Virtual Gods

by Tal Brooke (Editor)

Millions of computer users have discovered that "cyberspace" allows them to leap over barriers of time, place, and social status to connect with people from all over the world. Long after this book was written it foresaw alienation in cyberspace. Now a Harvard dropout named Mark Zuckerberg has given the world Facebook, becoming a billionaire in his twenties. Facebook has shown how untold numbers crave social connection so desperately -- even people they have never met -- that they will divulge anything to drive their ratings up.

There are other doorways in this rapidly expanding digital universe. Virtual reality and holograms are poised to explode. Digital special effects in movies such as James Cameron's groundbreaking film Avatar -- shown in 3D on IMAX with scenes of computer generated synthetic reality -- have shown where this technology can take us. Audiences are craving the next leap beyond Avatar .

Virtual Gods is a book written before its time. It explores technological doorways still ahead that could open the way to a future only partially glimpsed by such writers as Aldous Huxley, who showed us so much in his prescient Brave New World . Ahead  are invasive aspects to this emerging technology--the ability to spy on subjects, inject microchips, etc -- that would have given George Orwell chills. It is worth a deeper look, which this book provides.

221 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997