The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the InternetBut as science commentator Margaret Wertheim argues in this "marvelously provocative" (Kirkus Reviews) book, cyberspace has in recent years become a repository for immense spiritual yearning. Wertheim explores the mapping of spiritual desire onto digitized space and suggests that the modem today has become a metaphysical escape-hatch from a materialism that many people find increasingly dissatisfying. Cyberspace opens up a collective space beyond the laws of physics-a space where mind rather than matter reigns. This strange refuge returns us to an almost medieval dualism between a physical space of body and an immaterial space of mind and psyche. |
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The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet Margaret Wertheim No preview available - 1999 |
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According angels Arena Chapel artists astronomers become believed berspace body celestial space century CHAPTER Christian Christine Wertheim Claude Bragdon conception of space Copernicus cosmic cosmology cosmos culture Cusa cyber cyberspace Dante Dante's Descartes dieval Divine Comedy domain dreams dualism earth Einstein encoded equations Euclidian fantasy Figure force fourth dimension galaxies geometry Giotto gravity Heaven Hell Hubble human hyperspace ibid idea imagine immaterial Inferno infinite Internet Jeffrey Burton Russell Kaluza Kepler lives mathematical matter medieval metaphor Middle Ages mind modern Moravec motion Neuromancer Newton Newtonian Nicholas of Cusa painted Paradiso perspectival perspective physical space physical world physicalist physicists plane Purgatory Pythagoras Pythagorean realm relativistic space relativity religious Renaissance sense simulation soul soul-space spatial spheres stars story terrestrial theory three-dimensional tion transcendence Turkle University Press virtual reality virtual world vision void Wertheim Western world picture wormholes
Popular passages
Page 17 - Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling of God is with men.
Page 18 - Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.
Page 17 - God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates.