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'Imaginary Futures: from thinking machines to the global village' by Richard Barbrook has won the the 2008 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology. (Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology )
Barbrook has an amusing take on our distorted - if not delusional - relationship with technology, but his underlying point is serious: future visions of technology are used to distract us and also control us, and if we forget these imaginary futures, we are likely to repeat them. (Guardian Unlimited )
A compelling, authoritative, and painstakingly documented narrative, Imaginary Futures traces the emergence of the computer era in the context of desperately competing ideologies, economics, and empires. This is a work of passionate and persuasive scholarship by a contemporary social theorist at the top of his game. (Douglas Rushkoff, author, Coercion, Media Virus, Get Back in the Box. )
Imaginary Futures gives insight into how the dominant utopias of today were shaped in the time of the Cold War and served the ideological needs of the elites. While the Cold War West had a much better present, it was the Soviet East which had a vision of the future. The invention of a Western utopia became an important factor in the struggle for global power. (Boris Kagarlitsky, Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Comparative Political Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences )
Barbrook has an amusing take on our distorted - if not delusional - relationship with technology, but his underlying point is serious: future visions of technology are used to distract us and also control us, and if we forget these imaginary futures, we are likely to repeat them. (Guardian Unlimited )
A compelling, authoritative, and painstakingly documented narrative, Imaginary Futures traces the emergence of the computer era in the context of desperately competing ideologies, economics, and empires. This is a work of passionate and persuasive scholarship by a contemporary social theorist at the top of his game. (Douglas Rushkoff, author, Coercion, Media Virus, Get Back in the Box. )
Imaginary Futures gives insight into how the dominant utopias of today were shaped in the time of the Cold War and served the ideological needs of the elites. While the Cold War West had a much better present, it was the Soviet East which had a vision of the future. The invention of a Western utopia became an important factor in the struggle for global power. (Boris Kagarlitsky, Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Comparative Political Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences )
Review
'Imaginary Futures: from thinking machines to the global village' by Richard Barbrook has won the the 2008 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology. -- Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology Barbrook has an amusing take on our distorted - if not delusional - relationship with technology, but his underlying point is serious: future visions of technology are used to distract us and also control us, and if we forget these imaginary futures, we are likely to repeat them. -- Guardian Unlimited Barbrook has an amusing take on our distorted - if not delusional - relationship with technology, but his underlying point is serious: future visions of technology are used to distract us and also control us, and if we forget these imaginary futures, we are likely to repeat them. -- Guardian Unlimited A compelling, authoritative, and painstakingly documented narrative, Imaginary Futures traces the emergence of the computer era in the context of desperately competing ideologies, economics, and empires. This is a work of passionate and persuasive scholarship by a contemporary social theorist at the top of his game. -- Douglas Rushkoff, author, Coercion, Media Virus, Get Back in the Box. A compelling, authoritative, and painstakingly documented narrative, Imaginary Futures traces the emergence of the computer era in the context of desperately competing ideologies, economics, and empires. This is a work of passionate and persuasive scholarship by a contemporary social theorist at the top of his game. -- Douglas Rushkoff, author, Coercion, Media Virus, Get Back in the Box. Imaginary Futures gives insight into how the dominant utopias of today were shaped in the time of the Cold War and served the ideological needs of the elites. While the Cold War West had a much better present, it was the Soviet East which had a vision of the future. The invention of a Western utopia became an important factor in the struggle for global power. -- Boris Kagarlitsky, Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Comparative Political Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences Imaginary Futures gives insight into how the dominant utopias of today were shaped in the time of the Cold War and served the ideological needs of the elites. While the Cold War West had a much better present, it was the Soviet East which had a vision of the future. The invention of a Western utopia became an important factor in the struggle for global power. -- Boris Kagarlitsky, Senior Research Fellow in the Institute for Comparative Political Studies, the Russian Academy of Sciences
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I recently met Barbrook at an event and he handed me a card promoting this book .. He had been playing and discussing a war /strategy game which linked into Guy de Bord which looked interesting , but as I had missed the begining so it was a bit indecipherable. Nevertheless now having read the book it is clear that he is a lucid thinker and his application of cybernetics and the pre conditions for the computer age made facinating reading .. The way in which he identifies how the role of the cold war was underplayed in the development of 50's and 60's western culture was eye opener .
He is imaginative in the way that he uses a leftist perpective to link various themes together to help describe and analyse the IT age that now dominates modern society and culture. Indeed there is a curious resonance in buying and then reviewing the book on Amazon! He develops a range of new non-ideological horizons for us to consider.. Perhaps I expected the book to explore some of this links into psychological systems theory (Bateson) but it seemed to be more sociologically, culturally and politically based
Nevertheless as someone who is not immersed in political science academia I found this to be an accessible , intelligent, stimulating and important book. I think I understood most of it and the impact of having read it will stay with me for a long time.
He is imaginative in the way that he uses a leftist perpective to link various themes together to help describe and analyse the IT age that now dominates modern society and culture. Indeed there is a curious resonance in buying and then reviewing the book on Amazon! He develops a range of new non-ideological horizons for us to consider.. Perhaps I expected the book to explore some of this links into psychological systems theory (Bateson) but it seemed to be more sociologically, culturally and politically based
Nevertheless as someone who is not immersed in political science academia I found this to be an accessible , intelligent, stimulating and important book. I think I understood most of it and the impact of having read it will stay with me for a long time.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Subtitled 'From Thinking Machines to the Global Village', this is a really unusual and interesting book. It's about the political and philosophical lineage of the Internet. Beginning with the 1964 New York World's Fair, it traces the Cold War origins of the politics which gave rise to the Internet.
For Barbrook the work on cybernetics by Norbert Weiner and John von Neumann fused with the 'global village' concept developed by Marshall McLuhan provided the impetus for the eventual development of the Internet. This was elaborated on by a group of former left wing intellectuals including such luminaries as Walt Rostow, J. K. Galbraith, and Daniel Bell who were able to turn it into a vision of a an American future that would compete with that of the Cold War enemy - Russia.
The book charts the history of the ideas and actions of this group through to its discrediting through the denouement of the Vietnam War. It also covers - unfortunately all to briefly - how the ideology was co-opted and resuscitated by Californian neo-cons via Wired magazine.
I suspect Barbrook's left wing analysis, and some of his assumptions, will make American readers feel uncomfortable. In addition, I feel that the analysis has a touch of one-dimensionality about it. None the less, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested in an analysis of the Internet's political pre-history.
For Barbrook the work on cybernetics by Norbert Weiner and John von Neumann fused with the 'global village' concept developed by Marshall McLuhan provided the impetus for the eventual development of the Internet. This was elaborated on by a group of former left wing intellectuals including such luminaries as Walt Rostow, J. K. Galbraith, and Daniel Bell who were able to turn it into a vision of a an American future that would compete with that of the Cold War enemy - Russia.
The book charts the history of the ideas and actions of this group through to its discrediting through the denouement of the Vietnam War. It also covers - unfortunately all to briefly - how the ideology was co-opted and resuscitated by Californian neo-cons via Wired magazine.
I suspect Barbrook's left wing analysis, and some of his assumptions, will make American readers feel uncomfortable. In addition, I feel that the analysis has a touch of one-dimensionality about it. None the less, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone interested in an analysis of the Internet's political pre-history.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The book that Richard Barbrook had always promised to write doesn't disappoint - an incredible journey across the last fifty years, taking in the Cold War, computer science, new media, American popular culture, the intelligent services, globalisation and much much more. A key text for anyone wanting to understand how the digital economy was created, why it works the way it does and where it has to go next.
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