Times of the Technoculture - From the Information Society to the Virtual Life (Hardcover)

Exploring the debates surrounding technological change, from the politics of education to questions of identity centred around the figure of the cyborg, this text scrutinizes the unfettered optimism of corporate figures such as Bill Gates. Authors Robins and Webster question whether new technologies justify the utopian rhetoric with which they are promoted, and distinguish genuine innovations from technologies which simply reproduce conservative social practices in a new guise. The text explores the social and cultural impact of new technologies, tracing the origins of the information society from the coming of the machine with the industrial revolution to the development of mass production techniques in the early 20th century. The authors look at how the military has controlled the development of the information society, and consider the centrality of education in government attempts to create a knowledge society.;Engaging in contemporary debates surrounding the Internet, Robins and Webster question whether it can really offer us a new world of virtual communities, and suggest more radical alternatives to the corporate agenda of contemporary technologies.