Marshall McLuhan and Virtuality

Marshall McLuhan and Virtuality PDF

Author: Chris Horrocks

Publisher: Cambridge : Icon

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 84

ISBN-13:

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This book argues that radical transformations in media and technology have reinvigorated debate about McLuhan's famous dictum, 'the medium is the message'.

Marshall Mcluhan and Virtuality

Marshall Mcluhan and Virtuality PDF

Author: Christopher Horrocks

Publisher:

Published: 2007-06-01

Total Pages: 80

ISBN-13: 9781840469042

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In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan was promoted as the most important thinker since Newton, Darwin and Einstein. Yet when he died in 1980, his explorations of media were perceived as irrelevant and naïve. In recent years, however, McLuhanism has been resurrected. Why?This book argues that radical transformations in media and technology have reinvigorated debate about McLuhan's famous dictum, 'the medium is the message'. Today, his views on 'the global village' and 'hot and cool media' have been drawn into discourses on the sensory, psychological and social impact of virtual reality and cyberspace. Marshall McLuhan and Virtuality examines McLuhan's thought in relation to the information revolution, assessing his 'probes' into aural and visual culture and their problematic relation to the global and corporate matrix of the Web and Internet. It also discusses his claims in relation to postmodern theory and considers how McLuhan's renaissance connects with the posthuman 'cyberbole' of disembodiment and virtual identity.

Marshall McLuhan: Renaissance for a wired world

Marshall McLuhan: Renaissance for a wired world PDF

Author: Gary Genosko

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9780415321723

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This collection contains key critical essays and assessments of the writings of Canadian communications thinker Marshall McLuhan selected from the voluminous output of the past forty years. McLuhan's famous aphorisms and uncanny ability to sense megatrends are once again in circulation across and beyond the disciplines. Since his untimely death in 1980, McLuhan's ideas have been rediscovered and redeployed with urgency in the age of information and cybernation.Together the three volumes organise and present some forty years of indispensable critical works for readers and researchers of the McLuhan legacy. The set includes critical introductions to each section by the editor.Forthcoming titles in this series include Walter Benjamin (0-415-32533-1) December 2004, 3 vols, Theodor Adorno (0-415-30464-4) April 2005, 4 vols and Jean-Francois Lyotard (0-415-33819-0) 2005, 3 vols.

Virtual Society

Virtual Society PDF

Author: Herman Narula

Publisher: Crown Currency

Published: 2022-10-11

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0593239989

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“A fascinating, provocative case that the metaverse will not merely transform our virtual experience—it may actually enrich the quality of our lives” (Adam Grant)—from the visionary co-founder of one of today’s most innovative technology companies “This important book offers a highly persuasive argument that the metaverse, a new kind of virtual world, marks a profound next stage in this long human quest for fulfillment through creation.”—Chris Anderson, head of TED The concept of “the metaverse” has exploded in the public consciousness, but its contours remain elusive. Is it merely an immersive virtual reality playground, one that Facebook and other platforms will angle to control? Is it simply the next generation of massive multiplayer online games? Or is it something more revolutionary? As pioneering technologist Herman Narula shows, the metaverse is the latest manifestation of an ancient human tendency: the act of worldbuilding. From the Egyptians, whose conception of death inspired them to build the pyramids, to modern-day sports fans, whose passion for a game inspires extreme behavior, humans have long sought to supplement their day-to-day lives with a rich diversity of alternative experiences. Rooting his vision in history and psychology, Narula argues that humans’ intrinsic need for autonomy, accomplishment, and connection can best be met in virtual “worlds of ideas,” where users have the chance to create and exchange meaning and value. The metaverse is both the growing set of fulfilling digital experiences—ranging from advanced gaming to concerts and other entertainment events and even to virtual employment—and the empowering framework that allows these spaces to become “networks of useful meaning.” Bloomberg Intelligence recently predicted that the metaverse will become an $800 billon industry by 2024. But its implications, argues Narula, will lead to far more awe-inspiring possibilities than a spigot of cash. The arrival of the metaverse marks the beginning of a new age of exploration—not outward, but inward—with the potential to reshape society and open the door to a new understanding of the human species and its capabilities. Rigorously researched and passionately argued, Virtual Society is a provocative and essential guide for anyone who wants to go beyond superficial headlines to understand the true contours and potential of our virtual future.

