Book details of 'Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors'

Title	Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors
Author(s)	Mark Stefik, Vinton G. Cerf
ISBN	0262193736
Language	English
Publisher	MIT Press

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The Virtual Bookcase Reviews of 'Internet Dreams: Archetypes, Myths, and Metaphors':

Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
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.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
If you don't know where you're going, that's probably where you'll end up. A great many statements, pronouncements and opinions regarding the current "extended" Internet (or, in Quarterman's term, the Matrix) and any future developments from it are based not on reality, but on unconscious assumptions that the net is a library, TV, playground, workshop, meeting place, alternate world, community, market, or some other metaphor. Stefik has collected and excerpted visions from a variety of sources to try and present a range of options, and to promote discussion of these underlying assumptions: are they valid, are they helpful, and what are they missing? The articles come from classics such as Vannevar Bush's "As We May Think" (his "memex" is often cited as the seminal idea behind hypertext and the World Wide Web), through the artistry of Julian Dibbell's "A Rape in Cyberspace" (items as compelling as this are seldom found in technical works), to Scott Cook's bad-tempered "Technological Revolutions and the Gutenberg Myth." Part one looks at the metaphor of the library. Hypertext, the move from books to digital media, intelligent agents, currency in literature, intellectual property values, non-informational aspects, and the preservation of culture are included in the topics raised. For those who have looked at the net as a cultural entity, the library is the symbol most frequently used for comparison. Still, these essays do manage to present the classic ideas without being repetitious. Part three looks at the electronic marketplace and commerce. The business approach to the net tends to be the least examined aspect: those interested in the Internet as a sales tool simply want to get on with it and close the deal. "Business on the net" books tend to be simplistic and seldom have a solid grasp on the reality of either the technology or the culture of the net. While brief, this section covers every pertinent topic that I have seen discussed in almost all books on the digital economy, and makes a reasonable introduction to a generally sloppy field. Parts two and four appear, to me, to be very strongly related. Part two looks at email, and does a decent job. Part four looks at other forms of computer mediated communication, but primarily emphasizes real-time social communication. (The particular example used is the MUD - multiple user domain - but IRC - Internet Relay Chat - would be very similar.) On the one hand, therefore, the two parts are simply alternate technologies with the same objective. In correspondence with Stefik, he has noted that he was trying to bring out the image of the sense of place involved in chat "rooms." In hindsight, his objective is accomplished, although not strongly. I may be the wrong person to note this distinction, since long experience with mailing lists has given me a sense of "place" in regard to them as well. The metaphors that might be called passive entertainment (newsgroup lurking and Web browsing) and work get rather short shrift. It is, of course, not possible to examine all the metaphors for the net and would be very difficult to collect all the common ones. Those presented are a good start, and a prompt for further discussion. (While archetypes and myths do get frequent mention, their use does not contribute greatly to the book in its current form.) Hopefully, this work may promote further explorations of other Matrix metaphors - which, in turn, may lead to an expanded second edition. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997
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