Following the White Rabbit...
I thought I'd kick off this year's blog by offering two conflicting perspectives on the 'promise' of cyberspace. One hints at a utopian wonderland of possibilities and liberty, suggesting that cyberspace holds out the key to a world that has the potential to expand human consciousness and experience beyond anything thus dreamt of. A dreamscape under our control. The second portrays the allure of the medium as nothing more than a mirage based on a myth based on ancient and very human needs; needs that can, ultimately, only be sated by the world in which our species has evolved. Contrast this: "In fairy-tales, the humblest home may have a hidden 'door-in-the-wall' which gives entrance to the magic world, in the same way as a portal like Yahoo!, Lycos or AltaVista leads one to the exciting realm of cyberspace. The computer monitors are such magic doors--doors of perception, doors of the Kingdom--which can get us 'over there' as freed and disembodied entities."....
.....with the rather sordid and sad tale recounted in 'Virtual Adultery and Cyberspace Love' which is available on BBC iPlayer for a few more days yet. The following link is from an editorial of the programme by The Times journalist Helen Rumbelow which highlights, with painful accuracy, the consequences of the mirage dissipating. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3277897.ece'
Perhaps willfully 'following the virtual white rabbit' will only ever be as fruitful as in Lewis Carroll's book? (after all, he never really arrived at any destination and I'm not even sure he knew where he was going). Consciously pursuing a cyber-remedy to one's real-life ails seems, at least at this moment in technological time, merely a placebo or temporary salve. Maybe the people who gain most from this 'terrain of the mind' are those who stumble into its portals and simply enjoy the wild and whacky journeys that it offers and are, like Alice, enriched and evolved (quite often without even knowing it) yet keep an eye on and retain a desire for the solid, predictable, less anarchic, (comparatively mundane) familiarity of 'home'.
Is it a postmodern Holy Grail; a vessel that can magically transform the lives of homo sapiens? Or is it now (and most likely for all time) simply a tool or vehicle for intermittently enhancing residence in 'meatspace'?
.....with the rather sordid and sad tale recounted in 'Virtual Adultery and Cyberspace Love' which is available on BBC iPlayer for a few more days yet. The following link is from an editorial of the programme by The Times journalist Helen Rumbelow which highlights, with painful accuracy, the consequences of the mirage dissipating. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article3277897.ece'
Perhaps willfully 'following the virtual white rabbit' will only ever be as fruitful as in Lewis Carroll's book? (after all, he never really arrived at any destination and I'm not even sure he knew where he was going). Consciously pursuing a cyber-remedy to one's real-life ails seems, at least at this moment in technological time, merely a placebo or temporary salve. Maybe the people who gain most from this 'terrain of the mind' are those who stumble into its portals and simply enjoy the wild and whacky journeys that it offers and are, like Alice, enriched and evolved (quite often without even knowing it) yet keep an eye on and retain a desire for the solid, predictable, less anarchic, (comparatively mundane) familiarity of 'home'.
Is it a postmodern Holy Grail; a vessel that can magically transform the lives of homo sapiens? Or is it now (and most likely for all time) simply a tool or vehicle for intermittently enhancing residence in 'meatspace'?
No comments:
Post a Comment