Cyber Reader is an anthology of extracts from key texts relating to the theme of cyberspace, the virtual communicative space created by digital technologies. Approaching the subject from a variety of angles, including science fiction, this book reflects the multidisciplinary basis of cyberspace and illustrates how different disciplines can inform one another.
Over 40 texts are presented in chronological order, beginning with key precursors to cyberspace theory as we know it today. Writings by early theoreticians such as Charles Babbage and Alan Turing, and authors such as E M Forster, help to give a historical perspective to the subject, while texts on theoretical developments show the parallels between real and imagined worlds. Each extract is prefaced by a short introduction by editor Neil Spiller, explaining crucial themes and terms, and providing cross references to related texts.
An extensive bibliography enables the reader to pursue particular strands of study that strike their interest. Cyber Reader is an essential source book, introducing students and researchers to cyberspatial theory and practice. It will help the reader understand the wealth of opportunities, both practical and theoretical, that cyberspace engenders and enable them to chart its impact on many disciplines.
Neil Spiller Introduction; Extracts Charles Babbage Of the Analytical Engine; EM Forster The Machine Stops; Vannevar Bush As We May Think; JD Bolter Essays of Operation; Norbert Wiener Organization of the Message; JCR Licklider Man-Computer Symbiosis; Douglas Engelbart Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework; Marshal McLuhan The Gadget Lover: Narcissus as Narcosis; Gordon Pask The Architectural Relevance of Cybernetics; Paul Virilio The Aesthetics of Disappearance; Cedric Price The Birth of the Intelligent Building; William Gibson Neuromancer; Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari A Thousand Plateaux: Capitalism and Schizophrenia; Donna Haraway A Cyborg Manifesto; K Eric Drexler Engines of Abundance; Greg Bear Queen of Angels; William Gibson and Bruce Sterling The Difference Engine; Howard Rheingold The Origins of Drama and the Future of Fun; Manuel De Landa Policing the Spectrum; Marcos Novak Liquid Architectures in Cyberspace; Daniel C Dennett An Empirical Theory of the Mind: The Evolution of Consciousness; Neal Stephenson Snow Crash; Steven Levy The Strong Claim; Roger Lewin Edge of Chaos Discovered; Jeff Noon Stash Riders; Erik Davis Techgnosis; Magic, Memory and the Angels of Information; Scott Bukatman Terminal Resistance; Anne Balsamo Feminism for the Incurably Informed; Sherry Turkle Constructions and Reconstructions of the Self in Virtual Reality; Kevin Kelly An Open Universe; Greg Egan Permutation City; William Mitchell Soft Cities; Karen A Franck When I Enter Virtual Reality, What Body will I Leave Behind?; John Frazer A Natural Model for Architecture; Nicholas Negroponte Iconographics; Stelarc Towards the Post Human; John Perry Barlow A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace; Mark Dery Robocopulation: Sex Times Technology Equals the Future; Hans Moravec The Senses Have No Future; Michael Heim The Virtual Reality of the Tea Ceremony; Anthony Dunne Hertzian Space; Margaret Wertheim The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet; Neil Spiller Vacillating Objects; Bibliography; Index; Acknowledgements
