My main computer and technical information site, /. = slashdot, has a time-machine. It doesn’t go forward in time, only backwards, and for interesting information, it does not go very far back, probably only to the 1930s at most. Reliable information stops at about 1960. This time, it has gone back 30 years to 1994. What it is able to find is entirely dependent on the organic content, stored inside people’s brains, while it examines significant events and places from the past. They also use a few imitation time machines, relying on ancient texts and videos, augmenting their findings with suppositions and imaginings. These sources are not nearly as reliable because, sometimes, they rely on historians, rather than on people who have experienced something. I have been studying one such report today, from a world I know almost nothing about.
There is a vague time stamp: Early morning. What does that mean? 01:00 or 07:00. I am uncertain. Then there is the next informational component, Sunday. For most people it is the second day in a row off work. Then comes something more tangible 1994, a year. modified with late. That probably means more than a month, but how much more? Three or four months, towards the end of the year. So, most likely October or November. That gives only nine dates, 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 in October, 6, 13, 20, 27 in November. I select the midmost, October 30. I can remember the time period when I learn that on 1994-09-28, The car ferry MS Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 people. On 1994-10-01, The World Wide Web consortium was founded. Earlier in the year, Power Macintosh computers arrived. Sweden decided to join the European union.
The location comes next: Great Britain, England, London, Fitzrovia. Wikipedia could help: It is an informal area, not an administrative unit, characterised by its mixed-use of residential, business, retail, education and healthcare, with no single activity dominating. The once bohemian area was home to writers such as Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Rimbaud. In 2016, The Sunday Times named it the best place to live in London.
The informant is shuffling. A shuffling gait is a walking pattern that occurs when a person drags their feet. The length of each step is typically shorter than normal. While most people occasionally shuffle—perhaps while catching their balance after tripping or trying to run when their leg muscles are tired—a consistent shuffling gait pattern can signify an underlying health condition. Oh dear, perhaps something related to intoxication.
There is some content supporting the intoxication thesis: “bloodstream still rushing after a long night.” I let in pass, thinking that readers can find their own alternative interpretation. Bagley’s refers to a club in King’s Cross, a massive venue, in an old warehouse, popular, home of Bagley’s nightclub ravers group. A name from a Yorkshire firm which once manufactured glass bottles in the warehouse. It gradually expanded to host five-room dance spectaculars like the Mud Club, Freedom, Pushca and World Dance. Sounds from the 1990s. What does that even mean? People belong to so many tribes, with competing sounds.
The sun comes up, as you come down. Sunrise is about 6:51. Say, 7:00. The second time suggestion is confirmed. Coming down? My mind jumps to, Coming down the Wye (1942), by Robert Gibbings, a text about the river in England and Wales with engravings by the author. I have a copy. The engravings are inspiring. My mind flashes back, coming down means sobering up!
The occupant in the time machine is intimately familiar with central London. The text so far shouts masculine, rather than feminine. His hand is stamped with a party logo. His brain is no longer functioning. It needs some artificial stimulus, coffee.
He finds himself outside a teal blue cafe. Teal is a greenish-blue color. Its name comes from that of a bird—the Eurasian teal (Anas crecca)—which presents a similarly colored stripe on its head. The word is often used colloquially to refer to shades of cyan in general.
The cafe is Cyberia, the world’s first internet cafe.
The story of Cyberia begins with Eva Pascoe (1964 – ), a Polish computing student living in London. Myth has it that she interacted with Tim Berners Lee. She states: “I was very interested in cyberfeminism and wanted to figure out how women could reclaim tech.”
Her European origins emerge: “There were no coffee shops in London. Just greasy spoons and everyone drank tea. I wanted a European-style cafe.”
Pascoe with David Rowe and Keith and Gene Teare launched Cyberia in 1994. They were social hackers: people skilled in information technology who achieves goals by non-standard means. So Hackers-style aesthetics emphasizes something non-standard. I find it difficult to connect with the adjective futuristic, especially with the noun furniture, in such a landscape, cafescape. Yet, I can also appreciate a U-shaped layout allowing visitors could see each other’s screens.
Eva continues: “I wanted women to feel safe, because a lot of the stuff on the net was dodgy.”
In 1994, the computers would be desktops: large, beige and ugly. Three senses are accommodated in Cyberia. Visual: tentacle cables hang from the ceiling. Thirty years later, and animatronics is still for the advanced hacker. Each tentacle segment has two stages, each of which has two degrees of freedom, that allow it to arc in two directions. Combine several segments and the resulting beast can convince almost anyone that it is alive. Sound: Ambient techno reverberates from wall to wall. No, not Tekno, the Nigerian singer. Techno bangers, that impure combination of heavy metal and electronic dance music. Excessive behs. Smell: cigarette smoke fills the air. Yes, this is definitely no later than 1994.
Eva visited an Amish community in Pennsylvania to negotiate the acquisition of the cyberia.com domain name. In London, Cyberia quickly became a hot location. Cyberia opened around 20 cafes worldwide, in addition to: Cyberia Channel (a streaming service), the Cyberia magazine, Cyberia Payments, Cyberia Records, a Cyberia television show and Cybersalon, a think-tank.
Is the inside alien in any way? I am unsure, with club kids, tech heads and game developers describing the more masculine element. Where are the women? Are they in the background ensuring that everything functions as it should? Or, are they in the foreground, avoiding the male gaze, while communicating with their feminist sisters?
We had our own internet cafe, here in Inderøy, starting in 1998. e@ = Ea, local Norwegian slang for the eider duck, found close by in the fjord. Cafes with computers in them are unnecessary now. Everybody has their own portable device, from dumbphone to laptop, with smartphones and tablets as intermediaries. One just needs a place with wireless broadband, and strong black coffee.
Rural areas can be socially advanced. Residents don’t have to spend large portions of their incomes on mortgage or rental payments. One finds it best not to offend more than half of the population.
My wife Trish was on the board of the local Saniteten, the women’s organization primarily concerned about women’s health issues. They gave E@ a dishwasher, so that it could meet public health requirements. Yes, restaurants have to ensure that bacteria are dead when they leave a dishwasher. Washing cycles are longer and at a higher temperature than that found on domestic dish washers.
In addition, we organized an alternative Christmas dinner, for people without a place to go. This continues, but we are no longer active in it.
Our son, Alasdair, was also active as a volunteer, learning how to be of service to others, and gaining other important life skills.
In the year 2024, I am using various online sources to find out how many of the 20 or so Cyberia cafes exist today. Trip Adviser finds one, 524 Shelden Ave, Houghton, MI 49931-2144. That is in northern Michigan, on the peninsula, on the shores of Lake Superior.