| The Virtual Contributor(s): Shields, Rob (Author) |
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ISBN: 0415281806 ISBN-13: 9780415281805 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $209.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: November 2002 Annotation: Rob Shields unravels the origins and the many contemporary meanings of the "virtual" as a concept. Shields dissects the history of the virtual world and takes his analysis beyond the technologies themselves to show how the virtual has infiltrated our daily lives at every level. From the moral panics over paedophile stalkers on the net to the automated telemarketing that interrupts our dinners and clogs our answer phones to the laptops which keep us connected to the office twenty four hours a day, technology has become an integral part of modern living. With insight and clarity, "The Virtual" reveals how technology has become virtually entwined in contemporary society. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Computers | Information Technology - Computers | Human-computer Interaction (hci) - Philosophy |
| Dewey: 303.483 |
| LCCN: 2002027534 |
| Series: Key Ideas |
| Physical Information: 0.77" H x 5.04" W x 8.22" (0.80 lbs) 264 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book looks at the origins and the many contemporary meanings of the virtual. Rob Shields shows how the construction of virtual worlds has a long history. He examines the many forms of faith and hysteria that have surrounded computer technologies in recent years. Moving beyond the technologies themselves he shows how the virtual plays a role in our daily lives at every level. The virtual is also an essential concept needed to manage innovation and risk. It is real but not actual, ideal but not abstract. The virtual, he argues, has become one of the key organizing principles of contemporary society in the public realms of politics, business and consumption as well as in our private lives. |