes, and then say to yourself --- we'll change all that, because it's violent, inhuman, and very likely to bring the entire species of man to a whimpering radioactive germ-infested end. Imagine trying to create an alternative \e{planetary} culture for the human species because you know that nothing less will help it survive. If those were your aims, where would you look for resources. +\sec Beyond the Politics of Negation -I have elsewhere described how the computer should be seen as -a phoenix rising from the ashes of the industrial revolution, whose -death knell it sounded. +The first resource of the young is their youth, which, in our time, means that they are incredibly sensitive to the changes occurring around them. While it may seem at first paradoxical, a moment's reflection reveals that it is in fact this very same sensitivity to our potentially catastrophic ecology that reveals to them its potentially beneficial resources. Actually, this is the perennial role of the critic, whose awareness of how good it might be enables him to denounce how bad it really is. +Critical youth of the seventies will therefore not be more content than their predecessors of the sixties with information doled out to them by universities, media, government, etc. The reverse is probably closer to the mark. Nor will those few "counter-institutions" they have founded, e.g., underground newspapers, film, music, be able to handle the job of informing the more than 120 million people under 25 who will populate the U.S. seventies, even if a thousand more newspapers, films, and records were to find their way into the sun. For these are only negative institutions, known to be temporary, doing the job till replacements can be fashioned. -Just as the second (automated) industrial revolution -generalized the first by dealing with the informational -exponents of energy-processing rather than simply with -energy constellations (mechanical objects) one at a time, -so the second (psychedelic) chemical revolution generalized the first (narcotic) one by dealing with the temporal -exponents of getting high rather than simply getting drunk -time after time. +There are several technological resources which participant observation reveals to be under active consideration by the young. Note that they require incredibly high levels of sophistication just to understand their \e{potential} usefulness, let alone their mastery. The young people of the seventies who are now building these devices will deserve more than ever before the term radical, since that word, as everyone knows, means, "one who goes to the roots". +\begitems\style n +* \e{Videotape and Cable TV}: The fact that there are more tv sets in the world than there are bath tubs serves as a testament to the enforced passivity of the generation which owns them, for there is no way for the tv viewer to relate actively to the medium except to turn it on and off. By and large, radical youth now regard mass tv as sop unworthy of them, and even more of them will continue to do so until it stops pushing consumer values at them. They are not into "conspicuous consumption" and their own art is vastly superior. -My attempt there was to show that an age whose technology -processes billions of bits of information per second creates the need -for corresponding expansion of human consciousness in order to -experience that age, and that LSD was seized upon by the young as -the facilitating agent of that necessary expansion. In short, "acid" -did for consciousness what computers did for technology.* It spread -like a wave through the children of the middle class made affluent by -that technology. The turned-on generation promptly focused its -expanded awareness on the values of its predecessor generation, and, -finding them dangerously anachronistic, proclaimed the dawn of a -new political age with new political values. +But video \e{tape} is video feedback, which provides the enthusiast the chance to do, indeed, to be, his own program, not simply in the living room, but in the classroom,\bknote{9} in the community, even in therapy. Have you seen yourself on videotape? Have you watched a group of young black kindergarten kids doing so? Or observed a dance class, or a theatre group, or a family therapy session make systematic use of this instant playback process to probe into where they are really at? To enjoy themselves? To make joy for others? Young radicals have been familiar with these experiences for some years now, and will press for their increasing "political" utility. Beyond the emotional liberations this medium can deliver, note that "they" --- e.g., universities, tv networks, government --- will be unable to subject the young so equipped to their customary editorial policies. Community news shows become possible, decentralizing the cybernetic forms of control that now program them. Conservative estimates tally 5 million vt sets now privately owned.\bknote{10} If it doubles every year, as tv did, we shall Have 160 million vt sets in private hands in 5 years, many of them in radical hands. +But this is only half the news, since there is every likelihood that we shall interconnect our videotape systems by cable just as we currently interconnect our telephones, opening the door to such fascinating possibilities as direct (vs. representative) democracy on every level, from neighborhood to nation. Jefferson's dream of a fully informed electorate voting on everything could come true, if this drastically de-stratifying technology were not already perceived as the drastic threat it is to the existing power structures. Imagine a government without secrets, or a bureaucracy without specialization (ie., special access), or a society where information is not power for some, but for all. I am not suggesting that such a society will come about in the 70's, but I assure you attempts in that direction already occupy a good deal of radical attention. -Thus was born the politics of negation, which, like every -negation, came directly from the loins of its parent culture. Just as -the industrial worker found his prior serfdom suffocating, so the -children of cybernation found the industrial liberalism of their -parents untenable. +I will not frighten you by suggesting that some combination of videotape, cable tv, and some kind of post-LSD chemical will make a bid to replace the present educational dungeons we call schools and universities. Electronic art, now in its- infancy, will have matured beyond the point where a few millionaires can hoard the 10,000 most precious paintings on the planet. When we have the technology to fold feedback upon feedback upon feedback, we shall loose a revolution in consciousness several layers deeper, higher, wider, than we can presently imagine without exhausting the \e{present} technological capabilities of videotape and cable. We are doing such experiments at the Center for the Study of Social Change.