Yes. Berkeley in particular was a hotspot of 1960s hippiedom and later hackerdom (there's a reason it's BSD Unix).

Read about Stewart Brand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Brand

He was influential in the hippie counterculture, and later one of the early online communities, The WELL ("Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link").

More here: http://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/817415_chap4.html