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

Mark J. Stefik (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 9, 1997

The "information superhighway" is a metaphor oft used to describethe internet, used so often that Stefik fears we're in danger ofsubjecting the evolution of the net to the limiting implications of this metaphor. Stefik, along with a host of prescient technothinkers and doers, examine four richer, more powerful metaphorsand their Jungian archetypes that together should expand anyone'sthinking about the cyber world... And those metaphors are: digitallibrary (The Keeper of Knowledge), electronic mail (Communicator),electronic marketplace (Trader), and digital world (Adventurer).The summoning of the archetypes in service of Stefik's argument isless silicon psychobabble than it is a compelling way to organizethis book around the very real ways in which the net is being used.CONTRIBUTORSThe I-Way as Publishing and Community MemoryVannevar Bush, J. C. R. Licklider, Robert E. Kahn, Joshua Lederberg, John Browning, Scott D. N. Cook, Vicky Reich, Mark Weiser, Ranjit MakkuniThe I-Way as a Communications Medium Lee Sproull, Samer Faraj,Jay Machado, Lynn Conway, Joshua Lederberg.Selling Goods and Services the I-Way Thomas Malone, JoanneYates, Robert Benjamin, Laura Fillmore, Mark StefikThe I-Way as a Gateway to Experience Pavel Curtis, JulianDibbell, Harry Collins, Mark Stefik, John Seeley Brown, William Wulf,Barbara Viglizzo

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Michael Warner is Professor of English at Rutgers University. He is the author of The Trouble with Normal: Sex, Politics, and the Ethics of Queer Life and The Letters of the Republic: Publication and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century America.

Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; First Thus edition (May 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262692023
• ISBN-13: 978-0262692021
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,050,603 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.