\bknote{11} Who knows what lies beyond. Do radicals? +* \e{Lasers and Holographs:} Once, in a moment of mirth, Tim Leary suggested that the way out of our present predicament was to put all the metal back underground. Perhaps that is impossible, but the least of the laser's potentials lies in its ability to do without wires, for, as you may know, a laser is a beam of polarized light whose special properties enable it to carry energy and information far more effectively than wires ever could. +Recent laser applications include drilling holes only 1 micron wide and 1 micron apart on special tapes, such that 10,000,000 bits of information can be stored on a piece of tape one inch square.\bknote{12} This makes it possible to put the entire Library of Congress (the world's largest) on 5 drums of tape which can be scanned by a computer in millionths of a second. Alternatively, one could carry a 500 volume library on a piece of paper no larger than a dollar bill, or enable the creation of such gadgets as wrist tv phones, or portable computers no larger than a shoe box doing whatever cooking, cleaning, and communicating Mrs. Housewife used to do while wholly automating Dad's entire factory. +It's going to be very difficult to pose as an expert (i.e., to have privileged access to information) on anything in such a world. Hence, it's going to be very difficult to make rules based on special privilege. This does not make radicals unhappy. -Parents were at a loss to understand the phenomenon behavioral -scientists called "the generation gap". Why did the young want so -much sex so quickly and so extrafamilially? Was the family all that -bad? Why were so many dropping out of school, notwithstanding -counter-pressures from the draft? Did not the young want an -education? Was leisurely life on the campus so intolerable? Was it -preferable to living in filth-strewn poverty? Did the young actually -believe that-rural communes could replace urbanism as a way of life? -Did they believe that film and videotape could become alternatives -to mass media? Sure, parents said, there are flaws in the institutions -of our culture, but wasn't working to change them better than trying -to build a counterculture?® And what was all this talk about Mao, -and Che --- were the kids communists, fer Chrisake? Weren't they -afraid of chromosome damage from LSD, and doesn't pot lead to -heroin addiction? (Chorus: "What is the younger generation coming -to?") - - -The children of cybernation treated these inquiries as double -binds, commanding on one hand, conformity to (parents' views of) -current society, and demanding, on the other, a rigid adherence to -social norms long outmoded. They knew their culture was far -beyond such quaint institutions as thermonuclear war, a dollar fifty -minimum wage, and briefcase bureaucracy. They were not interested -in patching up brutal institutions --- they wanted to replace them, -and not just them, but the whole tissue of their interconnection, -which we call culture. Hence their fondness for visionaries who -imagine another kind of life, not just repairs to the old one. +Another application of the laser will be the very widespread use of synchronous satellites (those which seem to stay in the same spot in the sky because they rotate with the earth) to replace telephone switchboards. Dial your friend in China on your wristphone and be in "instant" touch with him \e{and his culture.} International boundaries tend to dissolve under this kind of gentle prodding.\bknote{13} Perhaps international wars will have the same fate? Maybe not in the seventies, but please be assured that more and more radical energies will be devoted to using these technologies for the political values noted above. +A third major application of the laser is its use in making holographs, those weird plates of film which fix all the light impinging on them so that they are rather more like electric windows than snapshots, since by changing your angle of viewing you change the information you get. If the only use to which holographs were put was the transformation of 2-dimensional tv into "tri-d", that alone would be as significant an advance as tv over films, or film over radio. But such McCluhanesque advantages pale in the face of recent evidence that the nervous system of man seems to follow principles very similar to laser holography, such that information (memory, tradition, learning---call it what you will) seems to be stored in synapses like light captured on holographs, so that investigation of one leads to knowledge of the other.\bknote{14} -It was therefore not a sufficient diagnosis to say that the young -were "alienated", i.e., that they could not share in the benefits of -our society because their work was inequitably rewarded.' Their -work could not be rewarded in the old culture, for their work, during -the sixties, was the negation of that culture, not one institution at a -time, but the whole of it, from its economy to its sciences, from its -drugs to its nightclubs. Negation was the watchword,® by which they -meant living in deliberate alienation from the principal institutions of - - - - -society, quietly, painfully, being "cool", exploring their "heads," -"doing their own things" while avoiding parents, police, and the -draft. Like explorers on a new continent, the trick was to avoid the -hostile natives while building a community of their own. Better still, -find out why the natives are so hostile, and turn 'em on to peace, -love, and play. +In other words, this technical breakthrough in physics turns out to be a conceptual breakthrough for neuropsychology. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of this finding since it opens the door to understanding how the nervous system coordinates not only our entire physiology, but also our transactions with the world of experience. It gives one the feeling that we have understood nothing before, that it all lies before us. Fine, say the radicals, while professionals moan and feel incompetent. +Yet, there is an application of laser physics which transcends even those described above. Recently, it was announced that physicists had focused a very powerful laser on a very few atoms of fusionable material, producing in effect a tiny, controlled thermonuclear explosion, like the one which powers the sun.