0415133793.Routledge.Virtual.Futures.Cyberotics.Technology.and.Post-human.Pragmatism.Mar.1998.pdf

VIRTUAL FUTURES

Virtual Futures explores the idea that the future lies in its ability to articulate the

consequences of an increasingly synthetic and virtual world. New technologies

like cyberspace, the internet, and Chaos theory are often discussed in the context

of technology and its potential to liberate or in terms of technophobia. This

collection examines both these ideas while also charting a new and controversial

route through contemporary discourses on technology; a path that discusses the

material evolution and the erotic relation between humans and machines.

Virtual Futures brings together diverse fields such as cyberfeminism,

materialist philosophy, postmodern fiction, computing culture, and performance

art, with essays by Sadie Plant, Stelarc, and Manuel de Landa (to name a few).

The collection heralds the death of humanism and the rise of post-human

pragmatism. The contested zone of debate throughout these essays is the notion

of the post-human, or the possibility of the cyborg as the free human. Viewed by

some writers as a threat to human life and humanism itself, the post-human is

described by others in the collection as a critical perspective that anticipates the

next step in evolution: the integration or synthesis of humans and machines,

organic life and technology.

This view of technology and information is heavily influenced by Anglo-

American literature, especially cyberpunk, Pynchon and Ballard, as well as the

materialist philosophies of Freud, Deleuze, and Haraway. Virtual Futures

provides analysis both by established theorists and by the most innovative new

voices working at the conjunction between the arts and contemporary technology.

Joan Broodhurst Dixon is a philosopher of science. She recently completed

her doctorate at the University of Warwick. Er J.Cassidy is doing research on the

relationship between Deleuze and Pynchon at Warwick University. He co-

ordinated the “Virtual Futures ‘94” and and ‘95 Conferences at Warwick

University.

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VIRTUAL FUTURES

CYBEROTICS, TECHNOLOGY

AND POST-HUMAN

PRAGMATISM

Edited by

JOAN BROADHURST DIXON

& ERIC J.CASSIDY

ROUTLEDGE

London and New York

First published 1998

by Routledge

11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.

“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of

thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

Dixon and Eric J.Cassidy.

reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,

mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter

invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any

information storage or retrieval system, without permission in

writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British

Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data

Virtual futures / edited by Joan Broadhurst Dixon and Eric J,

Cassidy.

p. cm.

1. Technology—Social aspects. 2, Technology—

Psychological aspects. 3, Computers and civilization.

I.Dixon, Joan Broadhurst, II. Cassidy, Eric,

T14.5.V57 1998 97–19274

CIP

ISBN 0-203-98367-X Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-415-13379-3 (hbk)

ISBN 0-415-13380-7 (pbk)

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