EFF "Net Culture & Cyber-Anthropology" Archive

Files in this Archive

curtis_on_inet.article

File containing an article from UK's Guardian newspaper. Richard Curtis, screenwriter for "Blackadder" (a successful British comedy series) and the movie "Four Weddings and a Funeral," offers a humorous look at the Internet from the view of a novice user.

cyberspace.biblio

File containing Anne Balsamo's bibliography of Cyberspace, Cyberpunk, Electronic Communication, and Postmodernism materials. (March 1993)

cyborg_links.html

File containing links to cyber anthropology resources.

ethernet_history_gilder.article

File containing George Gilder's history of the ethernet entitled "Metcalf's Law and Legacy," first published in Forbes ASAP, September 13, 1993.

implications_of_info.article

File containing "The Implications of Electronic Information for the Sociology of Knowledge" by Richard A. Lanham, professor of English, UCLA. "This paper argues that the fundamental "operating system" for the humanities is changing from the book to the digital multimedia computer screen. It outlines the consequences of this move for the creation, performance, teaching, and study of literature, music, and the visual arts. It concludes with a suggestion for how this movement from page to digital display might inform the administrative changes forced upon the university by the current shortage of money."

internet.history

File containing a transcript of Geof Bowker's remarks as discussant on three very interesting papers on the history of the Internet at the recent conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science at the University of Virginia.

internet_sterling.history

File containing Bruce Sterling's "INTERNET : aka "A Short History of the Internet," published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1993.

joyce_prehistory_of_cyberspace.paper

File containing "Beyond Orality/Literacy Dichotemy: James Joyce and the Prehistory of Cyberspace" by Donald Theall (1992), which links the work of Joyce and his modernist contemporaries to the development of electric communication and to the prehistory of cyberspace and virtual reality.

net.history

File containing "The History of the Net" by Henry Edward Hardy (Sept 1993).

netizen.paper

"The Net and Netizens: The Impact the Net has on People's Lives" by hauben@columbia.edu. "We are seeing a revitalization of society. The frameworks are being redesigned from the bottom up. A new more democratic world is becoming possible."

overhearing_the_internet.article

OVERHEARING THE INTERNET by Robert Wright (1993) surveys what the internet is and ponders its social consequesnces.

usenet.faq

Usenet FAQ March 1994.

whatis_cyberspace.article

File containing "What is Cyberspace?" by David G.W. Birch & S. Peter Buck, Hyperion. The authors see cyberpsace as comprising "computers, telecommunications, software and data in a more abstract form," with the core being the Net, and see the works of such cyberpunk authors as William Gibson as being not-so-far-flung extensions of the realities that exist today and accurate predictions of the not-so-distant future.

whatis_internet.faq

What is the Internet? by Paul Jones. FAQ

whatis_usenet.faq

Usenet FAQ July 19, 1992

whats_internet.paper

What is the Internet, Anyway? by John S. Quarterman (1994). Introductory, and easy to read description of what the Internet really is.

Subdirectories in This Archive

Up to the Parent Directory

Artificial_life/

Adventures in artificial intelligence and artificial life! Articles in this directory include information about the philosophy, technology and social issues surrounding humanity's attempt to create life.

Consciousness/

What does it mean to think and how are our views of self and other affected by the profound forces of Cyberia/Third Wave/Information Era? This directory explores our understanding of the mind, consciousness, personality, identity, etc...

Criticisms/

This directory includes criticisms of Information Era society and general warnings about how not to overexagerate the utopian possibilities of a wired globe.

Cyberpunk/

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" - William Gibson. What will society be like in the near future? This directory focuses on one genre of futurists, the Cyberpunks, who present a particularly dystopic version of information society.

Cyborg_anthropology/

"Given the rate of change of biological evolution, and the fact that homo sapiens began appearing around 500,000 years ago, we're about due for some sort've evolutionary shift" - Selena Sol. This directory focusses on how technology infiltrates the body and what changes that process invokes in humanity.

Ethnic_studies/

How will the division between info haves and have-nots be affected by traditional racial/ethnic lines? And how can we mold our future in ways that discontinue previous mistakes and evils? This directory deals with race, ethnicity and culture, in Cyberia, and includes information about how cyberian societies will manage diveristy and conflict.