\bknote{15} If this fact fails to tax your imagination, recall that work requires energy, that controlled thermonuclear fusion can become an extremely cheap source of unlimited energy, with which man can power enough production to eliminate scarcity for all of the future. This means enough food for everyone, and enough energy to send a thousand rockets to the moon, Mars, and beyond so there will be room for those so fed, not to mention the permanent replacement of enforced muscle labor by fusion-powered machines. I pass over the side benefit of planet-wide ecological health in the form of \e{no} chemical pollution of the atmosphere, although I hope that happens before the 15 years ecologists say we have before evolution on planet earth dies of it. In short, controlled thermonuclear fusion would mean placing at the disposal of man energies comparable to those of the sun, which Kepler, you may recall, believed was God, because it powered earth's revolution. -To appreciate the magnitude of this undertaking, imagine -yourself to be a 19 year old, fully aware of the power of the military, -of industry, of government, of the media, and of their attitudes to -your long hair and freaky clothes, and then say to yourself --- we'll -change all that, because it's violent, inhuman, and very likely to bring -the entire species of man to a whimpering radioactive germ-infested -end. Imagine trying to create an alternative planetary culture for the -human species because you know that nothing less will help it -survive. If those were your aims, where would you look for -resources. - - -BEYOND THE POLITICS OF NEGATION - -The first resource of the young is their youth, which, in our -time, means that they are incredibly sensitive to the changes -occurring around them. While it may seem at first paradoxical, a -moment's reflection reveals that it is in fact this very same sensitivity -to our potentially catastrophic ecology that reveals to them its -potentially beneficial resources. Actually, this is the perennial role of -the critic, whose awareness of how good it might be enables him to -denounce how bad it really is. - - -Critical youth of the seventies will therefore not be more -content than their predecessors of the sixties with information doled -out to them by universities, media, government, etc. The reverse is -probably closer to the mark. Nor will those few "counter-institutions" they have founded, e.g., underground newspapers, film, music, -be able to handle the job of informing the more than 120 million -people under 25 who will populate the U.S. seventies, even if a -thousand more newspapers, films, and records were to find their way - - - - -into the sun. For these are only negative institutions, known to be -temporary, doing the job till replacements can be fashioned. - - -There are several technological resources which participant -observation reveals to be under active consideration by the young. -Note that they require incredibly high levels of sophistication just to -understand their potential usefulness, let alone their mastery. The -young people of the seventies who are now building these devices -will deserve more than ever before the term radical, since that word, -as everyone knows, means, "one who goes to the roots". - - -1. Videotape and Cable tv: The fact that there are more tv sets -in the world than there are bath tubs serves as a testament to the -enforced passivity of the generation which owns them, for there is no -way for the tv viewer to relate actively to the medium except to -turn it on and off. By and large, radical youth now regard mass tv as -sop unworthy of them, and even more of them will continue to do so -until it stops pushing consumer values at them. They are not into -"conspicuous consumption" and their own art is vastly superior. - - -But video tape is video feedback, which provides the enthusiast -the chance to do, indeed, to be, his own program, not simply in the -living room, but in the classroom,® in the community, even in -therapy. Have you seen yourself on videotape? Have you watched a -group of young black kindergarten kids doing so? Or observed a -dance class, or a theatre group, or a family therapy session make -systematic use of this instant playback process to probe into where -they are really at? To enjoy themselves? To make joy for others? -Young radicals have been familiar with these experiences for some -years now, and will press for their increasing "political" utility. -Beyond the emotional liberations this medium can deliver, note that -"they" --- e.g., universities, tv networks, government --- will be unable -to subject the young so equipped to their customary editorial -policies. Community news shows become possible, decentralizing the -cybernetic forms of control that now program them. Conservative -estimates tally 5 million vt sets now privately owned.!° If it doubles - - - - -every year, as tv did, we shall Have 160 million vt sets in private -hands in 5 years, many of them in radical hands. - - -But this is only half the news, since there is every likelihood -that we shall interconnect our videotape systems by cable just as we -currently interconnect our telephones, opening the door to such -fascinating possibilities as direct (vs. representative) democracy on -every level, from neighborhood to nation. Jefferson's dream of a -fully informed electorate voting on everything could come true, if -this drastically de-stratifying technology were not already perceived -as the drastic threat it is to the existing power structures. Imagine a -government without secrets, or a bureaucracy without specialization -(ie., special access), or a society where information is not power for -some, but for all. I am not suggesting that such a society will come -about in the 70's, but I assure you attempts in that direction already -occupy a good deal of radical attention. - - -I will not frighten you by suggesting that some combination of -videotape, cable tv, and some kind of post-LSD chemical will make a -bid to replace the present educational dungeons we call schools and -universities. Electronic art, now in its- infancy, will have matured -beyond the point where a few millionaires can hoard the 10,000 -most precious paintings on the planet. When we have the technology -to fold feedback upon feedback upon feedback, we shall loose a -revolution in consciousness several layers deeper, higher, wider, than -we can presently imagine without exhausting the present technological capabilities of videotape and cable. We are doing such experiments at the Center for the Study of Social Change.!! Who knows -what lies beyond. Do radicals? - - -2. Lasers and Holographs: Once, in a moment of mirth, Tim -Leary suggested that the way out of our present predicament was to -put all the metal back underground. Perhaps that is impossible, but -the least of the laser's potentials lies in its ability to do without -wires, for, as you may know, a laser is a beam of polarized light -whose special properties enable it to carry energy and information -far more effectively than wires ever could. - - - - -Recent laser applications include drilling holes only 1 micron -wide and 1 micron apart on special tapes, such that 10,000,000 -bits of information can be stored on a piece