Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent exploration of possibilities, 13 May 1999
By A Customer
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This is an amazing book, 3 May 1999
By A Customer
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.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting new way of thinking..., 5 April 1999
By A Customer
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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by Gaston Bachelard
