Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface ix
4. Virtual Dreams 1
5. Virtual Folklore: Breaking the News about the Internet 4
6. Point of No Return: Crossing the Virtual Threshold 11
7. When Cultures Collide: The Internet versus the "Great Conversation" 22
8. Internet Economics: The Complex Synergies of Wealth Creation 26
9. The Evolutionary Implications of the Internet 33
10. Notes from Santa Fe: The Internet as a Complex Adaptive System 37
11. Virtual Nightmares
12. Work, Leisure, and the Overthrow of Matter 42
13. Tube Time: Power Cocooning for Fun and Profit 47
14. Quality of Information: The Human Bandwidth Problem 50
15. Information Overload: A Challenge for Human Productivity 54
16. The Electronic Agora and the Death of History 60
17. Inferiority: Our Most Precious Natural Resource 64
18. Electronic Mediation and Technological Depende 71
19. The Psychopathology of Online Life 74
20. Yellow Alert: Massive System Vulnerability 81
21. The Electronic Polity
22. The Complexities of Role and Identity in Cyberspace 88
23. Spin Doctors Invade Net—Film at Eleven 96
24. The Strange Obscurantism of the Virtual World 107
25. Virtual Schmoozing: The Ever Popular Cocktail Party Effect 114
26. A Postmodern Dilemma: Are All Ideas Created Equal? 118
27. The Myth of Electronic Democracy: A Reality Check 121
28. Digital Culture
29. Why Wired Is Tired: The Transformation of Technology into Culture 134
30. Random Thoughts on the Defining Works of Cyberculture 147
31. The New Media: Tossing Out the Rules 156
32. The Internet and Spirituality: A Strange Brew Indeed 161
33. The EFF and Net Politics: Technocracy in the Making? 166
34. Telecom Unchained: Privatizing the Public Network 171
35. Science, Culture, and the Internet
36. Is Science Our National Religion? 178
37. Back to the Future: Science Fiction as Mythology 182
38. Mediated Society: The Cybersomething That Lies beyond Gesellschaft 187
39. Orwell Reconsidered: The Paradox of Decentralization 197
40. Is Cyberspace a Trojan Horse for Technocracy? 202
41. Science, Spirituality, and the Crisis of Epistemology 205
42. Notes 213
43. Bibliography 215
44. Index 217
45. About the Author 221