"How can we interpret cyberspace? What is the place of the embodied human agent in the virtual world?" "The realm of electronic mediation offers rich material for fiction and fantasy, but equally poses fundamental issues for understanding contemporary social and cultural change.…
This book investigates the realities of human embodiment and the limits of virtual worlds, and covers many topics. It will be of interest to academics and students in cultural studies, popular culture, communication, sociology of culture, and philosophy.
Virtually Human explores what the not-too-distant future will look like when cyberconsciousness--simulation of the human brain via software and computer technology--becomes part of our daily lives. Meet Bina48, the world's most sentient robot, commissioned by Martine Rothblatt a…
"At a time when Steve Jobs was only a teenager and Mark Zuckerberg wasn't even born, a group of vsionary engineers and designers - in the late 1960s and 1970s ceated a computer system called PLATO, which was light-years ahead in experimenting with how people would learn, engage,…
"One of the most significant and important advancements in information and communication technology over the past twenty years is the introduction and expansion of the internet. Now almost universally available the internet brings us email, global voice and video communications,…
« Janet Murray's Hamlet on the Holodeck was instantly influential and controversial when it was first published in 1997. Ahead of its time, it accurately predicted the rise of new genres of storytelling from the convergence of traditional media forms and computing. Taking the lo…
Stories define how we think, the way we play, and the way we understand our lives. And just as Gutenberg made possible the stories that ushered in the Modem Era, so is the computer having a profound effect on the stories of the late 20th century. Today we are confronting the lim…
Janet Murray's Hamlet on the Holodeck was instantly influential and controversial when it was first published in 1997. Ahead of its time, it accurately predicted the rise of new genres of storytelling from the convergence of traditional media forms and computing. Taking the long…
Here, Murray shows how the computer is reshaping the stories we live by and discusses the properties and pleasures of digital environments and connects them with the traditional satisfactions of narrative. She analyzes the dramatic satisfaction of participatory stories and consi…