of tape one inch -square.!? This makes it possible to put the entire Library of -Congress (the world's largest) on 5 drums of tape which can be -scanned by a computer in millionths of a second. Alternatively, one -could carry a 500 volume library on a piece of paper no larger than a -dollar bill, or enable the creation of such gadgets as wrist tv phones, -or portable computers no larger than a shoe box doing whatever -cooking, cleaning, and communicating Mrs. Housewife used to do -while wholly automating Dad's entire factory. - - -It's going to be very difficult to pose as an expert (i.e., to have -privileged access to information) on anything in such a world. Hence, -it's going to be very difficult to make rules based on special privilege. -This does not make radicals unhappy. - - -Another application of the laser will be the very widespread use -of synchronous satellites (those which seem to stay in the same spot -in the sky because they rotate with the earth) to replace telephone -switchboards. Dial your friend in China on your wristphone and be -in "instant" touch with him and his culture. International boundaries -tend to. dissolve under this kind of gentle prodding.!3 Perhaps -international wars will have the same fate? Maybe not in the -seventies, but please be assured that more and more radical energies -will be devoted to using these technologies for the political values -noted above. - - -A third major application of the laser is its use in making -holographs, those weird plates of film which fix all the light -impinging on them so that they are rather more like electric windows -than snapshots, since by changing your angle of viewing you change -the information you get. If the only use to which holographs were -put was the transformation of 2-dimensional tv into "tri-d", that -alone would be as significant an advance as tv over films, or film over -radio. But such McCluhanesque advantages pale in the face of recent -evidence that the nervous system of man seems to follow principles - - - - -very similar to laser holography, such that information (memory, -tradition, learning---call it what you will) seems to be stored in -synapses like light captured on holographs, so that investigation of -one leads to knowledge of the other.' - - -In other words, this technical breakthrough in physics turns out -to be a conceptual breakthrough for neuropsychology. It is difficult -to overestimate the significance of this finding since it opens the -door to understanding how the nervous system coordinates not only -our entire physiology, but also our transactions with the world of -experience. It gives one the feeling that we have understood nothing -before, that it all lies before us. Fine, say the radicals, while -professionals moan and feel incompetent. - - -Yet, there is an application of laser physics which transcends -even those described above. Recently, it was announced that -physicists had focused a very powerful laser on a very few atoms of -fusionable material, producing in effect a tiny, controlled thermonuclear explosion, like the one which powers the sun.'* If this fact fails -to tax your imagination, recall that work requires energy, that -controlled thermonuclear fusion can become an extremely cheap -source of unlimited energy, with which man can power enough -production to eliminate scarcity for all of the future. This means -enough food for everyone, and enough energy to send a thousand -rockets to the moon, Mars, and beyond so there will be room for -those so fed, not to mention the permanent replacement of enforced -muscle labor by fusion-powered machines. I 'pass over the side -benefit of planet-wide ecological health in the form of xo chemical -pollution of the atmosphere, although I hope that happens before -the 15 years ecologists say we have before evolution on planet earth -dies of it. In short, controlled thermonuclear fusion would mean -placing at the disposal of man energies comparable to those of the -sun, which Kepler, you may recall, believed was God, because it -powered earth's revolution. - - -3. The Body: The body is becoming the most universally -accessible research facility because anyone well enough to do - - - - -research has one. Anyone with a few cheap biomonitoring devices -can wire up his autonomic nervous system to some inexpensive -readout indicators and set about conditioning his own autonomic -functions. Scientists at the National Institute of Child Health and -Development have in this way shaped heart rates and rhythms.'® -Many undergraduate students are currently building systems which -visually display brain wave rhythms as colors keyed to their -emotional preferences, to teach each other the language of each -others' autonomic-cerebral functions, with the aim of more direct -and intimate communication. The day may not be far away when -messages of this sort will dive to the hormonal deeps of our natures -so that a "word" of comfort may soon substitute for the cruder -"medications" we call tranquillizers, sedatives, barbiturates, stimulants, antidepressants, etc. We have come a long way from reading -out the biophysical correlates of selected clinical "interpretations"; -we will soon be building them to order. Control of brain waves, heart -beats, and other so-called "involuntary" functions will then become -quite "voluntary", so that a science of voluntary endocrinology does -not seem beyond our imminent grasp. And, if Darwin or Freud or -Reich or any of a dozen others were right, we may at last begin to -understand and hence heal our frightened orgasms. I assure you --- -radicals have been into this field for quite a while, not without -considerable guidance, by the way, from their newly found yoga -friends. Those unhappy with the term "ecstacy engineering" may -prefer the concept of affect 'enhancement'. You will find that the -terms don't matter when you speak autonomic. Many radicals +* \e{The Body:} The body is becoming the most universally accessible research facility because anyone well enough to do research has one. Anyone with a few cheap biomonitoring devices can wire up his autonomic nervous system to some inexpensive readout indicators and set about conditioning his own autonomic functions. Scientists at the National Institute of Child Health and Development have in this way shaped heart rates and rhythms.