FutureCulture is an "e-list," or "electronic mailing list." Like the "many-to-many" zines in the paper world, where individuals send a printed message that gets photocopied and sent to everyone who mails in messages, e-lists work on a similar principle. One joins the list by mailing a "subscribe" message to a "list-server" computer. Once signed on, the subscriber gets sent, to their electronic mailbox, the list's conversational traffic. Unmoderated lists are free-form, not filtered in any way, each message posted to it is automatically sent to each member on the list. These are sometimes called "realtime" lists. A "moderated" list means that a moderator screens the messages in some fashion. This can either be to simply gather up a day's or week's worth of messages before posting, or more often, the moderator culls redundant, irrelevant ("Please remove me from the list") messages, and other "junk" mail.
FutureCulture comes in several flavors: "realtime," "digest" (daily) and a massive, periodically updated, 3-part document on cyberculture called the "FutureCulture FAQ" (think of it as an ASCII equivalent to "Beyond Cyberpunk!"). Although the discussions and concerns of those on the FutureCulture list are similar to what one might find on The Well, MindVox, or other cybercultural islands in the net, the cool thing about FutureCulture is that it's free (to anyone with an Internet mailbox) and it's Internet-wide. On its better days, it feels like an electronic newspaper for the cyberculture, with cutting-edge news, views, essays, and resources. Don't subscribe to the realtime version unless you want to instantly clog your mailbox with stuff. I get the Digest, and even that can be intimidating at times.
(G. Branwyn)
[EDITOR'S NOTE: As we were going "to press," we heard that the FutureCulture list was no longer up and running. We also heard a rumor that someone else was getting it back together, but we haven't heard who. You might try sending e-mail to Andy Hawks (below), or just poke around c-space. The Future Culture FAQs should still be available on various FTP sites. -GB]
ACCESS:
For more information, send e-mail containing the message:
"send info" to:
future-request@nyx.cs.du.edu
List Maintainer is: (andy [aka hawkeye]) ahawks@nyx.cs.du.edu
Here is the TEXT POPUP for FutureCulture:
From: ahawks (perpetually living)
Subject: Returned Life: Purpose Unknown
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 93 10:34:49 MST
Here Fido, fetch - go long - yeah, real long - by the highway....
oops....
poor Fido, got run over on the Internet....
i just felt like sharing this....i hate fidonet.....
stupid thing, especially their postal system....you actually have to follow-up to returned-mail vie e-mail to figure out what the problem is, it's like Deliverance on the net.....
it's not automatic for the people, like the rest of returned mail is,
you get the necessary info like that <snap>, but with fido you have to go to a buford shack out in the backwoods that has a bunch of rusty old cars out front, a dog missing a leg, 3 triplets named "Jeb" all missing some teeth, and grandma is sitting on the tattered couch in the front lawn peeing in her sleep.....uncle bob is sitting in the lawnchair trying to burp the national anthem and boasts "ya know, it
still means somethin to me. always get a tear in my eye", and then stands up and salutes the ripped-up flag that is protruding from the homemade chimney. and now it's 2:30 in the afternoon and Suzie pulls up riding the back of Junior's crappy bike, the loudest thing on
earth, with brown smoke making a breadcrumb trail, and she's obviously drunk and hasn't showered in at least 4 days, and she's waving her "Cat" hat around in the air and then falls off the bike, and for the first time you notice the Grafix bong sticker on the front of Junior's motorcycle helmet, and as he takes off the helmet he's grabbing Suzie's breasts like a robot. Uncle Bob looks over, burps, mutters "wench" out of the corner of his mouth, and reaches over his undershirt and the nasty protruding pale flesh of his stomach to switch the channel to a fishing show that he never messes "cuz those guys know fishin!!!". Junior and Suzie are laughing hysterically because life is beyond having no meaning for them, and they stomp off through the creaky half-assed screen door to a back bedroom in the "house".
the dog is busy carrying it's own shit in it's mouth down to the
creek.
that's the creek where "city folk go and don't come back". there's
blood on the smooth grey rock by the decaying oak tree.
and the whole thing smells heavily of methane, home brew, and dried bark, with just a pinch of stale urine.
cuz they know fishin!
haven't lived until your unfit overalls on one shoulder are filled with grease.
deliverance.
the irony.
fidonet sucks.
i think grandma just passed on, but we won't know for a couple daze.
[excerpt from FutureCulture FAQ (part 3)]
__________________________________________________
| Merchandise/Companies: |
________________________
Abbie Yo-Yo Inc.
PO Box 15
Worcester, MA 01613
-things related to Abbie Hoffman
Albert Hofmann Foundation
8683 West Pico Blvd. Mailbox #107
Los Angeles, CA 90035
310.281.8110 (voice mail)
-"an international library for the scientific study of psychedelic substances and human consciousness"
Ameba
1732 Haight St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
415.750.9368
800.292.6322 (800.BYAMEBA)
-Rave clothes and stuff
Amok
PO Box 861867 Terminal Annex
Los Angeles, CA 90086-1867
-hard to find/underground books - catalog is $9 (400 pages)
AquaThought Foundation
22321 Susana Ave.
Torrance, CA 90503
310.316.4564
chinon@well.sf.ca.us
-Makers of the MindSet neuro-mapper.
Autodesk, Inc.
2320 Marinship Way
Sausalito, CA 94965
-Makers of Chaos software. $59.95
Autonomedia
55 South 11th Street
NY, NY 11211
-edge/post-modern publishing company
Kevin Begos, Jr.
