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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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