Folklore/

Including directories like Games, Hoaxes, Humor, Chain Letters, Art, Flaming, and Spam, this directory attempts to survey the newly developing folklore of the net.

Gender_issues/

How are the traditional issues relating to gender affected by the new social media? This directory covers such issues as gender swapping on the net, gendered linguistics in computer mediated communication, and gender issues in technology or technological disciplines.

Global_village/

The net is by nature a global creature. It is a sorry mistake to conceive of it legally, philosophically, or politically in terms of national, bordered states. This directory explores online jurisdiction and sovereignty issues, and the deterioration of the nation-state in cyberspace, as well as the policy and historical changes that such a transformation promotes. Also includes material about the development of networking around the world.

Hackers/

"Mentor was a hacker zealot who regarded computer intrusion as something close to a moral duty" - Bruce Sterling. This directory is devoted to thge anthropology of hackers, phreaks, crackers and their emerging culture. Hackers are to information as the underground railroad was to the slaves. Information wants to be free.

Handicapped_access/

Directory of information relating to online access for the handicapped/disabled.

Infotopia/

This directory includes all the wonderful (but questionably practical) visions of Information Era Paradise.

Linguistics/

Computer mediated.communication creates wholly new ways for humans to speak. Both empowering and limited as a form of communication, CMC, includes :) abilities and :( problems. This directory includes information on the effects of CMC on human communiation and the emerging linguistic rules and customs. "The discovery of the alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls" - Aristotle.

MOO_MUD_IRC/

This directory is devoted to the anthropology of Intenet Relay Chat, Multi-User Domains, and other real-time online inter-personal communication.

Misc/

Miscellaneous unsorted information

Net_info/

Basic Internet technical and introductory information

Postmodernism/

This directory deals with the postmodern philosophy and how it relates to the living experiences of cyberians.

Ritual/

Sex, Drugs, and Dance in Cyberia.

Statistics/

This directory includes all the statistics that we've been able to gather. Because oif the decentralized nature of the net, gathering statistics is particularly difficult and begins to show how Newtonian concepts of information management break down in the new era. Statistics become limited, if not useless, in a truly complex adaptive systems!

Virtual_reality/

A general catch-all directory for things having to to with "virtual reality", including technical as well as philosophical and editorial discussions of VR.

Virtual_community/

How are virtual communities different than communities IRL? This directory focuses on the virtual community, the problems they face and the power of connectivity they grant.

Related On-Site Resources

Net Information Archive

This directory contains miscellaneous networking information, some of it very outdated and here fo historical purposes only, including guidebooks such as EFF's Guide to the Internet, resource lists, beginner and introductory information, Internet/Usenet technical documents, and more.

Links to Related Off-Site Resources

Cosmopolis, a magazine on current affairs and culture in German and English

List of links to Cyborg Anthropology pages.

Cybersociology Newsgroups (Note:only available to you if your site carries them!)

alt.2600 Hierarchy

alt.comp.academic-freedom

alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk

alt.comp.acad-freedom.news

alt.culture.internet

alt.culture.usenet

alt.cyberpunk

alt.cyberpunk.movement

alt.cyberpunk.tech

alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo

alt.cyberspace

alt.discordia

alt.extropians

alt.folklore.computers

alt.hackers

alt.industrial

alt.life.internet

alt.memetics

alt.music.techno

alt.net.personalities

alt.rave

alt.security

alt.security.pgp

alt.soc.ethics

alt.techno-shamanism

alt.uu.virtual-worlds.misc

alt.virtual hierarchy

alt.wired

comp.admin.policy

comp.ai Hierarchy

comp.org.cspr News and talk

comp.org.eff.talk

comp.patents

comp.risks

comp.security.misc

comp.security.unix

comp.society

comp.society.privacy

comp.virus

misc.legal.computing

misc.legal.moderated

news.admin.policy

rec.arts.bodyart

rec.music.ambient

rec.music.industrial

sci.crypt

sci.virtual Hierarchy

sci.virtual-worlds

soc.net-people

talk.politics.crypto

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