\bknote{16} Many undergraduate students are currently building systems which visually display brain wave rhythms as colors keyed to their emotional preferences, to teach each other the language of each others' autonomic-cerebral functions, with the aim of more direct and intimate communication. The day may not be far away when messages of this sort will dive to the hormonal deeps of our natures so that a "word" of comfort may soon substitute for the cruder "medications" we call tranquillizers, sedatives, barbiturates, stimulants, antidepressants, etc. We have come a long way from reading out the biophysical correlates of selected clinical "interpretations"; we will soon be building them to order. Control of brain waves, heart beats, and other so-called "involuntary" functions will then become quite "voluntary", so that a science of voluntary endocrinology does not seem beyond our imminent grasp. And, if Darwin or Freud or Reich or any of a dozen others were right, we may at last begin to understand and hence heal our frightened orgasms. I assure you --- radicals have been into this field for quite a while, not without considerable guidance, by the way, from their newly found yoga friends. Those unhappy with the term "ecstacy engineering" may prefer the concept of affect "enhancement". You will find that the terms don't matter when you speak autonomic. Many radicals already do. +* \e{Others:} One could go on with the list of roots radicals will investigate in their attempt to seize the reins of evolution. One could mention the world-ecology game currently being played by Buckminster Fuller in his attempt to plot the redistribution of all world resources, including air, intelligence, and synergy. One could describe how environmental ecologists are building furniture designed to interact with human processes;\bknote{17} or gravitronics, in which the very waves of gravity are studied with a view toward liberating man from their grasp; or tachyonics, in which theories of particles which \e{only} exist at faster than light velocities bid fair to generalize not only the bulk of all contemporary relativistic physics but all notions of before and after since, in such a world, a faster than light particle returns \e{before} it leaves. +\enditems -4, Others: One could go on with the list of roots radicals will -investigate in their attempt to seize the reins of evolution. One could -mention the world-ecology game currently being played by Buckminster Fuller in his attempt to plot the redistribution of all world -resources, including air, intelligence, and synergy. One could describe -how environmental ecologists are building furniture designed to -interact with human processes;!7 or gravitronics, in which the very -waves of gravity are studied with a view toward liberating man from -their grasp; or tachyonics, in which theories of particles which only - - - - -exist at faster than light velocities bid fair to generalize not only the -bulk of all contemporary relativistic physics but all notions of before -and after since, in such a world, a faster than light particle returns -before it leaves. - - -But such ventures are really beside the point of our present -inquiry, which is, what does the future look like to post-psychedelic -radicals. So far, we have merely recited a list of technological -potentialities which radicals will try to use in their "political" -attempts to build a new planetary culture. Is there any data which -indicate they'll succeed? That is, to betray my sympathies, are there -any grounds for hoping that radicals will succeed in their use of the -above technologies to guide social change in a desirable as opposed to -its presently suicidal direction? There are a few. - +But such ventures are really beside the point of our present inquiry, which is, what does the future look like to post-psychedelic radicals. So far, we have merely recited a list of technological potentialities which radicals will try to use in their "political" attempts to build a new planetary culture. Is there any data which indicate they'll succeed? That is, to betray my sympathies, are there any grounds for hoping that radicals will succeed in their use of the above technologies to guide social change in a desirable as opposed to its presently suicidal direction? There are a few. TOWARD AN ARCHITECTURE OF SOCIAL TIME -Beyond the obvious benefits of their youth, the children of -cybernation share certain other "chronetic"* advantages, among -which are their inability to swim well in the turgid waves of -capitalism but to frolic like surfers in the new media. Hence, even if -they only continue their present activities, we may predict with some -confidence that they will not adjust their technology to the so-called -free market, but to their new political values of peace, love, and play. -That is, they will continue to try to make technology serve them, -rather than serving it, as we do in consumer society. - - -But can they bring it off? Aren't they foolish trying to tame the -technological monster? When the New York Times asked Abbie -Hoffman on April first what he thought was foolish, he said, "A -hundred longhairs toppling the presidency --- that's foolish'. Similarly, when a prominent longhair got arrested recently on a -technicality, he 'got off'? when he threatened to call a tv press -conference announcing Yippie support for Mayor Lindsay. These -anecdotes serve to illustrate the contention that the children of -media power know how to use it. The principle is simple --- feedback. -Like those tiny Japanese wrestlers who turn an opponent's superior - - - - -strength against him, Yippies forced the media, by making news, to -broadcast counter-cultural commercials. - - -The same is true of underground film, psychedelic art, -miniskirts, and let's be honest, pot and acid, which a rapidly -increasing number of middle-class professionals are using with -increasing enjoyment, learning how from --- you guessed it --- their -longhaired children, or students, or patients. Now, as the number of -longhaired children increases, so does the number of parents of -longhaired children, who then inevitably create a powerful middle- -class pressure against harsh drug laws, to which even the Department -of Justice cannot long remain immune. One of our respondents put it -this way: "I turned my old man onto pot. He's a judge and he digs -it. So next time a kid is up in front of him, he'll be with the kid, -cause he smokes too, dig?" Again, feedback. - - -Anecdotes of this sort underscore the point that there are -energies within the establishment which radicals can bend to their -own purposes. It is therefore an oversimplification to ask whether a -large enough number of radicals can assemble enough energy to -accomplish their purposes. Like Yippies and Japanese wrestlers, -radicals are learning how to turn superior strength against itself, an -effort in which they will enlist not only the formidable democratizing power of the new technologies themselves, but also some -exceedingly strong sociological powers. - - -What is meant by the phrase, ". . . the democratizing powers of -the new technologies"? Are the new technologies inherently democratizing? The answer comes in view if we recall that videotape, -cable, lasers, holographs, and autonomic engineering each increase -the rate of human communication. When more information reaches -more people faster, pattern recognition must be accelerated, since -more patterns cognized means more patterns re-cognized. Recognition facilitates reflection. Reflection generates criticism. Increasing -criticism generates pressure for change. - - - - -Another way of understanding the impact of technologically -accelerated information flow is the following: When events occur -too rapidly to feel one at a time, we respond by grouping or -classifying; we can then say "all of those". But when the rate of -information flow is so rapid that many "all of thoses" arrive in a very -short time, we must now group all of those. In short, rapid -information flow creates a pressure toward higher levels of generalization, which transcend prior classifications of events. - - -Cyberneticians! ® will recognize here an old story --- information -overload, requiring new programming. "Heads" are equally familiar -with this law, for LSD barrages the organism with a faster rate of -experience than previous categories can tolerate, thus "blowing" the -mind, i.e., dissolving pre-conceptions. - - -Hence, the impact of each of these technologies can be -democratic in tendency, since each of them consists precisely in an -acceleration of the amount of information processed in a given -amount of time. VT consists of faster feedback, cable of more -interconnections. Lasers move more information than miles of thick -cable. Each holograph is like a thousand electric windows. Note that -interconnecting them multiplies the rate. - - -As the number of persons with access to this greatly increased -rate of information flow is vastly increased, there occurs an -overloading of the previous categories they used to process that -information. The same mind-blowing fate awaits those categories of -culture we call norms, the rules governing behavior. As the rules -governing behavior are barraged from all sides with information from -as many perspectives, the rules are subjected to overload strains they -cannot survive. Just as you can no longer hide unseemly facial -gestures on a 2-way videophone, so you can no longer propagandize a -community if your cables have cameras at each terminal. Just as you -couldn't comfortably watch starving Biafran children while eating -your tv dinner if they could watch you too, so government will find -it hard to restrict tv access and will be unable to maintain secret -court hearings while demanding increased citizen participation. - - - - -Similarly, lasers and holographs will bring to billions of people -the ability to communicate with each other more, and more often, -than their present cultural separation permits. The same is true of the -new autonomic languages we shall soon learn to speak, across current -cultural boundaries. In sum, the democratizing potentials of these -new technologies lie in their power to negate preconceived -categories of privilege, and to necessitate higher levels of generalization. That is, they accelerate transcendence. - - -But the democratizing power of the new technologies is not the -only energy to which radicals have access. There are formidable -sociological energies as well. To observe them, we need only note -that radicals have already demonstrated considerable ability to -accelerate their own pace of social change, accelerating ours in the -bargain. Does anyone seriously expect them to slow down in the -foreseeable future? The fact seems to be --- they are. making a new -and faster culture, not just negating the old one. We are already -changing faster than we want to, though not nearly fast enough for -them. They are democratizing faster than we are, and we envy them -for it. They seem to know where the pace-makers of social change -are, and they seem to know how to regulate them. - - -For example, they demand more democratic universities. First -we gas and club them, then admit they were right, then go along part -way. Would we have gone so far so fast without their urging? - - -They are democratizing sexuality, insisting that we throw off -once and for all those remains of puritanic morality which still infect -us. We bellow in outrage, arrest them for nudity and indecent -exposure, then flock to Oh Calcutta, Che, and I Am Curious -(Yellow). Would we have gone so far so fast, if not for them? - - -They exhort us to play instead of mechanical labor. We call -them bums, parasites, and loafers, arrest them for vagrancy, then -automate another thousand jobs and fly off to Acapulco. - - - - -They: turn on with drugs different from ours. We resurrect -prohibition, barricade the Mexican border, give them 15-year -sentences for possession of two marijuana cigarettes, then secretly -try it ourselves and find it is better than 2 martinis on the rocks. -Maybe this time they'll help us avoid the silly retrogression that -prohibition was. I doubt we could do without them. +\sec Toward an Architecture of Social Time +Beyond the obvious benefits of their youth, the children of cybernation share certain other "chronetic"\bknote{18} advantages, among which are their \e{in}ability to swim well in the turgid waves of capitalism but to frolic like surfers in the new media. Hence, even if they only continue their present activities, we may predict with some confidence that they will not adjust their technology to the so-called free market, but to their new political values of peace, love, and play. That is, they will continue to try to make technology serve them, rather than serving it, as we do in consumer society. -But examples are not theory. It does not suffice, although it -helps, to note that the Woodstock and Isle of Wight Festivals -assembled a half-million longhairs peacefully, joyfully, playfully. For -numerical strength is not the root issue. +But can they bring it off? Aren't they foolish trying to tame the technological monster? When the New York Times asked Abbie Hoffman on April first what he thought was foolish, he said, "A hundred longhairs toppling the presidency --- that's foolish." Similarly, when a prominent longhair got arrested recently on a technicality, he "got off"? when he threatened to call a tv press conference announcing Yippie support for Mayor Lindsay. These anecdotes serve to illustrate the contention that the children of media power know how to use it. The principle is simple --- feedback. Like those tiny Japanese wrestlers who turn an opponent's superior strength against him, Yippies forced the media, by making news, to broadcast counter-cultural commercials. +The same is true of underground film, psychedelic art, miniskirts, and let's be honest, pot and acid, which a rapidly increasing number of middle-class professionals are using with increasing enjoyment, learning how from --- you guessed it --- their longhaired children, or