Computer technology is a meaningful technology, a technology that, in line with the considerable social resources that have been expended on technological innovation and automation in recent decades, has come to play an increasingly meaningful role in a high-technology society. Thus, as early as 1983, the computer had become so meaningful that Time (1/3/83) awarded it the prize normally given to the man or woman of the year. So, computer technology is meaningful, full of meanings. What the computer actually means, however, to our society, our culture and our consciousness, has not yet been evaluated.

It is this field of mediation, linking technology and the process of meaning, linking computers and culture, that is the subject of this chapter. The main focus is on the title Computer culture while, conversely, the subtitle The meaning of technology and the technology of meaning is intended as a kind of puzzle picture that changes its meaning, according to the point of view one adopts: On the one hand, The meaning of technology is designed to show, as indicated earlier, that we are dealing with an extremely important and meaningful technology: information technology or computer technology, which is precisely a technology that is charged with meaning. On the other hand, The meaning of technology is supposed to imply a humanistic and culturo-analytical approach to technology, an approach that places the emphasis on terms such as meaning, systems of meaning, and the production of meaning, and that primarily addresses the question of the actual, cultural meaning of technology, in the sense of the meaning-creating processes and structures that technology forms part of, and the various cultural concepts that attempt to create meaning through technology.