This definition is from the Future Culture Manifesto:

Cyberculture is a here-and-now reality that grew out of the science fiction movement of "cyberpunk". Look at the word "cyberpunk" -- broken down you have "cyber" and "punk" which roughly translates to people using technology and information in ways that deviate from the expected norms and mores and laws of society.

Hackers are part of cyberculture. I will draw more criticism by defining a hacker as a "cyberpunk" -- as previously stated, one who uses information and technology in ways that go against the grain of norm society.

Let me put to rest an ageold debate that persists among aspiring futureculturists, he said while slowly walking backwards to the bomb shelter. Hackers originated in the 60s, and basically did they same things hackers do now, unly possibly with less of a violent nature attached. Somewhere along the line, those hackers gave up their antiauthoritarian ideals and merged into mainstream society, though they still wanted to be called "hackers" because they can program a computer in nifty ways. Modern-day hackers came along, the WarGames generation, and the connection between illegality (antiauthoritarianism rather) and hackers resurfaced. Old hackers got pissed, and have done their best to dissociate themselves from the genreally-accepted term of modern day hacking. This is most clearly seen in their attempt to seperate "hackers" from "crackers" which I won't go into because old hackers don't realise that cracking is still hacking in the original true sense -- it does take skill and requires privied information.

Hackers nowadays, post-Wargames hackers at least, have as their motto "information wants to be free" and thus that is their goal in hacking or, more appropriately, being a cyberpunk.

Cyberculture, at its roots, appropriates (samples) heavily from other subcultures. This could be easily guessed because of the inclusion of the prefix "cyber", referring to information. In this context I would like to see usage of the term cyberculture return back to its roots -- the idea of an information culture. That is, a culture where information is an important commodity, if not the most vital commodity. Information is an important commodity in modern global culture, as witnessed by the power and popularity and prominence of CNN and Mtv in our society. When people talk about an information society, they are actually talking about cyberculture, and they are actually talking about a soon-to-be historical shift in society that is currently in it's infancy. Contributions to this shift will be seen in the wake of the ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) and other such technologies as they become more readily available and approachable to the mainstream.

We might say then, that cyberpunks (hackers, not just computer hackers either) provide the deviant portion of an existing cyberculture. Cyberculture should *NOT* be confused with technoculture, new edge, or futureculture, all of which will be put in the proper context later.

Cyberculture is in its infancy. We really *don't* live in an information society, because economics, not infomics or infonomics if you will, is the underlying thread that holds our society together. However, this may be beginning to change, as witness in our reliance on economic credit systems (your credit is just information, which can be hacked) as well as on a political scale the intertwining of political, media, and international-conglomerate businesses as the definite powerhouses. At the turn of the century, it was basically just political forces. Post-WW-II, as postindustrial society developed, it became politics + business which continues to this day, but now media (information power) is a substantial force in the global power game. Rudy Rucker, prominent writer and scientist, is credited with the outstanding motto of cyberculture as a whole -- "How fast are you? How dense?" The phrase should be examined in the context of information processing, individuals dealing wth a world that is transforming and morphing from economics-based to infonomics-based.

References

Introducing Cyberculture

By David Silver.

Cyberculture Defined

What is cyberculture? Cyberculture and cyborgs. Cyberculture now.

Virtual Culture

To Define Culture in a Virtual World. An essay.

Future Culture Manifesto

Future Culture Manifesto. Virtual Culture, Psychedelic Culture, Rave Culture, Cyberculture, Industrial Culture, PostModernism, Street Culture, Fringe Science.

Future Culture FAQ

Future Culture FAQ.

Cyberpunk Society

The mysterious world of cyberpunk society.

Cyberculture: Making Rooms of Our Own

An essay about cyberspace and its use.

Technoculture as Postmodern Culture

Technoculture: Another, more material, name for postmodern culture? An essay by Joseph Dumit.

Technoscience and Cyberculture

An article by Bryan C. Taylor.

How Cyberculture Deletes Nature

"If computers have eliminated the old political center and replaced it with a new Net-based Web politics that brings us an enhanced democracy run through cyberspace, someone forgot to tell the transnational corporations." An essay produced by Earth Island Institute.

Cyberpunk Digital Culture and Future Culture Links

Beyond Cyberpunk! (BCP)

A Do-It-Yourself Guide to the Future. HyperCard classic.
By Gareth Branwyn. Introducing Beyond Cyberpunk!

Digitalo

The Epicenter for Cyberpunk Digital Culture.
Chiba newsstand, lounges and chat, The Gibson Matrix, wetware...

New Edge

Jagwire X's CyberSpace Institute.
By Dan Zappone.

Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies

Organization whose purpose is to research, study, teach, support, and create diverse and dynamic elements of cyberculture.

Digital Culture Seminars

Digital Culture Seminars, publications, and resources, by University of Rochester.

Net-Tribes

Cyberculture on the Web
Virtual communities, Virtual reality, Multi-media, Future culture...
Maintained by Laurent Alquier <alquier@eerie.eerie.fr>

Disinformation

DisInformation is designed to be the search service of choice for individuals looking for information on current affairs, politics, new science and the 'hidden information,' that seldom seems to slip through the cracks of the corporate owned media conglomerates.

CTHEORY - Theory, Technology, Culture

CTHEORY is an international journal of theory, technology and culture. Articles, interviews, and key book reviews in contemporary discourse are published weekly as well as theorisations of major "event-scenes" in the mediascape.
Edited by Arthur and Marilouise Kroker <ctheory@vax2.concordia.ca>

2.0.1.3

Transmission from Quantum Time.
Chat, Trybe Radio II...

Cyberpoet's Guide to Virtual Culture

A Guide to Virtual Culture, links...

Technoculture from Frankenstein to Cyberpunk

Communication, Culture, and Technology course at Georgetown university. By Professor Martin Irvine.

Cyberculture Evolution

From "Zines to Zen With R.U. Sirius and Jon Lebkowsky".
By Jon Lebkowsky and R.U. Sirius.

Seeker1's CyberAnthropology Page

Page by Steve Mizrach, a.k.a. Seeker1.

Escape Velocity Review

Review of Mark Dery's book "Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century", by Ellen Spertus.

Targeting the Stoned Cyberpunk

Marketing report prepared for the Lollapalooza festival's sponsors, describing generations identity and behaviour. Compact, brilliant and breath-takingly cynical. Excerpted in Harper's Magazine.

Cyberpunk as a Way of Life

Some thoughts by Claudia Melisa Paniza.

Real Cyberpunks

Real cyberpunk don't eat quiche by Melissa Binde. Tells how to behave if you are a cyberpunk... Oldish and quite lame, but funny.

Cyberpunk Worldwide

Cyberpunk International

Cyberpunk pages from all around the world in different languages than English.