Technospaces

Book excerpt: Science and technology have had a profound effect on the way humans perceive space and time. In this book, an international team of authors explore themes of depth and surface, of real and conceptual space and of human/machine interaction. The collection is organized around the concept of Technospace--the temporal realm where technology meets human practice. In exploring this intersection the contributors initiate debate on a number of important conceptual questions: Is there a clear distinction between the real spaces of the body or the city, and the conceptual space of virtual reality?How are real and metaphorical spaces of electronic cultures quantified and regulated? Is there an ethics of technospace?Historically, the reception of new technologies has been invested with romantic idealism on the one hand and panic on the other. The authors argue that in order for utopian dreams to be tempered by ethical, humanistic needs, we have an urgent need to reveal, reflect upon and evaluate technospace and our relationship to it.