Life on the screen : identity in the age of the Internet

Adding a third to Emerson's keys to the nature of humanity--dreams and beasts--the author argues that computers have created dramatic psychological changes in users and in methods of learning and thinking Life on the Screen is a book not about computers, but about people and how computers are causing us to reevaluate our identities in the age of the Internet. We are using life on the screen to engage in new ways of thinking about evolution, relationships, politics, sex, and the self. Life on the Screen traces a set of boundary negotiations, telling the story of the changing impact of the computer on our psychological lives and our evolving ideas about minds, bodies, and machines. What is emerging, Turkle says, is a new sense of identity - as decentered and multiple. She describes trends in computer design, in artificial intelligence, and in people's experiences of virtual environments that confirm a dramatic shift in our notions of self, other, machine, and world. The computer emerges as an object that brings postmodernism down to earth. Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-320) and index A book about people and how computers are causing us to reevaluate our identities in the age of the Internet Introduction : identity in the age of the Internet -- I. The seductions of the interface. A tale of two aesthetics ; The triumph of tinkering -- II. Of dreams and beasts. Making a pass at a robot ; Taking things at interface value ; The quality of emergence ; Artificial life as the new frontier -- III. On the Internet. Aspects of the self ; TinySex and gender trouble ; Virtuality and its discontents ; Identity crisis -- A note on method: the inner history of technology By carrying out nearly 2 decades of research into this subject & interviewing people about their experience of using computers, the author has produced an up-to-the-minute portrait of the new age of computers and our changing relationship with them As I write these words, I keep shuffling the text on my computer screen. http://www.archive.org/details/lifeonscreen00sher