White and Wild by wilshire|onetreb0r.net
When I decided to start writing a blog, I figured I’d like to start by attempting to draw attention to the invisible but real links between the disparate fields of technology, psychedelics and religion.
I started writing an essay to explore the countercultural roots of the personal computer Industry, and particularly the links between the early pioneers and LSD.
Imagine my surpise and delight when I came across What the Dormouse Said , a new book by John Markoff that deals with exactly this subject. Another book, From Satori to Silicon Valley by Theodore Rozack published in 1986, covers (mostly) the same ground, although it was published in 1986 and finished on a pessismistic note that foresaw the rise of microsoft and the suits, but not the free software movement.
If anything, my interest is less focused on the ‘computer industry’ and more on free or open source software. So what’s the connection? Well, without getting in to too much detail, it is generally agreed that Richard Stallman started the ball rolling when he was forced to come up with a way of protecting his software (Emacs) from greedy opportunists while at the same time handing it out to everybody else for free. His answer to this problem was the GPL or general public license (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html). And where did Mr Stallman get his inspiration for such a license? According to various sources, Richard Stallman got at least some of his inpsiration from the Gateful Dead, the very same LSD fuelled band who had always stood up for the right of their fans to freely record and distribute the band’s live perfomances.
“when describing the business opportunities inherent within the free software model, Stallman has held up the Grateful Dead as an example. In refusing to restrict fans’ ability to record live concerts, the Grateful Dead became more than a rock group. They became the center of a tribal community dedicated to Grateful Dead music. Over time, that tribal community became so large and so devoted that the band shunned record contracts and supported itself solely through musical tours and live appearances. In 1994, the band’s last year as a touring act, the Grateful Dead drew $52 million in gate receipts alone.”
Taken from ‘Free as in Freedom’, chapter 8 (http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ch08.html).
So we have a link. Nobody is suggesting that Richard Stallman has used LSD, but LSD has had an indirect role to play in the birth of the free software movement.
So what?
So now we come to what is starting to become a theory.
I believe that there is something in the LSD experience that causes certain individuals to become attracted to and involved with digital communications technology such as the internet and the personal computer. I suspect that this attraction is connected to the desire to change the world for the better by making humanity aware of itself on a global level.
