Digitopia : the look of the new digital you / Richard DeGrandpre.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

DeGrandpre, Richard J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computers and civilization.

Physical Description:

xvi, 190 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : AtRandom.com, [2001]

Summary:

In twenty-five original and provocative essays, DeGrandpre questions whether we as individuals or as a society have adequately considered the implications of a fully wired world, and finds considerable historical evidence to suggest that our digital culture will lead us to a time that has, literally, no place. The name of this placeless place is, of course, Digitopia.

Contents:

Part I. Going Digital

Introduction: some coming attractions 3

Digitally Mastered: on the nature and meaning of all that is digital 8

Four DNA Bases, Twenty-six Letters, a Zero, and a One: how code continues to take over the world 14

The One and Only Reality: not appreciating what reality really is, we have squandered its substance and materiality 19

The Real and the True: how the academics' debate over objectivity and truth missed the point 26

Surviving Survivor: how to survive when lost between virtual reality and real virtuality 31

Digital Mechanics: measuring the impact of the digital revolution 36

Part II. The Long Journey Into Digitopia

A Short History of the Digital Self: first stripped naked, then jacked in, and soon to be downloaded 43

Unplugged Media: indigenous oral cultures and the first four selves 49

Plugged-in Media: child of projection: the fifth self 57

The Coming of Digital Age: cyberpunks and the sixth self 63

Part III. The Psychology of the Digital Age

A Digital Ethos: just log on, jack in, and drop out 69

The Sad and Lonely World of Cyberspace: what psychological research can (and cannot) tell us about america online 75

Virtual Reality Shapes the Mind in Its Own Image: a psychological theory of why virtuality rules 82

A Digital Virus: how the digital revolution feeds off a crippled social sphere 87

Fight and Flight: instead of fighting for a better world, we're taking flight into virtuality 94

The Drama of the Digital Self: no more struggle between the will to power and the need for mutual recognition 100

Digital Dreams, Concrete Realities: how the desires of the plugged-in world spill over into everyday life 105

Feeling Oh, So Analog in an All-Too-Digital Age: why faster computers and better graphics will never be enough 111

The Incredible Shrinking Attention Span: how you accommodate yourself to a distracted way of life 117

Pharmacological Aid: on our way to digitopia, drugs have become prosthetics for a self under siege 123

Part IV. The Geography of Digitopia

Living in Timeless Time and Placeless Space: in search of place in the age of cyberspace 133

Constructing Digitopia: making our digital dreamworld a technological reality 140

Part V. The Future of the Future

The (Bill) Joys of Technology: fearing the future that already is 155

Our Fantastic Voyage: wild ride or technological tailspin: can we tell the difference? 164.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [173]-190).

ISBN:

0679647074

0812991567

OCLC:

45506008