Data Trash

Smelling the virtual flowers and counting the road-kill on the digital superhighway are just a couple of things that Kroker/Weinstein explains. Others include: the theory of the virtual class; virtual ideology; the will to virtuality; the political economy of virtual reality; prime time reports; virtual (photographic) culture; and the virtual history file.

Smelling the virtual flowers and counting the road-kill on the digital superhighway are just a couple of things that Kroker/Weinstein explains. Others include: the theory of the virtual class; virtual ideology; the will to virtuality; the political economy of virtual reality; prime time reports; virtual (photographic) culture; and the virtual history file.

Publishers Weekly

Authors Kroker (Spasm) and Weinstein have written a primer that speculates on the state of things to come when we become the Internet. They have anticipated the debris that will be left by the traffic of the information highway-and they can't ignore the roadkill. What follows is a survey exploring the consequences of technology on culture, economy, class and individuality. They hold that virtual reality will supplant reality itself, that use of information will reinforce extant caste systems, and that ultimately the information highway will not be so much a tool providing us with usable data but rather it will provide those who control it with data to use us. Their findings, while alternately compelling and repellent, are undermined as they single-handedly double the lexicon of technobabble. While the suppositions of the authors should not be dismissed, one must note that they prescribe no action. A cautionary note is a useful check against technological autocracy, but in this format the hypotheses take on a cast of conspiracy theory, since supporting evidence is often neglected at the expense of covering a multitude of topics. (Nov.)