Memory trade

the long version

The notion of "culture" is changing at the speed of information itself. Computer technology is creating a new kind of public, a cyberculture with all its utopian and apocalyptic possibilities. But is it that new? Popular debate generally ignores cyberculture's historical context. The official history begins n the 19th century and tracks the evolution of telecommunications, the egalitarian dream of the global village, and the emergence of the military-industrial complex. However this omits the deeper, prehistory of technolgical tranformations of culture that are everywhere felt but nowhere seen in the telematic landscape of the late-twentieth century. Cyberculture is an extension, rather than innovation, of human engagement with communication and information technologies.