The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace (Hardcover)

Cybergrace: the Search for God in the Digital World by Jennifer Cobb 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)

Coming of Age in Second Life An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human by Tom Boellstorff 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £19.99

› Explore similar items

Amazon.co.uk Review
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.

Review
Not a surfer's guide to the Internet but a study of the influence of science and technology on theology. Raphael, Dante and Giotto are drawn on as much as Galileo, Copernicus and Einstein. Wertheim proposes that cyberspace allows the possibility of a home for the soul. The role-playing and extended influence of communications on the Internet makes this both a sacred and a profane religion, complete with alien abduction mythology in place of demonic possession. (Kirkus UK)

Is the Interact really a place where disembodied souls can find freedom? Science writer Wertheim (Pythagoras' Trousers: God, Physics, and the Gender Wars, 1995) builds a strong historical and philosophical case for the spirituality of cyberspace. According to Wertheim, the medieval worldview posited an essential dualism between the physical body, which existed on earth, and the soul, which could ascend to a higher heavenly plane. With the advent of modern science, however, all realms were incorporated within the rubric of physical space. The body still had a habitus, but the soul was displaced. Wertheim labors a bit too long on the history of this interpretive transformation, devoting whole chapters to the nature of heavenly space as depicted in Dante and Renaissance art (though the breadth of her knowledge of philosophy and art history, as well as science, shows her to be a rare "Renaissance" thinker). She then explores how the Enlightenment effectively abolished celestial space by declaring the supremacy of empirical reality, and how the 20th century has inaugurated something called "hyperspace": space is all that can be said to exist. Even matter is only reconfigured, curved space. The last third of the book throws cyberspace into this historical mix. Wertheim argues quite cogently that cyberspace has superseded concepts of hyperspace to become a kind of "metaphysical gateway," a threshold into an entirely new dimension. Well, not new exactly. In one of the book's genius strokes, Wertheim hearkens back to the medieval concept of space to declare that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Like the medieval thinkers, cybernauts cling to the Interact as a sort of heavenly sphere where bodies, age, race, gender, and nationality cease to exist. Ironically, our most stunning scientific achievement has returned us to a spiritual dualism. And Wertheim claims that this is ultimately "an essentially positive vision," since cyberspace is built upon a network of human relationships. Dense but marvelously provocative. (Kirkus Reviews)

See all Product Description

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

Search inside this book:

There are no customer reviews yet.   Create your own review
Video reviews New feature! Amazon now allows customers to upload product video reviews. Use a webcam or video camera to record and upload reviews to Amazon.	Ad feedback

• Books > Computing & Internet > Programming > Interface Design
• Books > Computing & Internet > Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering
• Books > Computing & Internet > Web Development
• Books > History
• Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Cultural Studies > History of Ideas

History of ideas, intellectual history
Human-computer interaction
Internet
Cyberspace
COMPUTERS / Internet / General
COMPUTERS / Social Aspects / Human-Computer Interaction
History / Civilization
Science: general issues
Social Sciences
Computing: Consumer Books ('Technical Trade')


i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

• Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
• I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
• I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.