Apartment #4d
1411 York Ave
New York, NY 10021
212.650.9324
-Agrippa: A Book of the Dead
($450 - $7,500)
Behind the Post Office
801 F Street
San Diego, CA 92101
619.234.3862
-rave clothes and stuff
Berkeley Designs
2615 Shasta Rd
Berkeley, CA 94708
510.549.0129
-sells t-shirts with fractal and cyberpunk designs (90's tie-dye's) send a SASE
Books by Phone
Box 522
Berkeley, CA 94701
800.858.2665 (orders)
510.548.2124 (info)
-large library of hard-to-find books related to CP, drugs, etc.
nice resource, but you pay a lot for it :-)
Chaos Computer Club,
Schwenckestr 85, D-2000
Hamburg 20, Germany
Church Of SubGenius
PO Box 140306
Dallas, TX 75214
The Computer Lab
Rt 4 Box 54C
Louisa, VA 23093
703.532.1785
-the well-known 5.5 meg HyperCard stack Beyond CyberPunk, $35.00
Consumertronics
2011 Crescent Dr.
PO Drawer 537
Alamogordo, NM 88310
505.434.0234
500.434.0234 (fax - orders only)
-hacking/phreaking manuals
Criminal Research Products
206-218 East Hector Street
Conshocken, PA 19428
-investigative equipment and electronic surveillance items.
Cyberpunk Books
Prince St. Station
PO Box 96
NY, NY 10012
-write for a list
Dreammachine Plans (by Brion Gysin)
OV Press
PO Box 18223
Denver, CO 80218
EAR/Rational Music
1118 Castillo St.
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
angst@cs.ucsb.edu
805.564.4949
805.893.8553 (fax)
-specializing in import music
Excalibur Enterprises
P.O. BOX 266
Emmans, PA 18049
-night vision devices - catalog costs $5
Flashback Books
906 Samuel Drive
Petaluma, CA 94952
707.762.4714
-rare and out-of-print books, psychedelia
FringeWare Inc.
2507 Roehampton
Austin, TX 78745-6964
800.GUT.MEEK
512.477.1366
fringeware@wixer.bga.com
-sells "fringe" software, and other items
Further Connections
Waves Forest
PO Box 768
Monterey, CA 93940
-fringe science
Heathkit
PO Box 1288
Benton Harbor, MI 49022
800.253.0570
-robots
Housewares
1322 Haight St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
415.252.1440
-rave clothes and stuff
Hyperdelic/TransMedia Foundation
415.956.9776
-rave/psychedelic video
InHome Health Services
Box 3112
CH-2800 Delemont
Switzerland
-nootropics (smart drugs)
Interlab
BCM Box 5890
London WC1N 3XX
England
-nootropics
Kodak Center for Creative Imaging
800.428.7400
-classes in electronic imaging taught by experts on state of the art equipment
Timothy Leary
Box 69886
LA, CA 90069
Loompanics, Ltd.
PO Box 1197
Port Townsend, WA 98368
-carries a large collection of underground/hard-to-find books
-send for a catalog
MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)
1801 Tippah Ave.
Charlotte, NC 28205.
Mark Ziesing Books
PO Box 76
Shingleton, CA 96088
800.869.0348
916.474.1580
-mail-order cp/sf book service -send $1 for a catalog
Media Magic
PO Box 507
Nicasio, CA 94946
415.662.2426
-books, videos, merchandise related to vr, cyberspace
Mouser Electronics
11433 Woodside Avenue
Santee, CA 92071
-sells most electronic components parts and equipment
Myron Kreuger/Artificial Reality
55 Edith
Vernon, CT 06066
203.871.1375
-custom vr
Nettwerk Records
Attn: Mail Order
1755 Robson St.
Box 330
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6G3B7
-record company (industrial, hip hop)
NewTek, Inc.
215 SE 8th St.
Topeka, KS 66603
800.843.8934
-makers of the Video Toaster -send 'em $4.95 for a demo tape of what the Video Toaster does
Nomadic Research Labs
PO Box 2185
El Segundo, CA 90245
-Steve Roberts, High-tech nomads
Nutrient Cafe Wholesale
PO Box 170156
San Francisco, CA 94117-0156
-high tech nutrient mixtures
...of the jungle
PO Box 1801
Sebastopol, CA 95473
-legal highs and such
Ono-Sendai Corporation
332 3rd Avenue,
San Francisco, CA 94118-2403
415.387.OSVR.
osendai@well.sf.ca.us
-information on _affordably_ VR systems.
-the people advertising in Mondo 2K, pg 7 (issue #7)
Paladin Press
PO Box 1307
Boulder, CO 80306
-obscure books
Re/Search Publications
70 Romolo Street #B
San Francisco, CA 94133
-underground/fringe subject matter magazine publications
-sex, cyberpunk, industrial and alternative lifestyles
SIGGRAPH (ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics)
212.869.7440 (membership info)
212.764.5537 (fax)(membership info)
312.644.66190 (conference info)
312.321.6976 (fax)conference info)
Silent Records
540 Alabama St. Suite 315
San Francisco, CA 94110
-industrial/import/experimental music
Skyline Books
PO Box T
Forest Knolls, CA 94933
-beat-generation, counterculture, and pomo literature
Smart Products
870 Market Street Suite 1262
San Francisco, CA
-smart drugs, drinks, etc.
