Hacking Cyberspace

by David J. Gunkel

Overview

In Hacking Cyberspace David J. Gunkel examines the metaphors applied to new technologies, and how those metaphors inform, shape, and drive the implementation of the technology in question. The author explores the metaphorical tropes that have been employed to describe and evaluate recent advances in computer technology, telecommunications systems, and interactive media. Taking the stance that no speech is value-neutral, Gunkel examines such metaphors as "the information superhighway" and "the electronic frontier" for their political and social content, and he develops a critical investigation that not only traces the metaphors' conceptual history, but explicates their implications and consequences for technological development. Through Hacking Cyberspace, David J. Gunkel develops a sophisticated understanding of new technology that takes into account the effect of technoculture's own discursive techniques and maneuvers on the actual form of technological development.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813336695
Publisher:	Westview Press
Publication date:	03/16/2001
Series:	Polemics Series
Edition description:	REV
Pages:	250
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1480L (what's this?)

About the Author

David J. Gunkel is a multidisciplinary scholar, educator, and award-winning new media producer and multimedia designer. He specializes in the study of computer mediated communication, interactive media, and cyberspace. He is assistant professor of communication technology at Northern Illinois University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Prolegomena—Hacking Cyberspace , Terra Nova: The New Worlds of Cyberspace , Ars Metaphorica: The Computer as a Device of Commnication , Veritatem Imitari: Virtual Reality and the Deconstruction of the Image , Lingua Ex Machina: Computer-Mediated Communication and the Tower of Babel , Corpus Amittere: Cyberspace and the Body , Ecce Cyborg: The Subject of Communication , Appendix: Deconstruction for Dummies

What People are Saying About This

Steve Jones

Steve Jones, Ph.D. Professor and Head of Communications, University of Illinois,Chicago
Hacking Cyberspace is a remarkable synthesis of philosophy, communication theory, linguistics and computer history. Gunkel's achievement is to give us the first substantial and satisfying cultural geography of cyberspace. Like a veteran hacker himself, he takes existing "code"/theory and optimizes its intellectual abilities, all the while adding his own valuable insights. Hacking Cyberspace greatly helps us understand the nuanced discourses woven through competing positions struggling to construct cyberspace.

Mark Amerika

David Gunkel is a reality-hacker of the first order. His interventionist writing practice makes us rethink what it means to be human. His book,Hacking Cyberspace, shows us why the field of communications theory is going through unparalleled upheaval, and his reinterpretation of deconstructionism will undoubtedly light up controversy across the wounded galaxy. The message is clear, and one that Plato might have passed on to Socrates in a moment of candor: 'Cyborgs-R-Us'.
—( Mark Amerika author of Grammatron)

Editorial Reviews

Gunkel (communication technology, Northern Illinois U.) examines the metaphorical tropes employed to describe and evaluate recent advances in computer technology, telecommunications systems, and interactive media, investigating their political and social content and their consequences for technological development. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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