The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality

The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality PDF

Author: Michael Heim

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1994-10-27

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 0198024320

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Computers have dramatically altered life in the late twentieth century. Today we can draw on worldwide computer links, speeding up communications by radio, newspapers, and television. Ideas fly back and forth and circle the globe at the speed of electricity. And just around the corner lurks full-blown virtual reality, in which we will be able to immerse ourselves in a computer simulation not only of the actual physical world, but of any imagined world. As we begin to move in and out of a computer-generated world, Michael Heim asks, how will the way we perceive our world change? In The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, Heim considers this and other philosophical issues of the Information Age. With an eye for the dark as well as the bright side of computer technology, he explores the logical and historical origins of our computer-generated world and speculates about the future direction of our computerized lives. He discusses such topics as the effect of word-processing on the English language (while word-processors have led to increased productivity, they have also led to physical hazards such as repetitive motion syndrome, which causes inflamed hand and arm tendons). Heim looks into the new kind of literacy promised by Hypertext (technology which allows the user to link audio and video elements, the disadvantages including disorientation and cognitive overload). And he also probes the notion of virtual reality, "cyberspace"--the computer-simulated environments that have captured the popular imagination and may ultimately change the way we define reality itself. Just as the definition of interface itself has evolved from the actual adapter plug used to connect electronic circuits into human entry into a self-contained cyberspace, so too will the notion of reality change with the current technological drive. Like the introduction of the automobile, the advent of virtual reality will change the whole context in which our knowledge and awareness of life are rooted. And along the way, Heim covers such intriguing topics as how computers have altered our thought habits, how we will be able to distinguish virtual from real reality, and the appearance of virtual reality in popular culture (as in Star Trek's holodeck, William Gibson's Neuromancer, and Stephen King's Lawnmower Man). Vividly and entertainingly written, The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality opens a window on a fascinating world that promises--or threatens--to become an integral part of everyday life in the 21st century. As Heim writes, not only do we face a breakthrough in the technology of computer interface, but we face the challenge of knowing ourselves and determining how the technology should develop and ultimately affect the society in which it grows.

Digital Modernism

Digital Modernism PDF

Author: Jessica Pressman

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014-02

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0199937109

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Digital Modernism examines how and why some of the most innovative works of online electronic literature adapt and allude to literary modernism. Digital literature has been celebrated as a postmodern form that grows out of contemporary technologies, subjectivities, and aesthetics, but this book provides an alternative genealogy. Exemplary cases show electronic literature looking back to modernism for inspiration and source material (in content, form, and ideology) through which to critique contemporary culture. In so doing, this literature renews and reframes, rather than rejects, a literary tradition that it also reconfigures to center around media. To support her argument, Pressman pairs modernist works by Pound, Joyce, and Bob Brown, with major digital works like William Poundstone's "Project for the Tachistoscope: [Bottomless Pit]" (2005), Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries's Dakota, and Judd Morrissey's The Jew's Daughter. With each pairing, she demonstrates how the modernist movement of the 1920s and 1930s laid the groundwork for the innovations of electronic literature. In sum, the study situates contemporary digital literature in a literary genealogy in ways that rewrite literary history and reflect back on literature's past, modernism in particular, to illuminate the crucial role that media played in shaping the ambitions and practices of that period.

A Companion to Digital Literary Studies

A Companion to Digital Literary Studies PDF

Author: Ray Siemens

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-03-20

Total Pages: 559

ISBN-13: 1118508831

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This Companion offers an extensive examination of how new technologies are changing the nature of literary studies, from scholarly editing and literary criticism, to interactive fiction and immersive environments. A complete overview exploring the application of computing in literary studies Includes the seminal writings from the field Focuses on methods and perspectives, new genres, formatting issues, and best practices for digital preservation Explores the new genres of hypertext literature, installations, gaming, and web blogs The Appendix serves as an annotated bibliography

Plagiarism, the Internet, and Student Learning

Plagiarism, the Internet, and Student Learning PDF

Author: Wendy Sutherland-Smith

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-04-24

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1134081804

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Written for Higher Education educators, managers and policy-makers, Plagiarism, the Internet and Student Learning combines theoretical understandings with a practical model of plagiarism and aims to explain why and how plagiarism developed. It offers a new way to conceptualize plagiarism and provides a framework for professionals dealing with plagiarism in higher education. Sutherland-Smith presents a model of plagiarism, called the plagiarism continuum, which usefully informs discussion and direction of plagiarism management in most educational settings. The model was developed from a cross-disciplinary examination of plagiarism with a particular focus on understanding how educators and students perceive and respond to issues of plagiarism. The evolution of plagiarism, from its birth in Law, to a global issue, poses challenges to international educators in diverse cultural settings. The case studies included are the voices of educators and students discussing the complexity of plagiarism in policy and practice, as well as the tensions between institutional and individual responses. A review of international studies plus qualitative empirical research on plagiarism, conducted in Australia between 2004-2006, explain why it has emerged as a major issue. The book examines current teaching approaches in light of issues surrounding plagiarism, particularly Internet plagiarism. The model affords insight into ways in which teaching and learning approaches can be enhanced to cope with the ever-changing face of plagiarism. This book challenges Higher Education educators, managers and policy-makers to examine their own beliefs and practices in managing the phenomenon of plagiarism in academic writing.