students, or patients. Now, as the number of longhaired children increases, so does the number of parents of longhaired children, who then inevitably create a powerful middle- class pressure against harsh drug laws, to which even the Department of Justice cannot long remain immune. One of our respondents put it this way: "I turned my old man onto pot. He's a judge and he digs it. So next time a kid is up in front of him, he'll be with the kid, cause he smokes too, dig?" Again, feedback. -CHRONETICS AND CYBERNATION +Anecdotes of this sort underscore the point that there are energies within the establishment which radicals can bend to their own purposes. It is therefore an oversimplification to ask whether a large enough \e{number} of radicals can assemble enough energy to accomplish their purposes. Like Yippies and Japanese wrestlers, radicals are learning how to turn superior strength against itself, an effort in which they will enlist not only the formidable democratizing power of the new technologies themselves, but also some exceedingly strong sociological powers. -The root issue seems to be: how does technology induce social -change. The answer seems to lie in the realization that technology -itself is the result of two intersecting environments, which we call -"science" and "culture", the former referring to a specific set of -beliefs (or preconceptions) which the main body of professionals -regard as the "laws of nature"; and the latter referring to an unstated -but even more firmly held set of beliefs (or preconceptions) which -the majority of men in a given society regard as the laws of human -nature. "Discoveries" in one field, without interaction with the -other, simply do not become "technology", by which we usually -mean the material techniques a culture builds for itself to mediate its -environment. +What is meant by the phrase, "... the democratizing powers of the new technologies"? Are the new technologies inherently democratizing? The answer comes in view if we recall that videotape, cable, lasers, holographs, and autonomic engineering each increase the rate of human communication. When more information reaches more people faster, pattern recognition must be accelerated, since more patterns cognized means more patterns re-cognized. Recognition facilitates reflection. Reflection generates criticism. Increasing criticism generates pressure for change. +Another way of understanding the impact of technologically accelerated information flow is the following: When events occur too rapidly to feel one at a time, we respond by grouping or classifying; we can then say "all of those". But when the rate of information flow is so rapid that many "all of thoses" arrive in a very short time, we must now group all of \e{those.} In short, rapid information flow creates a pressure toward higher levels of generalization, which transcend prior classifications of events. -Thus, technology does not, by itself, explain why social change -comes about, for it is first necessary to inquire why a given -technology is adopted. Why, for example, did the Chinese discovery -of rocket power never get beyond the level of firecrackers for 5000 -years. Why did Plato's discovery that the earth was round lay -dormant until the Renaissance. There are many other examples. -Although we are all familiar with the phrase, "Nothing is so powerful -as an idea whose time has come", we seldom make full theoretical -use of it. Social change, in my view, occurs exactly then --- when an -idea finds its fertile time. Knowing when and why the time is +Cyberneticians\bknote{19} will recognize here an old story --- information overload, requiring new programming. "Heads" are equally familiar with this law, for LSD barrages the organism with a faster rate of experience than previous categories can tolerate, thus "blowing" the mind, i.e., dissolving pre-conceptions. +Hence, the impact of each of these technologies \e{can} be democratic in tendency, since each of them consists precisely in an acceleration of the amount of information processed in a given amount of time. VT consists of faster feedback, cable of more interconnections. Lasers move more information than miles of thick cable. Each holograph is like a thousand electric windows. Note that interconnecting them multiplies the rate. +As the number of persons with access to this greatly increased rate of information flow is vastly increased, there occurs an overloading of the previous categories they used to process that information. The same mind-blowing fate awaits those categories of culture we call norms, the rules governing behavior. As the rules governing behavior are barraged from all sides with information from as many perspectives, the rules are subjected to overload strains they cannot survive. Just as you can no longer hide unseemly facial gestures on a 2-way videophone, so you can no longer propagandize a community if your cables have cameras at each terminal. Just as you couldn't comfortably watch starving Biafran children while eating your tv dinner if they could watch you too, so government will find it hard to restrict tv access and will be unable to maintain secret court hearings while demanding increased citizen participation. +Similarly, lasers and holographs will bring to billions of people the ability to communicate with each other more, and more often, than their present cultural separation permits. The same is true of the new autonomic languages we shall soon learn to speak, across current cultural boundaries. In sum, the democratizing \e{potentials} of these new technologies lie in their power to negate preconceived categories of privilege, and to necessitate higher levels of generalization. That is, they accelerate transcendence. -right --- or better, knowing how to make it right --- would enable one -to understand and, hence, to modify social change. +But the democratizing power of the new technologies is not the only energy to which radicals have access. There are formidable sociological energies as well. To observe them, we need only note that radicals have already demonstrated considerable ability to accelerate their own pace of social change, accelerating ours in the bargain. Does anyone seriously expect them to slow down in the foreseeable future? The fact seems to be --- they \e{are} making a new and faster culture, not just negating the old one. We are already changing faster than we want to, though not nearly fast enough for them. They are democratizing faster than we are, and we envy them for it. They seem to know where the pace-makers of social change are, and they seem to know how to regulate them. +For example, they demand more democratic universities. First we gas and club them, then admit they were right, then go along part way. Would we have gone so far so fast without their urging? -It begins to be apparent that there are very sound and -sophisticated "political" reasons for radicals' investigation of communications technology, since communication is the life blood of -culture --- the medium, as it were, in which given cultural norms are -the messages. A generation which mastered those communication -processes could indeed refer to itself as the architects of social time, -since their principal energies would be devoted to the investigation of -how most efficiently to communicate the most information relevant -to species survival to the largest number of people, in the fastest -possible time. +They are democratizing sexuality, insisting that we throw off once and for all those remains of puritanic morality which still infect us. We bellow in outrage, arrest them for nudity and indecent exposure, then flock to \filmtitle{Oh Calcutta}, \filmtitle{Che}, and \filmtitle{I Am Curious (Yellow).