Excursions to the Far Side of the Mind (Enhanced)
A Book of Memes
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- 8,99 €
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- 8,99 €
Publisher Description
ENHANCED EDITION
Renowned for exploring the social implications of modern technology, Howard Rheingold has been called by MIT "the first citizen of the Internet." In this collection of funny, prescient, thought-provoking essays, originally published during the 1970s and 1980s, he offers a glimpse into the changes wrought during that explosive period.
From the effects of the graphic user interface (GUI) not only on how we work but how we think, to "technarchist" movements that presaged both the hacker mentality and the anarchist idealism of Burning Man today, to a ground-floor view of the very earliest of what Rheingold was the first to dub virtual communities, his Excursions run the gamut from the silly to the profound.
These essays remain fascinating, amusing, and relevant. "Most of my work in recent decades," Rheingold says, "has focused on the consequences of digital media and networked publics. Before the digital wave came along, I wrote about a more diverse range of subjects: What causes anger? What’s it like to be in a car crash? What’s insect sex like? Do invisible airborne chemicals affect behavior? Can we control our dreams? How will people get high in the future? Will money evolve into new forms? In the second decade of the twenty-first century, these short pieces re-present my explorations during my think about anything years to a wider public who may be familiar with my work on digital culture."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rheingold, author of Tools for Thought, calls himself an ``extraterrestrial anthropologist,'' one who views earthly society from an off-planet perspective. These glib, often superficial pieces from Playboy, Oui, Whole Earth Review, California Living and elsewhere do not support his cosmic pretensions, however. He touts computer networks as ``virtual communities''; dabbles in pop sociobiology (`` . . . humans fight so much because so many males find fighting sexy''); interviews a chemist who invents mind-altering drugs; sniffs at human pheromones (message-transmitting odors); and speculates on whether men will have replaceable sex organs and electronic aphrodisiacs by the year 2000. A couple of the 15 essays are solidly informative, howeverfor instance, his discussion of dreams as a tool for self-analysis and an examination of the use of visual imagery in artistic and scientific creativity.