War Of The Worlds: Cyberspace And The High-tech Assault On Reality [Paperback]

Mark Slouka (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0465004873 | ISBN-13: 978-0465004874 | Publication Date: June 28, 1996

Warning: A technological revolution is unfolding that promises, in the words of its creators, to redefine what it means to be human. Face-to-face communication (“F2F” to those in the know) is quickly becoming obsolete; already we turn to computers for information, entertainment, companionship—even love. Science fiction? Hardly. This is the brave new vision of the digital avant-garde, computer crusaders leading a high-tech assault on what was once known as reality. Sophisticated, well-funded, unabashedly messianic, they have the power, the technological know-how, and the marketplace savvy to make good on many of their wildest prophecies. With War of the Worlds, Mark Slouka gives us a funny, but eerily disturbing, humanist’s look at the culture of cyberspace.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Mark Slouka is Neil Postman's kindred spirit. These essays offer a critique of how cyberspace effects and changes the rest of reality. With an acerbic tongue, Slouka examines what he considers to be the dark side of the net. Slouka can get quite melodramatic, as when he compares Wired editor Kevin Kelly to Nazi propaganda filmmaker Leni Rienfenstahl. War of the Worlds is well worth reading, though, because it's important to critically review the critics, especially those who argue their point this well.

From Publishers Weekly

As millions of computer users plug into the Internet, access online services, play computer simulation games and explore virtual realities, abstract communication replaces firsthand experience, entertainment becomes mere spectatorship and ordinary human contact is devalued, declares Slouka. His thoughtful, provocative critique deflates the giddy, messianic claims of digital-revolution proponents. A lecturer in English and popular culture at UC San Diego, Slouka deftly skewers the notion that universal access to an information superhighway will empower the weak and foster community. Attacking cyberspace enthusiasts who envisage a "digital hive" wiring together countless computer buffs into a "global mind," Slouka argues that such fantasies betray a collectivist mentality and a deep distrust of the individual. His withering broadside makes a compelling case that the so-called digital revolution is distraction on a grand scale. $25,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 202 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (June 28, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465004873
• ISBN-13: 978-0465004874
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #227,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I Wanted More, December 22, 1999

By 

Jake Sapiens - See all my reviews

This review is from: War Of The Worlds: Cyberspace And The High-tech Assault On Reality (Paperback)

This book reads very quickly. Mark Slouka's writing style easily holds my attention to the end. Unfortunately he sacrifices depth of analysis for interesting rhetoric. This timely topic needs more thought and I think this book comes up way too shallow. Slouka's excellent writing abilities here seems to indicate that he could have taken more time and thought and come up with a better, more insightful book. He tries to steer a thoughtful middle course between technophilia and luddism, but I don't think that he really found it.

Instead he clangs a lot on the rhetorical bells with a message that essentially comes down to, "pull your head out of cyberspace and live in the real world!" coupled with some vague paranoia about the "digerati's" plans for us. While that might grab the attention briefly, the realities of these issues come out as far more complex -- not every cyberspace junkie spends their time in MUUDs and in some cases cyberspace provides as much competition as encouragement for television watching. I know plenty of cybernauts who never watch any television at all. He did make some vague attempts at the end to tie this all down to some philosophy of essentialism, though he didn't elaborate much except to throw the words around rhetorically.

I take Slouka's concerns seriously and share them. I recommend his book to the extent that he talks about things we all should talk about and also because the book reads quickly and easily without coming across like Mickey Mouse. But I find myself still waiting for the thoughtful alternative vision to unmitigated technophilia and outright luddism. The read seemed great while it lasted but left me ultimately unsatisfied and pretty much back where I started. Maybe it will inspire someone to do a more thoughtful analysis of these issues.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Digital is the new Real, February 22, 2011

By 

William Timothy Lukeman - See all my reviews
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This review is from: War Of The Worlds: Cyberspace And The High-tech Assault On Reality (Paperback)

It's fascinating to return to Mark Slouka's prescient words some 15 years later -- a lifetime, maybe 2 or 3, in the advancement of digital technology & its world. Or is it really advancement? That was the question then, and it's even more pressing today, when the digital has become the unnoticed sea in which we all swim. Those who are old enough remember a pre-digital world; those born into it have never known anything else. It truly is their everyday reality now.

These days there are more books written & published about the negative effects of the digital world -- although they tend to preach to an ever-decreasing choir, alas. The lure of the online is just too powerful for most people, too satisfying, too addictive. Attention spans shorten, depth of understanding dries up like a puddle in summer, and everyone lets the Web do their thinking for them.

But as Slouka pointed out in 1996, there are those who would like sentience itself to migrate to the Web. Already some technophiles rhapsodize about the possibilities of digital immortality, of somehow transferring their consciousness to computers & achieving a sort of eternal life, freed of the flesh, almost angelic, translated to a digital paradise wherein they can indulge their every fantasy -- forever. Far-fetched? Not to many, who not only find such a prospect quite possible, but incredibly desirable.

As someone once said, the danger isn't that computers will learn to think like us, but that we'll learn to think like them. No question but that the digital world is a powerful tool! The question is, are we using that tool for human purposes, or we adapting (or crippling) ourselves to live in the digital world at the expense of our humanity? At the very least, it's a sobering question to be pondered at length, before surrendering to the Web entirely. Slouka presents that question clearly & urgently. We would do well to stop & think about it -- with our own brains, rather than Googling it.

Highly recommended for the thoughtful human being!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this and Postman, April 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: War Of The Worlds: Cyberspace And The High-tech Assault On Reality (Paperback)

Read this book and any book by Postman. IT's quick read, a little repetitive, but you'll learn a lot just from the stories he tells. I think he is exaggerating the effects of all this technology a little bit, but his points are valid. Comments about people thinking they are "gods" over nature or cyring about the death of their virtual reality fish; this is a major heads up. He comments about teople who aren't enjoying nature anymore by choice and who are plugged in to the net for days at a time.