} Would we have gone so far so fast, if not for them? +They exhort us to play instead of mechanical labor. We call them bums, parasites, and loafers, arrest them for vagrancy, then automate another thousand jobs and fly off to Acapulco. -Radicals' investigation of media physics thus turns out to be a -political act, aimed at altering those assumptions on which all human -cultures have based themselves so far, i.e., the belief that war, fear -and mechanical work are the necessary attributes of human nature. -Radicals hope that new planetary media will render wars obsolete by -rendering national boundaries obsolete; that they will render fear of -the stranger obsolete, for who will be the stranger when all men -communicate as brothers; and that they will render dull work -obsolete by providing lovers with time to love while fusion energy -powers the world's production. +They: turn on with drugs different from ours. We resurrect prohibition, barricade the Mexican border, give them 15-year sentences for possession of two marijuana cigarettes, then secretly try it ourselves and find it is better than 2 martinis on the rocks. Maybe this time they'll help us avoid the silly retrogression that prohibition was. I doubt we could do without them. +But examples are not theory. It does not suffice, although it helps, to note that the Woodstock and Isle of Wight Festivals assembled a half-million longhairs peacefully, joyfully, playfully. For numerical strength is \e{not} the root issue. -Perhaps an apochryphal story is the way to end this attempt at -prophecy. Legend has it that Marx was once confronted with the -objection that his vision of history was transhistorical and naive if he -thought all men under Communism would finally be happy. He is -said to have replied, "I did not say all men would be happy. Perhaps, -when that time comes, men will finally begin to suffer as men --- all -prior suffering having been animal." +\sec Chronetics and Cybernation +The root issue seems to be: how does technology induce social change. The answer seems to lie in the realization that technology itself is the result of two intersecting environments, which we call "science" and "culture", the former referring to a specific set of beliefs (or preconceptions) which the main body of professionals regard as the "laws of nature"; and the latter referring to an unstated but even more firmly held set of beliefs (or preconceptions) which the majority of men in a given society regard as the laws of \e{human} nature. "Discoveries" in one field, without interaction with the other, simply do not become "technology", by which we usually mean the material techniques a culture builds for itself to mediate its environment. -Perhaps young radicals' vision is comparably transhistorical. -Perhaps technology will overcome them, leaving robots the heirs of -men. My attempt has been to show that this is very unlikely. One -thing is certain --- the time is right, and they know it. +Thus, technology does not, by itself, explain why social change comes about, for it is first necessary to inquire why a given technology is adopted. Why, for example, did the Chinese discovery of rocket power never get beyond the level of firecrackers for 5000 years. Why did Plato's discovery that the earth was round lay dormant until the Renaissance. There are many other examples. Although we are all familiar with the phrase, "Nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come", we seldom make full theoretical use of it. Social change, in my view, occurs exactly then --- when an idea finds its fertile time. Knowing when and why the time is right --- or better, knowing how to \e{make} it right --- would enable one to understand and, hence, to modify social change. +It begins to be apparent that there are very sound and sophisticated "political" reasons for radicals' investigation of communications technology, since communication is the life blood of culture --- the medium, as it were, in which given cultural norms are the messages. A generation which mastered those communication processes could indeed refer to itself as the architects of social time, since their principal energies would be devoted to the investigation of how most efficiently to communicate the most information relevant to species survival to the largest number of people, in the fastest possible time. +Radicals' investigation of media physics thus turns out to be a political act, aimed at altering those assumptions on which all human cultures have based themselves so far, i.e., the belief that war, fear and mechanical work are the necessary attributes of human nature. Radicals hope that new planetary media will render wars obsolete by rendering national boundaries obsolete; that they will render fear of the stranger obsolete, for who will be the stranger when all men communicate as brothers; and that they will render dull work obsolete by providing lovers with time to love while fusion energy powers the world's production. +Perhaps an apochryphal story is the way to end this attempt at prophecy. Legend has it that Marx was once confronted with the objection that his vision of history was transhistorical and naive if he thought all men under Communism would finally be happy. He is said to have replied, "I did not say all men would be happy. Perhaps, when that time comes, men will finally begin to suffer as \e{men} --- all prior suffering having been animal." -PSYCHEDELIC MYTHS, METAPHORS, AND FANTASIES +Perhaps young radicals' vision is comparably transhistorical. Perhaps technology will overcome them, leaving robots the heirs of men. My attempt has been to show that this is very unlikely. One thing is certain --- the time is right, and they know it. +\chap Psychedelic Myths, Metaphors, and Fantasies -ABSTRACT +\sec Abstract Subcultures create their own dialects composed of special words and phrases embodying their special experiences. Hip language is an |