Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors [Hardcover]

Mark Stefik (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1996

The stakes are high - metaphors can have an impact on the legal and policy aspects of the future of the Internet as well as its technical design and economic structure. "Internet Dreams" illuminates not only how "the Net" is being created, but also stories about ourselves as our lives become electronically interconnected. Ancient myths meet modern networks. Carl Jung and others maintain that our dreams speak to us in terms of archetypes and symbols. These symbols are often universal. They reveal much about our common humanity and how we see ourselves. These symbols also appear in our patterns of speech, reflecting in our choice of metaphor how we shape our understanding of things. The Internet, the emerging embodiment of the modern information infrastructure, is now entering our social consciousness. So what metaphors do we use in talking about it and thinking about it? The "information superhighway" metaphor, for a while ubiquitous in the popular press, gives only a limited sense of what the Internet is and what it could be. Mark Stefik explores some of the most provocative writings about the Internet to tease out the deeper metaphors and myths. He finds four persistent metaphors - digital library, electronic mail, electronic marketplace and digital world. These metaphors are based on ancient myths and archetypes that have influenced human thinking for thousands of years: keeper of knowledge (the digital library), communicator (electronic mail), the trader (electronic marketplace), and the adventurer (digital world).

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Stefik's basic premise is simple: the way we think about the Internet -- the mental symbols we use to represent its nature and purpose -- will determine what the Internet will become. He's gathered the writings of some of the most insightful and creative writers dealing with our growing global infrastructure to examine the ways we consider the Net and what that means for our future. The essays are as readable as they are thought-provoking, and Stefik's surrounding commentaries bind the diverse works into a whole.

About the Author

Mark Stefik is Principal Scientist, Information Sciences and Technology Laboratory, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 412 pages
• Publisher: Mit Pr; First Edition edition (November 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262193736
• ISBN-13: 978-0262193733
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,515,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing way of predicting the Internet's future, June 18, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors (Hardcover)

The thesis of this fascinating book is that there is no longer any technological determinism left for the Internet because we have the ability to make the technology do whatever we want it to do. The only constraint upon its development lies in the limits of our imaginations, so what the Internet will become depends upon how we conceptualize or even `dream' about the Internet. "These dreams tap into metaphors we all use to understand our life experiences and convey deep and important messages about where we are going and what we are becoming" (p.390). His name is not mentioned but it is obvious that the influence of McLuhan lies over this book. Stefik says there are four basic metaphors which have so far shaped our thinking about the Net: the digital library (publishing and the community memory); the electronic mail metaphor (as a communication medium); the electronic marketplace (selling goods and services), and the digital world (the I-way as a gateway to experience). The selected readings have a huge historical and cultural depth which makes the book useful as an anthology alone. Stefik introduces each piece to place it in context, then after the extract he gives his own reflections. This book has some similarities to `Information and communication technologies: vision and realities', edited by William H. Dutton (OUP, 1996) but Stefik puts more emphasis on the `dreaming' of the future than Dutton, and also he has done more to classify the themes. There are also echoes of Ken Auletta's new book "The highwaymen: warriors of the information superhighway" (Random House, 1997) which makes it plain that even the heads of major computer companies don't know where we're heading. Not a book for the keyboard junkies who want to know what can be done on the Internet right now, nor is it easy reading for armchair philosophers. In fact it's hard to say who will read it, despite its intriguing content. Faculty and grad students concerned with technology and social change really must read it, and it will be a very useful book for those whose thinking takes the longer view.