Timothy Leary's Chaos and Cyber Culture is his futuristic vision of the emergence of a new humanism with an emphasis on questioning authority, independent thinking, individual creativity, and the empowerment of computer and other brain technologies. This "cyberpunk manifesto" describes a new breed that loves technology and uses it to revolutionize communication and tweak Big Brother while being successful, achieving political power and having fun. Timothy Leary is a leading figure in the cyberpunk culture, much as he was a leading figure in the consciousness revolution of the 1960s.
Chaos and Cyber Culture brings together his provocative, futuristic writings, lively interviews and cogent conversations with a variety of writers and thinkers. Chaos and Cyber Culture defines the emergence of the New Breed of the Information Age, who are creating the cyberdelic politics and culture of the 21st Century.
Chaos and Cyber Culture is a substantial work (over 100,000 words) consisting of over forty chapters and conversations with leading figures. There are eight main sections and a epilogue, followed by a list of Leary resources.

The Eternal Philosophy of Chaos
For several thousand years it has seemed obvious that the basic nature of the universe is extreme complexity, inexplicable disorder- that mysterious, tangled magnificence popularly known as Chaos.
The poetic Hindus believed the universe was a dreamy dance of illusion (maya). The paradoxical, psycho-logical Buddhists spoke of a void too complex--maybe a trillion times too complex--to be grasped by the human word-processing system (mind).
Chinese poet-philosopher Lao Tse sardonically reminded us that the tao is forever changing complexities at light speed, elusive and inaccessible to our fingers and thumbs laboriously tapping letters on our alphanumeric keyboards and mind-operating systems.
Socrates, that proud, self-reliant Athenian democrat, indiscreetly blurted out the dangerous secret when he said, "The aim of human life is to know thy selves." This is surely the most subversive T-shirt flaunted over the centuries by humanists, the most confrontational bumper sticker on their neuro-auto-mobiles.
Individualistic thinking is the original sin of the Judaeo Christian Islamic bibles and sabotages attempts by the authorities to order Chaos.
The first rule of every law-and-order system is to trivialize-demonize the dangerous concepts of Self, Individual Aims, and Personal Knowledge. Thinking for Your Selves is heretical, treasonous, blasphemous. Only devils and satans do it. Creative thinking, committed out loud, becomes a capital crime. It was "Three Strikes and You're Out" for several hundred thousand Protestant dissenters during the Inquisitions of the Roman papacy--not to forget the witch burnings performed by the Protestants when they took charge of the Chaos-control department.
It was all very simple to the law-and-order controllers. There are the immortal Gods and Goddesses up there in that Gated Community on Olympus Drive. And then there are us-meaningless mortals, slaving around down here in the low-rent flatlands. The concept of individuals with choice and identity seemed total folly, the ultimate nightmare--not just of authoritarian bureaucrats, but of common-sense liberals. Chaos must be controlled!
The standard way to tame and domesticate the impossible complexity that surrounds us is to invent a few "tooth fairy" Gods, the more infantile the better, and to lay down a few childish rules: Honour your father and your mother, etc. The rules are simple and logical. You passively obey. You pray. You sacrifice. You work. You believe.
And then, Praise the Bored, let there be no terrorizing notions about individuals hanging around this meaningless, disordered universe trying to figure how to design themselves some individual selves.

Chaos Engineering
The first Chaos engineers may have been the Hindu sages who designed a method for operating the brain called yoga. The Buddhists produced one of the great hands-on do-it-yourself manuals for operating the brain: The Tibetan Book of the Dying. Chinese Taoists developed the teaching of going with the flow--not clinging to idea- structures, but changing and evolving. The message was: Be cool. Don't panic. Chaos is good. Chaos creates infinite possibilities.



Copyright 1994. Timothy Leary, from: "Chaos & Cyberculture", Ronin Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1035, Berkeley, California. All Rights Reserved. Individuals may download this material for personal use only. Written permission is required for any other reproduction.




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