The Digital Sublime: Myth, Power, and Cyberspace

by Vincent Mosco

Interpreting the myths of the digital why we believed in the power of cyberspace to open up a new world. The digital era promises, as did many other technological developments before it, the transformation of with the computer, we can transcend time, space, and politics-as-usual. In The Digital Sublime , Vincent Mosco goes beyond the usual stories of technological breakthrough and economic meltdown to explore the myths constructed around the new digital technology and why we feel compelled to believe in them. He tells us that what kept enthusiastic investors in the dotcom era bidding up stocks even after the crash had begun was not willful ignorance of the laws of economics but belief in the myth that cyberspace was opening up a new world. Myths are not just falsehoods that can be disproved, Mosco points out, but stories that lift us out of the banality of everyday life into the possibility of the sublime. He argues that if we take what we know about cyberspace and situate it within what we know about culture—specifically the central post-Cold War myths of the end of history, geography, and politics—we will add to our knowledge about the digital world; we need to see it "with both eyes"—that is, to understand it both culturally and materially.After examining the myths of cyberspace and going back in history to look at the similar mythic pronouncements prompted by past technological advances—the telephone, the radio, and television, among others—Mosco takes us to Ground Zero. In the final chapter he considers the twin towers of the World Trade Center—our icons of communication, information, and trade—and their part in the politics, economics, and myths of cyberspace.

Genres: Technology, Nonfiction, Communication

218 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2004

About the author

Vincent Mosco (Ph.D. Harvard) is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Queen's University and Distinguished Professor of Communication, New Media Centre, Fudan University, Shanghai. At Queen's, Dr. Mosco held the Canada Research Chair in Communication and Society. His research interests include the political economy of communication, the social impacts of information technology, and the future of cities.

Reviews

[Wendy Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

On how the myths around technology ("it'll change the world forever!!") pop up every time there's a new form of technology on the horizon (electricity, radio, TV, etc), and so we should be suspicious of the current wave of mythology around digital technology. Some of it is dated, and there's way too much detail on the specifics of the narratives around radio/TV/electricity etc, but there are some excellent points about how digital technologies interact with the process of commodification & politics in general.

[morbidflight · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, and there are definitely some interesting/valuable bits to it. On the whole, however, it's fairly superficial, circular, and paradoxically dense. I like his ideas and I like that this book was written, but this wasn't the book it should have been.

[Zoë Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating points connecting tech myths and political myths during different periods of technological change.

For the cyber age, Mosco argues people advance myths of the end of history, end of politics, end of geography-and that these myths when exposed can tell us a lot in what they conceal. Technology invokes the sublime, and people become comfortable with transformative almost magical projections about the impact on society.

Lots to think about here in reference to AI sublime … similar arguments were make about internet that were made about radio and telegraph and electricity, and are now made about AI: we’re going to end scarcity, bring about world peace, automatically build a more democratic and egalitarian society.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moscow masterfully fuses the power and cyberspace to create a work of art that sweeps thought provoking inspiration into this magnificent opus

[Devon]

A friend of mine reviewed this book 3 years ago but I just rediscovered it on my bookshelf.

[Tyera · Rating 5 out of 5]

i owe my introduction to Myth to this book.
i have drawn on mosco's theories about the idealization and demonization of technological determinism (esp. in media) many times since reading this book.

[Anders · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gay romp through hyperspace... no, not really, but close!