Cyberspace may seem an unlikely gateway for the soul. But as science commentator Margaret Wertheim argues in this "marvelously provocative" (Kirkus Reviews) book, cyberspace has in recent years become a repository for immense spiritual yearning. Wertheim explores the mapping of spiritual desire onto digitized space and suggests that the modem today has become a metaphysical escape-hatch from a materialism that many people find increasingly dissatisfying. Cyberspace opens up a collective space beyond the laws of physics--a space where mind rather than matter reigns. This strange refuge returns us to an almost medieval dualism between a physical space of body and an immaterial space of mind and psyche.
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In Pythagorus' Trousers science writer and feminist Margaret Wertheim took an astute look at the social and cultural history of physics. She explored how the development of physics became intertwined with the rising power of institutionalised religion, and how both of these predominantly masculine pursuits have influenced women's ability to join the physics community. Now she has turned her attention to virtual reality, looking at similarities between how we view it today and how art and religion was viewed in medieval times. Her assertion is that rather than carrying us forward into new and fabulous other worlds, virtual reality is actually carrying us backwards--to essentially medieval dreams. Beginning with the medieval view with its definition of the world as spiritual space, Wertheim traces the emergence of modern physics with its emphasis on physical space, then presents her thesis; that cyberspace, an outgrowth of modern science, posits the existence of a genuine yet immaterial world in which people are invited to commune in a non-bodily fashion, just as medieval theology brought intangible souls together in heaven. The perfect realm awaits, we are told, not behind the pearly gates but the electronic gateways labelled ".com" and ".net". How did we get from seeing ourselves in soul-space (the world of Dante and the late medievals) to seeing ourselves as purely in body-space (the world of Newton and Einstein)? This crucial transition and the new shift propelled by the Internet is convincingly described in this challenging book.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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'In this wonderful new book, she discerns profound analogies between cyberspace, Dante's PARADISO and Einsteinian physics'. -- JOHN HORGAN, author of THE END OF SCIENCE
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Halfway along the journey of his life, the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri set out on what has become the most famous journey of the Middle Ages: a trip to the end of the universe and back. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Halfway along the journey of his life, the Florentine poet Dante Alighieri set out on what has become the most famous journey of the Middle Ages: a trip to the end of the universe and back. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Margaret Wertheim has an uncanny ability to weave art, science, religion and literature into a solid analysis of culture and it's impact on how we interpret our reality. Her account of the history of our perception of space is fascinating on it's own, exploring as it does the struggle between the physical and the spiritual. However, I thought the final chapters, which examined reasons for the Net's popularity, the possibilities that people claim for it and the limitations of the virtual world were extremely insightful and well worth a read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Forget the title - the real story here is in the subtitle "A History of Space from Dante to the Internet". That's what attracted me, and it lives up to the promise. In less than 200 pages Wertheim gives us the story of space from the middle ages to today. The medieval space of the afterlife, Renaissance perspective space, Copernicus' discovery of astronomical space, Einstein's relativistic space, and todays theories of cyberspace -- Wertheim connects the dots as if she is solving a complex historical puzzle. Even if you don't give a damn about cyberspace this is an amazing book. After reading this you will never take the word "space" for granted again. As Wertheim shows, there is a never-ending morphing of this quintessiential concept.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This book is really divided into 3 parts: history of expression of space through paintings, history of physics, and Wertheim's views on cyberspace. The first two sections are top notch research articles, comprehensive, easy to follow, and very accurate. These two sections alone could have be made into a book. The last section, however, is quite subjective. It basically states that cyberspace will replace the Christian heaven, becoming New Jerusalem, where all will be good, and none shall die. It is where our bodily restraints shall be no more, and we can live with a new image, created through our likings. This is all well in theory, but there are too many problems with utopians created by man. There is also mention of downloading our souls into cyberspace, where we can live after our bodies die. Quite far fetched, and it presents problems as well. Nothing is wrong with new ideas being presented, but wishes for the impossible will never be granted. Living human beings belong to the physical world, and without a body one cannot really be called human...
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A mind-expanding exploration of the spaces that surround us.
I have always wanted to read a cultural history of space, something that would help me understand how humans have conceived and poeticized the nature of the dimensions that... Read more
Published on 13 May 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wertheim's critisism of cyber-religiosity is clear/concise
What a great book, Wertheim's critisism of cyber-religiosity is clear, concise and eviserating of cyber-gurus and those who would take cyberspace as a new home for the... Read more
Published on 27 April 1999
1.0 out of 5 stars
The Grand Delusion
A better title for this book would be "The Grand Delusion". I can't believe someone would even write this. Read more
Published on 19 April 1999
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