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Cyberdelic (from "cyber-" and "psychedelic") was the fusion ofcyberculture and thepsychedelic subculture that formed a newcounterculture in the 1980s and 1990s.
Cyberdelic art was created by calculatingfractal objects and representing the results as still images, animations,underground,algorithmic music, or other media.
Cyberdelicrave dance parties featuredpsychedelic trance music alongsidelaser light shows, projected images, andartificial fog, while attendees often usedclub drugs.
Timothy Leary, an advocate ofpsychedelic drug use who became a cult figure of thehippies in the 1960s, reemerged in the 1980s as a spokesperson of the cyberdelic counterculture, whose adherents called themselves "cyberpunks", and became one of the most philosophical promoters of personal computers (PC), the Internet, andimmersive virtual reality. Leary proclaimed that the "PC is theLSD of the 1990s" and admonishedbohemians to "turn on, boot up, jack in".[1][2]
In contrast to some of the hippies of the 1960s who wereantiscience andantitechnology, the cyberpunks of the 1980s and 1990secstatically embraced technology and thehacker ethic. They believed that high technology (andsmart drugs) could help human beings overcome limits, that it couldliberate them from authority and even enable them totranscend space, time, and body. They often expressed theirethos andaesthetics throughcyberart andreality hacking.
R. U. Sirius, co-founder and original editor-in-chief ofMondo 2000, became a prominent promoter of thecyberpunk ideology, whose adherents were pioneers in theIT industry ofSilicon Valley and theWest Coast of the United States.[2]
In 1992,Billy Idol became influenced by the cyberdelic subculture and thecyberpunk fiction genre. The result of his passion for the ideals behind the culture resulted in his 1993 concept album,Cyberpunk, which Idol hoped would introduce Idol's fans and other musicians to the opportunities presented by digital technology andcyberculture.[3] Timothy Leary and other members of the cyberdelic movement were contacted by Idol, and participated in the album's creation.[4] The album was a critical and financial failure, and polarized onlinecyberculture communities of the period. Detractors viewed it as an act ofco-optation and opportunistic commercialization. It was also seen as part of a process that saw the overuse of the term "cyberpunk" until the word lost meaning.[5][6] Alternatively, supporters saw Idol's efforts as harmless and well-intentioned, and were encouraged by his new interest in cyberculture.[7][8]
After thedot-com bubble of the late 1990s burst in 2000, thetechno-utopianism that prevailed in the cyberdelic counterculture waned whiletechnorealism grew. Most cyberpunks realized that the PC, the Internet, and other new technologies did not really bring the radical social, political, and personal changes they thought they would, specifically the "cybersociety" - apostpolitical, non-hierarchical society made possible bycyberware, in which thecomputer-literate,super-intelligent, open-minded,change-oriented,self-reliant, irreverentfree-thinker is the norm and the person who is not internetted and does not think for themself and does not question authority is the "problem person".[2]
Disillusioned,R. U. Sirius condemned cyberdelicescapism:
[...] Anybody who doesn't believe that we're trapped hasn't taken a good look around. We're trapped in a sort of mutatingmultinational corporateoligarchy that's not about to go away. We're trapped by the limitations of our species. We're trapped in time. At the same timeidentity, politics, and ethics have long turned liquid. [...] Cyberculture (ameme that I'm at least partly responsible for generating, incidentally) has emerged as a gleeful apologist for thiskill-the-poor trajectory of theRepublican revolution. You find it all overWired ["theRolling Stone of technology"] - this mix ofchaos theory andbiological modeling that is somehow interpreted as scientific proof of the need to devolve and decentralize the socialwelfare state while alsoderegulating and empowering the powerful,autocratic, multinational corporations. You've basically got the breakdown ofnation states intoglobal economies simultaneously with theatomization of individuals or theirbalkanization intodisconnected sub-groups, becausedigital technology conflates space while decentralizing communication and attention. The result is a clear playing field for a mutating corporate oligarchy, which is what we have. I mean, people think it's really liberating because theold industrial ruling class has been liquefied and it's possible foryoung players to amass extraordinary instant dynasties. But it's savage and inhuman. Maybe thewired elite think that's hip. But then don't go around crying aboutcrime in the streets or pretending to be concerned with ethics.[2]
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